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I'm going to lose money on this one.....but its ok

Locust Fork
I got a call about a month ago from someone that used to be a neighbor back when I was a kid. She is the sweetest little lady and started telling me that she had "an old gun that she wanted to get rid of." She went on to say how it used to be her husband's and if she doesn't get rid of it this will be a problem for the kids when whoever gets it.

I tell her I'll come by sometime and check it out. I forgot and she eventually came over with it. I didn't know WHAT she might have. In walks this 4'9" white haired lady that MIGHT weigh 80 pounds if she had a skillet tied to her back. She has a paper sack with the gun in it. I get it.....and pull out a Ruger Standard 22 in a leather holster.

I tell her these are very common and they are worth less than she probably thinks it will sell for. We pulled up some listings and tried to show her what they have sold for. She is kind of blank.....just standing there. I tell her just to make it quick and easy I would give her $250 for the gun and I'd just list it and hope to get my money back. I tell her she is welcome to let us run it in hopes that it does better, but I don't think it will.

I don't know what she was expecting....but her face showed a huge disappointment. I hope it gets a lot of attention and something magical happens......but either way I plan on giving her more than my original offer to just buy the gun.

https://www.GunBroker.com/item/798899058
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Comments

14 comments

Date Votes
  • brier-49
    Wow , I put one on consignment up here in CT last year at a local shop . He said put $250 on it, I said $ 350 then we have haggle room.
    It sold for $ 350 in one week.
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  • mrmike08075
    We had a guy bring in an iver Johnson commercial production .30. Cal carbine with perforated heat shield...

    He claimed that his father had stormed Omaha beach on d-day with it and brought it home after the war

    Family story told around the dinner table or in bars for decades

    He wants $5000.00 out of it

    He did not take it well when I gently and politely explained that it had not been made til the 1960's and did not exist in 1945

    Then it was I called his pop a liar and trying to cheat him and steal the gun from him - be threw a hissy fit and stamped his foot like a tired and cranky toddler

    Another woman brought in her husbands family heirloom used to hunt buffalo and fight Indians on the frontier - passed down for generations

    It was a type 99 jap arisaka with mismatched bolt and no mum - diddle cut and put back together by Bubba

    I have tons of these stories from the gunshop days

    Mike
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  • mark christian
    It looks like a nice example and $250 is a fair offer. As a dealer I expect to make money on every gun I buy; although there was a gentleman here who argued this point and carried it to his grave. If I had a terminal illness I would hope to have better things to do with what time I had left, but I do digress. The pistol will do better than $250 on GB, but listing fees and your commission would cut into that.
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  • Locust Fork
    I just didn't want it to bomb and I thought I was actually offering around what it might end for. Whatever it does I'll give her all of it just to be done with this particular transaction. Its not really a problem with people that are familiar with firearms.....but this is almost always a problem with someone that has no clue what they have.

    Looking at the closed auctions with bids there have been a few that sold for less than $200. Lets just hope that doesn't happen.
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  • roswellnative
    Did she think it was a Luger?
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  • He Dog
    Already $204. I expect it will do alright.
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  • He Dog
    Up $5 overnight, you are going to be RICH!
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  • buddyb
    I ran into to that a lot.Someone have an old single shotgun or any old utility gun and some expert in the family tells them it is worth thousands and when you show them what it is really worth they think you are trying to rip them off. An old Springfield 311 was a good shotgun,but they are a hard sell at 5 grand.
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  • Locust Fork
    Can you feel any worse than when you feel telling a tiny old lady her "treasure" is a plain old something thats not worth what they thought??? I mean seriously......you start to think somehow you are doing a bad thing and you have become a monster. Tiny old women have a superpower or if they were in a video game of some sort they'd have "charisma level expert" and they don't even know it.

    You guys be glad they don't know they have this power or we'd have a totally different world where you had Lawrence Welk music playing at every restaurant. The speed limit would be 40 and there would be random puzzles set up everywhere if you just wanted to sit down for a bit and find the edges.
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  • 84Bravo1
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    Can you feel any worse than when you feel telling a tiny old lady her "treasure" is a plain old something thats not worth what they thought??? I mean seriously......you start to think somehow you are doing a bad thing and you have become a monster. Tiny old women have a superpower or if they were in a video game of some sort they'd have "charisma level expert" and they don't even know it.

    You guys be glad they don't know they have this power or we'd have a totally different world where you had Lawrence Welk music playing at every restaurant. The speed limit would be 40 and there would be random puzzles set up everywhere if you just wanted to sit down for a bit and find the edges.



    You are a "Good Person," Locust/Kasey. Much Respect.

    -Ken-










    Still waiting on that package of "When my Loved one passes away, Gun distribution options." package you spoke about previously. I'd sign up for that.
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  • mark christian
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    Can you feel any worse than when you feel telling a tiny old lady her "treasure" is a plain old something thats not worth what they thought???


    Reality hurts, but she could have taken it to a brick and mortar gun shop. They'd have told her the same thing you did, offered her $100 for the pistol and then put it in the display case priced at $295 and allowed the buyer to negotiate the price down to $250. Your $250 was more than far. You are either in business to make money or you are not. Sure, it makes you a "Greedy money grubbing gun dealer" (a direct quote from one of my forum fans- now deceased), but are you running charity and willing pay more than fair market value for guns? I doubt it.
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  • Locust Fork
    I think my plan will be to have an A&D book that had an intro section with my information in the beginning describing what I do and how to contact me. The owner can use the book to list their guns and expected values along with who they would like to have first refusal if they were to sell the items and who they'd like specific firearms given to.


    I just need to type up something, stick a picture of myself on there with some contact info and order the A&D books to stick it in. I've been so busy lately I keep thinking about it when I'm in the middle of something.
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  • diver-rig
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    I think my plan will be to have an A&D book that had an intro section with my information in the beginning describing what I do and how to contact me. The owner can use the book to list their guns and expected values along with who they would like to have first refusal if they were to sell the items and who they'd like specific firearms given to.


    I just need to type up something, stick a picture of myself on there with some contact info and order the A&D books to stick it in. I've been so busy lately I keep thinking about it when I'm in the middle of something.



    I?m in for one!
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  • babun
    quote:Originally posted by mark christian
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    Can you feel any worse than when you feel telling a tiny old lady her "treasure" is a plain old something thats not worth what they thought???


    Reality hurts, but she could have taken it to a brick and mortar gun shop. They'd have told her the same thing you did, offered her $100 for the pistol and then put it in the display case priced at $295 and allowed the buyer to negotiate the price down to $250. Your $250 was more than far. You are either in business to make money or you are not. Sure, it makes you a "Greedy money grubbing gun dealer" (a direct quote from one of my forum fans- now deceased), but are you running charity and willing pay more than fair market value for guns? I doubt it.



    +1 spot on.

    When the wife and I sold antiques for 14 years, we always hit the yard sales and estate sales.
    When we found a vase or pottery that we knew was worth say, $75, and it was marked $10, we just bought it.
    The only thing we were very "nice" about was old jewelry.
    Many a time when sorting thru cheap trays of costume or junk stuff, we would find solid gold or real diamond items. We would advise the sellers that is not a 50cent ring.
    Many thanked us and asked for a fair price and we gave them a fair price.
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