Blue Book of Gun Values

[sushi & pistols]

OK, so I have been doing the firearm collecting/buying, selling, trading for right at 4 decades. As far back as I can remember I have used this book to help determine the value of a firearm. I use it when buying OR Selling and it has not done me wrong. I find some folks will use it when selling but NOT when buying. I have been called a lowballer because I refuse to use "Gunbroker" prices and prefer to my old stand by.
I just ordered my 44 edition this one is a year old and is worn :-)

What are thoughts on this?

 

[Bocephus123]

OK, so I have been doing the firearm collecting/buying, selling, trading for right at 4 decades. As far back as I can remember I have used this book to help determine the value of a firearm. I use it when buying OR Selling and it has not done me wrong. I find some folks will use it when selling but NOT when buying. I have been called a lowballer because I refuse to use "Gunbroker" prices and prefer to my old stand by.
I just ordered my 44 edition this one is a year old and is worn :-)

What are thoughts on this?

go by the book refuse these Bullship prices!

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

The Blue Book is just a guide. It's another resource to use when you want to buy or sell. It can be right on target or it can be WAY off target. There are lots of factors the BB can't account for: new legislation, regional differences in prices, etc.

My shop was in a mountain town in Colorado. If someone brought me an upland bird shotgun for trade I generally offered far less than BB value, or even wholesale value, because they were very difficult to move in that area.

 

[sushi & pistols]

The Blue Book is just a guide. It's another resource to use when you want to buy or sell. It can be right on target or it can be WAY off target. There are lots of factors the BB can't account for: new legislation, regional differences in prices, etc.

My shop was in a mountain town in Colorado. If someone brought me an upland bird shotgun for trade I generally offered far less than BB value, or even wholesale value, because they were very difficult to move in that area.

I think my gripe or lack there of was that some folks will use it when buying and not when selling. I try to be consistent. When I am looking to buy something and quote the blue book they will come back with Gun Broker :-) Also, the Blue Book takes into account the condition of the firearm.

 

[AKguy1985]

There is a pawn shop in Claremore that uses an old, falling apart copy of the blue book to get pawn values. I quit going there years ago

 

[red dirt shootist]

IMO the BB is good for one thing, information on a gun as to date of manufacture, variations, special options like sights, finishes, and stocks. The values are mostly useless, and if you think you need to look at that book to determine a value, you shouldn't be buying and selling guns, especially at a gun show. IMO again, sold values on gun broker are the most current and accurate, condition and locality is factored in, everyone is buying and selling in the same market, it's online. If you're buying on gunbroker, be patient grasshopper.

 

[sushi & pistols]

IMO the BB is good for one thing, information on a gun as to date of manufacture, variations, special options like sights, finishes, and stocks. The values are mostly useless, and if you think you need to look at that book to determine a value, you shouldn't be buying and selling guns, especially at a gun show. IMO again, sold values on gun broker are the most current and accurate, condition and locality is factored in, everyone is buying and selling in the same market, it's online. If you're buying on gunbroker, be patient grasshopper.

Awww I've been doing it wrong all these years...should have been following the gunbroker groupies

 

[red dirt shootist]

Awww I've been doing it wrong all these years...should have been following the gunbroker groupies

Just keep doing what you're doing

 

[Oklahomabassin]

It seems if business is no longer fun and the business model doesn't work to the advantage of the business it is time to make changes or quit.

 

[SoonerP226]

The thing most people miss is that the Blue Book is a guidebook, not a rulebook. For the most part, it'll get you in the ballpark on prices for a normal year, but as @OK Corgi Rancher mentioned, it can't take some rather major factors into account. Take 2020, f'rinstance. If you were using Blue Book values in 2020 after March, you were, most likely, lowballing, because that market was white hot. I heard an interview with a gun shop owner who had ordered a lot more guns than normal (IIRC, it was something like triple his normal annual inventory), and they were all gone by April. The Blue Book lost out to basic economics big time that year.