The Ethics of Selling a Bad Gun?

The guy who purchased it from me later called and said it ran fine for him with some Chip McCormic mags
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Not trying to turn this into a 1911 thread but this is exactly the reason I always shelve factory mags and use McCormicks. If I had $180 to spend on mags I'd have a bunch of Wilson Combat ones but McCormicks solve all my feeding issues at $24 each and last long enough.


baddarryl, the pistol in question wouldn't happen to be a 1911 would it? If so try getting some good mags, Wilson or McCormick.
 
"Buyer beware" protects the buyer, never the seller. To knowingly sell defective merchandise to anyone is dishonorable. Disclose all. That way the emptor is prepared to caveat at his leisure. All else is deception and fraud.
 
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If you trade into or buy a few guns a year, you are eventually going to get a hopelessly screwed example. Oddly, the few I've had were brand new so I didn't get hosed on those. I did have to scrap a Hawes/JP Sauer single action .44 mag a few years ago it absolutely would NOT disassemble to replace simple part. So I parted the rest of it out and torched the frame.

The guy who purchased it from me later called and said it ran fine for him with some Chip McCormic mags
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I've seen this repeatedly and finally learned from it. Powermags are the only 1911 Mag you will find in my house.
 
Always fully disclose, especially selling on your own to another person. If selling to a store or pawn shop, still disclose. What the store does is on them. For true problem guns, sometimes it is better to part it out. One can usually make a few bucks more that way, too.
 
I had a Walther ppk/s which was my carry gun. About 7 months ago it began giving me serious problems. I sent it to Roger Perry, whom many consider the expert on Walthers. He attempted to repair it but told me going in that he believed it was out of spec. Once returned to me at a cost of $182.00, I tried it but after 6 rounds it began the same problem.
I took a sledgehammer to the frame & slide and disposed of it. I COULD NOT sell or trade it knowing that someone may need it in a life or death situation and it may fail.
Then I did something against my 45 year old 1911 upbringing and bought a Glock 19.
Just me. Guide yourself accordingly.
 
I had a Walther ppk/s which was my carry gun. About 7 months ago it began giving me serious problems. I sent it to Roger Perry, whom many consider the expert on Walthers. He attempted to repair it but told me going in that he believed it was out of spec. Once returned to me at a cost of $182.00, I tried it but after 6 rounds it began the same problem.
I took a sledgehammer to the frame & slide and disposed of it. I COULD NOT sell or trade it knowing that someone may need it in a life or death situation and it may fail.
Then I did something against my 45 year old 1911 upbringing and bought a Glock 19.
Just me. Guide yourself accordingly.
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I would have given you $200.00 for it and studied it until I either figured out how to fix it or got my $200.00 back in education. By destroying your gun you were out my $200.00 and I did not get the opportunity and challenge of working with a Walther PPK/s...we are both out because of your "solution" to the problem.
 
Well dont get insulted about it :p

Finicky is one thing, defective from birth is another and should be removed from the pool.
 
Have you taken it to a gunsmith to see what it would cost to fix it, or see if it could be repaired and made safe? Next question to ask is if it can be stripped down and sold as parts. We have bought guns that were in working order, but not very popular, stripped them down and sold the parts and made a profit. Worth looking into anyways. And if you are selling parts, your customer and all future customers will not be getting whatever issues your gun has.
 
You should be able to get just as much in a private sale after disclosing the issues as you would at a pawn shop, so why not just sell it private with full disclosure and clear conscious
 
I would have given you $200.00 for it and studied it until I either figured out how to fix it or got my $200.00 back in education. By destroying your gun you were out my $200.00 and I did not get the opportunity and challenge of working with a Walther PPK/s...we are both out because of your "solution" to the problem.
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You're not the only one.
 
yaonttwo said:
I had a Walther ppk/s which was my carry gun. About 7 months ago it began giving me serious problems. I sent it to Roger Perry, whom many consider the expert on Walthers. He attempted to repair it but told me going in that he believed it was out of spec. Once returned to me at a cost of $182.00, I tried it but after 6 rounds it began the same problem.
I took a sledgehammer to the frame & slide and disposed of it. I COULD NOT sell or trade it knowing that someone may need it in a life or death situation and it may fail.
Then I did something against my 45 year old 1911 upbringing and bought a Glock 19.
Just me. Guide yourself accordingly.
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I respect your decision to do what you want but ever gun has a lifespan and a chance of failure. Why sell any gun? There is nothing wrong with selling a problematic gun under full disclosure
 
Why not send it back to the manufacturer and see what happens? It may work out just fine and either way you're not out that much for postage.
 
Folks,
I sincerely appreciate your comments about what to do. However, I did not solicit opinions (nor do I care) on what others would do. Just stated what I did.
As I said previously, guide yourself accordingly.
 
I did it once with a Colt Anaconda in 45 Colt but I told the buyer of the problems that I as having with it. He just wanted it for his collection but I didn't feel right in selling it without informing him of the issues that pistol had. He knew of some of the issues as the shop he worked in was the one I had send the gun back to Colt to fixed. Then when the next issue started (when full cocked the hammer sometimes wouldn't drop) that was it I was done with messing around with it.
 
Do unto others..... I got screwed once on a deal and didn't like it. I'd tell the person who wanted to purchase it the truth and let him decide from there.

#clear conscience:)
 
...About 7 months ago it began giving me serious problems...
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That sure does not sound like "out of spec." to me. If it was out of spec. from the factory, logically the problem would not have manifest itself at a later date. Sounds more like something that needed adjustment or minor part replacement.
 
I traded a bad gun once. It was a Taurus PT-99. The locking block broke, and while the gun was repaired and worked, the aluminum frame rails had been gouged by the shards and had to be heavily polished.

The gun worked; I pointed out the problem to the store owner and used as a trade for a S&W 659 instead of selling it outright to an unsuspecting buyer.
 
I traded my AMT Govt to a dealer for a NIB Colt Mark IV. It got me well over half-way there. I told the dealer about it's sordid history and he replied, "No problem, I'll make it work."
 
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