Some Folks Have Asked Me...

...why I would ever sell a gun. They approach asking me with an air of incredulity not as to whatever will be my answer but as to how I could sell one in the first place. To them guns seem almost sacred as something that one should never part with. I guess I have never seen them quite like that to me they are tools or grown-up toys (some are both) and while I like some more than others I see not reason not to sell or trade them if and when the need arises. Over the past couple to few years I have brought quite a few new ones into my flock collection and that has at times been an expense I could not have borne without selling off some of the others I had owned prior to them. Others have just not suited my fancy. Take for example one of my earliest handguns. That was a Charter Arms 38 revolver. Nothing special about, I bought it for concealed carry, used it for awhile and realized there were a few things I did not like about it. The thing I did not like about it at all was that it was, in my opinion, a piece of junk. So I sold it. That was 37.5 years & 1 day ago (give or take a few hours) as I write this - damn I am old and so is this receipt (yet it's much younger than me).



As to all the obliterated content - that stuff is confidential.

The same people who ask me why I sell them often also ask: Don't you suffer from sellers' remorse after selling a gun. Sometimes yes and sometimes no is the honest answer. I just bought an RG-26, probably one of the crappiest pistols I have ever owned. I knew it would likely turn out to be a clunker before I bought it. So why buy it? Well, the first handgun I ever owned was an RG semi-auto in 25 ACP. It served its purpose and then was disassembled disposed of where it would likely never be found and wherein the conditions would soon make it inoperable even if they were found. No, the gun was never used for nefarious purpose, I just did not want it any longer and was relocating back to NYC from out west and did not want to even attempt to go through the pistol permit process in NYC even way back then; that was in the mid 1970s. I told you I am old.

My current Jam-O-Matic, the RG 26.

Anyway, I got the latest one, an RG 26 (made by RG Industries in Florida) because I suffered from a bit of nostalgia while at an auction.When saw it, I said to myself that is for me. I felt a strong urge to bid on it even though I was not 100% certain it was the exact same model as the one I had owned before (it was close enough and after all it had been my first pistol). I wound up bidding a bit above my limit but still little enough not to have been way too much and just enough to have the high bid. I took it to the range earlier this week and as expected it was a jam-o-matic (that brought on another wave of nostalgia as the first RG I owned was likewise). Probably never will sell this one, as I said I bought it due to nostalgia so, it may just become a safe-queen and considering the price of 25 ACP ammo, that may not be a bad idea. Of course, another possibility is I will work on it until I can get it to feed, fire, extract and eject reliably. That might be an interesting project as I usually never so anything that would require taking a polishing stone to metal on a gun.

Getting back to why I sell guns - I have to say it is not as difficult thing to do as some folks seem to think it must be, at least relative to the letting go aspect of selling them. I can understand why someone might not want to sell a gun that is their favorite, or that has great sentimental value for them, something that is maybe was handed down through a few generations of their family, or not wanting to sell their first gun, or not wanting to sell the one they brought back from wartime service or any other one with emotional ties but will never understand why someone would not sell a gun simply because it is one among others of the ones they own. I usually sell them as a matter of practicality - either because I need the money for personal/family concerns, I want the money t buy another gun or something else, or would rather have the money than the piece of junk I am selling the particular gun I am selling simply because, for whatever reason, I do not like that particular gun and am ready to part with it. Luckily for me, and I mean this quite seriously, my wife has never even once indicated in any way shape or form that I have too many of them and that makes for a least a happy gun collector if not a happy marriage (maybe there really is a 🎅).

All the best,
Glenn B