Have MG prices gone up, or are sellers nuts?

[Doctor_M]

Have MG prices gone up, or are sellers nuts?​

The answer to both is yes. They are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Dan44]

Inflation. People with $ want to put it into something that typically doesn't lose value. Besides, it's not like you can take a stock certificate to the firing range and have fun with it.

Seeing the same with classic cars, last Mecum auction prices are nuts.

 

[slsc98]

…Besides, it's not like you can take a stock certificate to the firing range and have fun with it.

Printing out several hundred copies of ^that^ for my wife … a reminder once a week for the rest of my life oughta do it, Ollie!

 

[solarpower44]

I would not count on any of these prices coming down. They are going up somewhat because of inflation and somewhat for other reasons. When the economy tanked in 2008, the big money guns got hit. Yes the M2Hbs and M60 got hit, none more than the M2HB. However the common MGs did not. The sub guns stayed at their normal pricing. People could not afford to shoot as much rifle caliber stuff and switched to SMGs. Plus people who still had a job were still in the market. The prices did not trend down from 2008 but went back up and by 2010 were about where they were to begin with on the high end stuff and the average stuff was going up again.

Everyone keeps talking about these prices going down but it for the average MG, they rarely come back down. Usually its ammo related that causes the prices to drop. A supply of some caliber doubles in price or something. The real thing to look for in the MG market is not guns coming down but guns who have not gone up for a while. Undervalued guns in the current market. If you wait for them to come down, you will never buy one. Also about the time they do come down, you will be so afraid of what is going on that you will not want to part with big money at that point.

That's not entirely true, the price did come down: the average M16A1 price went from 17k at the peak to 15k, M16A2 went from 23k to 20k, MP5 also went from 20k to 18K. However, the lower price subMGs did stay the same where UZI stayed around 8k and Mac stayed around 4k. However, it didn't last very long as you said and the price came back up to the previous peak by 2010 and continues to climb to this day.

 

[IMBLITZVT]

That's not entirely true, the price did come down: the average M16A1 price went from 17k at the peak to 15k, M16A2 went from 23k to 20k, MP5 also went from 20k to 18K. However, the lower price subMGs did stay the same where UZI stayed around 8k and Mac stayed around 4k. However, it didn't last very long as you said and the price came back up to the previous peak by 2010 and continues to climb to this day.

I was talking about 2008ish. You pricing is from the 2012+ period. I bought my Sendra M16 in 2014 and I was a bit below $15K and it was only going up at that point. Sure when prices are going up there is always a period where they peak and people are still asking higher and higher amounts. Then they don't sell and they drop back a tiny bit. M16s did that where they went from $11K for a Colt M16a1 in 2012ish up to about $25K in about a 3 year run. Then they dropped back down to about $23K where they remained for a while. However this is not that the selling price changed, but the asking price changed. They were selling at $23k and then people started asking $25K and they stopped selling, so the asking price dropped back down to what people were willing to actually pay. Sure if you bought at the very peak pricing you, it dropped but that happens to anything going up in value. People are always asking for more than people are actually paying. This was not a result of a bad economy or anything other then the ending of a long increasing of pricing.

No what I was talking about was seeing M2Hbs sell for $13K in 2008 when they had been at $40K plus a year before. I saw a M2HB sideplate sell for $11k. Those are big price drops. I saw MG42s sell at $30k when they were getting $40K regularly and the price on them was back down to the low $30ks for a while. I saw M60s drop in price. These are guns of the rich, not the upper middle class. Some of them were losing everything and the guns went for whatever they could get for them at a time when no one was buying anything expensive. I know one guy who bought three 50 caliber Brownings in that period and paid about what one of them would have cost him a year before.

From time to time, you will see guns go down a bit. Jap MGs were down a bit I think mainly because the ammo was so expensive. On the same hand MP44s have gone crazy with pricing when the 8mm Kurtz started being made again. Those guns went from $11K to $35K in a decade.

Some guns like Macs, Uzis, M16s, Tommy guns...etc have a pretty constant demand and supply. Prices are pretty standardized and these prices do not drop much if at all. These guns are a pretty safe investment, as much as any investment.

Some guns like 1919a4s, MP44s, Jap guns...etc. are very ammo dependent. 1919a4 did drop down a good amount when the cheap surplus rifle caliber ammo when dry. They huge around $15k for years after the ammo went dry and only recently shot up.

Expensive guns that cost a lot to run are the guns you see the big swings on. M2Hbs, M60s, and other modern belt fed guns. These guns are the ones you can make a lot or lose a lot on depending on timing!