Gun prices (values) make little sense to me and I guess they are worth what someone will pay. I use Bluebook and Standard Catalog prices as a reference, but even they often show a wide disparity for the same gun in the same condition. I have seen high condition Elsies not move at well under book and low condition Fox or Parkers go at 100%+ prices. Then we see folks do a $2500 Turnbull restoration on a field grade gun that might be worth half that in 100% original condition. I don't get it, unless it may be a case of strong sentimental value, i.e., restoring Dads gun for Fathers Day, etc. I've made comments about "Dick and Craig" who seem to dominate about 1/3 of the ads in GunDigest with guns that seem way overpriced for their advertised condition. Maybe I'm just jealous that they have so much stock, and they must sell at least some of it to pay for all those classified ads. Or maybe they own or work for GunDigest and get free ad space and first crack at incoming ads. There goes the jealousy again. I do take some issue with those who say we should be happy with $4.00 gas and the resulting inflation of everything else just because Europeans pay more. Certainly, there are many factors at play. Declining dollar, increased global demand, (how much gas is a Chinese guy making $15.00 a week buying?), and commodities speculators. Anyone here remember Nelson and Lamar Hunt and what they did to silver and precious metals? Did they perhaps give a roadmap to doing the same with Oil? Then compare other aspects of a Europeans life to ours. Back in 1992, I started a new job and had no vacation for a year, and then one week. I worked a July 4th shutdown with two Swiss technicians, and the one who spoke English was astonished and unbeleiving at my lack of vacation (holiday) time. He told me he got 15 weeks with 12 yrs. seniority. When I asked him how much a new employee such as myself would get at his company in Switzerland, he replied, "Six weeks... in Switzerland, everyone at least six weeks." Knowing Switzerland has nationalized health care and retirement and therefore very high taxes, I asked him about his tax rates. In his heavy French accent, he said, "Oh is very high, very high, maybe feefteen percent." I thought he said fifty percent and he said "No, feefteen, feefteen." So there was I, in the 28% bracket for federal, plus state, local, real estate, school, sales, gas, and a million other taxes, and I'm starting to wonder if we're being given a bill of goods. I later found most of Europe was much the same, in terms of better pay and benefits, more vacation time, and much shorter work weeks. Consider our Automakers buyouts of $140,000 to get rid of older higher paid employees and replace them with $14.50/hr. workers with poor benefits and no pension plan. At the same time Volkswagen of Germany offered 240,000 Euros which was $326,000 U.S., and they wanted to return to a 32 hr. workweek, up from the current 28.5 hr. week. I.G. Metall, their union, went nuts. I could go on for hours, but my point is that we are in deep doo-doo, and the problem is much more complex than paying $4.00 for gas and taking a beating on the Suburban.
