Selling Inherited Gun Collection

[dcg]

Thank you to all who offered your helpful responses. I guess I need to defend myself. First, some of you assume I am a man. I am not. Second, my father died years ago and my mother has been in posession of these guns for these years since. She requested before she passed that I help her sell the guns and that if she passed, she wanted the guns sold rather than to be distributed among the family (for her own reasons). I felt overwhelmed at the time caring for several elderly members of my family as well as my husband's family and did not have time or energy to learn all that is needed to sell them. Now, my mom has passed away (suddenly & unexpectedly) and I want to do as she wished. Please realize that none of you understand my family situation. This has been extremely difficult as is. As for a suspicion about there only being one post from me, I signed on yesterday to ask for advice from a forum of knowledgeable individuals about this unique concern that I had about these guns. This is the first opportunity I've had to respond. Special thanks to Tatoocrab for answering my request for info about upcoming auctions & again, thanks to those of you who took the time to reply with your helpful advice.

Chesapeake auction house in St. Leonard gun auction April 21 site said they taking consignments

 

[zombiehunter]

Best options:
1) Get 50 posts and sell them here, you'll get the most money because you're doing private sales with mostly honest upright people who know the value of a gun
2) Consignment through a gun shop, might want to research and consider a trip across the bridge to do it in the Baltimore area. You'll get their actual value minus a consignment fee
3) Auction the lot, get the worst return on your investment minus the auction house's cut

As for pricing them yourself, find what the new ones are going for and deduct for wear and tear. If you have anything that's going to be banned, odds are it's carrying a premium right now. Make sure you sell it ASAP to get the most you can. Anything else, just go from the new price or check gunbroker.com

If there are any double barrel 12ga shotguns (over under or side by side) that you'd part with for $100-$200 PM me though, I'd like to pick up a couple of those this year.

Best of luck and I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your father

 

[zombiehunter]

Thank you to all who offered your helpful responses. I guess I need to defend myself. First, some of you assume I am a man. I am not. Second, my father died years ago and my mother has been in posession of these guns for these years since. She requested before she passed that I help her sell the guns and that if she passed, she wanted the guns sold rather than to be distributed among the family (for her own reasons). I felt overwhelmed at the time caring for several elderly members of my family as well as my husband's family and did not have time or energy to learn all that is needed to sell them. Now, my mom has passed away (suddenly & unexpectedly) and I want to do as she wished. Please realize that none of you understand my family situation. This has been extremely difficult as is. As for a suspicion about there only being one post from me, I signed on yesterday to ask for advice from a forum of knowledgeable individuals about this unique concern that I had about these guns. This is the first opportunity I've had to respond. Special thanks to Tatoocrab for answering my request for info about upcoming auctions & again, thanks to those of you who took the time to reply with your helpful advice.

Chesapeake auction house in St. Leonard gun auction April 21 site said they taking consignments

Seriously. Yup, it's a first post...but that's what forums are for, finding answers to niche hobbies. If this were a car forum every single one of the posters putting up d!ckhead answers would have just been like "here's the link you need" but instead someone puts up what is, at face value, an honest question and a bunch of the first responses are buffoonery, hostile or rude.

So good job, you've turned off someone who at the very least wasn't already against us.

 

[scottymd]

I tried to give you advise but without knowing what kind and how big the collection was it is hard to do as there are many ways to sell firearms.

 

[Indiana Jones]

I am certified by MD govt as an "Inherited Gun Storage Specialist". Ill keep them for you indefinitely. We just need to clear up some pesky paperwork first.

 

[Lanceman_1]

I also would try and get to the 50 post route here. In this thread here you should be able to post thru your reply's. Also sorry to hear about your loss.

Take care

Lance

 

[RegularJay]

It is a sad truth that some members of this forum consider anyone who doesn't have some "magic" number of posts to be automatically stupid, evil or generally up to no good. This arrogant attitude assumes that all the "good" people joined MDS a long while ago and have made "enough" posts by now. I feel certain that huge numbers of pro-2A folks in MD do not even know of MDS and many that do know of this forum don't post enough to be considered "good".

Post count alone is not a worthwhile indicator of anything!

In this case we have someone who clearly doesn't seem to be an enthusiast taking what many would consider to be a reasonable step in asking an honest question of those of us that are. Why expect someone new to the forum to make a "magic" number of posts before taking them seriously?

 

[Travis Bickle]

If you happen to be from southern maryland like me you can post them for free on this board
http://classifieds.somd.com/cgi-bin...ory=Firearms+ampersand+Hunting&query=category

I take pictures and link them from imgur or just email them to people to avoid the upload fees. Generally speaking you can expect a lot more stupid questions and strange offers from somd boards than mdshooters, but ive done 3 or 4 transactions smoothly with people from there. All of them being polite and friendly just like every mdshooter member ive bought or sold from.

 

[Safetech]

In all fairness, the "50 posts" thing to sell items in the Classifieds is to keep people from just going there to sell stuff. Otherwise, the Classifieds would most likely be inundated with every gunoil salesmen in the state trying to make a quick buck off of the members here. So I can see the point in the requirement.

 

[webb297]

I get the distinct impression that this is quite an uncomfortable situation, during a very difficult time in her life. She does not want to put the time in that would be required to separate, value + condition, learn laws, pack +ship, ect a collection of firearms. It seems she is interested in getting as good a price as possible for the collection, without investing much as far as time and effort go on her behalf. It seems she is looking for recommendations on a place she could go to have the collection appraised and sold for her by a person who is knowledgeable, professional, and will attempt to get her the best price possible.

 

[Kevmo]

i think the best things really would be (assuming you don't know much about them)

take a picture of each weapon and post on here... with the knowledge of ppl here.. they will ID it for you and likely offer you more than what you would get after you pay an auctioneer

 

[RegularJay]

I may be in the minority but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the 50 post requirement was eased. The more stuff I know about that is for sale the more chances I might find something I'm looking for. Folks like the OP in this post that aren't gun enthusiast and aren't willing to BS their way to 50 posts cant advertise here and none of us will get a chance to buy their inherited collections. I'd be willing to ignore a lot of for sale posts to get to the few I'd be interested in. Perhaps if a fee were charged to place an ad it would minimize folks who would abuse it. Legitimate sellers would pay a few bucks to place an ad but scammers wouldn't, the forum would earn a few bucks and we would all get to learn about stuff for sale we might not otherwise have access to.

 

[kalister1]

If you are not a "Gun Person"?
All guns are always treated like they are loaded.(PERIOD)
DO NOT point them at anything you do not want to shoot a hole in or anybody. (PERIOD)
If you have enough "Gun Savvy" check to make sure they are NOT loaded, if NOT, do not touch the trigger.
Try to inventory all the guns, write down what is marked on them(Maker, Model Number, Name)and the serial numbers.
Take a few pictures of each of them and note what they are on the picture.

If you do not want to be bothered any further take them to an auction house. If you want to take the time go to www.gunbroker.com and look them up. You will get some idea of what they MAY be worth.

All handguns must go through a federally licensed firearms dealer/collector. Most Rifles and Shotguns may be sold to anybody who resides in the State and is NOT a prohibited person, so be very careful who you sell what to if you decide to go that route?

 

[Waitwhat]

I'll give you $50 for my choice of rifle

In all seriousness though, if you want us to be more helpful I'd suggest doing what others have said and taking some pictures to post here. If there are any modern guns just about anyone here will be able to identify it. For the older ones, I'm sure one of the many C&R junkies on here will be able to help you out.

If you take the pictures, make sure to get a general shot of the whole firearm as well as close ups of any markings you see. A seemingly small difference in markings can mean the difference between a simple $120 shooter and a pricey collectors item.

 

[Safetech]

Perhaps if a fee were charged [to non members or those with less than 50 posts] to place an ad it would minimize folks who would abuse it. Legitimate sellers would pay a few bucks to place an ad but scammers wouldn't, the forum would earn a few bucks and we would all get to learn about stuff for sale we might not otherwise have access to.

+1

 

[bcr229]

OP, I'm sorry for your loss. I've also had to deal with the death of a parent, handling the estate afterward, and in many cases not knowing if something was junk or worth $$$. Fortunately none of them had the legal issues involved with attempting to sell guns.

I'm a dealer in WV and since I have no dog in this fight, here's my $.02:

- Do not walk into any FFL's shop or a pawn shop and try to sell the firearms. You won't get anywhere near their market value because they will smell a grieving and ignorant seller a mile away.

- If you don't want to sell the guns yourself, and I agree that's a daunting task for the uninitiated, get the consignment agreements for the dealers in your area and compare them. Same goes for the auctioneers. You will want to know what percentage of the price they will get. I've seen some as low as 10%, others as high as 40%.

Most dealers are not listed in the phone book. Fortunately the ATF maintains a complete list at http://www.atf.gov/about/foia/ffl-list.html - you can search for ones in your area and call them directly.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Back to the OP...

For most items, the most efficient way to sell is through one of the online auction sites such as gunbroker.com. The next option would be to consign them to a specialty firearms auction house such as Rock Island Auction or James D. Julia. The specialty houses work better for high-dollar items.

 

[Tactics]

Don't touch any triggers. Have someone you trust come out and inspect them. Hopefully they will be able to make sure they are unloaded, tell you what they are, a ballpark for what they are worth and help you make the right moves.

Some old guns aren't worth much (money), others could be priceless. Do as much research as you'd care to and get a few opinions. I'm sure there are many here that could help you.

 

[BDurk]

A lot of good advice above. Post pictures here.....you said you're not a gun gal.....you could have something of value and not know it. These were your Pop's guns....if you post here....you'll likely get advice from folks who will appreciate what he spent his time and money on and are honest enough (and it is an open forum where we are not afraid to call 'bull' on each other) to give you the straight deal.

 

[dcg]

I guess I should clarify something else. I am ignorant of how the best way to go about selling these guns but am not ignorant about handling guns. I was a hunter as a young adult and my husband and I have our own guns. I so appreciate the responses and the private messages as well. I will study the advice given and make a decision as to the best avenue to take. I know I will not be selling them individually. You guys have been great. Thanks again.