Why so many police trade-in Glocks

[Shenaniguns]

Just noticed that local gun stores and online dealers constantly have sizable quantities of police trade in Glocks: 17,22, etc.

I am wondering:

1. Since Glock is very tough and durable and barrel life can easily exceed 100,000 rds, what are the reasons to replace them?

2. AFAIK, most of the trade-ins are 3rd generation which came out in 1990s. I am under the impression that the round counter of department issued Glock is not high at all. Are those trade-ins no longer good for police work?

3. What pistols those agencies picked up to replace those Glocks?

Many of them are replaced with new Glocks that use their same holsters and supporting gear.

The barrel may take it, but many non-9mm frames won't last 100k+.

Some agencies want to change calibers, quite a few are changing from .40 back to 9mm.

Some just want new guns.

There are more Glocks by volume issued nationwide, so you'll find more of them traded in.

You're over-thinking things.

[Steve Dunnington]

everything wears out...

how many years of holstering, sweat, sunblock, rubbing against a seat can they take before you need to refurbish them to ensure reliability,

They trade them in and get a new Glock and new mags for $200 or so per gun...

A lot of them get certified or refurbed and resold....

And supply comes in waves... for a while you did not see used LEO trade in models... a wave hit recently and the prices have really dropped

I second that.

[tacticalcity]

Two big reasons are that Glock gives them strong incentives to upgrade, and the crazy way government grants and budgets work.

From the start, Glock has marketed itself to law enforcement agencies and their extremely friendly buy back programs have been one of their strongest marketing tools.

Now for you or me, we would think...that's nice but the gun is still in great shape so even if you are going to give me a huge discount on a new guy why would I spend that money right now when I could just wait for the gun to wear out and replace it then?

Imagine if at the end of the year your bank had a use it or loose it policy and any money still in your account at the end of the year got confiscated? Now imagine that one year they gave you a huge amount of free money but told you that you only had a month to spend it or they would take it back? That is how a lot of police department budgets, especially if they involve Federal grants work. They cannot sit on or save up the money they get. They either use it or loose it. Additionally a lot of times they get huge federal grant money on the condition they have to spend it right away. And they have no idea when or if they will ever get money like that again. So they definately want to spend it upgrading their gear, even if that gear still has a reasonable amount of life still left in it, because it could be their last chance to do so for a very long time.

Combine those two things, and it makes sense to trade in your Glocks. Sure they have plenty of life left in them. But it might be a really long time before they get another grant or budget surplus so if they don't act now they might find those guns wearing out at a time when there is simply no money left in the budget to replace them.

I have bought a few police trade-ins. They have all been great. Of my two Glocks in my current collection one is a Washington State Trooper trade-in Glock 17 that cost me around $300 if I remember correctly. Still has plenty of life left in it. Love that gun.

What kills me is when sellers ask for retail pricing on used stuff, especially police trade-ins. You see a lot of that lately. Anything over $400 is not worth it. Join GSSF and you will receive a coupon giving you access to Blue Label Pricing, and you pay only $425 for a brand new Glock.

[maxima]

Thank you guys for taking time answering my questions. A trade-in Glock is in my plan

.

[deadcoyote]

Huh? then why not just sell the new guns to the civilian market instead of losing on the deal by giving away new guns in exchange for old guns then selling the old guns? Obviously with Gen4s, you could only give them to LEO, but ignore the gen4/3 thing.

Just for an example, when we switched from SW 6906's to Glock 23's, our 6906's were beat and we were having a lot of reliability issues with them. We had to send a couple of samples in so their value could be assessed and a final price could be quoted. The offer came back that we could trade in each 6906 and $141 for new Glock 23's, which was a lot better than i expected.

[desertexplore]

I will try to post the link later on.

[Nick Justice]

Another reason: Cities get some of their budget money from the state. If the city can spend all of the money, the state doubles the amount to the city for the next fiscal year budget. If the city does not spend it all, the state only gives them the amount equal to what the city spent the prior year.

Buying new guns = spending more budget money = maybe more next year.

[mjmagee67]

They are tired of storing their bullets in Tupperware!

[jchen76@gmail.com]

Met a retired Sunnyvale police officer. There are sweet heart deals for the dept to continue on a particular brand of pistol.
Another consideration is liability, the dept doesn't want to get sued for firearms failure in event of officer's death where fatigue maybe a contributing factor. So it's cheaper to rotate out the firearm vs payoff of the lawsuit.
Funny, the same dept would sell the firearm back to the officer at a discount that was deemed 'worn out'.

[BigPimping]

Tons of them out there and Glock is marketing genius to LEO agencies. Out with the old and in with the new.

[rm1911]

Read the book and you will learn more about the inner workings of the gun industry and government contracts. But scenarios could include knowing that S&W or Sig is also trying to replace the Glocks for that department at $XXX per unit. So Glock offers to trade them straight up. Cost the department ZERO and Glock still makes money selling the used guns to a wholesaler for redistribution onto the civilian market.

To add to that the large manufacturers are trying to realize economies of scale. In fact it would often times be cheaper if they get to produce 2x the units and sold them at half the $$$ then to produce half the units and sell at 2x$$&. They lower the average cost, ie per unit cost. Drive that down and if, if, you sell them all you're good. So they need to get the units out the door period.

And yes that'll drive citizen sales. In free states at least. Turning around a turn-in is money in the bank.