Mike38
.....Ok. You sell for $1200 and you're happy. You replace the stock for the $1000. Handgun doesn't sell. Panic buying ends. You check your supplier. Their price is back down to $500. You can't sell the gun you paid $1000 for $700. So your gun that you're trying to sell for $1200 sits there for 2 years. You finally lower price just to get rid of it and you eat the loss.
You lost money didn't you? If you're willing to take that chance, well, ok.
That happens every day with many thousands of products.
It's unlikely a manufacturer or distributor has raised or lowered pricing anywhere remotely close to what you describe. They would get skewered by dealers and suffer. In twelve years of being a gun dealer I've yet to see a distributor raise pricing ......they don't need to. Distributors are getting the same amount of product on a consistent basis. Same with manufacturers. Gen3 Glocks still sell for the exact same distributor price today as they did in 2008.
But, supposing they did.
There are plenty of FFL's who would sit on that gun for two years, some for decades, hoping to recover their cost. A savvy businessman would be aware of price changes and sell at cost or below cost to free up cash that he can spend on something that will sell at a better profit.
For example: A dealer I know bought dozens of Mossberg 715 .22 rifles, Mossbergs pathetic attempt at a .22 AR15.......they didn't sell. His cost was $150 each I believe. Retailed at $199-$250 until people found out what a dog they were.
He wanted to sell them but obviously no dealer was going to buy them. He was advised to sell them at a loss, say $100 each and use the cash generated to buy inventory that would sell and sell at a profit.
He had 20 of those 715's remaining if I remember correctly......$3000 his cost.
If he sold them at $100 each........he generates $2000 in cash.
Uses that $2000 to buy sixty AR lowers at $33 each.
He then retails those lowers at $59 each......earning $3500+
That $1000 loss? It's now a profit and a valuable lesson. One that hundreds of sellers at gun shows and retail gun stores never learn. Inventory that sits doesn't make you $$$$.
Sadly, the dealer in that situation didn't take the advice to sell at a loss and buy AR lowers. He said "I understand the math, but I just can't lose money on these". Think about that. He was shown a simple solution that would get him out of his hole, but clung to the idiocy of "but, but, bit I'm losing $$$".