Cost spread of handguns, nuts.

[Recoil spring]

Moved a few days ago, and was checking the local gun shops on my day off.

Ruger has really bumped up the prices on their revolvers, saw a GP-100 in stainless for $715.00 NIB, I bought my GP-100 blued in 2002 for $399.00. Also, their once great value Single Six are way up in prices, have owned two of them, currently have one in stainless purchased new 10 years ago for much less money than they want now, good guns.

If I was starting out in handguns I would go with a Taurus G2, or a S/W SVD, or Ruger 9mm over much of what is out there now. Man, the prices on these are now so high with much of the traditional brands, Ruger, Smith and Wesson, SIG, Glock, etc. Why so much in price increase with Ruger?? And they wonder why the young guys are going with the semi-auto handguns over revolvers! Why the high prices on the traditional gun makers when an SVD or a G2 will work just fine?

 

[FITASC]

Costs have gone up - wages, insurances, taxes, utilities etc; coupled with lower volume of sales of certain guns, prices rise. A plastic semi might cost $100 all in to make and cover costs, a revolver requires a lot more labor

 

[peterg7]

When I bought my first handgun in 1982 the Blackhawk (41mag) cost $180.00 OTD NIB, I was making $12.00 hr as a production machinist.

Today that gun is $535. + at Buds, using an inflation calculator it should be $478.58

So yes guns have gone up more than inflation, exorbitant? That up to the buyer to decide. But there’s also value in SD guns that didn’t exist in 1982 that make this a more cost friendly time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lee n. field]

Moved a few days ago, and was checking the local gun shops on my day off.

Ruger has really bumped up the prices on their revolvers, saw a GP-100 in stainless for $715.00 NIB, I bought my GP-100 blued in 2002 for $399.00.

Which was nearly 2 decades ago. Inflation never went away. I'm surprised guns as inexpensive as somel are work decently well.

 

[osbornk]

I think prices have remained high or increased on the higher end of the guns by the major name brand manufacturers to maintain their exclusivity and desirability their customer base. A lot of people think that a higher price means a higher quality and better firearm and will pay the price because of it. I clearly don't think that way because of what I own. I shot my son-in-law's $700 Glock 19 (with extras) and bought a SD9VE for myself because it seemed as good to me at half the price. I later bought a Taurus PT-111 G2 that I like better than either that was about 1/3 the price of a Glock. My friend would not sell me his Single Six in 2013 so I bought a Heritage Rough Rider instead. he gave me the Single Six to remember him by shortly before he died. The Single Six is a much nicer gun than the Rough Rider but it is not worth triple the price. Ruger has introduced the Wrangler to compete with the Rough Rider at a higher price but still half or less of the price of a Single Six.

I think S&W, Ruger, Glock and other "brand name" manufacturers are feeling the heat and coming up with cheaper alternatives while keeping the prices of their "good guns" up there (except for Glock). The SD9VE is a budget gun as is the Wrangler.

 

[Cheapshooter]

Costs have gone up - wages, insurances, taxes, utilities, lawsuits,etc

There, fixed it for you!
When you can't legislate something out of existance, you litigate the producer out of business!

When I bought my first handgun in 1982 the Blackhawk (41mag) cost $180.00 OTD NIB

My Ruger SBH Was $119.95 in 1972. S&W Model 10 4" HB $ 86.50 a year or s o later.

 

[elsancudo]

A Taurus G2S with the switched out recoil spring assembly and striker guide tube from Lakeline makes an excellent, ergonomic, dependable, quality pistol. Awesome.

 

[lee n. field]

A Taurus G2S with the switched out recoil spring assembly and striker guide tube from Lakeline makes an excellent, ergonomic, dependable, quality pistol. Awesome.

I'm finding my G2C quite fine to shoot and reliable. 670 rounds to date as of this afternoon, one misfire which is probably a dud handload. (Yes, I'm logging them, because there's a fraction of the "Internet Gunsphere" that will never believe any good of a Taurus otherwise.)

Sights suck, though.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Based purely on the rate of inflation, that $399 in 2002 is $570 today. And you're comparing a blued gun in 2002 against a stainless gun in 2019 -- that adds another $50 to $100 right there.

When you bought for $399 in 2002, was that the MSRP or did you negotiate for the best deal you could get? The $799 you saw today was the asking price -- did you ask what the shop's last/best offer might be?

 

[Targa]

Yes sir ^^ simply inflation, no mystery here.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Yes sir ^^ simply inflation, no mystery here.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

 

[Targa]

That is a fun calculator to play with.

 

[JohnKSa]

Ruger has really bumped up the prices on their revolvers, saw a GP-100 in stainless for $715.00 NIB, I bought my GP-100 blued in 2002 for $399.00.

I bought a brand new stainless Ruger GP100 in 1991 for $395.

If you run the inflation calculator on $395 from 1991 until 2019, the result is $744. So you did pretty good.

 

[osbornk]

A Taurus G2S with the switched out recoil spring assembly and striker guide tube from Lakeline makes an excellent, ergonomic, dependable, quality pistol. Awesome.

My PT-111 G2 is the renamed G2C and mine had been dead reliable and is a great gun that I have kept bone stock. I think "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the way to go. I have around 1,000 rounds through mine.

 

[sigarms228]

Yep, prices are up do to inflation over a couple decades. Inflation rates are higher for some commodities than others and I expect that firearms are higher than the average which IMO is brought down by all the cheap Chinese crap that American consumer seem to love. I bought a new microwave oven that was about 1/3 of the pricse of the old one that lasted like 17 years. The new LG microwave was a piece of junk though and I threw it out after two years and three repairs I did on it. So far Panasonic replacement is holding up much better but I seriously doubt it will make it to 17 years like the old Sharp.

OP I am glad you are happy with Taurus or Smith SD but I am sure many of us would not be and there is a lot more to a quality firearm than it just going bang most of the time when the trigger is pulled. My next pistol will most likely be a Gen 5 Glock 19 MOS and considering what I paid for my Gen 2 Glock 19 new about 25 years ago I don't see current Glock pricing out of line and Glock is selling lots and lots of their new pistols.

 

[reddog81]

Shopping around makes a big difference also. you can go online and get a new GP100 for under $600.

 

[dogtown tom]

sigarms228 …. I don't see current Glock pricing out of line and Glock is selling lots and lots of their new pistols.

Glock hasn't raised their wholesale price since I've been in business....eleven years.

 

[Lohman446]

Buy a canoe.

Want functional, beat the crap out of on the river, and not worry about it. Several out there new for $800 used for a few hundred.

Want a wooden or fabric canoe? Bring out a couple thousand. By the way - not nearly as durable as the polymer ones.

Guns

 

[osbornk]

Glock hasn't raised their wholesale price since I've been in business....eleven years.

I don't think Glock can raise their prices because many other manufacturers sell very similar products that perform at least as well as a Glock for a much cheaper price. I saw s Youtube video last week made by an employee of a "big name" gun store. He said a lot of people look at a Glock but they buy similar guns by other manufactures due to the price and grip angle.

 

[MTT TL]

I don't think Glock can raise their prices because many other manufacturers sell very similar products that perform at least as well as a Glock for a much cheaper price.

That hits it right on the primer. In 1993 Glocks were selling for about what you can get a decent polymer gun today ($400-500). One of the reasons they were so expensive was because there was no competition. Today Glock sells, well pretty much the same exact pistol they sold in 1993 with some minor cosmetic changes here and there.

It is still a good gun but there are so many equal or better guns out there of the same type that they no longer have product differentiation. So no, unless Glock innovates, raises quality or otherwise makes some kind of change that sets them apart they are competing with a bunch of similar guns (although they have brand name recognition that helps a lot) at the same price.