Who and what determines value?

[vytoland]

What do YOU think it should retail for?

whatever the traffic will bear

 

[MikeMurf0505]

Blue book of gun values

https://store.bluebookinc.com/Home/Default.aspx

Most serious buyers, who arent looking at buying thier friend's gun they have been waiting for, or thier Uncle's gun who they have watched use it for 10 years, use a blue book and some common sense to determine value.
If the piece has astetic (SP?) value beyond the book, bigger check for the owner.

I have bought some guns for more than they were worth from Friends of the NRA or some other charitable causes.

 

[PT111]

We, the consumer set the prices and value`s. Supply and demand.Simple economics. Guns are no different than anything else people take interest in and enjoy. Saw a 1969 Chevelle SS- 396 all orginal sell for $125,000. Car sold new for around $9500-$10,500. Some of you may remember the NBA strike some years back. When news guy stuck micro-phone in Dennis Rodmans big ugly mug and ask him ' with your multi-million dollar a year salary, how could you ever support a strike. Where does it stop?", Dennis Rodman turned and looked in the camara with a smirk on his and stated"supply and demand,baby,as long as people are willing to pay the price he`ll keep taking the money". People still pay the big dollars for pro sports tickets. Look at what a Colt Python or M1 cost for what it cost to make. SUPPLY AND DEMAND BABY !!!

'69 SS-396 fully loaded cost about $3,800 new.

This is an interesting discussion and shows what the public really knows about pricing of items. Manufacturing cost, especially material cost, has little to do with pricing. The price of something is set at what the public will pay. If you can't manufacture it at what the public is willing to pay then you don't make it. You also have to remember that each item that comes off of an assembly line costs less to manufacture than the one made just before it. Think about that for a minute. As several have said the overhead costs can be many times the actual manufacturing costs.

As for high end guns, take a regular gun off of the assembly line that would sell for $500 and put some fancy engraving on it and you have a $1,500 gun. The fancy on is no better than the regular one. Or take a regular gun, polish it, do a fluff and buff, be sur eit fits and you have a high dollar gun.

There are so many variables to even come close to figuring it out. The selling price of something is always set by the buyer. The seller suggests a price but the buyer always sets the price and the buyer must always think it is more valuable than the seller.

 

[NGIB]

I find folks tend to want to justify their purchases either way - high or low. We want folks to agree we made a wise decision and that we're smart shoppers. The bottom line is demand controls price. Here locally we had a glut of used XDs on the market and the price dropped quite a bit. A few months later, the glut was gone and the price went back to normal levels.

I trade lots of guns and try to set the "value" at a reasonable figure - why waste my time or yours. I still laugh when I see folks wanting to trade a Sigma for a 1911 - ain't gonna happen unless you run into a very strange person.

The bottom line is if you're happy with the purchase - you did OK...