Gun value, Gun price

......is what I'm willing to pay to get it. I agree with you Mak, BB price is just a guideline as far as I'm concerned. If I really want something then I will pay whatever it takes to get it, I'm just that way, may be foolish at times but it's how I am. What really gets me is when someone buys something and then sees it cheaper somewhere else and gripes on and on about how they got taken. That's in their mindset and they really won't ever be satisfied. I buy a gun because I want it and want to shoot it, I look for a good price but I don't lock myself in to not buying it if I run across something I think is what I want. I can dicker it out as well as the next man but if I want it I generally buy it. Of course, I quit buying guns a long time ago, have to shoot all the ones I have before I get a new one. Chris

In my case, almost every time I buy or trade for a gun it isn't very long before I see one for less. My thought is that buying things is like stepping into a river: you never step into the same river twice because the water is continuously moving. If I get something that I want, I stay happy. The price somebody else pays has nothing to do with my deal. When I was in the computer business, one of my friends was always waiting for the last improvement before he bought a new one. Of course, there never is a last improvement, so he was alway running an out of date system and complaining.
Here is a photo of me and my cannon at the Confederate Memorial Day affait in Oxford, MS yesterday. I managed to fire it four times before the cops showed up and said it was setting off alarms all over the university campus and would I please quit it. I was using an improved load, and it was certainly loud. The echos off the buildings seemed to last for minutes. The first time I fired it, one of the women was not prepared, and she wet her pants - literally. I don't know what this woman was trying to do, but it left a bruise.
 I'm in the middle. 
 

Well, this thread is about gun value,
 
 
"The first time I fired it, one of the women was not prepared, and she wet her pants - literally."
 
Value= "Priceless"

To seriously address the issue at hand, I know of dealers who keep "THE BLUE BOOK" handy when it suits them. since the values are probably out of scale before the thing is printed they can use it to take advantage of "trends" or "fads". For instance, we have recently seen (in my area, but it appears to be Countrywide) a run on Colt Pythons. They became practically like the "Beanie Babies" of years past. Nice situation for the dealer when the current market can get you $1,500 for a particular specimen, but the book shows $750-800 and then "I still have to make a profit".
I mention this particular situation because I bought one "on the bubble" as it were. It was a used, LEO duty gun "back in the day" so you might imagine that it was less than NIB. To make it even "better" some jughead had buggered the screws and lightened the mainspring to unreliability. Given this I paid a bit more for it than I would have paid for a nice example of say a S&W 28 6" but I wanted a first gen Python and a 6" fit into my plans. I can carry it, hunt with it and use it without flogging myself with a boresnake for putting wear on it.  The funny thing about it is that I felt it was "just" about worth it to me yet I ran into someone who was absolutely convinced that I had maade the greatest deal on earth "Do you know what Pythons are going for?" (I hope there are guys like him around if I ever decide  to sell any guns, and yes, I have his number if I ever want to sell my "precious" <insert "rolleyes">. It is a give and take thing, but as I mentioned, if a dealer trots out  "the Book" early on, "be afraid, be very afraid". On the other hand just because one clown on the internet WANTS $XXXX for something and might have found someone willing to pay it, doesn't mean that is a real value. We have a very regional  "value scale" due to the economic factors. A gun can be put on consignment at a price well below the "big city" price, and sit there for months.

I worked in a large sporting goods store in Montana for about a year after I semi-retired. They used the Blue Book all the time when trading or buting. I never felt that the values in there were realistic or current. So, I started using the Rock Island Auction for more realistic values, especially on older guns. It represents the value that an item will bring when exposed to a large number of potential buyers. Keeps me happy, and the values can be used for insurance purposes. The one drawback is that it is not an instant lookup.

Well, for decades out here, dealers would charge at least $100-$200 above blue book for anything they sold. Even ugly beat up chile stirrers went for $300 and up. I never really understood why so many regulars would put up with this kind of pricing, until I started a conversation with a guy who bought guns like most people buy socks. He told me he never payed list. He had "his" price. For those not as well heeled, and/or with a less understanding wife, the price you payed was as marked.
The internet has changed this to a certain extent, now unless the item in question is custom, engraved, special edition, or the like, area dealers use the bb like a preacher uses his bible. Today they will hit you with it, often after checking what the listings are on Gunbroker, should you be foolish enough to try to negotiate a deal.
I always wondered exactly what a 90% gun was-vs. an 80% gun, and what if the gun is 85%-do you take both and find the mean? Who decides what the condition really is? NIB is easy. Junk is easy. Its in between where the horsetrading begins.