I like guns.

[Mike]

my arms are all working pieces (including some with SN 1 & 2). I can't imagine having invested in something like that to just sit around looking pretty, and can't imagine taking that into the brush......

It all depends on your perspective. Some firearms (geeze, actually a LOT of fire arms) can be investments and really good ones. Just about all fire arms as a whole have continually increased in value over the years. But there are specific ones that are REALLY good investments because of their heritage, rarity and condition.

Some people call investment grade firearms 'safe queens' because they sit in a safe forever and never see the light of day. I have a few safe queens, but I offset them by usually having a shootable variation. For instance I have a couple of limited addition Colt 1911s that have never been fired, have never had the receivers racked, sitting in their special addition collectors wooden boxes with their original papers and such, but I also have a few 1911s that are purely for shooting the crap out of them, even some that some collectors cringe at when they find out I'm shooting them, but I'm like you, I want to use firearms, that's the fun of it, (obviously if you watch the video I posted).

But the way I see it, you can buy a treasury bill or some stocks and basically sit on it for 5 years, never seeing them other than some numbers on a computer screen, or you can also buy a collectable firearm and sit on it for 5 years, but you can at least actually take it out once in awhile, hold it, pet it, wipe it lovingly and lock it back away. If you have a diversity of investments, there certainly can be a place for collectible firearms in that diversity.

Anyone who knows their stuff in a firearm niche could easily justify buying a $50,000 Winchester as an investment as similarily as someone who knows stocks can buy $50,000 worth of a companies stock as an investment.

But I'm still a lot like you, I have a hard time buying a firearm that I know is going to only sit in a safe. I've done it, but it still isn't quite that easy to do.

 

[scallop]

My biggest problem with firearms as an investment is that I would probably never sell them. I tend to keep collecting and once a piece makes its way into my safe then it tends to remain in my possession.

Now if I would have just anticipated the recent idiocy with AR's then I would have bought a ton and flipped them. $500.00 plus profit on each gun would have made a nice retirement package.

 

[Mike]

People are still profiteering off the current environment.

I've heard more than once of people making it a habit of making the rounds of local Walmarts early in the morning, buying up any desireable ammo they are finding just stocked and then turning around and selling it at a mark-up that afternoon on local gun boards, armlist.com etc...

 

[scallop]

Yes but I am lazy and that is too much work.

 

[gypsyjim]

People are still profiteering off the current environment.

I've heard more than once of people making it a habit of making the rounds of local Walmarts early in the morning, buying up any desireable ammo they are finding just stocked and then turning around and selling it at a mark-up that afternoon on local gun boards, armlist.com etc...

Walmarts near here are all limiting ammo purchases to three boxes per customer, per day. Seems like trying to buy up and flip ammo that way would take a lot of driving for a small profit, especially since the Walmarts store don't get ammo shipments every day. The clerks can't even tell me which day they will get shipments, or what will be included in a shipment before they receive it.

I pass close to two Wallys on my morning commute, and I do swing by them a couple times a week in the morning, just to see what may be coming in. If you are not standing there as the clerk stocks the shelves you will not get 22 ammo at all, but that currently seems to be the only caliber that never hits the shelf. I have been able to restock most of my ammo needs a box or two, or even three, at a time that way, but I can't see that I could make any real money by doing that daily on the off chance a Walmart might have scarce ammo that I could flip at a high profit.

 

[Mike]

We have a local retired dude who is doing it and has become notorious and resented by many in our local small group of shooters, not so much because of him making some money, but because he hogs the ammo from others having a chance to get it. Some Walmarts here have limits and some don't, and it' remoured that the guy has 'connections' with the similarly aged coots working at various walmarts that call him when stuff comes in and hook him up. Also, here in Denver there seems to be a damn Walmart on every corner. I'd bet in a 10 square mile area you could hit 10 Walmarts! He's a retired bastard so he's got lots of time. LOL

That's all recently changed though, we have 2 Cabellas that opened up here in Denver last month and for whatever reason they seem to have no problems getting ammo.

I went there last week and was able to buy 1000 rounds of 45acp and there was plenty more left. I don't have anything in 22 caliber, so I wasn't really too excited, but while I was there apparently they were restocking the 22 ammo, cause the guy unloading it, and I mean unloading, cause he had a cart that probably had 40,000 rounds I'd imagine was handing it out like it was Christmas to a crowd around him and everybody was super excited and happy as clams.

 

[Hockeynut]

We have a local retired dude who is doing it and has become notorious and resented by many in our local small group of shooters, not so much because of him making some money, but because he hogs the ammo from others having a chance to get it. Some Walmarts here have limits and some don't, and it' remoured that the guy has 'connections' with the similarly aged coots working at various walmarts that call him when stuff comes in and hook him up. Also, here in Denver there seems to be a damn Walmart on every corner. I'd bet in a 10 square mile area you could hit 10 Walmarts! He's a retired bastard so he's got lots of time. LOL

That's all recently changed though, we have 2 Cabellas that opened up here in Denver last month and for whatever reason they seem to have no problems getting ammo.

I went there last week and was able to buy 1000 rounds of 45acp and there was plenty more left. I don't have anything in 22 caliber, so I wasn't really too excited, but while I was there apparently they were restocking the 22 ammo, cause the guy unloading it, and I mean unloading, cause he had a cart that probably had 40,000 rounds I'd imagine was handing it out like it was Christmas to a crowd around him and everybody was super excited and happy as clams.

Call DHS and tell them you think he's a terrorist hoarding ammo.

 

[adurso]

BATF gets very, very, unhappy with people buying, then selling, ammunition, without the appropriate license.

As does the IRS

 

[gypsyjim]

We have a local retired dude who is doing it and has become notorious and resented by many in our local small group of shooters, not so much because of him making some money, but because he hogs the ammo from others having a chance to get it. Some Walmarts here have limits and some don't, and it' remoured that the guy has 'connections' with the similarly aged coots working at various walmarts that call him when stuff comes in and hook him up. Also, here in Denver there seems to be a damn Walmart on every corner. I'd bet in a 10 square mile area you could hit 10 Walmarts! He's a retired bastard so he's got lots of time. LOL

That's all recently changed though, we have 2 Cabellas that opened up here in Denver last month and for whatever reason they seem to have no problems getting ammo.

I went there last week and was able to buy 1000 rounds of 45acp and there was plenty more left. I don't have anything in 22 caliber, so I wasn't really too excited, but while I was there apparently they were restocking the 22 ammo, cause the guy unloading it, and I mean unloading, cause he had a cart that probably had 40,000 rounds I'd imagine was handing it out like it was Christmas to a crowd around him and everybody was super excited and happy as clams.

BATF gets very, very, unhappy with people buying, then selling, ammunition, without the appropriate license.

As does the IRS

It sort of sounds like all it would take is a vehicle plate # and a dime to make the problem go away.

---------- Post added October 25th, 2013 at 08:45 AM ----------

It sort of sounds like all it would take is a vehicle plate # and a dime to make the problem go away.

And maybe a copy of one of his ads

 

[BRT]

BATF gets very, very, unhappy with people buying, then selling, ammunition, without the appropriate license.

As does the IRS

I understand that the IRS likes you to report income but what licence do you need to sell ammo?