Welcome friends.

You will have noted an entirely new section to the Rendezvous Forum. "Gary's Gun Room" is, in reality; a new model for Barnes Pneumatic. It's actually "Barnes 3.0" for those of you who live in the digital era. Barnes 1.0 covered the origonal ledger years. This was when I prototyped many of the gun models. This was when I pushed many of the accuracy, power, and distance models. Barnes 2.0 saw the ledger opened, approx. once every two years for a couple of weeks. An occasional extra gun showed up for sale at invitational events. Many of the designs were refined to a quite high degree. I continued to work on all back orders as well. Barnes 3.0 will continue to work the existing custom orders from both previous ledger systems. That's the prime effort, until they are all out. That effort alone, though; does not keep the lights on. No point going thru the lost time caused by my health issues, surgical proceedures, etc. That's been explained to death. And, it's no secret that I need to move enough products to pay the bills. This is a new way of handling that need, with some new benefits for buyers. In this new section ... Gary's Gun Room, you will find completed Barnes products, available for immediate sale ... with some terms available. You'll find airguns, yes. Perhaps a pocket knife. Maybe another specialty item .. we'll see what shows up.

The business "Barnes" has existed since 1974. The production of custom airguns for sale, began in 1996. During the past 15 years of the airgun phase, there have been very few inventoried products, available for extra sale. The filling of "orders" has been the prime directive. When a special invitation shoot or festival was planned, I tried to have an extra gun or two available for the people who took the time to travel and support my efforts. Those have always sold very quickly.

Thru the years, quite a few conversations have ended with "... let me know if anything becomes available". I cataloged a memory of such comments, but I've found they will produce a sale, only about 10% of the time. You can end up holding out a special status to a group which sees it as an open ended offer. At a certain point, you end up shorting your exposure, by offering to a group calloused by opportunity.

I've recognized that I've finally achieved a grouping of parts which can yield a few additional guns for sale. The parts ride thru the pipeline attached to this group of parts, or that bluing session. Finally, some groups of parts have made it all the way through, and will yield some very fine pcs. As I occasionally carve a stock, or engrave the billet ... one will be assembled. Normal ledger production will continue, as those parts were the prime reason for all the sessions that produced the parts (ledger and extra).

I wanted to have a special place to show them. To offer them. To anyone who might be interested. Thanks Jim, for putting up this section for me. I will photograph them, and give you their stats. here. BUT ... I will also take them to the range and let you see them in action. You will witness the performance of the individual gun - not just one of a type. In this way, I'll show you a personality profile of an individual pc., of my work. Then, you might feel that you'd like to own it. I think this will give you a very unique perspective, and a very complete set of data on anything you consider owning.

One additional reason for Barnes 3.0 is the factor of my own health. I'd rather complete a pc. for sale, at this point, than to try to project a completion date for a pc. In the past, buyers have greatly benefited from ordering off of the ledger. This allowed people to place orders with a minimal deposit, and very small monthly payments. Interest free yet! And, correct. A number of those are now paid up, and good folks are waiting. The products are coming along well, and are going out when finished. Buyers remember the incredible deal which allowed many of those guns to be purchased for the price of a cup of coffee per day. The health issues raised their head ... we've been there. Now, I'm down the road, and still need to process my expenses. So; the least stress is a simple sale. But ... this means less people will be able to make a cash payment. I have an idea for that.

The "Reverse Ledger". For approved buyers, I'll allow some rifles (and/or products) to be purchased on a reverse ledger system. For this program, we START with the gun. It's finished. The buyer will make an approved downpayment on the gun to start the agreement. A monthly payment will be determined which will suit the buyer, and determine the duration of the term. The gun will remain with me until payment is complete. For the initial program ... I'll do it interest free. You can't beat that. This returns the days when anyone might buy a Barnes gun, and make small interest free payments on it.

We'll see what I can finish, from the 15 years of accumulated parts. That will be quite a variety. In years past, for instance; I had a show coming up in November. I worked as hard as I could, to make a special center pc. to show and shoot. Circumstances prevented me from finishing before the show date. After the show, I deemed it less important to complete the pc. at that time. I went back to work ... and the incomplete project went into the closet. It's 3,6, ... 8,10 years later. It's still there. Steel is patient. It waits. It's fine. It will get finished, perhaps you will want to own it. Just an example to show that things can still be quite unexpected here.

Thanks for reading. I hope it all sounds good to you.

Sincerely,
Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2011 08:22PM by barnespneumatic.

Don't you hate it when you just have to go back and clean up some wording, or correct some spelling ... and the forum squeals on you? Gary EDITED this post .... and makes a big distracting announcement about it at the end. hahah. Yeah ... me too.

But ... this seemed important. As I explained my post to my wife, over coffee ... she said, "I hope you made it clear that you were still working on the orders!! You will get beat up about changing something".

It's always best to listen to what you wife pulled out of the air. Even though I think I'd made it clear. I wanted to make it even more clear. Barnes 3.0 will continue to work the existing custom orders from both previous ledger systems. That's the prime effort, until they are all out. That effort alone, though; does not keep the lights on. No point going thru the lost time caused by my health issues, surgical proceedures, etc. That's been explained to death. But, it's no secret that I need to move enough products to pay the bills. This is a new way of handling that need, with some new benefits for buyers. Rather than place them as I have occasionally, I'll make it more available, and introduce the new "reverse ledger" policy on some guns and products.

Last item to make clear. This is not a custom order program. The program deals with completed Barnes rifles and products.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2011 08:46PM by barnespneumatic.

Way to go, Gary !

Evolution is a Good thing

I'm glad you've been able to come up with a way to make more of your fabulous work available ... to old friends, and (hopefully) new friends, as well as those who just can't wait !

Hope the Pain Management regimen continues to evolve in a positive direction as well

Joebill
( mostly MIA recently, but hopefully returning on a more regular basis!!)

Exciting evolution Gary. Something more for me to drool over, I imagine....or cry over..
Watching this space
Cheers
Neil

Joebill??? Hummm ... I recall a JoeSue ... JoeGeorge ... hahahh. Ah yes ... I remember now.

You should be shoveled out from the Winter snows by now.

Glad you could see the effort I've put into trying to make it workable for people. One thing doesn't change ... the guns are really fine. But - the details of making a business around them, is a constant effort larger than making them. You are dealing with personalities. Make the finest craftsmanship .... it has nothing to do with dealing with personalities. The ones that "can" buy, have to "want to" buy. The ones that "want to buy", need a mechanism so that they "can" buy. And, with all camps, it's viewed as my main responsibility .... not to make the best guns ... but to make sure that I'm not offending the various personalities. It's just a given that I'm supposed to carve, engrave, and that the guns are supposed to be enormously powerful and accurate. That's nothing. I have to do it up on the tight rope of public relations.

This is another effort to work all that out, and let me get back into the shop to work.

Gary

Ah Neil!

I'm sure that something will pop up here for you, that nobody else wants! It's a given ...

Gary

Sounds like a good idea. I can't wait to see what tumbles out of the closet.

Kent

Sounds like a sound plan, Gary I like it. This leaves the waiting period entirely up to the buyer, immediate satisfaction or whatever the wallet can stand. Should keep some of the pressure off you as well.

Sounds pretty good to me also. CHANGE IS GOOD....lol

Two thumbs way up here Gary! This ought to be a fun one to watch....

Scott

Thank you Joe,

You nailed it exactly. These were my thoughts. I hope it gives people a bunch of options. I'm always happy to work with people, on payment schedules. I want them to be happy with all the parts of their purchases.

I haven't forgotten your gun Joe. I've been dealing with a couple of things. Thanks for sticking with me - I know it's not always easy.

Best,
Gary

Thanks Scott. Hope you enjoy it. I'm glad it seems logical to you.

Best,
Gary

Thanks Faz,

Glad you like it.

Gary

I/m good buddy, no worries here.

you mean "a boy named Sue" right - Johnny CAsh classic......

no more snow.....also no more grass, since we went from winter into a short spring followed by hot and steamy = burnt lawn !

At least I dont have to mow it....

Gary,
This is a Fantastic idea. As was already said, takes some of the pressure off of you and lets the Buyer decide the Timetable.
i know there will be a LOT of People Watching this Space.
Hope you are feeling better and getting some Quality time for yourself.

Rick G.

I'm going to use one of our smilies which doesn't have a normal usage, to indicate when I've sold a particular product on the Gun Room. Following the title, I will add on ..... ..... which will sort of indicate that the plane has left the gate on that particular opportunity.

Thanks for watching,

Gary