I have some rifles and shotguns that I no longer have an interest in--and no one in the family does either. I would like to sell them. What would you suggest?

I don't care to display at a gun show with the public.

Has anyone had luck with auction houses with the more common firearms? Is it worth the effort for items in the 500.00 to 5000.00 range?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,

Hal,
I've had very good luck with Morphy's. If you would like the name of a contact person -
pm me or email at schmjh@pacbell.net.
Steve

To me auction houses have become a slimy rip-off. I wasn't that long ago the hammer fall was the price you paid plus tax and perhaps shipping. The take from the auction house was between 25-40%. That percentage hasn't changed. But now there is a buyer's premium. That will run the buyer somewhere between 15 and 30%. Then pay the tax on that. You may also be charged over phone fees, absentee buyer fees, internet auction fees, etc. Seems to me the internet should make it cheaper with reduced overhead (ie. no in house auction, less rent and on and on). AND when I've challenged the auctioneers they jump up and down claiming no one is getting rich!
REALLY!! What this is really doing is creating an artificial inflation on the price of each gun sold in an auction.

Well I haven't done it yet but sit down with a gun you would like to sell figure out a price you get from the auction and figure out what the auctioneer gets. 50-50, 50-60, 55-65?

There has to be better ways to keep the money in the hands of the seller instead of the middle man.

I have sold about fifty through Gunrunner. All but a couple were below $1,500.00. They were what I wanted to cull out of the herd. It was very easy from my end. If you have anything interesting I suggest you give them a head up. Sold a rather rare Remington 3200 which they did not know was one of less than hundred. Once they amended the description the bidding took off. Sold for just under 3 K which was a fair price. But auctions are always a bit of a gamble. You take your chances.

I believe Morphy's seller's fee is 20%. Most consignment fees at gunships are at least 25%.

We have a local auctioneer (Orrauctions) that has a big (nearly 1000 lots) ammo and gun auction going on right now. Strictly an internet auction. They charge 10% to buyers and 2.9% to consignors for internet fees. But they give no information about the consignors, so I guess it is local pickup only or shipping, FFL info, etc. needs to be worked out with them. No returns. No refunds, and items must be off their premises in seven days. Descriptions are minimal and by picture only!

Why not sell them yourself? Plenty of internet platforms to sell from, including here.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts and your PM's. I will get some good photos and test the waters of auction alternatives.

Best wishes,

If the auction house charges the buyer he will bid less. Ridiculous fees charged to sell is not right. If you have a thousand dollar gun and the buyer offers 800 because of a 20% fee and you pay 25% you get $600. Why not sell it here or another site and discount what you think it is worth and it should sell. You have to ship no matter what anyway. The only real extra work is taking pictures and answering a few questions. No reason you cannot say "as is" also. I am sure many of us have guns we bought years ago and have not shot it since then.

- I have had good results selling shotguns on Gunbroker.com. They charge about 4%.

Hal:

Like you, I'm at a stage of life where I'm trying to significantly reduce the contents of my safes because of lack of interest of my children. I've used Gunbroker on quite a number of occasions (more than 30), always for guns valued under $2,000. I've seen more valuable guns listed, but don't know how well they sell.

Because these were all relatively low value guns, I always listed them with a starting bid of $0.01 and without a reserve. I've been disappointed in the price I realized only once and then only about $75.00 or so. I was positively surprised on a number of occasions; a couple of times by 20% or more.

Take lots of good photos, describe the gun fully and make sure you include any warts in the photos. I do that and I've never had a buyer complain.

I've also listed some in the Free Classifieds section on the 24hourcampfire.com web site. Some have sold, some not. They were priced in the same range of prices realized for similar guns sold on Gunbroker. The site is probably going to be more successful for items under $1,000 than over and tends more toward modern firearms, particularly semi-automatics of any type, than sxs or o/u shotguns.

Hope this helps.

Rem