Ok, here’s my personal view on how much to offer for something that doesn’t have a set or asking price.
First, decide if you’re buying it because you want to own it or if you view it at least in part as an investment that you might sell later. Those are in my mind completely different situations.
For the “I want to own it” purchase, decide what is the maximum you’re willing to pay. Offer less than that to start with, say about 80%. That gives you room to bargain. In this case, what it’s “worth” on the general market is irrelevant. The question is just what are YOU willing to pay for it. How much is it worth to YOU. You will not get “ripped off” because you decide how much it’s worth to you to own it. If you pay that much, it doesn’t matter what someone else would have paid.
For the “I want it now, but I might want to sell it at some future time” purchase, you need to know what the general market value of the item is. You still have to decide how much you’re willing to spend, but now you don’t want to get ripped off and pay more than you have to, so the market value is a limiting factor.
There was a nice musket a member’s girlfriend owned that was posted recently (not for sale). I am out of gun money at the moment and she wasn’t selling anyway, but when he asked what the value was I said $500-$600 was what I’d pay. If I had bought it at $600, and then found out it was worth less, let’s say $300, on the open market, I would have still been quite happy since I liked the gun and it was worth $600 to me.
But that’s just my view on the topic, others may differ. :grin:
Those are very nice, by the way.
