So I normally don't post stuff like this and I know it's long, but I'm more than a little bothered by this. So for a little backstory, my friend who works for a local cable company and has become interested in guns in the last year or so. He calls me the other day, and tells me he's seen lots of guns while working, but he always felt like it was unprofessional to ask if they had any for sale. Well, he get to this one house and he said this older lady had ammo and magazines full of ammo laying around everywhere. By the end of the job he said he finally musters up the courage to ask if she wants to sell any guns. She tells him,"actually I do" and takes him out to this shed full of guns. He said he about crapped himself. Literally 50+. Well it turns out her husband died and then her son unexpectedly a few months ago and she is looking to sell the collection for the estate. He doesn't know what he's looking at, nor have much money so he calls both I and a few other co-workers.
We go over that evening to check it out with him. I know modern gun values like AR's, hunting rifles which she doesn't have much of, and Glocks. Things like that. She has a ton of old military stuff like 30-40 Krags, AK-47's, Mosins, Colts, Berettas, and literally a ton of other stuff I know nothing about. So I'm looking at this stuff clueless, I also get very little signal on my cell phone in her building, so I'm going in blind. My buddies friends make a few purchases and go to the car. While I'm still in shock (I've never seen a personal collection like this) and looking around at what she has he comes back and tells me that his friends are getting antsy and they'd appreciate if I'd hurry up. I feel like at this point they just spent all of the cash they'd brought and want to get us out there before we buy too many of the good deals.
The problem she has had is that she has hired a gun shop to come in and price things. Their prices are all over the place. Some are quite a bit low while others are significantly high. For example $800 on a S&W MP-15 Sport AR, $1,2000 on a Colt AR, $575 on Glocks, but others like a Colt Gold Cup she was given crazy low values like $700, a few others that were worth $1,500 + that she was given prices of $5-600 on. This gun shop must have been full of idiots.
So his friend makes a few purchases. Upon getting in the car they brag that they purchased $1,000+ dollar guns for $600 or so. At this point, I'm thinking why talk this lady down if you're getting it that cheap?
So we leave with me not knowing values of most of these things. I get back to where I get good signal and I'm seeing this same Colt in the $1,000 to $1,200 range Gunbroker. Plus several others she has at great prices. I ask my friend to call her back. He refuses saying it's "too late" and we'll'' go back 2 days later" as that's the soonest he can make it back. We'll the next day, the 3rd and 4th guy that went with us drive over there without us knowing and convince her this $1,000-1200 Colt on Gun Broker is worth less and only give her $500 for it. They also bought quite a few other guns that were fairly priced, and they talked her down a few hundred each on each one.
This really bothers me, because they knew they were already getting a deal at the asking price. Then they convince her they are worth hundreds less. People like me that are shooters went in, looked the sold listings at GunBorker, and offered her about $15-25 less than GunBroker.com, since I was trying to save the transfer fee. I hope this is fair and I felt like it was. I certainly don't want to rip anyone off in a situation like this. Yet these guys feel the need to go in offering several hundred less than she wanted on the guns that were already too low. She said she had several others and had one guy earlier come in and offer to sell guns for her only to claim he sold original Springfield 1898's in 30-40 Krag for $200 a piece. So obviously at this point she has been ripped off numerous times, as she's telling us this, I'm getting upset. I'm a shooter and a collector and I hope no one ever sells my collection off at this price point when I die. I'd rather my family give my stuff away for free to people that would enjoy it rather than to sell it for pennies on the dollar to these guys that are just looking to make a quick buck off of these widows. In fact, this has really inspired me to update my will.
Upon leaving, I let this lady know that I thought she was being ripped off and that these guns were collectible enough that she needed to have them on Gunbroker or a similar site that would gather the attention of collectors all across the country. She said she didn't have time or knowledge to mess with that stuff. So I offered to help her take pictures and list them on Gunbroker in my free time. She said she may take me up on that and I really hope she does. I truly want to see this lady get the most that she can for this collection. I know exactly how her husband felt when he bought these as I felt the same way. Even if that means I miss out on things I'd be willing to pay a certain price for. It really bothers me that she's getting all of these ******** trying to rip her off. It really makes me wonder *** is wrong with people these days? Are most people really this bad? I'm pretty sure that I want to update my will to include that my firearms and other prized possessions either just be given to those with the desire to hunt, or sent straight to an auction. I'm really sick to my stomach thinking that soo many people have been doing this to her. I sure don't want it done to my collection and I sure don't want it done to hers. How do you leave your's in your will? Do you dictate it must be sold, donated, or what? How do you handle situations like this? I'm just really upset at this point and as a collector I feel so bad for what's happening to her. Not only do I not want it to happen when I die, but I know her husband wouldnt' want it to happen to her either
We go over that evening to check it out with him. I know modern gun values like AR's, hunting rifles which she doesn't have much of, and Glocks. Things like that. She has a ton of old military stuff like 30-40 Krags, AK-47's, Mosins, Colts, Berettas, and literally a ton of other stuff I know nothing about. So I'm looking at this stuff clueless, I also get very little signal on my cell phone in her building, so I'm going in blind. My buddies friends make a few purchases and go to the car. While I'm still in shock (I've never seen a personal collection like this) and looking around at what she has he comes back and tells me that his friends are getting antsy and they'd appreciate if I'd hurry up. I feel like at this point they just spent all of the cash they'd brought and want to get us out there before we buy too many of the good deals.
The problem she has had is that she has hired a gun shop to come in and price things. Their prices are all over the place. Some are quite a bit low while others are significantly high. For example $800 on a S&W MP-15 Sport AR, $1,2000 on a Colt AR, $575 on Glocks, but others like a Colt Gold Cup she was given crazy low values like $700, a few others that were worth $1,500 + that she was given prices of $5-600 on. This gun shop must have been full of idiots.
So his friend makes a few purchases. Upon getting in the car they brag that they purchased $1,000+ dollar guns for $600 or so. At this point, I'm thinking why talk this lady down if you're getting it that cheap?
So we leave with me not knowing values of most of these things. I get back to where I get good signal and I'm seeing this same Colt in the $1,000 to $1,200 range Gunbroker. Plus several others she has at great prices. I ask my friend to call her back. He refuses saying it's "too late" and we'll'' go back 2 days later" as that's the soonest he can make it back. We'll the next day, the 3rd and 4th guy that went with us drive over there without us knowing and convince her this $1,000-1200 Colt on Gun Broker is worth less and only give her $500 for it. They also bought quite a few other guns that were fairly priced, and they talked her down a few hundred each on each one.
This really bothers me, because they knew they were already getting a deal at the asking price. Then they convince her they are worth hundreds less. People like me that are shooters went in, looked the sold listings at GunBorker, and offered her about $15-25 less than GunBroker.com, since I was trying to save the transfer fee. I hope this is fair and I felt like it was. I certainly don't want to rip anyone off in a situation like this. Yet these guys feel the need to go in offering several hundred less than she wanted on the guns that were already too low. She said she had several others and had one guy earlier come in and offer to sell guns for her only to claim he sold original Springfield 1898's in 30-40 Krag for $200 a piece. So obviously at this point she has been ripped off numerous times, as she's telling us this, I'm getting upset. I'm a shooter and a collector and I hope no one ever sells my collection off at this price point when I die. I'd rather my family give my stuff away for free to people that would enjoy it rather than to sell it for pennies on the dollar to these guys that are just looking to make a quick buck off of these widows. In fact, this has really inspired me to update my will.
Upon leaving, I let this lady know that I thought she was being ripped off and that these guns were collectible enough that she needed to have them on Gunbroker or a similar site that would gather the attention of collectors all across the country. She said she didn't have time or knowledge to mess with that stuff. So I offered to help her take pictures and list them on Gunbroker in my free time. She said she may take me up on that and I really hope she does. I truly want to see this lady get the most that she can for this collection. I know exactly how her husband felt when he bought these as I felt the same way. Even if that means I miss out on things I'd be willing to pay a certain price for. It really bothers me that she's getting all of these ******** trying to rip her off. It really makes me wonder *** is wrong with people these days? Are most people really this bad? I'm pretty sure that I want to update my will to include that my firearms and other prized possessions either just be given to those with the desire to hunt, or sent straight to an auction. I'm really sick to my stomach thinking that soo many people have been doing this to her. I sure don't want it done to my collection and I sure don't want it done to hers. How do you leave your's in your will? Do you dictate it must be sold, donated, or what? How do you handle situations like this? I'm just really upset at this point and as a collector I feel so bad for what's happening to her. Not only do I not want it to happen when I die, but I know her husband wouldnt' want it to happen to her either