I'm about done with gunbroker

[TruthTellers]

Haven't been posting much on this forum as there's not much to say these days thanks to the continued shortages, but I have kept my eyes on gunbroker as that's the only place I'm ever going to find certain, unpopular guns that I plan to buy and also the occasional impulse buy when I get bored and want to try something new that's easy for me to afford.

I decided to look around at other stuff not really on my list, but if a good deal could be found I might bite, well, after seeing a $450 bid for a Cobray double barrel .410 derringer I've decided I'm done with the gunbroker.

Now, I still have to rely on it to find the H&R revolvers on my list, but when I'm seeing garbage quality tier firearms selling for that kind of money, on top of the $1000 Rugers, there's a new influx of folk who were created thanks to the pandemic that are blowing large chunks of money on what use to be affordable firearms and it has everything to do with the auction system.

So, the days of me making an impulse buy on a gun that wasn't on my list are effectively over.

This sucks.

[44 AMP]

When demand is low, buying at auction is often a good way to save money. When demand is high, SELLING at auction is a good way to MAKE money.

And right now for all the various reasons, demand is NOT LOW.

There are (or used to be) sites that are just sales and not auctions. You won't find the deal you MIGHT get at auction, but, on the other hand, there's no idiot with more money than brains bidding the price up.

[Nathan]

TT…I’m in agreement with you. Mostly prices are high. Fees have shot way up also from Gunbroker and sellers. Buying something for $50 costs $75. I’ll just pay $60 locally.

The guns are similar. The feds have really overstepped their bounds enforcing state taxing authority. I guess whatever it takes to maximize the tax paid by the little guy.

I’m sure we’ll pay double what gas taxes are once the get us all in electric vehicles run by Joe Manchin’s super pollution coal! That is if we will even be allowed to charge them. I mean if you work from home and door dash groceries, do you really even deserve to be allowed to charge? Sorry….tangent.

[44caliberkid]

I buy vintage ammo on GB but prices are getting insane. Just finished watching a box (20 rounds) of 43 Mauser (Dominion) sell for $180. With shipping, fees and sales tax, that’s well over $20 per round. Thankfully, Winchester started making new 300 Savage again, so I can buy that for $36 a box.

[mk70ss]

So much of the vintage stuff is nearly impossible to find anywhere but GunBroker now. Most gun shops have tons of plastic and tactical stuff, but no blued steel and wood type stuff.

[44 AMP]

Another point to consider is that on a site like Gunbroker, you are literally in a bidding war against the entire world.

Generally speaking only the older (usually the "mom & pop" type places) gunshops would have the older uncommon stuff, once in a while, and newer places, more focused on SALES than gun service don't want the odd, rare, or antique stuff, because it "doesn't move", and having something sit on their shelf for months or even years "costs them money", and often it is those shops putting things on gun broker.

In "ancient times" we would look for the unusual stuff at gun shows, which was somewhere the people that had them brought them out to be seen, and often sold. Anti gun hysteria was working hard to kill gun shows, and was being successful, but it was the COVID panicdemic that essentially closed the lid and nailed it shut....

They've gone away, probably for good in my part of the country. The people who used to run them quit after they were forced to shut down, venues that used to host them no longer will, and frankly the people who used to exhibit and trade can't anymore, and even if they could, there's no longer any profit in it, and damn little fun anymore.

GunStores having tables at shows were dominating them before things totally went to hell, and shows went away entirely.

This was also back in the days when you could show some ID, pay cash and go home with a gun without having to go cap in hand to an FFL during their business hours and pay for the privilege of having a STATE mandated background check run in order to exercise a Constitutionally enumerated right...

We OUGHT to be so much safer now, but from what I see in the news, we're worse off than before....

[TruthTellers]

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

Another point to consider is that on a site like Gunbroker, you are literally in a bidding war against the entire world.

Generally speaking only the older (usually the "mom & pop" type places) gunshops would have the older uncommon stuff, once in a while, and newer places, more focused on SALES than gun service don't want the odd, rare, or antique stuff, because it "doesn't move", and having something sit on their shelf for months or even years "costs them money", and often it is those shops putting things on gun broker.

In "ancient times" we would look for the unusual stuff at gun shows, which was somewhere the people that had them brought them out to be seen, and often sold. Anti gun hysteria was working hard to kill gun shows, and was being successful, but it was the COVID panicdemic that essentially closed the lid and nailed it shut....

They've gone away, probably for good in my part of the country. The people who used to run them quit after they were forced to shut down, venues that used to host them no longer will, and frankly the people who used to exhibit and trade can't anymore, and even if they could, there's no longer any profit in it, and damn little fun anymore.

GunStores having tables at shows were dominating them before things totally went to hell, and shows went away entirely.

This was also back in the days when you could show some ID, pay cash and go home with a gun without having to go cap in hand to an FFL during their business hours and pay for the privilege of having a STATE mandated background check run in order to exercise a Constitutionally enumerated right...

We OUGHT to be so much safer now, but from what I see in the news, we're worse off than before....

The death of the gun show doesn't really matter to me, gun shows near me have been FFL dominated for the last 10+ years and every FFL near me that has anything uncommon/unpopular always sells them $200 more than what I use to get things on gunbroker for. The FFL's around me are either hard into Ruger, Glock, Sig, S&W or cheap Heritage, Hi Point, and SCCY.

Very tough to get a Taurus I'm actually interested in, impossible to get ANY H&R for a price under $300, and Kel Tec I've long given up on the local FFL's to get.

Gunbroker was the only place I could escape the FFL's that overprice stuff to prey on the uninformed newbie gun buyer who has no idea what a good price is and are just panic buying.

It took until Covid for the used .40 Hi Point on had seen on the shelf of an FFL to finally disappear.

Given the economic fears going on right now we're probably on the verge of another panic buying spree.