For how much longer will social media sites support the gun trade? It is a question troubling many of us and this week Simon Reinhold of Holt’s appeared to be signalling the possible withdrawal of Holt’s from the Facebook/Instagram world, based largely on repeated penalties for infringing the rules set by Meta for their ‘Community Standards’.
Basically, anything that the Meta algorithms sniff out that is suspected of promoting or selling guns invokes a page restriction and if sufficient infractions are recorded over a period of time, the offender’s page can be closed down.
Holt’s has featured heavily in Facebook campaigns, with Nick Holt showing off one of his latest inclusions and waxing lyrical about it for a couple of minutes. The, rather slicker, films made by TGS with Holt’s also send a message to the world that Holt’s is worthy of attention. It has undoubtedly been a positive part of their public awareness raising strategy in recent years.
many are beginning to look for new strategies to get the message out
However, in light of increasing Facebook restrictions, many are beginning to look for new strategies to get the message out to the public in a way that does not upset the sensibilities of the Facebook Police.
Youtube is increasingly useful, with more and more television packages giving access to the channel, people are now watching Youtube on the TV and searching for gun content is not a problem.
Posting regular Youtube films is a good strategy and we can see them already from TGS, Holt’s and Gavin Gardiner; all promoting gun auctions.
Youtube lacks the immediacy of a Facebook campaign, as it does not automatically land on people’s feed while they are scrolling during the day but it does deliver detailed and up-to-date content, and it is free.
If change is the only constant, I suppose we must acknowledge the positive impact many of these social media sites had on our businesses and how places like Facebook took the content of British gun auctions to every corner of the world in less than a decade.
With increasingly squeamish content regulators, however, we may also have to acknowledge that the heyday of social media advertising for auctions and for the gun trade in general, may be over, at least on the platforms currently most prevalent. New paths will, doubtless, open up.
The glory days of the early 2000s seem long past.
The Game Fair, held every summer, always used to be a focal point for the trade. I very much hope to see it on an upward trajectory but the sector does not feel especially buoyant at the moment and with incomes squeezed and discretionary spend reduced in most households, I’m not confident. The glory days of the early 2000s seem long past. After a bit of a buzz returning a couple of years ago, this year's event semed somewhat lack-lustre.
Gunmakers’ Row, once the backbone of the event, was much depleted this year, with no Rigby, no Purdey, no Westley Richards and no John Dickson. Just Holland & Holland and Boss & Co. remained to fly the flag for the bigger players in the business today.
Of the larger dealers in quality older guns, Giles Marriott and Ladd’s attended, as did the Cheshire Gun Room, and Sportarm, though there was no sign of Graham MacKinlay this year, nor of any of the auctioneers.
Sales trends observed in recent months seem set to continue with obsolete calibre rifles in demand, as is anything free from licensing. English game guns are still struggling to get out of the trough they have been in for at least five years. It remains a buyer’s market.
The old model that I and many of my contemporaries always favoured, which was to find ‘sleepers’ at auction and fix them up, is no longer as easy as it once was. The old gunmakers we relied on to get grubby guns back into good order are aging and many can no longer do the work. The younger generation either don’t want to bother with it or are too busy with new-builds. That leaves us a bit in the lurch.
Put simply, the cost of restoring guns has increased and the ease with which it can be done has decreased to the point where, for many, it is no longer viable to pursue as a venture.
That being the case, vintage magazine rifles are becoming more interesting. They are simpler and less delicate than fine shotguns and servicing and restoring them is more straightforward.
Things like Rigby Mausers, Mannlicher Schoenauers and Lee Speeds are increasingly attractive.
It being a buyer’s market is good news for those adding to their collections but not such good news for those liquidating theirs. As one dealer told me this week “A buyer’s market is no good to a dealer if you don’t have onward buyers”, meaning that buying guns cheaply is a poor strategy if your purpose is to sell them on for a profit, when your customers are not spending money.
whatever is bashing one market, another one usually picks up the slack
Experience suggests that whatever is bashing one market, another one usually picks up the slack and our auctioneers have a knack for getting their strategies right, pricing and describing the guns they get each sale in a way that makes them seem desirable and accessible to buyers all over the world.Holt's and Gavin Gardiner are still doing good business.
However they manage it, not much gets left on the shelf. November and December promise more opportunities.
Published by Vintage Guns Ltd on
