Dealers or collectors?

[look no hands]

so are you saying that the tracker i bought 4yrs ago for £100 which was off a guy who wanted to shift it cheap to buy another gun which is now worth £200 i cannot sell it for this or i am a dealer?? that would be a silly statement. sometimes luck fortunes the brave and if i sell at a profit a few yrs later then that is my good fortune. some people are selling theorbens for a grand they picked up for 400-500 4yrs ago. thats not a dealer but more good luck to them for taking the risk to buy a gun thats gone up in value. or are you saying guys who buy and then sell a few weeks later are dealer?

I had a Pro Elite about 15 years ago and it took over a month to sell it, it went for £160 posted in the end, the average price for one nowadays is £500 and upwards, not bad gain for something sitting in a cupboard for a few years, even better than classic cars and houses.

Pete

[WILBA]

I had a Pro Elite about 15 years ago and it took over a month to sell it, it went for £160 posted in the end, the average price for one nowadays is £500 and upwards, not bad gain for something sitting in a cupboard for a few years, even better than classic cars and houses.

Pete

I bought 2 this year which cost me £600&£675. Funny thing is he wanted more for the 2nd one than i payed fir the boxed and untouched one personally ido not care if they are worth more in the future or not as i have been after one for 5yrs and then a guy with 22 of them pops up out of the blue and sells most of them. Another guy on face ache has 8 of them so they are about. Again i have bought some rarish theoben rammers this year and i do not care if they increase or not. I was just looking for different rifles for my collection. Its not all about making a profit in the future, lets face it you go out and drink 8 pints of beer and then piss that money down the sewer. But the money in a gun is there or close to it anyway if you buy collectable ones. The enjoyment for me is in the owning of these feats of lovely engineering. I was hooked on airguns after having my webley hawk as a 10yr old and can still remember that oil smell of opening the new boxed gun for the first time. That will stick with me to my last breath.

[look no hands]

I bought 2 this year which cost me £600&£675. Funny thing is he wanted more for the 2nd one than i payed fir the boxed and untouched one personally ido not care if they are worth more in the future or not as i have been after one for 5yrs and then a guy with 22 of them pops up out of the blue and sells most of them. Another guy on face ache has 8 of them so they are about. Again i have bought some rarish theoben rammers this year and i do not care if they increase or not. I was just looking for different rifles for my collection. Its not all about making a profit in the future, lets face it you go out and drink 8 pints of beer and then piss that money down the sewer. But the money in a gun is there or close to it anyway if you buy collectable ones. The enjoyment for me is in the owning of these feats of lovely engineering. I was hooked on airguns after having my webley hawk as a 10yr old and can still remember that oil smell of opening the new boxed gun for the first time. That will stick with me to my last breath.

Totally agree, I bought a Airsporter S carbine a few years ago in awful condition, I paid well over the top for it, I could have got it cheaper as the nipper who had it didn't really know what he had but because he was selling off his collection to fund getting married, I felt I couldn't knock him down too much (we've all been there and know what it's like), anyway I had to get it reblued and sorted the gorgeous walnut stock out myself but the internals needed sorting as well, so extra cost and the open sights where missing, which were the Williams style ones that sat on the front of the maxigrip scope rail, so buying them alone cost a fortune from Knibbs, so all in all the rifle owes me well over £500 but will I ever get that money back in the future, I most probably will because of the rarity of the rifle and the stunning stock but I never bought it to make money, I bought it for my collection and to shoot, I could never sell it anyway unless things got that bad that I needed the money.

Pete

[gingernut]

The correct expression to use is Trader.

Trade is any activity carried on for the PRODUCTION OF INCOME from selling goods or performing services.
HMRC.

Selling a few airguns you own for a modest profit ( or not! ) falls way short of that definition.

Look out for capital gains tax if you make more than £1200 in this tax year.
As if.

[Binners]

It is easy to spot the difference, traders are old with long hair....

[WILBA]

It is easy to spot the difference, traders are old with long hair....

At least he has hair. I am more like the bald guy in the front

[Binners]

At least he has hair. I am more like the bald guy in the front

That makes you a collector then, easy en it?

[Steve Zodiac]

It is easy to spot the difference, traders are old with long hair....

There's a sad element to that photograph.

I can see two youngsters in a sea of oldies.

Maybe iphone need to release an app !

[T 20]

There's a sad element to that photograph.

I can see two youngsters in a sea of oldies.

Cough --- Carers.

[gingernut]

At the last Kempton I thought the percentage of under 50s was up.

[micky2]

l sold more to under 50s at the last Kempton. but l had got more of their era guns.

[Brano]

I think a lot of us buy things on a whim for various reasons and then get rid for others.

A trader is to me someone who buts and sells regularly to make a profit. If you had say a collection of 200 airguns that you've accumulated over the years no one could say you were a teader or dealer if you sold some or all, even if you made a profit.

[ggggr]

After tinkering with something yesterday , I was thinking again. If you regualrly buy something in with the sole intention of selling it on, then that seems like you are a dealer.
I have been fortunate enough to have bought some things cheaply and been given some things and I think part of the reason is that people know that I tinker and will not try to make a profit out of someone elses generosity. There are some on here , who like me, are tight and like to reuse parts if they can rather than just fitting new ones. I've been tinkering with a late Steel Framed Premier and the pins were REALLY tight. Even though you must be able to get to the trigger without removing the triogger guard, I tried to knock the pins out. I ended up having to drill part of the back one. I spun the pins in the drill and put a file on them and they were still really tight. I have managed to save 3 out of the 4 pins it came with
I think something that the tinkerers do is to revisit problems. I did this recently with the Milbro Cougar trigger. I often "quarantine" guns after I have done them and try them on different days as well. I think the dealers get them going, fire a couple of shots then punt them and it is "buyer beware" . With the tinkering with old and broken stuff, it can prove costly to sort them out, but I suppose some time it is worth it for what we learn along the way. Becasue of problems with some guns, it has helped solve problems on others.
Oh well--back to tinkering I guess

[evert]

....I think something that the tinkerers do is to revisit problems. I did this recently with the Milbro Cougar trigger. I often "quarantine" guns after I have done them and try them on different days as well. I think the dealers get them going, fire a couple of shots then punt them and it is "buyer beware" . With the tinkering with old and broken stuff, it can prove costly to sort them out, but I suppose some time it is worth it for what we learn along the way. Becasue of problems with some guns, it has helped solve problems on others.
Oh well--back to tinkering I guess

Those words sound a bit too familiar...
As a tinkerer, I dont have the nerve to sell my problems to others, and get a bit provoked when people sell on their problems.
And the guns that end up beeing good, well , I can sell them either, because theres too much money and time put into them...

Considered myself a tinkerer for a long time, until I finally accepted that I had become a collector of tinkerers grade airguns

[WebleyWombler]

Those words sound a bit too familiar...


Considered myself a tinkerer for a long time, until I finally accepted that I had become a collector of tinkerers grade airguns

I'm a tinkerer as well and will sometimes tinker for others at no charge if it interests me. I will also give bits away if it will get an old gun running. As I collector, I don't sell things and haven't sold a gun for over 20 years but have bought a few. I hoard and love them. Currently have a large surfeit of 1 type of pistol but who cares? I don't, just won't be buying any more of that type unless it's special but there are some holes I would like to fill. Trouble is, I now have most common examples of the stuff I like and the rarer examples are getting more expensive and harder to get. I will continue to do what I love and let my kids sort it out when I'm gone.