doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Purdey(s) find of the year?

If a 25 year old was selling the Purdey pair & the Perazzi for such a low price I would be suspicious that the guns were stolen & it wouldn't matter if he was black, white or a green man from the planet Mars.

People who buy firearms & other items at a small fraction of the market value from unknown sellers are supporting the high number of home burglaries we have in the USA. The old saying "if it's too good to be true it usually is" applies here & I think the buyer has a responsibility to do some basic investigation at the minimum. If everything checks out then you can do what ever you can live with depending on the situation.

Brittany, I was not referring to the racial characteristics of the seller but the type of guns he is interested in.

And I'm pretty sure that no one on this board thinks 80 year old women selling Purdeys and Parazzis are contributing to the rise in home burglaries.

I don't know. Maybe, but it sounds a bit bogus to me.

It seems like stories like this are always going around collecting communities. Sometimes they're about old cars, bunches of worthless baseball cards, stacks of foolish old comic books, or some old-time pocket watches with a funny spelling of the name Patrick Phillip on them.

A variation is the p!ssed of, newly ex wife who gets her revenge by dumping the former husband's beloved treasures for peanuts.

In my experience, people are way too savvy for this stuff today -- especially people with nice stuff.

OWD

I find it curious that some people appear to think it OK to rip off people of means.

Not making a judgement - it's just curious. If I was going to break into a house I would certainly try for a big house in an affluent neighborhood rather than a double-wide with K-Mart furniture but here we're talking about face-to-face transactions.

Life insurance salesmen and financial advisors prey on people of modest means who might be considered, by some, to be affluent. Not everyone can master all areas so would that make the victim responsible if some sleazebag sold them some high-cost poorly-performing funds?

OWD wrote:
"In my experience, people are way too savvy for this stuff today -- especially people with nice stuff."

Very true but sooner or later age takes its toll. My late mother-in-law, a woman of real means, had no idea what anything was worth, or even if she had it, when she was in the late 80s. Tradespeople were double and triple-billing her.

I know it happens and I still find it curious.

I'm sorry to hear that. Very unfortunate.

I have seen high-end guns move for 1/2 or less their value when people start to poach the family treasures - mom's getting forgetful, so jr. slips some stuff out of the house because he needs cash. Stuff can't go to auction because it would raise attention, etc.

Same with people facing divorce - grandpa's Purdeys get turned into cash before the soon-to-be ex wife knows what's going on.

OWD

Gnomon, I don't know if you are referring to me, but I've been explicit that I don't think stealing is okay, regardless of one's level of affluence.

As this story was reported what I see is a woman who couldn't be bothered finding out what her possessions might bring, properly appraised, on the open market. I suspect her jewellery would be appraised before such a sale, or even for insurance.

Willful ignorance for whatever reason.

My father is 86 and my mother turns 83 tomorrow. They have spent most of their lives in relative affluence, the result of my father's hard work. Nobody is ripping them off these days because they are old. They choose to inform themselves.

Now if someone reported the woman selling wasn't in full command of her faculties, that would be different.

And your comparison to a sleaze bag selling crap funds is disingenuous. All she needed to do was make a call to a legitimate appraiser, of which I'm sure a few could easily be found.

Ignorance on one side of the transaction doesn't make it immoral. Or a rip off.

Yeah, it's always great to hear people rationalize why it's OK to screw someone. "Well, the guy was really an A-hole so he deserved it when we saw his wallet lying right in the open...."

Like it matters if the old lady was well off or not. "Gee, she had lots of money anyway so why not screw her a tad?"

I hope all of you jokers who think it's OK to take advantage of the uninformed, weak, or gullible have a 19 YO daughter whose car breaks down in some far away city and gets here bank account cleaned out by some mechanic who tells her she needs $4500 worth of new muffler bearings.

My hats off to you George for being the first to call it like it is.

Creative imagination, I think I can see how it's related to the original story. I wouldn't want my daughter in that situation, but closer to the point. Would my son have the moral obligation to turn down the gift of a decent gun if he thought I was old and crotchety, but turns out I still had some means.

There's a big difference between an internal moral dilemma decision and fending off a predator. If my son accepts a gift from me, did he 'rip me off' or 'screw me', or are there exceptions to black and white.

Interesting thread, reminds me of a short article in Guns and Ammo about 35 years ago with a twist, the writer was passing through a small town (can�t remember where, somewhere in Tennesee I think) and he walks past a pawn shop. He looks in the window at the various stuff and then to his amazement sees, in the corner an absolutely mint Churchill XXV, case next to it. He walks in the shop and has a look at various little things, not wanting to give the game away, he buys a penknife for a few dollars and a book for a few more then innocently asks the old boy behind the counter, "How much for the old shotgun in the window ?"..........old chap replies "20,000 $ and not a penny less"....."how do you think I sell so many penknives and old books ?" best, Mike