ever gone to an estate auction where firearms are amongs the items to be auctioned?
i did once, i went to an estate auction. the firearms a H&R 949 missing front sight, a Colt OP, .410 H&R singleshot, a Savage .22/410. all looked beat and had that "patina" of rust.
after wandering around looking at things going for auction, i won the bid for a beat up cheap pot, this was my first auction and i wanted to see how it worked. then the auctioneer announced it was the firearms turn, i never saw such a mob scene, it was like starving vultures on a roadkill.
the Colt went for $650, the Savage $295, the .410 $160!!! they were nothing special, showed years of neglect. i cannot get over that day it was an unreal experience.
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MOE! LARRY! THE CHEESE!
Life Member the Elmer Fudd Hunt Club
I've seen the exact same thing. I don't know if it's because they don't do a background check and these people can't get a gun otherwise. But the prices these guns went for was just plain stupid. Could have gotten brand new ones cheaper. I get mailed a list of the guns and I look up the prices for them before I go, then I know what I am willing to pay.
__________________ I try to live life, that in the morning, Satan shudders & says 'Oh crap, she's awake!"
Many auctions have stupid people with too much money to spend. I went to an auction that had advertised "trains" for sale. When I got there I inspected the box of "trains" and found they were all HO, beat to heck, and probaly worth about $20, and that's stretching it.Well, there was a bidding war for this JUNK, and if memory serves me right, the box of junk went for $95 bucks!!There was nothing special about the trains as I collect and restore American Flyer trains. I knew what I was looking at, but too bad the idiots who bought the junk didn't.
I collect and restore American Flyer trains. I knew what I was looking at, but too bad the idiots who bought the junk didn't.
cool i still have my American Flyer train set funny i was born in 1947, and the shipping label on the box is dated 1946!!! makes one wonder how'd they know i like trains!!!
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MOE! LARRY! THE CHEESE!
Life Member the Elmer Fudd Hunt Club
Auctions with a lot of guns are not uncommon here. Prices are rarely a bargain unless you know exactly what you're looking at and what your absolute maximum bid can be. Sometimes, though, you get a good buy, especially on the related stuff, if the auctioneer is running short of time or just wants to get things livened up. When the bids are slow coming in, they might sell one or two good items quickly and cheap, making people perk up out of fear of missing out, and then they find themselves overbidding the item.
I've been to auctions with over 100 guns that represented PART of one guys collection.
__________________ Teach
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I went for a rare Fox Sterlingworth shotgun with two matching serial number on each it was a B grade and figured i would take a couple thousand dollars. My last bid was 1,800 and the next bid from some older fella was over my 2,000 dollar limit. A young guy not even 25 and the old fella took it up near 4,500 as i sat with my antique scale..ROTFL...In my amazement the old fella finally gave up and the younger guy collected his gun as he marched off to pay his last winning bid..I followed the guy and asked him what was the Sterlingworth valued at and he said after he payed someone to get rid of the dinged up stock and had both barrels reblued it would be a 14,000 dollar shotgun........way out of my range but he insisted he got a deal.
The other guns were of no interest but just like you said they came out of the wood work and sold them never the less at much higher values than i would have paid..
Good post PAPA.....Earl
cool i still have my American Flyer train set funny i was born in 1947, and the shipping label on the box is dated 1946!!! makes one wonder how'd they know i like trains!!!
They are easy to fix/repair. If the set is easy to get out, what's the # on the cab of the loco?? I still have my dad's Lionel train set from 1927, still in the original boxes, and still chugging right along.
I go to them quite often. Most the time the guns go for more than retail because of the auction mentality. Occasionally you pick up one for a good deal because no one wants it or they can't value it. I got a sporterized 1917 Eddystone for 150ish if I remember correctly and its MW was a 2, its TE was a 3. I also picked up a MAS MLE 6.5 French for 95 bucks. The AK's, SKS, and AR's go for retard high prices, and most your lever guns sell at about retail. You can usualy get shotguns for a few hundred off, or the super shotguns like the onces that are 2500 for right around 1000. I will say if you don't know the value of what you are bidding on you will get hosed. Take the blue book of guns with you and know about 20% off what it estimates it at then bid.
__________________ We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -Aesop
You don't see that around here. Seems like anyone who wants to dispose of Grandpa's old shootin' irons either consigns them to a gun shop or sells them to a dealer outright (and may get skinned, but that's the dealer's bad karma if he's that unprincipled and the seller doesn't know any better anyhow). Once in a long while you may see them at an estate sale. The last ones I recall were a pair of French pinfire revolvers in about NRA Fair condition; a Ruger Mark I being sold by a professional tag sale company for a reasonable price, but where the pro didn't have a clue about the regulations involving handgun sales in the state; and a tag sale by an incredibly rich old man who had four custom African big game rifles priced reasonably for what they were but who obviously didn't realize the kind of people who go to tag sales can't pay into the high four figures for a rifle no matter how glorious it is. And these instances span 20 years of tag-saling in my area.
I've told my wife that if anything happens to me she should sell my stuff at auction - and have a free keg of beer to serve anyone with a bidding number. Between the tools, guns, tractors and other "guy stuff" she should clean up.
What I've seen at auctions is that "cheap" firearms always goes high. Rifles and shotguns that should be priced in the $75 to $400 range always go 20% to 40% high. It seems every yahoo that might be interested has that much to spend - especially if its an SKS, Ruger 10-22 or a Remington 870. You might get a bargain on more expensive stuff that doesn't have an apparent value - SKB shotguns come to mind. Once in the while you might find a loaded Bushmaster or Colt AR15 cheap just because the average yahoo doesn't have $900+ in his pocket to spend and the auctioneer doesn't take credit cards.
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Liberty is for those that claim it.
Teach
