How did you do it?

Well, I'd sell the GE Mini Gun you named yourself after and buy a ranch in Wyoming.

Other than that, you've described why I don't sell many.

Things I've done:
1. See if your friends want to buy something. Then you know it is going to a good home (which might make it easier from an emotional perspective), and, heck you might even get to shoot it again someday.
2. See if your LGS has a reasonable setup for consignment sales, or if they'll just buy from you at a reasonable price (noting that prices lately are still somewhat inflated).

I have not sold any of mine but have given them to my brother and nephew. I pretty much think you have it figured out , keep what you shoot and those that have sentimental value. I think about thinning the herd all the time and than I turned around and bought 5 more guns within the same breath I thought about gettin rid of some of them.

First, financial advisers do not make money, the market makes money - your financial adviser is nothing more than an expensive vehicle to the market - your financial adviser will never beat the market, the market will always outperform your financial adviser.
I have several firearms that remain dormant and are kept simply because they look good - there is no mandate, law or requirement that firearms must be shot to have intrinsic value. My guess is that if you part with those pieces, regret will follow soon after. It appears that you do not need the money so this exercise then begs the question of why?

GE-Mini-Gun

If you have no growing health or vision problems

…and don’t need cash for a new hobby- then maybe Any new change makes “the Grass Look Greener” , simply because we take things for granted ?

If you don't need the money right now, don't sell. What we see in guns, generally, is a steady appreciation in value. I doubt that alternative investments can do any better. There are also costs involved in selling, such as taxes. If you die owning the guns, your heirs get a stepped-up basis, which could mean a huge tax saving when you have high-appreciation items that you are on record as owning, such as machine guns.

Also, you should separate the idea of owning the guns from the idea of shooting them. To a true collector, these are not 100% utilitarian items. You don't have to shoot them to justify owning them.

I have quite a few guns that I haven't shot in awhile, mostly because I have been busy with work and family. Hopefully when I retire (soon I hope!), I will have more time to spend at the range and reloading to keep me busy for some time to come. So instead of thinking about thinning the herd a bit, I'm looking forward to what the next addition will be to my collection!

At least that's the plan...

GE-Mini-Gun said:

So those that have done this in the past how did you do it?

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Just decided one day.. That, like yourself, hadnt shot some in decades. I was just time to let em go to someone who would appreciate them or actually use them instead of sitting in my safes gathering dust.

How did you do it?

I figure for the most part we all face or have faced that problem. When you have enjoyed the shooting sports for over 50 years you tend to accumulate a hell of a lot of guns. Some make it to the range more than others and some haven't been shot in decades. Over the years I did part with a few I simply really didn't care for or enjoy as much. However, more came in than ever went out. My intermediate solution was just buying another gun safe. I figure at my age the children, grandchildren and wife can keep what they want and sell the rest. I have no reason to part with any of it and adding a safe was a logical temporary fix.

Ron

Steve S. said:

First, financial advisers do not make money, the market makes money - your financial adviser is nothing more than an expensive vehicle to the market - your financial adviser will never beat the market, the market will always outperform your financial adviser.

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I can agree to a point. When my company sold there was a large payout. Already had a nice 401K. While I was at best OK with doing all the investing for my wife and I after retiring I was not really very good at it I also quickly figured out I had no real desire to start learning how to be good at it. We pay Brenda 1% annually and considering the returns she has gotten us I am more than happy. Then too at our age she knows we want no part of anything high risk. Anyway for those well adapted to investing more power to them but for us my solution was getting a good financial adviser to manage things. I never want to do it again.

Ron

At 76, I don't want to burden my wife with a gun collection and shelves of ammunition. I have passed guns on to family, traded some away for non-gun items, am considering putting some on consignment with an FFL who has sold guns for me in the past. Problem is, everytime I start to make a pile to sell, I remember why I like them and bought them in the first place and end up putting them back in the safes.

I’m not a good one to ask as I keep adding to the pile... I’m (hopefully) not going to downsize anytime soon.

Stay safe.

GE-Mini-Gun said:

So those that have done this in the past how did you do it?

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Most of the guns I've sold over the years I've placed on consignment at my favorite gunshop. My "favorite gunshop" hasn't always been the same one though - I'm 73 years old, and I've been into guns, shooting and hunting my whole life. So I've actually outlived a few gunshops.

Unless you really need the money, keep your guns. What's the rush? I'm 78 years old and have more guns than I will ever use or need (which has always been the case ever since I had rifles chambered in .30-06 and .22 rimfire and a 12 gauge shotgun). Look at them, hold them, shoot them and hunt with them but let your spouse and/or children be the ones to get rid of them.

On one hand, I don't want to have money tied up in guns I don't use, so I have no problem selling the ones I'm not attached to. On the other, my wish list is long and my accumulation outpaces my selling. At some point in my life, I may divest myself of all but my most regular shooters, but today is not that day.

GE-Mini-Gun said:

As of right now I could sell probably 90% of what I have and call it a day and not lose any sleep over it.

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Well , you seem to at a point of realization , so if you want to sell , sell.
For some years I felt that I could not part with any firearms - NEVER SELL was my standard. Then I got the hots for an old truck. I realized that I could liquidate a number of firearms , still be a gun guy , and acquire - with the proceeds - something else I had been wanting for a long time. I found that liquidating some carefully selected items was profitable and liberating - like you said , I could still sleep at night.

Now I still enjoy my firearms , and I own a '54 Chevy pick up with a Camaro front end and drive train.
Life is good.

I’m a charter member of the buy one sell one club, when I die there’s only one to get rid of

Every time I consider selling I take the gun to the range to be sure, and then I typically fall in love again and then revisit the same gun a couple years later. Only one recently that I know needs to go are the butler derringer and the 32 safety hammerless. That gun is too small for me to shoot but my daughters like it and it fits them well but they don’t have the hand strength to shoot it. Without it though I won’t ever have each major frame variation of S&W top breaks. It was cheap and it ain’t eating, so it can stick around.

Here’s my secret:

When one safe gets too full, I buy another safe.

I've probably sold a dozen or more guns over the last two years and bought only one or two. Most of the firearms I've sold were either multiples of a certain model or ones that were purchased because the price was too good to pass on. The only two that stand out were a S&W 19-3 that I owned for about 25 years, I put it away several years ago because of the escalating value. In the mean time, I bought two Ruger Security-Six revolvers that replaced the S&W 19-3's role in my collection, so I sold the 19-3 for more than I paid for both Rugers and then some. The other was a WASR10 AK47, it was a backup that I bought at a great price and like the S&W had appreciated in value greatly. I used to proceeds from the WASR to buy two leverguns, one of which is for sale on a local forum to offset the cost of the other.

No regrets on those sales. I still own several firearms and plan to hold them for some time but, I hope to sell the majority of them before they become a burden for wife to deal with.

AlexanderA said:

Also, you should separate the idea of owning the guns from the idea of shooting them. To a true collector, these are not 100% utilitarian items. You don't have to shoot them to justify owning them.

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Very good advice. Sometimes we simply want the things we like and, certainly in my case, spent a lifetime acquiring them. Stamp collectors don't use their stamps to mail envelopes, they just like having them for their own reasons and it's not merely for investment purposes. Coin collectors don't use their coins to buy things with, they just appreciate the history and idiosyncrasies associated with them.

I've always loved firearms of all types, starting with cap guns and bb guns I suppose, but I have no idea how or why I developed such a strong interest in them over time. I'm not a "collector" per se but I've collected a lot of guns over the past sixty years or so. There are the utilitarian ones (those needed for my le career; those needed for competition; those needed for self-defense; those needed for hunting, etc.) and there are the ones that just move the (at least my) spirit and stir the (at least my) soul.

Growing up relatively poor (I say relatively because there is poor; there is dirt poor and then there is subsistence living in Third World poverty-stricken places like Ethiopia) but being the oldest of nine in a low-income family meant sometimes taking mustard sandwiches to school for lunch and using salt on a brush to brush your teeth. But there is, potentially for some, an unfortunate downside to not having much growing up and that is becoming overly materialistic when you finally do have the means to buy "stuff". I don't like the idea of getting too attached to "things" and I'm mindful of how shallow and unfulfilling such thinking can be.

Right now, I'm doing research and documenting the worth of my things (guns, boats, fishing equipment, camping gear, reloading tools, camera outfit, books and on and on) so as not to unduly burden my wife and kids at the end of my days. But don't feel too sorry for them, there's lots of money they stand to realize with a little time and work on their part. On the other hand, if, God forbid, should my wife of 52 years precede me to the great hereafter, look at the mess I'll be left with, trying to sell laundry equipment, a sewing machine, a couple of Hoovers and a library of Keto diet and how to improve your life books.