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Utah air trade in

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madeintheuk

madeintheuk

Member
Apr 19, 2020
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Washington depot, Connecticut, United States
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.
 
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Yeah I rarely trade anything in. Car dealers are just as bad. Usually you can get quite a bit more through a private sale even if you have to lower your expectations some. That being said, if the trade value is at least close it sometimes is worth it to avoid the hassle of dealing with buyers. The time and effort it takes isn't always worth it.

Also, to be fair to the people taking trade ins they really don't know what they're dealing with until the "get under the hood" of whatever they're taking in. $850 sounds like a terrible offer until they have to replace 70% of the gun to make it worthy of selling. Not saying thats the case with you, but on cars it absolutely is.
 
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Yes that’s normal. Have you ever tried selling a PB at a gun store? Utah is generous compared to some disrespectful offers I got for PBs.

Utah has to assume the worst when buying used guns even ones that are “like new”. That means possibly doing a reseal and replacing any bad parts. For all they know you could’ve ruined the barrel cleaning it the wrong way. I wouldn’t take it personal it’s just business
 
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I agree with the assessment by @WorriedMan. Though the offer was fairly low, considering what they sell them for used. It is, what it is. A lot of these PCPs are priced way up there. I understand it about what the market will bear. But for what most of us do with air guns? The 1.5K, 2K-3K PCPs are pricey. So unless a private buyer is looking for a particular model you’re selling? It’s hard to get back 2/3rds of your investment. Good post, and would have been better if you left dealer/vendors name, blank.
 
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I spent a lot of time at yellow iron auctions and i used to flip used cars on the side for years.

It's a tough pill to swallow when you get what appears to be a low-balll offer but there are factors some people don't appreciate because they only have limited perspective.

It's not that your rifle isn't worth the jing you're hoping for, it's just that the used market only commands the lower prices UA offered.

Being one of the most visible airgun vendors, I could imagine that UA is being presented with similar guns regularly and that's where the appraisal comes from.
 
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You have to consider that they are taking a risk as well. Trading in your rifle and having to spend time trying to sell it, taking up inventory space, any repairs that may be needed, asks other things.

They also know how much their cost of that rifle is new from Fx. They will use that price to determine what they will offer you for a deal
 
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I agree with legionair. Heres how things go in my opinion. When it comes to hobby things, Whether it be r/c stuff, guns, airguns, scopes, tools, toys, kids stuff, strollers, certain items thay do not have a blue book guide associated that establishes values for example cars, motorcycles, Rv, toy haulers etc.
Market demand and trend sets the prices
Also everyone wants a deal buying used stuff. Just how it is.
Not too many items in the hobby area appreciate in value.
 
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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
 
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Thanks for all the input guys. I admit I was angry when I received the email, and I agree with @L.Leon that I could have left the dealers name out of the thread and got the same results. It’s very shocking when you spend this amount on a new gun, and its trade in value is a third of what it cost you. It’s a total wake up call. I guess I learned 2 things from this endeavor. Firstly, never buy new!, second, always sell privately if you want what you consider to be fair.
 
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Why did you think you were going to get top dollar from it? There is nobody that would do that and keep a business going. They have to make money on the items to make it worth their time.

To many people it seems think that their item is special for some reason. Take your new item price and deduct a bit to try and guess what dealer cost is, and then they have to figure it is a used item so it will sit. You will NEVER get top dollar from anyplace
 
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woogie_man said:
Why did you think you were going to get top dollar from it? There is nobody that would do that and keep a business going. They have to make money on the items to make it worth their time.

To many people it seems think that their item is special for some reason. Take your new item price and deduct a bit to try and guess what dealer cost is, and then they have to figure it is a used item so it will sit. You will NEVER get top dollar from anyplace
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I never said i was looking for top dollar. Don’t put words in my mouth. I was expecting to take a hit. Just not that kind of hit.
 
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List it on Ebay.

I have sold multiple guns over there recently.
Here is my opinion on why they sell so much faster over there.
1) sheer volume of eyes on your listing, the views you receive over there is Much higher than anywhere else.
2) ebay buyers are loyal to a fault to ebay, they feel they are protected and less apt to being scammed
3) they expect to pay more for that safety, and are willing to do so.

Things you need to be aware of as a seller
the fee's ebay gets 10% of the sales price, you can also get popped for up to 3.5% for credit card,PP fee's .. So factor this hit into your list price, Again ebay buyers are used to higher prices, at least the educated ebay buyer is. If you get a moron simply, and politely tell him to kick rocks.

Make Sure you are VERY specific in your item description, and make sure you are clear if your pics do not match your listing, i.e. pics with scope and mounts, but you are not including those itiems...Be VERY clear.....

lastly give the potential buyers the "Best Offer Option", most ebayer's like to haggle and feel like they got a discount, even a small victory is big with them.

I know it sounds crazy that they are willing to pay more, but i see it every day, i have been selling over there for over 20 years, the ridiculous thing is my website has been up for the same amount of time, the prices are a minimum of 14% off on the website, before any kind of promo discounts, and yet my ebay sales are 10x greater... I have thrown a boatload of cash at that issue to no avail, ebay buyers are loyal as hell.. Lol
 
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madeintheuk said:
I never said i was looking for top dollar. Don’t put words in my mouth. I was expecting to take a hit. Just not that kind of hit.
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Not putting "words in your mouth"..... everyone is looking for top dollar, otherwise you would have taken their offer and not made a post complaining about what they offered you ;)

Again Utah Air is a distributer of FX airguns, they know how much they cost from FX. They know that you modified the rifle and had it apart. They don't know you from anyone else, so they don't know what else you could have done in the rifle. Not saying that you would have done anything wrong in working on the rifle, but they have to assume that you monkeyed with something and it isn't shooting as it should. That is why they offered such a low amount for it.

It it is ALWAYS better to sell yourself so you can get the most out of anything. Have someone else sell it for you, well be ready for a low offer as they will then take all the risk from you.
 
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