I came within 24 hrs of going with Rock Island to handle the sale of about 60 firearms for me. At the last minute, I discovered they wanted just too much and would notserve all my purposes.
I would suggest that if you are looking to sell modern and fairly generic guns, that you should probably go with someone local to you and with a much lower auctioneer's commission. This is especially true if you have lots of peripheral stuff (sights, cases, reloading presses and gear, safes, magazines, etc, etc.). Most of the local outfits have out-of-state exposure on the internet, so they get very competitive and prices will be very good. RIA is not a go-to auction for the more generic stuff, like modern pistols, ARs, or even non-vintage bolt rifles.
Where RIA lost me was that after we had agreed to the hammer price commission, they were also going to charge a very hefty pick up fee (they are only 2 hrs away), and they would take nothing but the guns, leaving me with having to dispose of everything else, which was very substantial.
The local auctioneer we chose had extensive experience and most, but not all, of it with firearms as his specialty. He cleared out all of the relevant materials and organized them into coherent lots, matched guns with boxes, sights, magazines, etc. In the end, he did a spectacular job for about 60% of what RIA would charge, plus he handled twice as much stuff when all the reloading, ammo, etc was included.
If you are a prospective buyer, as Steve said, they will call you if you need more info with that gun in hand, but know for sure what questions to ask. They do have a bit of a reputation for "not seeing" things that you would want to know about, but did not know to ask. I have bought from them and will do so again, but always with an extra dose of caution. I try to have a friend check out, in person, any gun that I interested in.
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