Opinion about selling pistol

[tacticalreload]

The taxman cometh. I'm considering selling one of my RAPs... specifically a mint condition RAP9c. One thing I'm considering however is what to do about the sights. It's currently wearing Ruger factory Novak Trijicon night sights. These things were a b**tch to install because the factory front sight had to be cut out due to how tight it was... and anyone who has browsed the shopruger.com website knows that they cost just under $200 shipped.

My options are this...
(1) I can move the night sights to my RAP45. This means I would need to buy a new fixed front sight from Ruger at the price of nearly $40 shipped to replace the one I destroyed during removal. The original two dot fixed rear can be reinstalled without any effort.
(2) I can try to sell the pistol as is. The odds that buyers would recognize the value in the extra $$$ put into the factory Trijicons means that I'm selling to a smaller market and will almost certainly take a sizable loss.
(3) I can sell it with just the front Trijicon and replace the rear with the original sight. Many people like this type of setup, but it's likely that I will still be taking a bath since just the front sights costs $92 shipped from Ruger. I would still be in a position of needing to buy another front sight to complete the set and move it to my RAP45... this means a loss on the sale of the gun and another loss on re-purchasing another front night sight for the new gun.

Anyone have any thoughts? I was thinking about making this a poll, but I'm not sure enough people would care to vote. I'm really just looking for people's advice. If I didn't need the funds, I wouldn't be selling in the first place; but just giving stuff away isn't very palatable either.

 

[Rei40c]

Heya tactical, I remember your post describing the difficulty getting the sights installed.
I definitely would choose option 2. Even a a novice pistol owner should understand the increased costs associated with higher end night sights if they've even taken a passing look at current prices of replacement sights. It's hard to miss really. I think everyone gets sticker shock. The fact that the sights are brand new and bright makes it different than if they had been on the gun 5 years or more as you sometimes find them on the market and dimming.

Just my suggestion, but what I would do is add up the total actual value of the pistol + the sights then I'd subtract $50 just to make the deal more tempting and to move it along quicker.

You have a brand new gun with brand new quality sights. Sell with confidence I say. Good luck!

P.S. One of the reasons I suggested this is if your first install was any indication, there is a chance however small you could destroy either the front or rear sight attempting to remove and replace them again, thus killing any chance of even breaking even money wise on the sale.

 

[DGW1949]

You are presenting some rather tough choices.
My thought is that beings how option one would require me to put even more into the gun that I already had, I'd skip that one altogether, try to sell the gun as-is first, and if that didn't work out to suit me, replace the rear sight, drop the price and try again.

Either way though, whether any certain gun sells or not will come down to how it's priced VS how much the targeted-market will bear. Myself, I've gotten my best results in terms of "getting top dollar" by soliciting input from my LGS, taking his advice, and letting him sell it on consignment.

Just some food for thought.

DGW

edited for clarity.

 

[DocGlock]

Maybe advertise it with the three possible configurations and price each way accordingly.

 

[rugerguy]

for the MOST part it is not good to have to put MORE money into something you are trying to sell/move, YES, if you had the original sight, then there are options ,but not at the need to have to spend MORE money, it is what it is, and the sum of the total of the parts, try that first, see how it goes.......
good luck

 

[hittman]

I'd search for an option that does not include selling a gun ..... at least not THAT gun.

 

[22/45 Fan]

I assume you know this but try to sell it privately rather than selling to a gun shop. Is there a "CraigsList" type of web site in your area that will let you list guns? Here in PA we have Pennswoods.com which allows listing guns and is free. Another is Armslist.com which is national but can be customized for your area. I've had good luck selling on both sites.

Deal through the sites anonymous e-mail system so that obvious fraudulent or phishing replies can be ignored without giving away your personal e-mail. ALWAYS agree to meet the buyer at a local gun shop or other FFL holder's location, NEVER at your home. If the potential buyer is out of your area you can ship the gun to his FFL and get payment via PayPal or a certified check or Money Order. Add the shipping cost (often $50 or more) to the selling price to encourage a local sale.

 

[tacticalreload]

Thanks for the advice, folks. I've bought and sold a ton of guns over the years... they come and they go. The ones that I miss the most are the ones that can't be replaced like when I sold my P7M8 or Beretta Billenium. Other guns can always be "re-bought" if I find myself in that position again. Heck, I'm not sure how many Glock 19s I've had over the years, but it's at least into the double digits.

The issue, though, is that it's a such a PITA. You deal with 10x more low-ballers and tire-kickers than actual interested parties. The last pistol I sold was "bought" like 4 times before someone actually followed through with payment. I know that if I list it for a "reasonable" price (and I mean actually reasonable and not like some people who try to recoup their entire investment into a gun when it was new including sales tax and the gas they spent driving to the gun shop) including the ridiculous price that Ruger charges for their Trijicons, I'm going to get mostly contacted by people saying they would buy it for $300 if I throw in a few extra mags and a couple of twenty dollar bills stuffed in the mag well. Most of them are looking to flip guns for a quick buck.

Thanks again, everyone. I'll probably put it up for sale on this forum. You know... I posted this same question on the "other" Ruger forum, and the mods deleted it without notice or explanation. I wonder why. Perhaps they felt like I was fishing for buyers, which is weird because they have a for sale section where I could just post it if that was the case.

 

[Rei40c]

Thanks for the advice, folks. I've bought and sold a ton of guns over the years... they come and they go. The ones that I miss the most are the ones that can't be replaced like when I sold my P7M8 or Beretta Billenium. Other guns can always be "re-bought" if I find myself in that position again. Heck, I'm not sure how many Glock 19s I've had over the years, but it's at least into the double digits.

The issue, though, is that it's a such a PITA. You deal with 10x more low-ballers and tire-kickers than actual interested parties. The last pistol I sold was "bought" like 4 times before someone actually followed through with payment. I know that if I list it for a "reasonable" price (and I mean actually reasonable and not like some people who try to recoup their entire investment into a gun when it was new including sales tax and the gas they spent driving to the gun shop) including the ridiculous price that Ruger charges for their Trijicons, I'm going to get mostly contacted by people saying they would buy it for $300 if I throw in a few extra mags and a couple of twenty dollar bills stuffed in the mag well. Most of them are looking to flip guns for a quick buck.

Thanks again, everyone. I'll probably put it up for sale on this forum. You know... I posted this same question on the "other" Ruger forum, and the mods deleted it without notice or explanation. I wonder why. Perhaps they felt like I was fishing for buyers, which is weird because they have a for sale section where I could just post it if that was the case.

I hear you and do not envy the pain it will be sorting out the serious buyers from the low ballers. Had it been a 45 compact model I'd gladly have offered you between $625-640 ish for it. My brother is interested in one and I thought it would make a nice gift. Unfortunately he's dead set on the .45 compact not the 9mm. He's a .45 or nothing type. :roll:

I think you'll have a better selling experience here than elsewhere. I lurk the trade forum often and overall people seem to deal with each other fairly. Although there's a few horror stories, but what forum doesn't have those? Best of luck.

 

[blume357]

Send a letter along with your tax declaration and what partial payment you can make saying you can't pay all of it but will over the next year.... sometime in June they will send you a letter giving you 30 days to pay the rest, you then contact them and make arrangements to pay over time before next April 15th. If the amount you need is what you are going to get out of selling the pistol then the penalty and interest will be some where between 20 and 30 dollars.

Keep the pistol.

 

[revhigh]

If you don't want to get killed on price .... I'd keep that one.

REV

 

[Mike J]

I would probably just keep it. It never does any harm to have an extra pistol around.