The Pawn Shop Circuit: Troopers and Competition

My first stop today on the Circuit was Neil's place. Neil's Steyr pistol was still gathering dust, and the Titan was still on the shelf. Neil had pulled a Colt Trooper MKIII out of hock. The Colt had a 6 inch barrel, was about 95% with the original Pachmayr Presentation grips. Neil had it priced at $239.

I commented on the extreme fairness of Neil's price, but handed the Trooper back stating that with the Python in the safe, I just could not justify it. Another customer overheard me, and asked if that was the Python he had seen at Dave's shop a couple of weeks ago. I said yes, and introduced myself. The young man, Jared, was obviously a serious competitor. He stated he just was not "into" Colt wheelguns, but he had an addiction to the S&W flavor. Uhoh. We exchanged pleasantries and agreed to get together to shoot at some time.

I drove over to Dave's place contemplating how many other competitors might be out there. This morning, Dave had a Rossi 971 .357magnum revolver priced at $219. Wow, I thought........for $20 more and a trip to Neil's place, the buyer of this gun could pack a Colt. Dave asked how the S&W 67-1 I bought last week shot, and I told him it had cleaned up really nice, I had bobbed the hammer, trimmed the trigger guard, and installed magna grips on it. It was a shooter, and the idea behind it was a good beat around K frame for defensive duty. Dave had sold the King Cobra from last week.

I crossed the river to see what Amber had. Amber still had the little Taurus .22, but had sold the Hopkins & Allen. She had sold a Glock I think, it's hard to tell, they all look alike to me. She did have a Springfield XD40 under the glass for $449. I started to ask if that included six free tanks of gasoline, but I refrained.

I am starting to see handguns stay on shelves again, and some shotguns are reappearing. A few weeks ago, with the Katrina evacuees in town, finding a handgun or a shotgun was impossible. Now, with many folks returning to New Orleans, these guns are reappearing. I wonder how many guns are making their way to the Big Easy now, in the possession of brand new gun owners. I suppose there is no way to know for sure.

There are several other pawn shops in town, and when I have a dry run like this, it's hard to resist the temptation. Over time though, I have found that the other shops price their guns above what I percieve to be their value. Sometimes, it's best just to wait.