Friday, April 15, 2016

Gun Buyer Beware

I was looking through ads on GunBroker.com, just minutes ago, trying to get an idea of what High Standard Dura-Matic M-101s are selling for in the land of reality. I came across an ad for one that was just a tad self contradictory. It was for a "Mint In Box High Standard M-100 Dura-Matic With Extra Barrel And Magazine". I read on a little further and saw that the condition of the pistol was shown as: "Tip of the barrel has a bit of pitting Overall Condition of the is good". Go figure but the last time I heard something called "mint" it meant that it was in perfect condition not overall good condition with pitting.

Read everything and then ask questions, check the seller's feedback too is what I do. Out of over 7,000 feedback ratings for this particular seller, he had a 99% positive rating. However great that sounds, I always check further. When I looked at the actual ratings he had, 10 were neutral and 43 were negative. That is more than enough in the minus column to make me avoid a seller. The most recent negative rating I could find stated that the seller had said the gun was NIB (new in box) but then admitted there was actually damage to it when the potential buyer made inquiries. That could be true or not but it was not refuted by the dealer.

Besides not ever buying from said dealer, at a good price or not, I certainly would never consider offering his asking price on this particular pistol. He was asking $879.99 as a starting bid and $899.99 as a buy it now price. The Blue Book of Gun Values has it listed at $325 in 100% condition, with an additional $150 for it when it has the second barrel. I figure an extra magazine, if there is an extra one (that's not clear to me from the ad) is worth another $50 or a bit more. If the pistol was 100%, had the extra barrel that was also 100% and had an extra magazine that was also 100%, I might go as high as $550, if I wanted it badly enough and I would only offer that much if the box they say comes with it was actually serialized for that particular pistol.

Buyer beware.

All the best,
Glenn B

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