I have been buying guns for several years at a steady clip, one to two per month. Travel has made it easy for me to meet and find sellers who have a wide range of guns that I like. In the last two months I have seen trucks, boats, ATV's, guns and even real estate on sale like they were on fire. Toys are bought in good times when the money is easy and dumped when it gets tight.
I bought an entire collection of single action Colt pistols for a fraction of what they are worth and about a third of what the seller paid for them over years of buying. He needed cash to keep his house and offered them for sale at what he knew was a steal. It was either save his house of find a new wife. This gave him six months breathing room. I intend to hold them for a year or two and let him buy them back if he gets back on his feet. Never saw the glory in cashing in on others bad fortune and would be happy to let him have his toys back if he gets his business going again to make decent money. But his building related business is off 60-70% with no real prospects for improvement in the near future.
People who live on credit are living on borrowed time. If they do not work for a month they are late on all their bills. Not work for two months and they have to sell whatever they can for cash. Not work for three or more months and they are loosing everything. If they have any real money it is either in their house if they have not refinanced it multiple times or a 401K from work that they never had the money to spend before it got "saved" for them. We are the instant gratification people who never see bad times coming and figure that we can always buy and spend like there is no tomorrow. Well tomorrow is coming for many real soon.
