Mystique Means Money

Let’s look at mystique. We all recognize it when we see a bottle of good wine or a pretty girl advertising it. Mystique is hype to sell a product and selling a product makes money. This immediately begs the question: Do gunsmiths have mystique? You can damn well bet your broken pin punch they do! All you have to do is understand it and then take advantage of it. So, where is it? What is it? How can I find mine? When I do find it, how can I make it work for me?

Read on, uninformed one, and be glad you did for your life will be enhanced. First, we have to back up a bit and take a look at who we are and what in particular a gunsmith is. We are made up of people who helped cause—and are still causing—the Industrial Revolution. America is a land of individualists and good mechanics who often make good inventors. However, the need for good mechanics and inventors is shrinking.

The best supply of mechanics frequently came from the farms where one had to learn to fix to improvise and improve tools and machinery simply because they had to—thus the phrase, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Things have changed. The individual is becoming more the corporate conformist. He doesn’t repair much around the house because he has lost the knowledge of how to use tools.

Schools no longer have shop classes; not necessary, so we’re told, for today if anything breaks he uses the Internet (or perhaps the Yellow Pages) to find someone to fix it—provided he can still read. So his gun won’t work and in he comes as it is another one of those tools he owns but doesn’t know how to fix. He sees, perhaps for the first time, tools and machinery next to other guns ready to be repaired or improved, along with other people who will talk to him.

He gets to actually talk to the guru who understands his problem. He has just been given a shot of "gunsmith mystique" and he will not recover. It won’t do to tell him to "take two of these and call me in the morning." The mystique that he has just been exposed to is the equivalent of falling in love. He stares in amazement at all the parts and tools and guns laid out on your bench. He doesn’t quite believe what he sees for he doesn’t understand it. All part of the mystique. If he’s a gun guy, he’s hooked.

This is good for both of you. You have another customer and he becomes a shooter or hunter once again because you fixed his gun. You have become the magician; the genie. The truth is that this is all you have to sell. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "A lawyer’s time and advice are his stock in trade." The same can be said for gunsmiths as their stock in trade is their time and, like lawyers, that time includes knowledge.

So, now you have injected (hopefully painlessly) another customer with mystique and if the proper dosage was used this customer will spread the overflow of it to his gun owning buddies. This is good, inexpensive advertising for you. A thought just struck me: Too bad one can’t bottle this mystique. Or can you? I persistently stress quality of work, business personality and, above all, knowledge. That knowledge comes with experience but you have the ability to add to your store of knowledge from every job you do.

The gunsmith trade will be around for as long as guns exist. The qualified gunsmith will be around a lot longer because he knows what job security is. Believe me, this is as good as putting it in a bottle! Mystique Downside In every location in the country there are many unlicensed "private" gun dealers. These people do not have an FFL and never will but are constantly buying and selling guns for a profit—at least they’re trying (or claiming) to earn a profit. They are not collectors; they just buy to sell.

While I could spend a lot of time questioning the justice of the legitimate gunsmith and gun dealer getting a license, keeping records, and running an established shop, these "out of the trunk" dealers keep on going. Gun shows are full of them and they never have to undergo a BATF inspection. It isn’t right but what can we do and would we want to do anything? Sooner or later these "dealers" will wind up in your shop, especially if you have marketed your mystique well. They have a junker that they want repaired.

You quote on it and it can be anything from a reblue job to anew stock or parts. The very first thing you are likely to hear is, "I can’t make any money on this gun if it is going to cost that much to repair." Your answer is—or should be—"So?"