Well I have played the game both ways some guns I have paid for evaluations and some I just take a chance. Not real smart but you pay your money and take your chances. On guns I expect to go over 1000 pounds I have paid someone over there to evaluate the gun for me and act as my agent if I decide to bid. Most do not get a bid from me after the evaluation. In person evaluation is without a doubt the way to go if you can do it. Other trained eyes will always find more than my eyes will find. Even more so when you get gun lust and just fall in love with a gun.

A few guns that I thought would bring less than 500 pounds I either bid blind or just placed a bid and hoped. Total purchase to date is three in this group. One ended up being a major project case and was not one of my better buys. Heck it cost more to get it here, to find out it was a mistake, that it cost to buy. Shipping multiple guns, to decrease the per gun cost, is the only way to go.

In the guns I paid for evaluation one ended up being a mistake. One real mistake and that was a repaired stock done long ago which cracked when it was being bent. Not a error in the eval as much as a perfect repair five of us missed and then it failed. It has been repaired again and only hurts when I look at it.

I have used Dig and find his evaluations to be top notch. In fact his advice saved me from one major mistake that would have cost several time the guns real value before I was done. Sometimes a 120 year old gun is the worlds worst money pit. Fox one thing and then find two or three others more to fix.