Monday, August 18, 2014

Support Your LGS

Local Gun Shop - That is.

The Lovely Bride and I had a sort of informal Sunday Morning ritual where we'd stop by the local Goose Burg after church just to browse and see what might be on clearance.   I liked the opportunity to see what was new in handguns and maybe pick up a pair of scope rings or wool socks now and then.

Not being into Tupperware, I hadn't seen a Gen 4 Glock and noticed a Gen 4 Glock 21 in the case.   Talking to the salesman about it, I actually liked the idea of the repositioned trigger.  I dry-fired it and didn't see my trigger finger pushing it off the target as had happened with my Glock 22 back when I had one about 20 years ago.  I also liked the ability to change the grip inserts.   The Mad Ogre or somebody had written about the 21 being a really good choice for a bug out gun and that had me sort of thinking positively about plastic so it wasn't something completely out of the blue.   A seed was planted but they sold out of them and didn't get any more in for weeks so it kind of just sat there ungerminated for a while.

After about three weeks of watching their Glock stock dwindle, I asked the head guy when he might get one in.  He didn't know and, when he checked the manifest for the shipment due to arrive the next day, it didn't have even one Glock on it.

I wandered to the other end of the counter and saw a Glock 41 in the used gun case. 



Its a long slide version of the 21.  The price on it was $759.   I thought that was high but Goose Burg is known to be high on guns and they certainly have a right to charge whatever they want so I had no beef with it.  Besides it didn't necessarily matter what the price was if I could work a trade to everyone's satisfaction so I went home to get a gun to trade.  That's when the disappointment started.

The gun I brought was exactly like a new one they had on the rack for $1,300 except that mine wasn't scratched up by being handled.  Mine was used by virtue of having been fired seven times but it was in better shape than their $1,300 new one.  Still, its used so I  expected to get considerably less than $1,300.  In fact, a couple of months before all this, I saw a used one like mine, but not in quite as good a condition, on their rack for $900.  Based on that, I thought they might offer me somewhere between $600 and $700 for mine. 

The counter guy went in the back for about five minutes and came back to tell me that they couldn't offer me more than $480 for my gun.

OK again.  The have the right to price a used Glock at the MSRP for a new one and they have the right to offer me whatever they want for mine.  I have no beef with any of that.  What the guy said next is what really soured me on the whole place.

I thanked him for his time and started packing my gun back up in its box and he said he would sell a gun like mine for $700.   I know for a fact that they don't negotiate on price so I know that they sold the one they had like mine for $900.  He didn't have to go and tell me they would sell one like mine for $700.  He didn't have to say anything but he chose to tell me a lie.  He just didn't know that I had been looking at the prices for new and used guns like mine because I had an idea that I might trade it in on something some day.

Seriously.  Price your stuff however you want and offer whatever you want for trades.  Its your stuff.   I understand you have to make money.  Just don't lie to me.  Dang.   Makes me not want to go there anymore.  In fact, we haven't been the last three weekends.

Last week, I had a few minutes to kill and was in the right part of town so I stopped in one of my two favorite local gun shops.   I asked them how much they would charge for a Glock 41.  The owner looked it up at his distributor and said he would get me one for $631.00 cash or check and 3% more for credit card.   So I can get a new one at my LGS for $128 less than I'd pay Goose Burg for a used one and I've never been lied to by the local guy.

Guns America     just did a review of the Glock 41.  They liked it a lot.   I reckon I know where I'll be gettin' mine and where I won't.

Wow

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