Missed deals

[w55]

Why are they always the best guns?

In the past year I have had 2 older women ask me to "look at the old guns" they had.

Both were widows and still hurting, so I just tell them what they are worth, why, and, no being old isnt bad. Also i tell them please dont take to the local gun dealer. call me when you want to sell them, no rush just let me know.

In both cases I run into these women who are so excited about the great deal XYZ dealer gave them...I always stop them before they tell me the numbers as that would probably kill me.

I think everyone has had this come up....so frustrating!

Oh and enjoy this forum, glad to have found it.

[Beelzy]

Yep, I run a retail store and see it all the time. People are so stupid sometimes. I actually have a name for this phenomenon, its called the
"Second Opinion" Syndrome.

People listen to two people about something and ALWAYS go with the second.

Next time tell them to got to the dealer FIRST, then call you. SCORE!!

Oh BTW, Welcome to CalGuns!!

[nagorb]

welcome to the forum and be careful it can get addicting.

[AJAX22]

a fool and his money are soon parted....

the same goes for firearms

If people don't want to believe you when you appraise their stuff at market value, offer to buy it cheap.

[SigShooter]

For me it was the exact opposite.

A lady I work with inherited her uncle's guns but did not want them in her house. She is not anti, but did not have a safe to keep them in (and didn't want to spend the $$ to buy one) and has small children in the home. She had no sentimental connection to the guns and wanted to get rid of them. Knowing that I am "into" guns she asked if I could tell her what they were worth and what she needed to do to sell them.

After doing some research I gave her the blue book value and what she could expect to actually get for each gun and explained the different options she had for selling them. (Local consignment, GB, etc.) At the same time I mentioned that I was interested in buying the 10/22 she had for $200.

A few weeks went buy and I asked if she was still interested in selling me the 10/22 and I also asked how she was doing in regards to selling the rest of them. She told me she was really busy and hadn't been able to talk to the gun store in her town and didn't want to deal with an online or PPT sale, but still needed to get rid of them. She said that she would bring the 10/22 in the following week and we could do the transfer then.

The next week comes and she says that she has the 10/22 and wanted to know if we could transfer "them" at lunch. I said sure, but you mean "it". She tells me no, she decided that it was going to be too much of a hassle to sell them one at a time and she wanted to make sure the guns would go to someone who knew how to use them responsibly, so she was going to sell me all of them. I told here there was no way I could afford all of them even at the lower end prices I gave her. She said she wouldn't take anymore than I had already offered her. I said, "but I only offered you $200 for the...", to that she said "Sold!".

To make a long story short (too late) I wound up with 5 rifles for $200. Now before any of you berate me and say that I took advantage of a little old lady who didn't know any better... First, I insisted that I could not take the rest of the rifles without paying for them. Second, she is not old by any means (late 30's) and is very number savvy, she knows how much she could have gotten for them if she wanted to. Third, she said she would feel a lot better knowing that I had them rather than some punk kid who could use them in a crime. And lastly, she made a caveat that I swear I would not sell them... ever.

Since then I have done a lot of PC work for her (repairs, installs etc.) for no charge as kind of a payment and will continue to do so.