Monday, October 23, 2017

Pawn Shop Crawling

Today during my break, I stopped by two pawn shops that I like.

The first had an interesting revolver.  A Ruger New Vaquero in .45LC.  The very type that we use for Cowboy Fast Draw.  This one was in stainless and had the 5.5 inch barrel.  It looked like it had been used very little and the springs, from all indications, were original.  It had the box and looked almost brand new.  If it had been fired, it was very little.  The counter-guy tried to tell me that it was a new gun (and it was priced as new) but it had a serial number in the 511 series which was last made in 2013.  I told the counter guy that I might have been born at night, but not last night.

They had the revolver marked at $595.00, which is a $20 off of full NIB retail.    I asked what they'd take for it.  They told me $425.00, and I passed.  It's not a bad deal on a RNV, but I have mine, and I'm not really in the market right now.  I passed, told the guy I might be back in a month or so, and headed down the road to the next pawn shop.

The second pawn shop, I used to have a buddy that worked there, but I didn't see him today.   Interestingly, in the case was a stainless Ruger Police Service Six, in .357 magnum, with a 4" barrel.  They had it marked for $495.00, which is about twice what I paid for my first one, back in 1980.  I gave the little gun the March Revolver Checkout and it passed handily.  I asked what they'd take for it, and the price came back at $425.00.  Still too much in my mind, based on the numbers in my checkbook right now.  If they'd have come down to the mid $300 range, I might have been tempted.

The Ruger Six (Security Six, Police Service Six, and Speed Six) are fine revolvers from the '70s and '80s, great little guns built to compete with the mid-frame Colts and Smith revolvers of the day.  Several years ago, they'd turn up in the pawn shop shelves fairly regularly, in the mid-to-upper $200 range.  The last one I bought, four or five years ago, I gave $275.00 for it, out the door.

6 comments:

The Displaced Louisiana Guy said...

I saw a cool one today, too. A Pietta New Army with a conversion cylinder to .45 LC. For $425. Like you, not in the market, but cool nonetheless.

https://www.louisianasportsman.com/lpca/index.php?section=classifieds&event=view&action=single_ad&id=828791

Old Grafton said...

Simple lesson to pawnshop owners:" If you pay too much you'll ask too much." Kid running a lemonade stand at $500,00 a glass: Dad, I only have to sell ONE!!" Hope springs eternal, but PS owners should know better.

Eaton Rapids Joe said...

There is a lot to like about a .357 magnum with a 4" barrel.

Old NFO said...

Not surprised. Prices are getting stupid for everything... sigh

Anonymous said...

I like those Security-Sixes. They are plenty tough for the person who carries more than they shoot the guns, like hunters or woods walkers. The Ruger GP series are just too heavy for that sort of fun, last until the last Horn blows, but just too much, in our opinion.

Jonathan H said...

I have a nice Security Six in stainless from 1976.
I can't recall seeing prices where you describe in over a decade; must be the different parts of the country that I've been in. Where I have lived, there are few pawn stores with guns and even fewer with anything like reasonable prices.