Sad Experience Today!

[deltaenterprizes]

As I put on the years, and since none of the kids are into hunting or shooting, I've been having similar thoughts concerning my guns, ammo, and reloading gear. I've discussed it with my wife a couple times. We belong to a local club with maybe 300 members. I'm thinking the easiest way to liquidate everything would be an auction through the club. That way, perhaps the guns end up in the closets of people I've had the pleasure of shooting with. It would eliminate the hassle of listing, packing, and shipping. My wife could even do it if something happened to me suddenly.

I will have the same problem when I get in poor health! I hope to have the foresight to get rid of most things before it becomes a burden to my wife if I go before her!
A friend did liquidate his reloading stuff and gave his guns to his son before he became home bound.

[Land Owner]

Word of Caution..........

From the perspective of currently selling the remnants of multiple estates, it is not a stretch to describe the "personal wear and tear" on an able-bodied person related to the grind of moving, storage, day-to-day security, advertising, person-to-person sales, boxing, sealing, shipping, communication, and inventory control, to name only a few stressors. As the days stretch into months and (in my case) years, this (meaning me) ordinary Office Drone went from a state of euphoria to the drudgery and weariness associated with vying with A LOT of people that want something for nothing.

If you have not already, you will encounter the "Flea Market mentality" of the buying public. The "you should lower your price to spread the wealth" mentality. If you are not already "familiar" with interfacing with the General Public (I was not) - get ready! There are an awful lot of "pity-party" criers out there with loud voices trying to wear you down - and it WILL over time - so prepare yourself.

I think I would have been better off if I had had a store front from which to sell. That would have extended the overhead quite a bit though. While you do not want to exclude anyone, there are those you would have been better off not having dealt with, but you won't know until it is over and they have left their mark. The experience will give you a much keener understanding of Retail Sales, even if your prices are not those.

Don't invite them to your house. That's not a safe way to sell. Meet them somewhere, as I did. Take a friend to watch your back. Get paperwork for the transfer of guns - receipts, copy data from valid Driver's License, Firearm permit, etc. One for you. One for them.

While it was not "quite" this neat (below) until later, sales staged from a storage unit were much "nicer" after I found some metal library book-shelves (picked up at a garage sale for $10, and resold later for $100) and four drawer filing cabinets, which I kept.

[Idaho45guy]

I'm in the same boat with my late father's estate. I inherited over 20 firearms with a value over $100k. Those are easy to deal with compared with all of the dies, cases, bullets, etc. after 60 years of collecting. Much was lost in the fire, but much is salvageable with a bit of elbow grease.

I started listing his dozens of Fenwick saltwater fly-fishing reels on Ebay and it became a nightmare. I had no idea of values or conditions. I posted a ton of photos and explicitly stated that I knew nothing about the items but could take more photos if requested. It became a full-time job responding to emails, packaging and shipping items, and trying to keep track of who won what.

I have sold some brass on here to members and it was pretty easy because the brass was still in the factory packaging and hard to find. I found a boot box full of brass and loaded cartridges from .22 LR to .458 Win Mag.

I picked out the 375 H&H mag cases and gave the rest to the neighbor kid who is getting into reloading and infatuated with different calibers...



I'm sure I gave away a couple of hundred bucks worth of brass and components, but the hours it would have taken me to sort everything and then clean it, list it, and ship it was just not worth it to me.

I have dozens of RCBS dies, in some very rare and unique calibers, that were smoke and water damaged. I bought a gallon of a solution that should restore them to working condition. I have no idea of the value of such dies, but I would like to keep a few for my own use. I also rescued a couple dozen bullet molds in various calibers. The only calibers I am interesting in keeping is .50 cal and .45 cal.

I will eventually get to the rest of them to list and sell either on Gunbroker.com, or here.

I have thousands of items that I don't want/need that will need to be cleaned, catalogued, and sold. It will take me years to get through it all.

[Shawlerbrook]

Very admirable to help a friend in need but unless you really have the time you might want to consider suggesting an auction firm that specializes in this area. We are lucky here in Central NYS to have such a company (Hessney’s). Shipping and shipping costs are a major pain these days.

[deltaenterprizes]

We started the inventory yesterday and unloaded and secured all of the firearms. Showed his work how to work the safe and made a list of the firearms and caliber.
I grouped the ammunition by caliber and identified the containers on the outside so that we don’t have to open each one to see what is in there.
I have dealt with the public for a long time, I did gun shows for 12 years and have worked retail a few times.
I appreciate the warning about the something for nothing crowd and I am familiar with them.
It’s going to be a slow process because I have recently started working a full time job, something that I have not done in at least 20 years or more and it surely puts a crimp in my social life!
Thanks for the replies!

[shooterg]

3 words. AUCTION AUCTION AUCTION (online). One local auctioneer does very well with these type of estates and even with his added percent, the estate does well and you have no headaches with billing/shipping/transfers.

[Gator 45/70]

Helped liquidate a friends stuff well most of it anyways Tupperware9mm was his name.
He had something like 16 bricks of primers, Lotsa powder jacked projectiles as well
Sold most but still have a few dies and have some money here for his wife.
Big pain in the neck but the woman needed the money.

[SeabeeMan]

I would recommend what Shooterg did above. Look into estate auctioneers and in my area, many of them will do a 2-3 times a year sporting goods sale. They'll take possession of the items with full inventory and receipts, take care of all the listing online, and then proceeds and unsold items come back, minus their fees. I don't know what kind of fees they take off the sales, but I know an "auction fee" of 12.5% is added to the sale for the one I keep an eye on.