Where to sell large lot of firearms?

[quadrafire]

I have a neighbor that is trying to decide how or where to sell a collection of firearms, Family inheritance.
There are approx 50 long guns/shotguns and 20-30 handguns.

Not sure if they would want to hassle with individual sale??

Thoughts?

[pianoman9701]

Start with a classified on here. There are members who would be interested in a big load of guns. Maybe Gunbroker.com, too?

[Blacktail Sniper]

Auction?  Since he doesn't want to mess around with individual sales, the commission may be worth it to just to avoid that.

Quick google search turned these folks up:

https://www.owensauction.com

[quadrafire]

Start with a classified on here. There are members who would be interested in a big load of guns. Maybe Gunbroker.com, too?

I'll chat with him about that. There are some nice pieces I wouldn't mind having, but the wife gave me the evil eye when I brought it up......

[quadrafire]

Auction?  Since he doesn't want to mess around with individual sales, the commission may be worth it to just to avoid that.

Quick google search turned these folks up:

https://www.owensauction.com

Hmmm....That's only about a mile from our house.

[baldopepper]

I have a brother who owned a gun/pawn shop for years and they bought large lots of firearms like you are describing.  Only advice I could give you would be to have your neighbor get them appraised first and then decide if he wants to sell them separately or as a lot.  I can tell you that dealers who would buy the whole lot will take a very big margin on them and are not always forthcoming about some that may have a great resale value. He often times bought a large lot just to get the 2 or 3 that were most valuable but usually only bought at the value of the 2 or 3 he knew would move easily. Can leave a lot of money on the table if he/she is not careful.

[Dale Gribble]

I think booker auction out in eltopia outside of pasco has done things like that in the past. Estate sale firearm type auctions.

[quadrafire]

Only advice I could give you would be to have your neighbor get them appraised first and then decide if he wants to sell them separately or as a lot.

Guess that is another question. Are there firearm appraisers near Spokane? or just using online sources to see current values?

[baldopepper]

Only advice I could give you would be to have your neighbor get them appraised first and then decide if he wants to sell them separately or as a lot.

Guess that is another question. Are there firearm appraisers near Spokane? or just using online sources to see current values?

I can't answer that for sure, but I suspect they could start online and work from there.  Perhaps take a couple you suspect may have good value (older with low serial numbers and in good condition) and research them first to see what they come up with.  I think there are members on here who could probably give you a pretty good starting point on some. I know my brother sold some for several thousand dollars that I sure wouldn't have known would be worth that much. He's retired now and I don't think he keeps in touch with the values much anymore. I know he had a kid walk in with a colt peacemaker pistol who wanted to sell if for a couple hundred bucks.  He took pity on him and helped him eventually sell it for over $100,000 and the gun eventually was traded for a ranch in Montana!! 

[Stein]

What if you called up a local gun shop that was centrally located and worked some sort of deal for a one day sale?  They might go for it if the buyers used them for the transfer and a small fee, maybe 10-20 per gun for them to appraise it and hold the sale.  Post flyers on this site and Craigslist for free and you would probably sell most of them in one run.

[quadrafire]

Wow, that is a cool story.

[nutntoit]

You can also try putting a post on Spokaneguntrader.com. There are plenty of guys on there that would be interested in a big lot of guns. You can also get one of these books. This is what the pawn shops use to make offers on guns. If he has any over/under shotguns he wants to part with individually let me know. I am in Spokane.

https://www.amazon.com/38th-Blue-Book-Gun-Values/dp/1936120909/ref=dp_ob_title_bk?dpID=51lrXjUNWNL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

Consignment is also an option, there are a few shops in town that do that.

[fly-by]

Before approaching anyone he should figure out what he has.

He should register on Gunbroker and use the advanced search function that shows completed auctions.  Sort by number of bids, then look for transactions that actually took place (reserve met).  These are real world prices of actual transactions.  Once he knows what he has he can tally everything to come up with a "one at a time" price.  Then he should discount the lot x% for a bulk sale.

[NRA4LIFE]

You know where I live, just saying...

[Skillet]

If he wants to take it on as a side hustle and put the time and effort into it, he can get the highest dollar per gun by selling each one individually.  Realize there will be a lot of work in collecting payment, arranging shipping, dealing with dissatisfied customers (auction site sales), etc.  With that many guns, there will be some hiccups.  Selling the low-value guns will take more time and hassle than the higher value stuff. 

If the goal is to just turn iron into cash as fast as possible, bundle them up and take to a pawn shop.  They'll basically steal them from him so they can earn the profit of the retail sale themselves, but he'll be done with it in an afternoon.

There's likely decent auctioneers that could handle it for him, and get much better money returned to the family than the pawn shop deal.

Just depends on what he thinks his time is worth, and how he perceives the risk of selling them individually.