What is the best and most trouble free way to sell an "estate" of firearms?

[Rule3]

Please do not ask me about what or how many are for sale.

I am trying to determine the best way to sell these and of course get a fair price. Taking them to a local dealer is easy, but of course you get killed on the price. I can sell on the auction sites but what a a lot of time and work (pictures) e mails, shipping etc) I do not wish to become a full time auction site seller.
There may be a local auction company I can contact but that is iffy. Some are worth above average prices not just run of the mill guns.

I have of course bought and sold guns but are there companies that buy in "bulk" so to speak?

Any ideas appreciated.

 

[roadchoad]

"Best" and "Most trouble free" are sort of mutually exclusive, especially if you define "Best" as "Garnering the highest price." A local auction house is your best bet, or find an FFL who sells on GB and have them do the leg work via selling on consignment.

 

[bikerdoc]

Bulk buyers are essentially buying at wholesale so they can resell at retail.
liquidating an estate is a pain, no mater the method
Our Trading post is free and as long as you comply with the rules probably the most profitable.

 

[Dean1818]

Gunbroker is who I would recommend

You can autolist until sold

 

[buntline]

I'm in nearly the exact same position as the OP, and the very best advice I can give is not to get in too much of a hurry. Other estate matters also take a lot of time, and one tends to want to rush things, but time spent properly disposing of a lot of guns in a manner that brings a decent price is not only quite profitable (after all, gun shops do it for a living), but after one relaxes a bit, putting them in good shape, taking pictures and evaluating them and creating a good online listing is rather pleasurable, at least to me.

After making an offer to family and friends who thought they should get very special deals, I decided to slow down and enjoy the process. By the time I'm done, I will know each gun intimately and the reason I want to keep or sell it....Joe

 

[Furncliff]

Google...auction companies specializing in guns

 

[Rule3]

I actually considered applying for a FFL so I could at least ship stuff. The price is less than what I would have to pay a FFL/Gunship in commission or whatever.

I did work for the State Govt and I really do not want to deal with the Feds. Nothing to hide but the hassle of audits and such kinda nixed that idea

Yes I can sell on the forums and or GB, just was trying to find a easier way. But as mention easy will not generate the best prices.

I do not want to do Gun Shows either,

 

[Speedo66]

You can also try Armslist. They have a local site for each state, so it's possible you could sell to locals without shipping or dealing with FFL fees if your state allows no document sales to private parties.

It's a very easy site to post pictures to, and it's free.

http://www.armslist.com/classifieds/florida/all

Now, whatta' ya' got, and how many? lol

 

[grogetr]

Check with local auction house to see if they do gun auctions sometimes. A local one here has an general auction every week and last week had guns from 2 estates and a few more that people just wanted to get rid of. They had a lot of people there for the guns and seemed to do well.

 

[Teachu2]

Hire a local auction company and buy me a plane ticket. Every auction I have attended sold every gun for far above market price!

 

[.455_Hunter]

My favorite LGS does bulk consignments all of the time. They will:

- assist in pricing, especially if the seller is unsure of value (like an elderly widow).

- put the guns on display, show them to potential customers, secure them at night.

- handle all background check requirements for legal sale.

- take 15% of the sale price as the fee.

At least 50% of their sales are from consignments. Almost all of my gun transfers [excluding family and close friends (pre-July 2013)] have been done through this shop without issue.

 

[g.willikers]

Check with Drury's Guns.
They buy and take on consign, both.
http://www.durysguns.com/
I've had no direct experience with them, just know them from their conversations on Guntalk.
If you'd rather not mess with shipping, there must be a trustworthy, large store that consigns near you, somewhere.

 

[ford8nr]

My brother was in a situation that he had to liquidate his gun collection. He contacted Rock Island Auctions. They came, inventoried, transported, advertised and sold them. He got a fair price with little hassle.

 

[dogtown tom]

Rule3 .... are there companies that buy in "bulk" so to speak?

That would be pretty much any gun dealer.

If a "company" is interested in buying your estate guns sight unseen its pretty doubtful that you'll get top dollar......expect to get very low balled.

Consider inviting a handful of dealers to submit sealed bids. They would need an opportunity to view and inspect the guns.

Often, large estates will group firearms into "lots". If you have 200 guns, divide them into lots of five. Some dealers will be more interested in specific guns and unwilling (or financially unable) to buy or bid on the entire estate.

 

[redneck2]

If you want the easy way out for a local dealer to sell them, you're gonna have to let them make some money. When's the last time you went to work but didn't expect to get paid?

Until Goodwill gets into the gun business, I don't think you're gonna find a charity outfit willing to do the work.

Problem is, it's takes a certain amount of time and effort. If that's put into a $400 gun, it slices out a big chunk. On a $30,000 car, it's a small percentage.

Or, do the work yourself as charity.

 

[Carne Frio]

One method that I heard of locally was to send a list
of the available guns to area gun clubs, ranges and
dealers. Tell them what the prices are and only do face
to face sales. Auctions and consignment sales work, but
you will take a loss. A friend of mine told me about
this and the widow ended up making quite a lot on a
70 gun collection.

 

[joem1945]

If it's legal in you state find a good auctioneer if you want to move a few firearms. If the auction house does firearm auctions and advertizes, get's a good crowd, sometimes the prices will surprise you. In my state the auctioneer acts as a agent for the seller like it's a private sale. As far as the gun club thing, the club I used to belong to had so many cheapskates they wouldn't offer much for firearms.

 

[jrdolall]

You can approach it in a couple of ways.

Sell them individually either FTF or online. This will get you the most money. It will also take a lot of time and work and headaches dealing with, you know, people.

Sell them to a dealer and know you are taking a bath. The dealer has to make a profit and you have to understand that. He can't give you the actual value of the gun and then break even plus he has money tied up.
Find an individual that will make you an offer on the entire lot. I have done that a couple of times (15-18 guns) but I still don't give actual value because there are always a few guns I want and a few I don't care anything about.
Either way you probably will not get what you think the guns are worth. If time is no issue then online sales are the way to go.

 

[243winxb]

Selling Firearms

Get a FFL and sell on gunbroker for best profit, least hassle. But then you need to know a million federal & state laws that may change monthly. Local public auction is the easy way. They take 20% some sell for a low price.http://www.horstauction.com/guns.html Click on the blue description for photo of item.

 

[hso]

Quick means a bulk sale to a dealer with the lowest return to the estate.

Highest return to the estate is the slowest and requires you to sell each piece.

Between those extremes are auction houses. Find the ones with the best reputation for promoting the sale and maximizing the realized prices and trust them to do their job (they make more the better the sale prices are anyway).

 

[Blade First]

No need to give in and get less than fair market value. There has to be someone in your area you can trust to inventory, photograph and fairly evaluate your collection. Those individual steps are all important.

I've appraised many collections. Without exception, the owner [or executor] has been pleasantly surprised at the market value of the arms because they had any number of "experts" [i.e., opportunistic leeches] whispering numbers in their ears that were less than accurate.

Be patient...and be sure to compensate whomever helps you appropriately.

If you want to PM me, I'll be happy to help. I've no idea where you reside but that's not really important...not soliciting business, but can give you guidelines.

 

[mnrivrat]

The bottom line is that if you want top dollar you will have to sell them yourself via internet, local ads, or whatever.
If you want someone else to sell them for you they are going to want to be paid for doing it.

Your time - somebody elses time - Your choice.

 

[newfalguy101]

Around here in person auctions almost always bring at or near high retail prices, except on dedicated GUN auctions, where most items sell for what I consider "about right" prices.

There is a local auctioneer that has been at it for years and knows just about SQUAT about guns ( LOL ) BUT, and this is important, he KNOWS auctions and how to work a crowd, and consistently gets mid to high retail, oh and he gets around 15-20%..........and earns it!!

 

[jamesinalaska]

If the firearms collection is extraordinary and contains remarkable pieces due to rarity or age or function (machine guns) you must get the opinion of someone trusted who has firearms knowledge. Even a small collection from a simple collector could have several pieces worth thousands of dollars, like some single action army colts.

I caution the original poster not to blindly give a firearms collection (I take it the original poster is a trustee of the estate) to an average auction house as they may be naive about such things.

I recommend the original poster speak with a few owners of the local gun stores in his area and describe the situation. If she is comfortable, the poster can NEGOTIATE a sales premium with the local gun store, and now-a-days many gun stores also sell online.

 

[DHJenkins]

It's really not that much work to sell guns online, especially since you won't be the one who actually ships it.

Ending all of your auctions on the same day will keep it from being a daily grind and writing a "fill in the blanks" description template will keep the typing to a minimum on each listing.

Putting "all firearms are shipped on <insert day of the week>" in the auction will insure that you only have to go to your FFL once a week, not every day.

Most purchases are paid for by USPS money order, which has to be mailed, so you have a few days to box it up after you've found a buyer.

It takes me (including photos, listing & boxing) about 20 minutes per item. An auction house charges anywhere from 10%-25%, so on a $500 gun, that's a $50-$125 auction fee. If I do three $500 guns, that's $150-$375 I'm saving/making *per hour* vs. an auction house.

Also, if you let an auction house handle it, you have to take them all over there and bring all the ones that didn't meet your reserve back, unlike online sales (it just sits in your house). If the auction house doesn't usually have a lot of guns or doesn't do some serious advertising, there won't be a crowd for them, unlike selling them online, where everyone is looking for guns.

I don't know about you, but I think $150-$375/hour is decent money for very little effort. Even if you're twice as slow, that's still $75-$187.50/hr.