...one piece of advice I've often heard is that "You can't really pay too much, you can only buy too soon."
While the literal-minded will poke all kinds of fiscal holes in that, those who enjoy collecting the old and the rare will hopefully get the underlying gist.
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11 comments:
True!
Yah. You'll soon forget the extra $20-$100 you spent on it, but the "DAMN! I shoulda..." goes on forever.
So, let me know when Hi-Points peak, willya??
Is there a Rule 335? "No matter how banal the gun, there exists a society dedicated to collecting it?"
I knew a guy who collected hardware store branded shotguns. I'll bet you couldn't fill a longbox with decent comic books for what he spent filling a basement closet with crappy shotguns. ;)
I thought that "you can only buy too soon" applied, in large measure, to early examples of new Ruger firearms* ;-) , rather than to collectible firearms. For collectible firearms, I would much rather buy too soon than too late.
As for Drang's question about when Hi-Points will peak, my guess is that they peak after several visits back to the factory. Once a Hi-Point has been factory-repaired to the point that it reliably functions, it's arguably more valuable than a NIB Hi-Point firearm that hasn't yet been put through the wringer. On the bright side, Hi-Point does at least have a fully-transferable lifetime-of-the-firearm warranty....
CAPTCHA code = NUnanci What if, despite the once-trendy spelling of her name, I liked Nanci before her makeover?
*To be fair, I'm given to understand that the firm of Sturm, Ruger & Co. is quite good about upgrading problematic early-production firearms to fix any reported issues.
M1 Carbines in a wooden barrel at $59 each, in my teens. My dad offered to buy me one. I said no, because they were all old and dirty.
Swedish Mausers at $99.
New in cosmoline Polish M44s for $89.
Used police revolvers in .38SPL & .357 Mag for ~$150.
Oh, the purchases I have missed that I should have made with the money I spent on other things!
I do kinda regret not getting a Hakim.
I am also completely meh about my AG-42.
(If it was a Hakim, it'd be sensible to shoot...)
Truth is that given yhe decline in the value of money plus its value over time, MOST guns are a mediocre investment at best.
There are exceptions of course. Usually a result of a new collecting taste, like the boom in W.W. II guns that followed Saving Private Ryan. and it can as the SKS story illustrates work the other way.
It's interesting to note a couple of phenomena from Europe and England. I've noticed that deactivated guns bring about as much or more than live ones in the U.S., and live legal ones half again as much or more.
staghounds,
I think the point here is more of a synthesis of price and availability.
To whit, while Mosin M44s have never enthralled me, I kinda always meant to pick up an M38. Ten years ago, they were stacked like cordwood at gun shows for ~$50 and I should have known well enough that if I wanted one, then was the time.
AAPL was certainly a better investment in '03, sure, but if I wanted my choice of cheap M38s, then was the time.
You are right there. I would say the availability is more attractive than the relative costs. a pile of Mosins, SKS, or M1s just looks cheaper.
But then, piles of goods equals bottom of market doesn't it generally?
It is interesting that the full time mega gun show that is the internet seems to have driven prices up rather than down. Do you see it that way?
"But then, piles of goods equals bottom of market doesn't it generally?"
True, but when it's a buyer's market is when the savvy shoppers will be digging through the piles, looking for the future bargains.
(Although, to be fair, a lot of what is or isn't valuable doesn't get sorted out until you're on your way up the price/availability curve. It took a lot of people buying Mosins and then researching them to find out which were the rare ones. I return to Mosins, because this is one of the few times I've seen a collector market bloom in the time I was watching. Well, that and Post-War Hand Ejectors...)
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