He WILL NOT get 5 figures at auction..., . Gun buyers go to auctions looking for BARGAINS and usually find them and they hate reserve prices. Look on GB at how many guns go unbid upon because the seller is starting at what they feel the gun is worth to them not allowing market forces to set the bids.
Agreed!
Lord Save Us ..., from the sellers who do just enough research to confirm their high price, if they do any research at all.....
I can't tell you how many times some person has posted at auction a used black powder gun, starting at at $.01 but having a reserve price that's hidden and is too high, listing it again and again and again (hello if the auction keeps ending $200 below your reserve, maybe the reserve is too high). Then there's those that start their auction at the price
they have convinced themselves is "fair", and it's already overpriced. A lot of them have asked around a tiny bit, and found the "going price" for what they want to sell is simply not what they can imagine, and go ahead and post it high.
I've seen used, some in good shape (but not factory fresh in the old box), and some in not so good shape Brown Bess repro muskets, Japanese or Italian type, priced at a few hundred dollars under the factory fresh new Italian repros. The new repro is currently in production, so has a warranty and available replacement parts....and the person at the auction is ignoring the fact that a new in box kit cost less than what they ask for their used Bess. So either they are stubborn, or they are trying to take advantage of somebody..., especially when the going rate for a musket in very good used condition is even less than the new kits, and non-Japanese/Non-Italian muskets sell for for about $200 less than that.
I've even seen folks post stuff that means either they are stupid OR..., they are swindlers.
For example, a military musket repro with a full stock (when the seller had it restocked the person doing the work didn't know much about it; they didn't leave room on the barrel for the socket bayonet...lol...
). Wanting every bit of top dollar for it, and when messaged there was a problem, they get IRATE,
almost like the petulant child found with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.
Then there are the poor folks who I am pretty sure got taken at some local auction or on something like Craigslist. That "original" revolver, is actually a mediocre antiquing job on a modern reproduction, and it's not worthless, but it IS worth less than what the person paid for it. BUT they will post it very high, trying to recover their money. Hoping some other sap will fall for the same thing they did.
Or the "antique dealers" or "pawn shops" who write something like, "
Don't know much about guns so I can't answer questions. Am told by the seller for whom I'm listing this that this is an original [fill in the blank] ". Makes me wonder how often that's an excuse to offer a rip-off price and claim ignorance as a defense if they get caught.
I actually encountered a guy a little more than 20 years ago who would buy repro revolvers at yard sales and such. Or once firing but now with a broken part or two from gun shows. Always for very little cash. He'd buff off off the modern markings and bury them at his local pond. He'd come back to the spot where he anchored them and they'd be all rusty and such. Sometimes he let them lay as long as two years in the sand and muck. (With all that corrosion, it was pretty much impossible for the lay person to spot the obvious signs of a repro.) Then he'd advertise them as recovered from the creek or river near [fill in the blank of a famous CW battle], as if it was dropped by some poor soldier or officer. His attitude was
Caveat Emptor, and if he scammed a buyer, so what.... the internet and posting of photos pretty much ended that guy's racket....
LD
