Hey Guys,
It is a concern of someone like myself who has chosen this as a business and a means of support for my family and retirement. I ask these question often, and others have asked me a lot over the last few years. What I see is that there are replacements for the older gents that are no longer shooting and are therefore selling there guns. The replacements are the 45-55 year olds who have a better than average income, some time to have a dog and read the sporting journals that tout our style of guns, have killed their fair share of game with modern guns, and have become nostalgic with their middle age sanctum. They want a car like they had in college, a motorcycle like they had in high school, and a gun that they just read about or maybe their uncle had. They are our new buyers. The problem is that we, the baby boomers, outnumber the newcomers by a substantial number. The replacements are not coming in at the rate the older gents are going out, but I believe "nostalgia" will always occur. Many experienced shooters decide that the romance is better than the technology, the history is more interesting than modern, and as some other writer said, "it is now how many you kill, by how you kill them" or something like that, becomes the thoughts of the hunter when they wake up to go afield.
There are fewer buyers, no doubt. But I don't see it falling away, just balancing out. Keep in mind, there are fewer good guns out there as time goes by, and that will help keep prices close to what they are now.
Jay Shachter, President
Vintage Firearms, Inc.
www.vfiguns.com