retirement and selling off collections

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can14

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I was talking to a friend of mine today, and the subject came up of retirement and making his collection smaller. He collects military and commercial guns.
The idea being that you only need to keep the favorite stuff and sell the rest.
What has everyone's experiences been doing this? Do you sell on the net, consignment, auction sales or gun shows? Everyone has an opinion on the best
way to do it.
I know that each one has its issues. One experience I had on consignment was they gave a deal to one of their best customers at my expense, needless to say
I didn't return.
 
Gun shows work well and you get a good price, but you need to be ready to do the work associated with booking a table, transportation, setting up, tearing down, etc. Internet(EE) sales are good too, but again there is an effort to file ads, post pics, respond to inquires, deal with a variety of "customer issues" and packing and shipping. As you indicate consignment sales eliminate a lot of the overhead and are convenient, but you must pay your dealer's commission and thus take less yourself.
 
It depends on how much effort you want to put into selling. Auction sale will take care of the collection quickly but the auction house will take around %20 of the selling price. Consignments offer a slower rate of sale but again you don't need to do much work. One on one sales (shows, net or in person) will yield the best prices but consume the most time.
 
Everything I see at auctions seem to go for very good prices , way more than what I would pay and you get rid of it all at once.
 
At a gun show with reasonable prices. From both ends of the table it's not a bad way to go. I'd MUCH rather talk to and buy from an old fellow who is simply right-sizing, who knows his guns, their history, etc, than from a dealer who buys from estates and auctions, will often have little time invested in vetting what he's flogging, and may well unknowingly sell you a very nice looking jack handle.

That's a generalization, sure.
 
can14 said:
I was talking to a friend of mine today, and the subject came up of retirement and making his collection smaller. He collects military and commercial guns.
The idea being that you only need to keep the favorite stuff and sell the rest.
What has everyone's experiences been doing this? Do you sell on the net, consignment, auction sales or gun shows? Everyone has an opinion on the best
way to do it.
I know that each one has its issues. One experience I had on consignment was they gave a deal to one of their best customers at my expense, needless to say
I didn't return.[/QUOTE
I went through this process a number of years ago and in my opinion, based solely on my own experience mind you, I would advise your friend to not sell anything in the first place unless absolutely,positively necessary. And secondly, if he decides to sell I would sell them privately over a period of time to maximise the return on his property. Stay away from auction houses and dealers unless your friend is prepared to take a goodsized hit in fees, commissions or what have you. The fewer fingers in the pie the better, and again this is strictly my own opinion on the matter and obviously other people's mileage may vary.
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Komodo said:
Everything I see at auctions seem to go for very good prices , way more than what I would pay and you get rid of it all at once.
Click to expand...

I hear the trick is to pick the right sort of auction house, then show up and bid on your own stuff... :/
 
Post everything on the equipment exchange over a period of time.You get exposure all across the country and get full value.
 
Gee lads; I think this discussion is all backwards. Retirement is the time to buy and add to your collection. Its time to enjoy your firearms.
Once a person is retired there should be much more time to shoot and play with them; go to gun shows and auction sales and BUY, don't sell. There is lots of time down the road to sell and there will always be buyers waiting for good clean quality guns.....and at higher prices. The kids are gone, education costs are gone, wedding expenses are gone........buy more guns. :)
 
I sometimes consider selling my Ross collection. Prices have risen to the point that I doubt that I will acquire more; but this also means that my money has been well invested. It would be much easier to sell them as a lot, or through an auction house, rather than advertise them here, or haul them to shows. Packing and shipping a load of individual pieces is a pain.
 
I would stick with gun shows and online, especially the shows. If you collect, you obviously love firearms, so why not spend some time talking guns and watching people get excited over stuff that at one point gave you the same feeling. Collecting has come full circle when you pass it on to the next person/generation.
 
You never state the size of the collection. It depends entirely on the size of the collection, and how much time, effort and grief he wants to endure. An Auction House greatly minimizes the latter and can overall, especially for a large collection (i.e. 50+ guns) be very favourable financially. Those who can only see the loss due to commission are seeing the small picture.
 
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A key part is patience.

A friend recently had to move to the U.S. for work, and weirdly, many of his rifles (albeit, more modern stuff) falls under various bans where he was going (Connecticut - which in many ways has FAR stricter gun control laws that we do).

He basically had 3 months to sell off his collection. And he ended up taking a bath on it, because it just wasn't enough time to find the right markets and wait for the right buyers. He actually ended up giving up halfway through the process, and I'm storing the remainder of his non-r guns for the for the foreseeable future (we've known each other for over 30 years, so the trust works both ways on that).

Anyway, my main point is time, patience, and research, will net the highest dollar. If he's retiring, he should have the time to do it right, and that will fetch the highest dollar.

At this exact moment, it's a little tight. The collapse in the oilpatch has put a lot of downward pressure on collectibles. A lot of guys are selling off their toys to pay the electric bill at the moment. If I was in his position, I would spend 6 months to a year doing research and waiting for a bit of a turnaround in the economy (which, it will turn around), and then slowly start dipping my feet in the water once the oilpatch and the wider economy start gaining a bit of steam. Sell off the lower end stuff first, take you licks, learn the tricks, and slowly work his way towards the higher end stuff.
 
private sale/EE, as mentioned above, best return for investment
i have sold retired family members and friends stuff on here after they tried the consignment at the LGS, i don't take a fee i'm just happy to help
 
Mark-II said:
I hear the trick is to pick the right sort of auction house, then show up and bid on your own stuff... :/
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Please be careful with that...

I know one person who "bought" his own couch he had in an auction. Hoping for a bidding war, he bid $75 and the other guy stopped bidding. He paid the $75, 10 % sellers fee and a 15 % buyers fee, and put the couch into the next weeks auction. It sold for $15. He got $15 minus the 10% sellers fee so he made $13.50.

In all honesty he wasn't all that good with money, or other things.
 
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