Need help, best way to sell old M1 military/CMP rifles

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Bill_Rights

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(I did do a search and did not see a thread on this. Also, I am not sure if this is the correct forum.)

I have a friend who is getting older and no longer shoots his old military rifles, preferring to stick to modern firearms for the limited uses he has. He wants to dispose of his collection in the most uhhhh... responsible way. He would sell them but doesn't really need the money. Maybe there is a good cause or organization out there to donate them to? What would make the most people the happiest?

I think the collection consists of mostly CMP rifles he got 30-40 years ago. They are probably older than that, maybe USG military issue at one time. One carbine for sure and another he calls a "sniper rifle". Some others. I could ask for a more detailed list, but don't expect serial #s, foundry stamp info and stuff right away.

What's the right way to sell these? This man is a lifetime member of NRA - does NRA have an office that handles this stuff, or a clearinghouse or something?

Should he return them to CMP? What's the story there now? I thought they we all out of original Garands and almost all components - selling recent-manufacture copies?

Should he just put them up for sale on GunBroker, Auction Arms or whatever? How to price them or set a lower floor?

Maybe they are more valuable broken down as pieces? Stocks, bolts, receivers, etc.?

As I say, he is not looking to milk every dollar out of these items. Just wants to do a good job of disposing of them so people get good use and appreciation out of them. No one in his family is interested enough to bother passing them down to. What's the right thing to do?

Oh, and there are a few foreign military firearms, too. One Japanese pistol. Not sure about the rest....
 
I don't know about selling them to just anyone, but I would personally be interested and I have a C&R license, so he could ship them right to me. What prices are we talking here? I'm specifically asking about a garand and the pistol if it's a nambu. PM, of course. If he doesn't want to ship, I'm just one state below you.
 
NRA barely takes classified ads any more, I doubt they would do much to help disperse a collection. I also doubt CMP would be interested. But it would not cost anything to ask both.

The easy way would be to consign them to a volume auction house.
Rock Island Auctions even has a tv show now.

Individual sale at the www auction sites would work if he - or you - care to fool with it.

This board has a sale section but you would have to dream up prices from somewhere and still make shipping arrangements.

Part them out?
No.
 
You should post pictures of them in the classifieds, on this forum. Bunch of honest people here. I'm sure you would get out of them what they are worth. Plus he will know they are going to a good home.
 
I would almost figure that the NRA would accept donations and then either raffle them off or auction them away. I'm sure they could use the money.
 
O.P. gathering info....

Thank you for your responses.

I think the "sniper" rifle will be one of these: http://olive-drab.com/od_other_firearms_rifle_m1c-m1d.php. I am asking the owner which.

OK, one solid recommendation NOT to part them out.

Asked about identity of Japanese pistol....

Photos? Probably have to wait till next weekend unless owner wants to motivate to do it before I can help....
 
Don't part them out. No reason to do so.

As for selling them, there are two basic choices depending on exactly what he needs.

There is the "easy way" to sell them, and there is the "highest value" way to sell them.

The "easy way" is to sell them as a lot to someone who will then resell them individually. It's easy because he only needs to find one buyer and make one transaction. The bad news is this will bring in much less money than selling them individually will bring.

If he sells them as a lot he could talk to local gun shops and auction houses.

It's not the way I'd sell them, if it were me, but it is an option.

The other way to sell them is to sell them individually. He'll need good pictures of each gun and then can place ads on the big gun auction sites, or web forums. It will take more time to advertise, make deals, and then ship the guns, but he will make noticeably more per gun. That's the way I'd do it, if it were me.


There is no reason to part them out. Unless he absolutely needs every last penny, and there are some rare parts in the first place, it's best to keep each gun together.
 
If his "sniper" rifle is what you linked to that is a pretty valuable bit of history. If you do donate them besure you get real up to date values on them.

If he chooses to sell there are many ways to sell the rifles where he can get the max out of his collection....one of them IS NOT taking them to a local gun shop.

Do reasearch here, he could be sitting on a grand kids college education....or the sale of the rifles the money could be split up to different charities if he so wishes...spread the good around.
 
Sell them on Gunbroker.

Get an inexpensive digital camera.

Take lots of pictures.

Post the pictures to Photobucket.

Include links to the pics in the description on Gunbroker.
(Gunbroker only allows you four pics hosted on the Gunbroker site, so it is VERY important that you take many more pics, and host them on Photobucket)

Get a large shipping box for each rifle from Fulton-Armory.com
The boxes cost $35 each, shipped to you.
I can't stress how important this is.
If you don't have a proper shipping container, you are marooned.

Then sit back, and monitor your auctions.

Long guns ship through the Post Office, and you do NOT have to pay for any special services.
Just ship Priority Mail.
Shipping will be about $50 insured if you ship all the way across the country.
Somewhat less for shorter distances.

Guns older than 50 years are C&R eligible, and you can ship those gun directly to persons who can furnish you with a copy of their C&R license.
 
I'm with dc.fireman. If your friend doesn't need the money, he could donate the lot to a local club or range for them to raffle or auction off as a fundraiser. My club would welcome a donation from such a patron. I'm not suggesting my club, of course, as it's here in PA; just making the point that there is likely a club near your friend that would be very grateful for his generosity. And the proceeds would go to the cause of furthering the very values that led to his building a collection in the first place.
 
Excellent excellent replies! Thank you.

I am suggesting the owner join THR so you can deal with him yourself. However, this may be a bit much since he is scaling back, which is the reason he is disposing of the guns to begin with.

Someone made the point about a charitable donation, and the need to still value the guns fairly. I think you mean, so my friend can claim a tax deduction for the donation..... (No need to answer, if that was the point)
 
CMP is not out of Garands, they do not sell copies

If you want to donate them why not donate them back to CMP????

Donating back to CMP is tax deductable and all proceeds go to the promotion of shooting sports with the emphasis on youth.
E-mail them here and it will get forwarded to the proper person - [email protected]
If you ask I bet they will even send you shipping boxes with prepaid address lables
 
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We would be intrested in offering a quote on what we would buy the rifles for.

If you would like to e-mail us a list of the firearms with an estimate on condition we can get a cash buy price back to you within 24 hours.

[email protected] is the e-mail.

Thanks!
 
You need to get someone to value them, then just put an ad in the local newspaper. It's no different than selling a used car.
 
You could always sell them and donate the cash proceeds to a charity of his choice... I for one would be VERY interested in purchasing one :)
 
May I suggest a worthy cause??? The Mr.Scott needs an M1 but is flat broke after having major dental work done and his safe is being over run with commie guns, thus needs some American whoop@ss to keep those pinko guns in check, fund.
 
Did you find out about the pistol? And how much does he want for an m1? I guess these questions are all presumptuous, because we haven't seen the whole collection in list form. I think you're onto something with getting the guy to post. Getting him to just jump on this thread would be better since everyone already knows where it is and what it's about.
And I do accept donations to the "please help me complete my WW2 collection" fund. It's not a 501c3 yet, but stranger things have happened.
 
The NRA has a program called Firearms for Freedom. His gift could either be auctioned off to help fund NRA programs, or donated to the National Firearms Museum. It may or may not be a tax deductable contribution.Here is a link to their website. http://www.nrafff.com/

Sounds like a good option to me.
 
If that M1 is a C or a D then it could be worth quite a bit of money....me personally think that museums are great and all, but these things are ment to be used...not just touched with white gloves.

It sounds like he wants to help out some charities...best way for that to happen is to sell them on the open market...to the highest bidder, then take the money he gets from the sale and do what he wish with it. That will without any shadow of a doubt give him the best return....any broker buying the lot will always...ALWAYS...shoot below market value, they have to make money also.

Let us know what he ends up doing....sounds like your friend has a big heart.
 
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