Unless you have something unusual or really high end you could probably skip the appraisal and just check completed auctions on Gunbroker and/or buy the blue book of guns. I paid for an appraisal on 15 guns in my father in laws estate and the guy basically just went through the blue book for the value. The condition of the gun is what is subjective. Is it 98% or 95% etc....? So far I've found that the only way to get the blue book value is list on a national site like gun broker and be patient.