Utah air trade in

[peterj59]

To start, this is not intended to be a bashing thread on Utah air. this is more of story time to get others opinions on the subject.

so yesterday, I reached out by email to Utah in order to possibly trade in a practically brand new (2 month old) crown saber tactical. I’ve been listing it on the forums in different ways, and also wanted to get an idea of what I could do through a dealer. I was interested in getting a wildcat bt compact in trade for it.

after emailing them, they asked to supply them with pictures and a short description of the rifle which I did.
to my surprise, when they got back to me, the offered me $830 for my crown. This is a rifle that sells brand new for $2k, and used for $1800 on their site She. They’re available used.
I understand what overhead is, and they have to make their cut, but almost $1k on a rifle that’s only been shot 2 magazines?
im wondering if they threw out such a lowball offer because they really weren’t interested. Or maybe the market for used crowns is low right now. Either way, I respectfully declined, but I got to thinking. Is this normal? What do y’all think?

again. Be respectful, and no bashing. This is purely a conversational piece.

this is how it goes with all types of guns, firearms included, reason - no one wants a second hand gun, thats why the price drops so much,
i remember being surprised way back in the 90s when i went to sell my unused new in box AR-15 and they offered me close to nothing, its just the business they are in. You may have better luck on gunbroker.com, so cudos to Utah air. and too bad to the OP

 

[Oldmank1]

Hello @hawkeye69

I agree with you and the OP. What some of the folks up from this post fail to understand is that the Dealer will make a good profit on the "new gun". So the wise dealer could actually make only say $50.00 on the "resale" of the trade in gun and simply add that $50.00 to the profit from the new gun sale.

Also what the folks up from this post fail to realize is the "dealer in question" lost a customer ! Most likely the customer will now give his business to the "wise dealer" that did no try and screw him over .

AND when the wise dealer resales the trade-in gun he gets another customer. Just smart business practice.

I have always heard that greed and stupidity go hand and hand

ThomasT

What profits a man to gain the world if he loseth his soul?

 

[tommyb]

Hello @madeintheuk

I recently had a trade in deal with Airguns of Arizona and the offer they gave me was within a couple hundred dollars of the "current market" price. I found it to be very fair and made a deal with them.

The offer you received was not even close to a fair deal.

ThomasT

Me too. I traded in two guns ( Taipan .25 Long Laminate and a Daystate Regal XL.22 ) to AoA and their trade in price was much better and fair.

 

[madeintheuk]

As far as I’m concerned, this thread can be closed. I sold private sale, and even though I didn’t get what I wanted, I got a substantial amount more than the Utah offer.
I agree with what some have said, and disagree with others, but all said and done, you won’t see me trading in any of my airguns in the future. I’ll hold on to them till there’s a used market.

 

[cmatera]

I replicated your experience and you are correct. I offered them my like new Crown MKII in .25 Synthetic which they have listed for $1,649. I included the FX DFL moderator, FX case, fill adapter and manual, everything that came with it new, so conservatively, $1,700. They offered me $680. I think the takeaway here is to look at the price of what you want to buy and tell yourself the minute you press "place order' it will be worth 60% less than that price. Ask yourself that BEFORE you buy. Thank you for starting this thread. It's something new airgunners especially, should be aware of.

 

[Bigragu]

Makes one wonder who offers the best trade in value for your guns. Sometimes it’s just easier to trade in if you’re ready to upgrade and you’re ok with cutting minimal losses, vs dealing with some of the hassles of selling in the classifieds.

When I totalled out my 2002 Ford F-350 diesel a few years ago, I pulled all my high dollar aftermarket parts from the truck and tried for once the Craigslist thing. You talk about some life losers, some of these folks were just downright rude, and bullies to boot. If you didn’t get flakes that wouldn’t show up to meet you on a schedule THEY SET, you got guys ridiculing your asking price to the point they told me I was the fooked up one for asking what I thought was a fair price.

Never ever doing the CL again, and since I don’t sell often here on the AGN classifieds I haven’t really dealt with the CL types. Hopefully there are none of those types here.

I remember back in the day old Doc Beeman offered a trade in policy, and if I remembered right he offered a pretty good return on your used airgun, all dependent on condition, of course.

 

[qball]

Trade in sucks and we all know that, they have to take a risk and pay people to go through the gun.

Simple “solution” might be take their asking price of 1800 and offer price of 800 then split it in the middle to sell on AGN as is 1300. Everyone wins besides UA.

 

[cmatera]

That's a good starting point, but you're caught between 2 devils, the dealers and the classified shoppers who think everything is overpriced until they are selling. If I followed your example, my price would be $1,190. I had the gun listed in the classifieds for $1,225 shipped. I got $1,000 shipped, and it cost me $150 in shipping and insurance. Best part is, I wanted to apply the trade in for another gun from UA, that was $1,500 and told them that. They don't care, but they will when the recession sets in.

 

[rangur1]

I sort of agree with the OP on this. Yes the dealer has to hedge against an “inflated “ return/ exchange, but that low? Ouch. I just had a real eye opener with my last listing of a gun at 45 percent off, 3 weeks, no offers, came to understand no one liked that particular model and caliber. So I will keep it. Stuff happens.

 

[MongooseV8]

Hearing this makes me a little angry when I look at the prices UA charges for pre-owned guns on their website. A B- rating is dang near what you would pay for a new one off the shelf.

Most of the used rifles listed are great deals and only last an day or maybe an hour. It may appear like they are over charging but if you check their used page as much as I do you would see all the cool stuff that sells before you can finish reading the package description. Right now that have a lot of refurb or open box stuff for sale that has been up for a while, but that is a different thing entirely. And the posts that stay longest usually have some kind of big specific package, like the Crown they have right now. Its listed for $2999 but includes a $2200 Leupold scope which really narrows down the potential market.