It's a pretty simple concept really...
Moving money is making money, sitting money is sucking money.
Moving money is making money, sitting money is sucking money.
I wish I’d walk into one of those overstocked gun stores and find a Marlin 1891 Sideloader in .22.
I have observed that many people in the retail firearms business do not get this.
Their thinking is often close to "better to hold the item for 3 years than to lose a dollar on it".
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...at exorbitant prices.
I suppose if they stock em deep but don't sell em cheap, then it could be positioning. They can say "look around at all this stuff we have! We can't pay you top dollar!" so that they can buy cheap betting on being able to sell it at a much larger margin down the road.
On the other hand, there's going to be some places that effectively consider excess inventory to be shelf decoration like they are saying "look at all the stuff we have! We've got crazy selection!" whether or not that selection is what people actually want or not.
Gun store owners and pawn shop owners are almost all poor business people, they don't get the concept of turning the inventory. Just basic retail stuff. A new gunshop opened close to me a while back, I seldom go into a gunshop anymore, but I went in, there were no deals and very little inventory, so I asked the guy how much for a transfer, 25 bucks. I said have you thought about 10 bucks, oh I can't afford that, I said it costs you nothing, well my wife does the transfers and I have to pay her. I look over there and she is sitting on her ass looking at her phone. I say most big retailers spend a lot of money just to get people to walk in the door, at 10 bucks they would search you out, maybe buy some things while your wife is resting, no I didn't say that. But the point is create some excitement, when you drive by you should think hey lets stop and see what he's got. It would be smart to advertise free transfers for the first 90 days, make people want to come in that door. But what do I know, except I know I've never been back, why would I?And this is the part I simply don’t understand. In a business that’s based on moving inventory, if it’s just sitting there it’s taking up space and costing them money. I spent my entire sales career working in the industrial electrical industry for factory reps and distributors and dead inventory is your enemy. For us the magic number was 8 turns/year and if an item had sat there for 3 years without moving it was tossed and we took the hit……and the purchasing manager had some splaining to do. Obviously you’re not going to throw guns in the trash but what you can do is make someone a deal just to get it out the door and replace it with something that people are buying.I know a LOT of the guns that I see in shops down in Lawton have been sitting there for many, many, many years. Doesn’t matter what YOU think something is worth, until it sells its worth absolutely nothing. They’d have been better off not buying the guns and investing it in a CD……at least they’d be getting 5% interest.
It's crazy how fickled the market has become for some firearms. I have a few I'd like to sell, but I just haven't had the time to get them posted. I have a brand new Christensen Arms rifle that is selling now for less than wholesale prices of over a year ago.
Why do you think an FFL facilitating a transfer costs them nothing? Is their time worthless?
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