What would YOU do?

[popeye44]

Was sitting in the gun shop today and in comes this guy wanting to sell a Winchetser
levergun. Had a brass butt plate, Brass rcvr, saddle ring. Octigan barrel and medallion
in stock.Said he was hard up and needed to sell it. Gunshop guy looked at it and said
150usd. THe guy said thanks, that he had paid 900 for it and left. Gunshop guy said
it was a Buffalo Bill. From what I saw it was pristine and that big hole in the barrel was
shouting 38-55. I wanted to jump up and tackle the guy because I wanted a Buffalo
Bill. I restrained myself. This gunshop is the only one in town and I have been doing
business there since the 70's.
Put yourself in my shoes. What would you have done?

[FWiedner]

The guy at the shop is in the business to make money, so he tried to hump the guy. If you jump on what he passed up because of his demonstrated greed/business accumen, then why should you feel bad for being smarter than him?

I would have caught the guy in the parking lot if he had something I wanted. The guy in the shop obviously won't match my offer.

[gamekeeper]

The guy at the shop is in the business to make money, so he tried to hump the guy. If you jump on what he passed up because of his demonstrated greed/business accumen, then why should you feel bad for being smarter than him?

I would have caught the guy in the parking lot if he had something I wanted. The guy in the shop obviously won't match my offer.

+1 I've had a customer buy of me when the gun shop didn't want to offer a fair price.

[Borregos]

F Wiedner +1

[Andrew]

Yep, I would have blurted it out right there. No sense having to walk all the way out into the parking lot.

[AJMD429]

I would have caught the guy in the parking lot if he had something I wanted. The guy in the shop obviously won't match my offer.

I know of a case where an angry dealer tried to report such a parking lot sale as a "straw" sale as revenge; he said the guy had actually 'bought' the gun then he sold it back to the seller, who then sold it to another individual in the parking lot. Having been filling out my own forms for a gun purchase the whole time and observing what happened, there was NO sale to the dealer - he just offered too low a price and the guy declined, at which point another customer said "Hey, I've been looking for one of those - how much do you want?" Hopefully if the cops checked it out they found out it was legit, but it's never nice to even be 'checked out' in such things, because it STILL gets you on a list, and somthing can always go wrong or you get an anti-gun cop who bends the rules, or the truth, to hurt you.

I never went back to that dealer because of that.

[TedH]

I sure wouldn't feel bad about making my own offer after the shop owner's low ball. If it makes whe shop owner mad, so what. He should be ashamed to make an offer like that, business or not.

[Ysabel Kid]

Peaceable trade - no one should feel offended. The shopkeeper needs to buy it low enough to still sell it, account for the paperwork, and cover his cost of capital if it doesn't sell fast, and make a profit. He is in business, and this makes perfect sense.

The seller owns the property, and gets to decide whether (in this case) the $150 now is worth more to him than the gun he has - regardless of what he paid for it.

You are free to approach the seller and let him know what it would be worth to you - i.e. - what you'd be willing to pay for it. If the seller likes your offer better, he goes with yours. He may want to sell to a licensed dealer only, and is willing to accept less - the difference being what it is worth to him to sell to an FFL. He may decide neither of you offered what he feels the gun is worth to him at the moment.

No harm, no foul. The gunshop owner may be mad at missing his margin in the transaction, but if his locale helped facilitate the peaceable and lawful exchange between two parties, keeping at least one in the firearms "game", he stands to have a customer for ammunition, cleaning supplies, accessories, future gun purchases, gunsmithing, etc. Taking the long-term look reveals that happy, loyal customers are worth missing the occasional sale!

After the discussion between the two I would have asked if the shop keeper was done, then made my own offer on the spot. If the shop keeper objected, I would have explained the above - then left, never to return.

[AndyM]

+1 on this...

Peaceable trade - no one should feel offended. The shopkeeper needs to buy it low enough to still sell it, account for the paperwork, and cover his cost of capital if it doesn't sell fast, and make a profit. He is in business, and this makes perfect sense.

The seller owns the property, and gets to decide whether (in this case) the $150 now is worth more to him than the gun he has - regardless of what he paid for it.

Also keep in mind the store owner might have thought it would be a hard re-sale item and that is why he low balled it - not just because he was trying to be a greedy arrogant idiot. Same thing as going into your local Gander Mountain or Sports shop = they all have a nice selection of rifles, but usually only 2 or 3 leverguns on the rack - a Marlin 336, Henry 22, a maybe a Browning BLR rifle in .308.

[rjohns94]

in the shops I have worked in or dealt with, I've had people offer me money for a rifle in the store. I have told them I can't sell it to them that they would have to wait till the store owner bought it for me. I would not sell a firearm to anyone on store property.

Reversing that, I would ask the guy if we could meet off the property to discuss it once he started out the door and the shop owner was done with the transaction. If I was selling, I would insist on the checks go through the dealer (if reqd), therefore he gets 20 or 30$ in the deal. I won't sell anymore to a stranger without the checks. I use to do it all the time. Liability is just too worrisome now a days.

[Griff]

rjohns +1.

[Blackhawk]

The guy at the shop is in the business to make money, so he tried to hump the guy. If you jump on what he passed up because of his demonstrated greed/business accumen, then why should you feel bad for being smarter than him?

I would have caught the guy in the parking lot if he had something I wanted. The guy in the shop obviously won't match my offer.

+2.

If the gunshop don't want to buy then everyone else has dibs on it.

Johnny

[popeye44]

The shop owner is also a neighbor and friend. This is a pawn/gun shop that deals in gold and guns only.
He has given me lots of good deals over the years. It has happened before. But never on something
I REALLY wanted. My wife LIKES for me to go there too. Her favorite diamond bracelet came from there at
the paltry price of 65clams. Was appraised at 1200 for ins. I think I will speak to him and ask him to
look out for any good deal on a levergun. I have thought it over and probably I should have
asked the dealer in front of the seller if he minded me asking about the gun. Dont know. This is just my
favorite place to go. Sit down and shoot the breeze. My only toy store.

[kimwcook]

rjohns94, +1

[Malamute]

I've been a good customer of several shops over time that didnt mind if I made a deal on something they werent interested in or the seller wasn't willing to take their offer. It was understood before hand, but I always asked, ("Do you mind if I deal with the guy") for courtesy sake, before moving on it tho. The shop always said, "OK with me if it's out in the parking lot" or "outside, it's your deal". Once in a while, if it was a smokin deal, I'd give the shop $20, or buy something on the spot to help them out. I also generally asked for a personal bill of sale, in case there was a complication later, tho there never has been. This has been in states with no paperwork required for personal sales.

[morgan in nm]

I go to a particular gun shop for years now and I have seen this many times. I usually don't get involved even if its something I really want because I dont like to get in an argument with the dealer. One time, I was in the parking lot and a fellow who I didn't know but owned a gun shop out of the area tried to sell me a bunch of guns and ammo(I knew of him from Hobbs.) I told him to go into the gun shop and see if my dealer would offer something on his goods. He said that he tried but there was no takers. I asked him what he had and ended up buying a S&W model 34 in factory nickel for more money than the dealer offered him but still a great deal. I felt so bad that when I walked into the gun shop, I ended up buying things that I didn't need simply because I felt that I cheated him out of a purchase. I will never do that again.

I have also had it happen to me on something I tried to sell. 2 weeks ago, I was strapped for cash so I tried to sell a Llama 380 that was gathering dust. My dealer wouldn't buy it for $150 but put it on consignment. One of his employees wanted it very bad so I sold it to him but made sure that the shop owner himself recieved a commision on the sale at my loss. I did that because the dealer has always been good to me and is responsible for most of my old winchesters and gives me great deals usually when something comes up for sale.

[dr walker]

Ask your gun shop. Some may mind. My local gunshop always has guys bringing in guns to sell. He offers low unless you are trading up. I asked if he minded I make an offer, after a guy didnt like his offer. He had no problem with it. I offered the guy $20 more and ended up with a great deal on a Super Blackhawk. If the owner would have said no I would have respected his decision.

[O.S.O.K.]

I would have looked at the gunshop owner and asked him "you mind if I make an offer?" and then go forward. He'd probably say - go ahead!

[stretch]

I might have followed him out an given him my phone #.

The dealer is out of the picture at that point. It would have been bad manners
to actually offer a price in front of the dealer unless permission was asked and
received, but there's no point in not following up what could be a good deal
for both the buyer and the seller.

Politely, of course...............

[Andrew]

Popeye, I have "buddies", "friends" and "people I know". I don't know the exact relationship that you guys possess, but the advice given above looks to be pretty top-notch. Taking the proper route should keep things peachy-keen. If not, reevaluate your relationship with your "friend".

I got to thinking about a semi-similar situation I had, un-gun related though. There was a guy at work selling a car and was conversating back and forth with a co-worker here and there. "Oh I want it, I will get you the money". That went on for a week, then the seller, my buddy, told me one night that the car was for sale and named the price. I had no Idea he had been trying to sell it previous to that and that there was another party interested. I came to work the next day with a check: car was mine. The poo-doo hit the fan when the seller told mister "I will get you the money". I doubt seriously that I would have done that if I had known of the other guys interest.

[rangerider7]

rjohns94, +1

[bj94]

I think it is pretty despicable to lowball a seller by that much. I understand that a shop has to make money, but he didn't buy the new stock in his store for 1/4 or 1/5 of what they would sell for.

OTOH, it would not be appropriate to try to make a deal with a private person on the store owner's property. Catching the guy in the parking lot and offering to meet somewhere else might be acceptable. How much you cared for the store owner would dictate whether you let him see what was happening or not.

The same thing happens at gun shows. Person walks up to a seller's table and asks "will you buy this ___ for $___?" If it was something I was interested in then I would wait quietly until the dealer declined, let the potential seller walk away, then start talking to him. In that case it would be inappropriate to try to arrange a deal when in front of the dealer's table.

[Bogie35]

Said he was hard up and needed to sell it.

Sounds like the shop owner knows he's the only game in town, so he tried to take advantage of a man's desperation. With low-ball offers like that, no wonder he gives customers the occasional "good deal".

bogie

[AJMD429]

Sometimes I'll overhear a shop owner say something like "That's just not something I could sell here, so I'd only be able to give you $150 for it - but it's worth at least twice that. If I were you I'd take it down to ___________'s and see if they can make you a better deal. If not, let me know and I'll do what I can."

That seems like an honest yet practical way to deal with it if it is truly a 'hard to move' type of item for that store/clientele/location.

[Hillbilly]

I would have chatted the guy up a second and slipped him a business card.

The dealer I used up north.... I have been near when he passed on taking a consignment or buying a gun and just mentioned that I was looking for someting like that. Joe passed for a reason.. he was a grown up and figured it was fair game.

But then... I spent enough money there to put his kid through college........
~Jeff