Most guns will never turn a profit unless you can buy them really cheap from a private owner. If you buy guns from dealers or at auctions you better spend some time understanding what drives prices up and have some idea where/when you are going to sell. For the beginner, stick with reasonably priced Winchesters and you should do OK. Unless you have big money to compete for the Old West six shooters and Geronimo's Winchester, stick to the local auctions and private sellers.

For me, guns are a far better investment than stocks and your not dealing with insider trading and brokers who game the system. Firearms auctions and collectors are much more trustworthy than your local stock trader. Unless you really go overboard, they will hold their value very well. Just about as good as gold.

I don't know if guns are such a good investment.  My father was a collector of antique guns, both real and reproduction.  He had quite a collection, and traveled frequently to gun shows to buy/sell/trade.  It was a hobby to him as well as an investment.  He purchased a reproduction black powder rifle that was featured on the cover of "Rifle" magazine that was reportedly worth about $4,500...he didn't pay that much for it, but figured it was a sound investment.  When he passed away a few years ago, my mother was afraid to keep the guns in her house, as so many knew about the collection and she had received some questionable phone calls and visits regarding 'the' rifle in particular.  A close re-enactor friend of my dad, a collector himself, and my uncle arranged for an estate auction with an auction house that dealt in antiques and antique weapons.  My father had meticulously catalogued everything and left instructions for my mom, but the guns had to be re-assessed for current value.  Once that was done and the guns were delivered, they advertised the auction among the interested collector and re-enactor communities.  The final total from the auction was about $35,000...after the auction house's cut, it was just enough to pay off a second mortgage on the house just months before the housing crisis began.  That would seem like a good investment...but the actual worth of the collection was about $10,000-$15,000 more than what it sold for.  The $4,500 rifle everyone was so hungry for went for about half of it's worth...I think she said the Colt pistol went for more.  Granted, the collection may have gone for more if sold off little by little...and that might work as an investment if you plan to do that yourself over time, but don't look at it as an investment for your spouse or children.  The sale may have benifitted my mom tax-wise (because the estate was willed to her) and by the sheer timing of it all; but, had my dad been alive when the recession hit, those guns would likely still be sitting in a closet in a house with a second mortgage amid rising medical bills.  Any investment in a collection is a crap shoot (no pun intended).

Myself, I tried collecting comics once.  All it took was a Marvel artist running his mouth reckless to drop the value of one of my comics from $80 to $8 the week before I was to sell it. 

Would you rather be judged by 12 or carried by 6? Pretty easy question.

Thing is, in a related collectible field I'm familiar with, I have observed that everybody who goes into it with the investement idea invariably loses money, and everybody who passionately does it, and really understands what they are doing (i.e. research, and networking with collectors) invariably make money.

Guns are really no different than fine cars, and it's easy to write about something that has gone up incredibly in value as most every other fine line of pop-culture collectibles in the past 30 years that have been popular with baby boomers.  Part of the reason is that the market is at its prime cash-flow.  We'll see if this is true when baby boomers are gradually replaced by the next generation

To look how investing can be disasterous, one only needs to look at philately.  I've read through numerous sources, that the average age of a stamp colletor is over 60 years old.  Just how, pray tell, do you resell a collection into that kind of market (who is looking to sell themselves)?  Unless you have the top shelf items everybody is looking for, forget it.

Which also proves, that you need to get kids interested in the hobby for it to have staying power.

AnnDroid's account shows that the only one who makes any money on replicas and commemoratives is the maker.  The person who buys such items at the inflated prices for which they are initially offered can seldom get the original cost back, and almost never can expect appreciation.  Those interested in buying the "Rifle" magazine cover gun expected to acquire it for a bargain price because they knew how poor of an investment such a replica was. 

Selling as a collection rather than selling each individual piece can also reduce the return by at least half.  There are a lot of people who might bid a little over what a $500 gun is worth when caught up in an auction, but they cannot afford to buy a collection for tens of thousands of dollars, even if the final figure is a bargain. 

Colts and Winchesters in original condition (NOT "redone" as so many are) are where the rapid appreciation is taking place.  Colt boxes are a hot item on eBay, with many boxes bringing hundreds of dollars. 

Inability to recognize a refinished gun is where many neophite collectors get taken.  If entering the field, get help from an experienced collector.  There are online collector forums for most brands that can help with questions about correctness and the like. 

There are a lot of sharks in the deep water so start in the shallows and learn before venturing into the deep water of high-priced guns.