Why doesn't this ever happen to ME??

I would have contacted the owners family. He might have been saving them for his kids or grandkids..... What if the shoe was on the other foot?

how can he register them?

What would be the right thing!

This was no 'find'...this was a mistake by the family made, who would have figured their Dad or Grandfather would have hidden such items.

Sadly he did not live long enuff to pass them on.

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edited because I was at a flash point vs a thought disagreement.

Sadly in todays world it probably won't happen. Wonder if we'll ever find out.

Maybe in Wa, he doesn't have to register them. If that happened in NH you sure wouldn't.

In NH I can sell a hand gun to anyone else with a NH Drivers Lic face to face no papers... it is legal.

However unless I have known the buyer about 5 years or more I would do a FFL transfer.. Not all states have a gun registry.

Yes, Mike Sr., you've done good by advocating that they notify the family.

Anything else that you say is pretty worthless at this point, as you've stated your position on the matter, and it is certainly the right thing to do, depending on the situation of the estate sale.

Right now, any further posts along those lines are effectively pissing into the wind.

Go grab something to drink and calm down.

Whoa - a little more thought and a little less venom!

1) This wasn't a yard-sale. Often, estate auctions are "anonymous" - the deceased had no heirs, or a conscious decision to sell everything as a lot was made.

2) The B-I-L had this "luck" because he put in the leg work to scout out deals, kick tires, and go the extra effort to find the hidden gem. He "earned" and deserved his fruits.

If he had bought this from an elderly gentleman who made a mistake, then of course that's the right thing to do. But we don't know that. It's better to get the facts and know what they are before resorting to sneering and profanity like above.

When I go to great lengths to shop hard, scout auctions, etc., sometimes I find great deals (not quite like that, though), but it isn't "free" - effort is required.

Remember what goes around comes around. Sometimes it even bites you in the butt. Its better to have good karma than bad karma.

I dunno... The file cabinets were sold including the contents.. The contents could have been looked thru. The contents could have been cleaned out as easy before the sale..

Maybe the right thing to do is look into it and maybe it ain't anyone bee's wax..

I used to buy repair and sell cars with a used car dealers lic. Sometimes these cars had unexpected contents. Never guns, but camera's, jewelry, and all sorts of things.

To get an idea just go to any junk yard and look around awhile..

Rickomatic, it may be that your brother-in-law has a legal right to keep these guns, but the proper thing to do would be to contact the family about them and see if they want them back. If not, he should at least offer a fair price for them.

I agree with Mike Sr.

"Yes, Mike Sr., you've done good by advocating that they notify the family.

Anything else that you say is pretty worthless at this point, as you've stated your position on the matter, and it is certainly the right thing to do.

Right now, any further posts along those lines are effectively pissing into the wind.

Go grab something to drink and calm down."
=======================

FOR ME: this was not an honorable acquistion....

As for the calming down I am with a bowl of SPUMONI...

hmmm, a lot of food for thought...

Buying 2 file cabinets at an estate sale means you're buying the cabinets and the contents. IIRC, people have an opportunity to look at the items for sale prior to the actual auction. I know when they clean out storage units for extensive non-payment you can get boxes and sealed trunks. You bid on the trunk and get whatever is inside it. I don't think the buyers are at fault for getting the two weapons, it's more a matter that the company that contracted to do the estate sale didn't do their job properly and maximize the profit for their clients by thoroughly inspecting the inventory they had. JMHO.

BTW: First post. I'm glad I found this site. Hello, everyone.

Mike Sr, Auctions are just that way... I bought cars at auctions and found things in cars.. items of some value, and whom ever didn't bother to clean out the car, or fix the car for that matter.

Once at a farmers auction I bought a box of books mostly on old tools and woods lore. 6 months later i cracked one of the those books and found (5) 20 dollar bills each one a silver certificate.

Once I read of an auction where a man bought a string of beads for his wife. These were a song at a price like 5 maybe 6 bucks.

The man had no idea these were not plastic, but his wife knew they were amber. So they decided to get them appraised, and when they did it was discovered that these amber beads were Josephines beads of Napolens fame!

At auctions you get what you get, just like in e-bay.

I don't judge what others do, and so far no one said 'a right thing' won't be done.

You don't even know if the old ticker has any family. I dammed well dont.

It's an auction. You buy a lot and what you get is what you get. If they were very concerned about it they would have gone through the contents before the auction.

With that said, I believe my new home page will be .us. I've noticed more and more hateful posts here and it is getting tiresome. Not to mention any names but the poor speller in this thread needs to grow up.

Perhaps grandpa kicked the bucket and the family found the guns and didn't know what to do with them, so they stuck 'em in a cabinet and auctioned it off.



yeah, I guess that's not too likely is it.

I'd simply enjoy my new property.

If you bought a car from an auction and found out the motor's blown, that's your problem as all sales are final. I'd say that goes both ways.

If the family and/or auction company were too lazy to check the contents before the sale they've proven that they're only into the quick sale and removal. Chances are excellent that if you gave back the guns they'd only end up back on the auction block.

Auctions are usually SOLD AS IS.

If the family failed to clean out the drawers, oh well.

Honestly, knowing the input of half of the members on here, I would not have mentioned it. I know better than to tell half the things I do for criticism. At least it keeps me coming back online and enjoying the site.

I went with my B-I-L to an autobody place, he was looking at having a car painted. The guy was working on an old Ford pickup he was getting ready to paint, took the tail light assemblies out and noticed some stuff up in the holes behind the lights, had my B-I-L reach in (longer arms) pulled out a plastic bag that had a Glenfield Malin Model 60 and some sort of take-down .22 (barrel unscrewed and fit inside the stock). He sold the take-down one cheap to my B-I-L for retreiving them.

I should add here: The body repairman said the truck was purchased at an auto auction. (It was his, not a clients).

It was an estate auction not a garage sale. Obviosly no one cared enough to check inside for anything of value. These auctions are as is and sometimes entire lots sight unseen. It is called luck of the draw.

I do not see how there was any moral or otherwise wrong doing on the part of the brother.

The family either didn't exist or care enough to go through the deceased's belongings. The auction was.... "you get this file cabinet and everything in it." That was the deal made; I'm just failing to see the problem here.

how can he register them?

Click to expand...

Why would he want to?

-T