Firearms ARE and Investment…Kinda…
Most of us have been there, the jokes are abundant on social media via memes and other forms of media. How do you hide the purchase of new guns and if you fail, how do you convince them it’s an “investment”? To be honest, it is a little difficult to show how a modern firearm will hold, or increase in value. For the most part, guns do not devalue as much as other inanimate objects such as purses, shoes, etc. However, if you think you’re going to make money off of a modern firearm, you’re going to wait a very long time. The two factors that will help are more gun laws (or threat of) to drive your modern day “scary guns” through the roof. The other is good old fashion inflation, which will take probably decades.
If you really want to convince your spouse about buying guns as an investment, I recommend you consider antique or C&R (Curios and Relics) firearms. Granted, you probably won’t bring them to the range as much or carry them concealed but there are some advantages. First, most C&R firearms are great display pieces for the office and are a tangible piece of history.
My personal collection centers around WWII era German pistols, specifically Walther PPK and Lugers. The key to make money off of antique firearms is to do research, research and more research. When it comes to collectable firearms, knowledge of them is what will set you apart from the person selling or “dumping” that old gun that’s been sitting in a box for decades.
There are many sources available (not just on the web) to help educate you. For example, I use a book by author Steven Stepan to identify which PPK model is an every day German model, or a Nazi SS issue. People who know about collectable Walther PPKs know that the value of an SS issue PPK is significantly higher than a commercial model. This is just an example of how you need to do research and build your reference library. This will give you the advantage to distinguish between an “ok” collectable versus a gold mine.
Regardless if you hit the jackpot, even just owning a collectable grade firearm will give you the advantage overtime because the value will typically increase, or at the very least, hold its value.
My advice to you is to find a very specific niche type of era in firearms history, WWI, WWII, Vietnam. Once you peg that down, drill down further into what specific firearm piques your interest. Once you do that, buy reference materials, build your research library and start reading. If you are really serious, go ahead and apply for your ATF C&R license, doing so makes it so much easier to acquire firearms that are 50 years or older.
If you play your cards right, you will build a valuable collection over time and have an investment that you can actually take out and use. These types of investments are far more entertaining than logging on your 401k account to see what you “may” be able to get when your too old to enjoy it.
So, do your research and begin scouring the internet gun sale websites. The best classified websites are the local postings that people use to swap and sell that “dust collector” in the attic.