Does Gunbroker "Sold Items Prices" Now Determine Used Gun Prices?

J

Joe_Pike

New member
It kind of seems to me that Gunbroker has done for guns what Ebay did for everything else - that is set the prices on a lot of used or collectable items. And, sometimes that hasn't been all good for the folks trying to sell something, but has worked out well for the buyer in a lot of cases. Unless something is extremely rare, it seems selling prices are becoming a little depressed on a lot of guns, or at least some of the stuff I look at.

For instance, I have a 1937 38-44 Heavy Duty, all numbers matching with pre-war magna grips. When I picked it up people were telling me that it was a $1, 200 gun. And, at the time, that seemed about right. Now, it doesn't look like that many of them even sell and if they do they don't bring anymore than what the 2006 S&W Catalog said they were worth in 2006.

Maybe it's the fact that we are still in a depressed economy and folks just don't have the extra cash anymore. Or, maybe it's the power of the internet and everyone's reliance on it to guide them. All I know is that when I ask the value of a used gun that I might want to trade, the dealers here go right to Gunbroker to see what they are selling for in order to give me a trade value.
 
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Does Gunbroker Sold Items Prices Now Determine Used Gun Prices?
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I think Gunbroker sets the used gun market in most aspects. From time to time you see guns going for a good deal, but the stuff I collect seems to be getting out of control. I like and collect Colt Pythons, I understand they've always been on the higher side as far as price, but a plan jane 2.5" Stainless are bringing over $7k. And 4" or 6" stainless models bring $3k+. I think some of the large dealers also control a limited market. I've also been watching the DA pre-lock smiths cheap up in price. Whenever I look at a firearm at a show that I don't know the price, I always look them up on Gunbroker.
 
Catalog prices are notoriously inaccurate, so I think that Gunbroker sold prices are as good as anything most of us have to go on. A lot of houses aren't worth what they were in 2006.
 
It's hard to say. GunBroker is one waypoint. The Fjestad Blue Book is another. The third would be what they're going for locally, if at all.

None of those sources alone is going to be infallible, and it's often a question of averaging.
 
The Blue Book is typically outdated by the time it is printed. One thing ab out GB - it is what the market is willing to pay at that moment in time and is pretty up to date. If you do not like what your gun seems to be worth, you can always set a high reserve and see if anyone wants it bad enough. I have seen way too may guns at shows, flea markets and on-line that are very "optimistically" prices ( to put it politely) and they do not sell. Just like everything else, prices can go up AND down from a few years ago.
 
One of the basic tenants of capitalism is: Something is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it.

A site like gunbroker just shows everyone what people are willing to pay for a given item. Gunbroker does not set the price, Joe Everyman does, thus it is a valid assessment of actual worth, I.e. fair market value.

Get on board with the rest of the heartless capitalists you commies. Lol, j/k
 
I think you answered your own question. I'm a retired securities broker, I used to tell clients that the market doesn't care what you paid for a stock, whether it was 5 days or 5 years hence. Gunbroker is much the same way, an auction price is what anything is worth at that point in time.
 
All I know is that when I ask the value of a used gun that I might want to trade, the dealers here go right to Gunbroker to see what they are selling for in order to give me a trade value.
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the pawn shop by my house does this when valuing their guns. the irony for me is that they tend to inflate the value of a gun but when asking about trade-in value for something they'll say something like, "well, we have about 5 Browning A-Bolts on the shelf so the trade-in value won't be much." If a LGS has multiple long guns of the same make/model then why are they inflating their prices? Just because GB shows the same gun selling for X doesn't mean their guns are worth the same price. Not all firearms are created equal. I bought my Browning A-Bolt via GB 3 yrs ago and paid roughly $450 for it - it was a safe queen and came with the box and was manufactured in '89. I saw the same rifle at Cabelas and they were asking about $100 more for it. The problem, it looked like someone dragged it behind their truck and it had a really crappy scope on it.

But, as some of you have already pointed out, a firearm is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. I think a lot of new gun owners just don't know the value of something and end up paying more than it's worth, but that's free market capitalism for you.
 
I believe GB is an accurate picture of current market prices. The internet has removed a lot of the regional pricing since it can be shipped anywhere (where legal). I reference GB to check out a local price before making my decision. Of course, you weigh the cost of shipping and FFL fee into the total cost. If you are shopping retail locally, sales tax also plays into the picture.
 
Gunbroker's completed (sold) searches are a good indication of what a gun is worth. The outliers being the gun that closed at 2.30 AM on a Tuesday morning or some buyer with the "I must have it attitude".

Gunauction.com (formerly AuctionArms) is another good measure. Although the number of transactions are no where near that of Gunbroker.

It's a shame that both search functions only covers the last 90 days.
 
GB is a good indicator of what a gun will bring on gunbroker. The rarer or more collectible a gun is the more out of sink that will probably be with your smaller local market. A $7K Stainless Colt Python may be the norm on gunbroker where there are hundreds of people willing to throw that at a gun. In my local market there MIGHT be ten and I have no way to reach them all. Posting an add on Armslist isn't going to bring me $7K.
 
If I have a gun that sells for $7k through Rock Island they charge a buyers premium of about 20%, or around $1400. So the buyer is really willing to pay $8400 for my firearm.

I realize the Rock Island has an affluent customer list, does a great job of promoting their auctions and as such may realize a higher sales price as a consequence, but for "commodity" items I use Gunbroker in hopes of getting some of that "buyers premium" money into MY pocket.
 
Blue Book

Some 5 years ago I did random value tabulations on 5 sequenced years of BB .

50 handguns, 50 shotguns, 50 rifles.

I found that unpopular or obscure guns were often not updated over 5 years!!!:eek:

Ending about 2007, the values went up about 8% a year.
 
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