The other side of the coin, though, is that the consignment seller who starts his auctions at a penny and no reserve does provide a pair of useful services: he moves product and his auctions do provide an empirical value for a particular gun, thus providing data which help establish (or confirm) what the market value for that make, model and caliber is.
The problem of deducing what the value is, is not so great in more common guns say, for example, a Remington 870 or a Winchester 94. There's a lot of them in all sorts of condition and caliber and determining a good starting price is relatively easy. On the other hand, the value of an obscure European maker's old sxs (or a Winchester M21 Duck) is harder to determine from comparable sales, because there just are not that many comparables. That, in turn, is a function of there being fewer of that gun to begin with and, perhaps more importantly, fewer people interested in buying that gun. In that regard, then, the consignment seller's penny-no reserve auction will shake out some value and move the gun. There are contexts where moving the gun is a prime consideration, say, e.g., closing out an estate.
It might be unfair to the seller, who might take a loss, but one has to determine whether one is into guns and shooting to be buying and selling guns at a profit, or because you like shooting and guns. If it's P&L, then getting attached to a favorite gun and getting bent out of shape over taking a loss and not having a favorite gun is irrelevant. Said another way, you have to decide whether you're in this for profit or fun.
I don't care if you're into "liking, collecting and shooting guns" or "in it for profit", a loss is a loss and it's not FUN! Just ask the $1,000,000 gun guy that was the basis of this post and he'll explain it to you.
SxS
