What's the World coming to?

If i saw a gun shop taking someone for a ride that hard, I'd never go back, and I'd let them know why too.
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Stay away from Cabela's, then.
I took 3 rifles to them, about 6 months ago. I had an 1895 Krag (DCM Carbine), a Mossberg 800BSM in .243 Win, and a Russian SKS (Tula, 1955, with the rare side-stamped star). Their offer: $125 ...for the lot! :mad:

I sold the Krag for $240 (bought it from that very Cabela's for $220, a year prior). Cabela's offered $40 for it.
I traded the Mossberg straight-across for a S&W 642 in like-new condition (going for $450-550 in fair condition here, up to $650 in like-new). Cabela's offered $25 for it. (Seriously...)
I traded the SKS for a nice Marlin 336 with dies, brass (400+ pieces), ammo (100+ rounds), and hand load recipes. Cabela's offered $60 for it.


But, that's not all...
It took nearly 3 hours for my rifles to be "appraised", since an aging Baby-Boomer had brought in part of his collection to sell off. He managed to beat me to the door by about 5 seconds. So, I got to watch all of his beautiful firearms get logged in at the door, and got a good look at what he had there. He had more than 20 rifles, most unfired, brand new, and not a scratch on them. They were primarily different variants of pre-'64 Winchester Model 70s and Model 94s, and Browning BARs.

But, the handguns were incredible. With another 25+ handguns, it was an incredible "sample" of his collection (he revealed that these were the ones that "bored" him). He had Remington Navy revolvers, Peacemakers, a set of Flobert dueling pistols, and all kinds of other drool-worthy pieces (almost entirely 'antiques'). There wasn't a replica in the bunch. They were all original pieces in good condition.

I got the watch the entire appraisal process, and not a bad thing was said about a single piece in the collection. Based on the values being called out by one employee, and logged by another, I calculated the lot to be worth in excess of $47,000 (real world prices, not Cabela's prices :rolleyes:).

I was dumbfounded, when that Baby Boomer's wife talked him into taking the offer: $4,200.

Less than ten percent. They offered less than 10 percent of what they were worth... :eek:
 
I would have offered him at least $5200.00 and outbid Gander. The person needed money and needed it now.

You are only going to get so much money from trading in a gun. You can forget retail value. A business can not keep the door in by selling guns for what they paid for them. Ganders and other stores like that have a formula for buying guns. Which means that you are not going to get even close to a good deal from them.

Once the dealer buys a gun he has one tied up in it with no guarantee that he may ever sell it. He is taking the risk and paying the overhead to sell that gun.

you will get a better deal by selling them yourself or by bartering them yourself. Then that means you will have to deal with all the phone calls and lookiloos.

I usually put my guns on consignment with the dealer and leave him some room for his trouble.
 
Stay away from Cabela's, then.
I took 3 rifles to them, about 6 months ago. I had an 1895 Krag (DCM Carbine), a Mossberg 800BSM in .243 Win, and a Russian SKS (Tula, 1955, with the rare side-stamped star). Their offer: $125 ...for the lot!
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Not sure how it went down, but the same thing happened (8mm something rifle mauser?) to a guy with cabela's. My brother ended up buying it in the parking lot for a song, but Cabela's wanted to rape him bad.
 
You guys are forgetting something: Maybe the guy was happy with the deal.

I sold a ladder that is used in roofing for $300.00. Normally they go for $1,300.00. I had no use for it, I want it out of my barn and I liked the cash. I could have waited another month and gotten more money (probably) but it was one less thing I had to step across, reach around and mess with every time I wanted something off of that wall.

The gentleman who sold the Model 10 might have just wanted to get rid of it.
 
Less than ten percent. They offered less than 10 percent of what they were worth.
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Wrong - if he took the money, that is exactly what they were worth to him

You can show me some EBR with all kinds of doo-dads "worth" 3000 - I'll offer you maybe 300 if that - as I could care less about those......and I could turn around and show most here a glorious SxS sidelock with a price of $50,000 and NO ONE would say it was worth it, even though it was engraved by a Master engraver

Worth is nothing more than what someone is willing to pay for something - no more, no less
 
Something else to consider. A while back when I was going through my divorce, I liquidated my collection at less than .50 on the dollar. Probably closer to .30 on the dollar. These were Colts, Smiths, Rugers, Russian and Chinese SKS's, Mossberg 590's, Bulgarian AK's with milled receivers and maybe one Taurus (;)).

Point is that there are times when people just need to unload stuff that they have no need for, they may be desperate for the cash, or just want to move on to something else.
 
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