Colt to stop selling AR-15's to civilan market???

[QuietM4]

Hmmm, I'm puzzled, would someone please explain to me why a Colt rifle, that fell out of favor in the market enough to cause Colt to claim bankruptcy a few years back,... most likely due to a decline in sales, and most likely do to price, and, or, poor quality, as well,... is suddenly going to sky rocket in value, and make current owners rich, simply because this unpopular rifle,... isn't made anymore?

Very puzzled,... indeed.

Because of a perceived scarcity...scarcity drives up demand, supply decreases, price increases.

[Suck My Glock]

S&W and Ruger tried to curry favor with the feds in the 90s and the civilian market punished them for it, costing more money than they got in return for snubbing Joe Sixpack. Apparently Colt wasn't paying attention.

[shooter444]

Hmmm, I'm puzzled, would someone please explain to me why a Colt rifle, that fell out of favor in the market enough to cause Colt to claim bankruptcy a few years back,... most likely due to a decline in sales, and most likely do to price, and, or, poor quality, as well,... is suddenly going to sky rocket in value, and make current owners rich, simply because this unpopular rifle,... isn't made anymore?

Very puzzled,... indeed.

Because of a perceived scarcity...scarcity drives up demand, supply decreases, price increases.

Hmmm,.. ok,... so if someone gets constipated, the sudden lack of s*** increases its value,... got it,.... but, still puzzled.

[Solar_Empire]

Hmmm, I'm puzzled, would someone please explain to me why a Colt rifle, that fell out of favor in the market enough to cause Colt to claim bankruptcy a few years back,... most likely due to a decline in sales, and most likely do to price, and, or, poor quality, as well,... is suddenly going to sky rocket in value, and make current owners rich, simply because this unpopular rifle,... isn't made anymore?

Very puzzled,... indeed.

Because of a perceived scarcity...scarcity drives up demand, supply decreases, price increases.

Hmmm,.. ok,... so if someone gets constipated, the sudden lack of s*** increases its value,... got it,.... but, still puzzled.

Look no further than Colt's snake guns. Funny how many pop up for such "rare" guns, "haven't been made in decades!" yet you can't turn around without seeing a python or anaconda for sale. Inferior to S&W in pretty much every category; it's no secret they have more fragile internals and fall out of time quicker. Hell, the people who were certified to work on them are all in the grave or have one foot in but I digress...the reality is people would/will clamor over them. Colt fans are zealots and I guarantee there would be an uptick in price but who cares if you aren't buying anyways? They could sell it for 10x what they are worth but it's not my money being used.

[338lapua]

Well, I guess I'll have to buy my AR from one of the other 8,398 companies making them for half the price....

Yeah but they are the gold standard for which all others are judged.

No they are simply a name that has a cachet to it. Which causes some people to cream their jeans at the mere mention of it. The weapons aren't anything special.

Sorry the government you worked for gave you a shot out piece of s*** to base your opinion on. Same for the Beretta M-9. My Colts and my M-9's shoot just fine. There was a problem for a while with the semi auto bolt carriers forced upon manufacturers but that was solved when they delivered non functioning AR's to police departments and ATF said you can use full auto carriers to solve the problem. Actually almost every company prior to the Clinton ban had the same damn problem as Colt with guns not wanting to work and it was the bolt carriers. Another issue was the ammunition but these days you can walk into most gun stores and buy ammo run on the same damn machines that run the US military ammunition.

Sadly most of the people that talk down brands don't realize that their better than colt rifle is made from the same forging and it is possibly milled by the same company that mills the Colt receivers. They are all finished to the same damn specifications.

The pony has long been their selling point and will be until the end of time. I remember the Clinton ban well as I bought about 3 million worth of Colt AR-15's. Also bought every other AR I could buy in bulk, took me 5 years to sell the other brands at close to twice what I paid for them. The Colt rifles I sold for 5-8 times their rate and gun shows I had bidding wars so a guy could own a colt. I cleared the Colts in about a year. Nobody wanted the other garbage but they got desperate as the market dried up they bought anything they could get their hands on.

Same with Colt revolvers which actually have more issues than the S&W revolvers. I will tell you this much I bought a significant number of Colt revolvers when they said they were making no more. I would much rather have that Colt Python or King Cobra new in a box today than a S&W bought at the same time as you know which one is worth ten times more today. I blew an entire inheritance on firearms and my family tried to stop me, let me say they are not laughing at me anymore. Colt rifles sold and reinvested in class 3 weapons built my machine shop for me which I sold this year. The Colt haters back then gave me crap too, yeah well I am going to buy a few Sendra M-16's for a investment, wonder how that worked out for them? Don't remember seeing a Sendra going for more than 12K and it had a Colt upper on it.


So people may not like Colt but I guarantee you it will retain more of it's value if taken care of than your 8,398 companies and if you save the stupid box it is worth even more. And when the next crisis market hits I will be laughing at those selling their AR's for what they have into them while the smart guys are raking in the money with their Colt rifles they held as an investment.

[338lapua]

Because of a perceived scarcity...scarcity drives up demand, supply decreases, price increases.

Hmmm,.. ok,... so if someone gets constipated, the sudden lack of s*** increases its value,... got it,.... but, still puzzled.

Look no further than Colt's snake guns. Funny how many pop up for such "rare" guns, "haven't been made in decades!" yet you can't turn around without seeing a python or anaconda for sale. Inferior to S&W in pretty much every category; it's no secret they have more fragile internals and fall out of time quicker. Hell, the people who were certified to work on them are all in the grave or have one foot in but I digress...the reality is people would/will clamor over them. Colt fans are zealots and I guarantee there would be an uptick in price but who cares if you aren't buying anyways? They could sell it for 10x what they are worth but it's not my money being used.

I have made a fortune selling stuff to stupid zealots, can't wait for the next crisis to do it again. Hope to again see 1.00 a round for M-193 and 1.50 to 2.00 a round for M-855 ball ammo. That and those guys who want the Colt name I will be there for them, just like I was after Sandy Hook.

I will say the actions on the snake revolvers were much nicer than the S&W guns and the finish on them, nobody blued a pistol like Colt did back then. Parts are scarce today, wish I would have went for broke and bought out Colt on parts for the snake guns, had the chance to do it but I didn't

[338lapua]

S&W and Ruger tried to curry favor with the feds in the 90s and the civilian market punished them for it, costing more money than they got in return for snubbing Joe Sixpack. Apparently Colt wasn't paying attention.

Colt has never paid attention, neither has H&K. I would like to buy Colt and H&K, move them to Phoenix, break their union and make them profitable. H&K could have been making semi auto short barrelled MP-5's in the USA since the 80's that were push pin like the imports and made a fortune selling them and Todd f*** Bailey would have never existed which would be a damn good thing. US made UMP, G-36, MP-5's and MP-7's. I am getting hard just thinking how many H&K's I could sell.

Problem with gun companies is they are run by people who are not gun people and only see numbers on a balance sheet, to them having the right numbers in the right columns is all that matters to them.

I really want a WInchester made AR-15, you think they would sell? Glock AR-15 anyone?

[Steve_In_29]

Yeah but they are the gold standard for which all others are judged.

No they are simply a name that has a cachet to it. Which causes some people to cream their jeans at the mere mention of it. The weapons aren't anything special.

Sorry the government you worked for gave you a shot out piece of s*** to base your opinion on. Same for the Beretta M-9. My Colts and my M-9's shoot just fine. There was a problem for a while with the semi auto bolt carriers forced upon manufacturers but that was solved when they delivered non functioning AR's to police departments and ATF said you can use full auto carriers to solve the problem. Actually almost every company prior to the Clinton ban had the same damn problem as Colt with guns not wanting to work and it was the bolt carriers. Another issue was the ammunition but these days you can walk into most gun stores and buy ammo run on the same damn machines that run the US military ammunition.

Sadly most of the people that talk down brands don't realize that their better than colt rifle is made from the same forging and it is possibly milled by the same company that mills the Colt receivers. They are all finished to the same damn specifications.

The pony has long been their selling point and will be until the end of time. I remember the Clinton ban well as I bought about 3 million worth of Colt AR-15's. Also bought every other AR I could buy in bulk, took me 5 years to sell the other brands at close to twice what I paid for them. The Colt rifles I sold for 5-8 times their rate and gun shows I had bidding wars so a guy could own a colt. I cleared the Colts in about a year. Nobody wanted the other garbage but they got desperate as the market dried up they bought anything they could get their hands on.

Same with Colt revolvers which actually have more issues than the S&W revolvers. I will tell you this much I bought a significant number of Colt revolvers when they said they were making no more. I would much rather have that Colt Python or King Cobra new in a box today than a S&W bought at the same time as you know which one is worth ten times more today. I blew an entire inheritance on firearms and my family tried to stop me, let me say they are not laughing at me anymore. Colt rifles sold and reinvested in class 3 weapons built my machine shop for me which I sold this year. The Colt haters back then gave me crap too, yeah well I am going to buy a few Sendra M-16's for a investment, wonder how that worked out for them? Don't remember seeing a Sendra going for more than 12K and it had a Colt upper on it.


So people may not like Colt but I guarantee you it will retain more of it's value if taken care of than your 8,398 companies and if you save the stupid box it is worth even more. And when the next crisis market hits I will be laughing at those selling their AR's for what they have into them while the smart guys are raking in the money with their Colt rifles they held as an investment.

The Marines didn't issue me any "shot out pieces of s***". In fact my unit was one of the first to be issued the M16A2 when it was adopted. Though that Colt A2 didn't shoot any better then the A1 (made by the "Hydromatic Division of GM") I had previously been issued. Just had easier sight adjustments which did away with the need to bring a nail to the range during BZO and Qualifications.

My M9 was also brand new as I was in during the switch from 1911s to the Beretta's. Though my range scores went up with the M9 it was more due to the changed course of fire as I had had no trouble shooting Expert every time with those old 1911s. Once doing so while firing 3 different 1911s during qualification week as an add-on to the roster.

The issue I have with the M9 pistol has to do with it's history and the way it was forced down the Military's throat. The M9 was under development by Beretta for 15 YEARS prior to being adopted and yet we still had to deal with slides that catastrophically failed (as in came back at shooter's face) along with cracking locking blocks. The pistol was supposedly needed to replace the 1911 which was considered too powerful for females to handle, yet the replacement was a large for caliber pistol, firing a weaker cartridge, that was too big for most females and many men to hold properly.

The military found 9mm ball to be lacking in stopping power and so started mandating double-taps and later triple-taps to deal with it. So that 15rd M9 was only good for shooting 5 bad guys when triples were employed vice the 7 the 1911 had been good for at one shot apiece. Even with double-taps the 1911 still was only down one bad guy compared to the M9 and triples. The spec ops guys even went back to .45ACP as they didn't want to take the extra time to hit each bad guy multiple times during time critical situations.

NO ONE in the Military wanted the M9 but it was forced down our throats by Euro-centric politicians. To the extent that ALL funding was cut for ammo/parts for the 1911s from the DoD budget. With the further injunction against using other funds to make up for it. It was take the M9 or not have any pistol at all.

The majority of your post simply reinforces what I and others have said, Colt's aren't anything special aside from a name that people prefer. A name that results in inferior/mediocre products, from a company that has historically crapped on the shooting public in favor of .gov contracts, commanding exorbitant prices from fanbois. With the ridiculous situation that sometimes the box the gun came in is worth more then the gun itself.

While you bought Colts to make money off of (something I have no problem with) I buy my weapons to shoot and not as investments nor do I feel the need to own one specific brand over another. Which was why I had no compunction about selling my (far from NIB) Kodiak and using the money to buy a replacement S&W along with a semi-auto shotgun and a set of tires for my wife's Mustang.