People have lost their minds!! Or have they?

HistoryJunky said:
I always price a private sale 50 dollars more than I expect. I haven't had a single transaction where the buyer didn't try to talk me down that much or more.

And that is at a fair asking price. I don't mind cutting a small break in price, but I don't want to be ripped off either.
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I do the same thing, and have had the same results. I have even listed items as "firm" and still get folks sending offers.

In the words of Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars "People can ask any price they want. That doesn't mean they'll get it."
 
One of the advantages of GunBroker, in my case at least, is that I find a gun not found locally. For instance I've paid a fair price for Colt New Frontiers on GunBroker when none were available here in my city.

Sort of the old story:

"You're askin' $400 for that? Why, my gun shop sells them for $300!?

"Why not buy it from him, then?"

"Well, he was out of those."

"Well, when I'm out of those, my price is $300, too."

Bob Wright
 
Nobody but absolutely nobody lost their minds around here for sure.
We are all different. We are soooooooooo different, that not even the identical twins are exactly the same.
Every trade was just right. Some for the seller, and again some for the buyer.
 
Like the man said above -- 'It's a free market' - and a lot of deals are made because - 'two fools met' -- one was a fool for asking the price -- and one for paying it. I remeber an auction I was at, several years back - a man bid $250 and was the successful bidder to buy TWO Remington 517's. -- at $ 250 apiece. They were SELLING LOCALLY NEW, at gunstores for $ 112.00 at the time.
 
Like everything else, something is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. I see a lot of people on Internet firearms sites, who are either trying to get back what they paid for a firearm, or turn a big profit, regardless of whether it is new or used. You still have to figure in shipping costs and FFL transfer fees for anything you buy online. And you stand the best chance of getting the best price when you have a local buyer who is buying the firearm for his own use.
 
I completely understand people pricing something high if they are indifferent about selling it. If they can find a sucker, well... good for them.

What I don't get is why sellers will list the initial bid price lower than their reserve price. That's just frustrating and pointless - what's the point of enticing budders with a low initial price that you won't accept?

As far as buyers go, I don't understand why people insist on raising their bids by $5 at a time instead of just putting in their max price from the start. Snipers are annoying, but it's a perfectly legitimate and rational strategy. What's the point of incrementally increasing your bid three days before the auction ends when autobid is right there to do it for you?
 
I've run across several people with receipts showing they paid $100-200 more than they are asking for what they are selling. When I point them to an add online for $50 less on a NIB gun they about lose it. In many cases there seems to be an absolute disconnect on what they paid not defining the value. In one case a person accused me of orchestrating fraud by forging the buds website, that there was no buds gun shop and I just made a fake website.

Some people only like to buy face to face private even if they can pass a background.

If I list an item for an amount and the person shows up and tries to talk me down $50 and has absolutely no reason, I don't budge. If condition is as I listed it and they showed up to buy they should be willing to pay the price I listed it at. There is a lot of online selling of all sorts of things where the person needs cash for a bill that day. I'm not that seller.
 
If I list an item for an amount and the person shows up and tries to talk me down $50 and has absolutely no reason, I don't budge. If condition is as I listed it and they showed up to buy they should be willing to pay the price I listed it at. There is a lot of online selling of all sorts of things where the person needs cash for a bill that day. I'm not that seller.
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I had this happen to me once. I had 6 or 7 guns I was selling, and had a guy make an offer for all of them. He worked at a gun shop about 2 hours away, and made an offer that I ended up taking. To his credit, he did end up driving all the way out to me to make the sale, but after agreeing to a price online, he tried to talk me down another $100. To me, this is just tacky, and doesn't leave me wanting to do business with someone again. Yes, haggle all you want, but once you agree on a price, it's done.
 
When I list a gun for sale, I ALWAYS start off high. (1) I might get it. Who knows, there might be a guy out there who's been looking for one of these all his life. More importantly, there might be TWO people out there who have wanted one all their lives.

But number two, and really more importantly...I can always come down. I can't go up.

If those two guys both scream "I want it" I can't suddenly decide "Gee, I didn't price this high enough" and raise the price. But if in a day or two, nobody has even nibbled, I know I'm too high. I can start dropping the price, a little at a time until either someone says "I'll take it" or until I decide, I don't want to sell it that bad.
 
I saw a local listing for used Colt Delta Elite. The seller was asking $300 more than LGS sells them for brand new. I thought about asking if his price was listed in Canadian dollars by mistake. :p
 
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