Kraschenbirn
03-30-2013, 10:16 PM
Over the years, I've attended a number of consignment auctions (and bought my share or more) but today was a ‘interesting’ experience…as in the old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Main part of the sale was from the estate of a long-time gunshow dealer; essentially a lifetime accumulation of guns, ammo, tools, reloading supplies, and shooting gear. Remainder to the sale consisted of consignment stuff from various sources.
Got there about an hour before the sale started so I could take a close-up look a few of the pieces listed on the online catalogue. First thing I noticed was that all the guns were secured in battery with nylon tie-wraps…no way to get a look at the bore on anything! Asked one of the auction house staff if I could open the bolt on a moderately decent Carl Gustav 94/14 and was told, flatly, “NO!”. When I questioned this policy, the answer I received was “It’s an insurance issue, because we’re also selling the ammunition, the guns have to be kept secured while they’re in our possession.” In other words, the whole sale was a ‘pig in a poke’ proposition…no way to examine bores or check mechanical function on anything…with a big sign on the auctioneer’s podium reading “All sales are final. No warranties or returns.”
Next, I went the tables of ammo and reloading supplies and found, literally, thousands of rounds of 'amateur' (as opposed to 'reman' or 'commercial') RELOADS in plastic ammo boxes…most marked only with caliber and number of rounds; no load data on the boxes. (and some of the stuff that did have labels was kinda scary; like .30-30 170 gr. JSPs marked ’36.0-H4831’ and 45-70 500 gr. LRNs marked ’27.5-AA5744’) Then, there was a whole table of cast boolits in wood trays…all lubed and sized to JB diameters; .429 44s, .308 30 cals, and .458 45-70s…that later sold like cold beer at Cubs game. Another table had can after can of assorted powders…3/4 of which were ‘partials’ (and some of those had been ‘relabeled’ using masking tape and a Magic Marker).
The actual selling started off pretty slow…in the first few minutes, I snagged a couple thousand Win. LRPs for $25/K and an unopened 1 lb. can of IMR4198 for $20…but once the auctioneer got things rolling ‘interesting’ kicked in big time. Believe me, there were a lot of guys still in ‘panic buy’ mode: 50 and 100 round boxes of ‘no-data’ reloads selling for 1 1/2X-2X new ammo MSRP, bricks of low-end .22s (‘Thunderbolts’ and ‘Wildcats’) for $75-$80 a pop, factory ammo at double the sticker price on the boxes. Milsurp ammo went the same way with guys paying a buck a round for Romanian 7.62x54 and Chinese 7.62x39 What I really found funny was that this week a couple of our ‘big box’ stores had begun receiving .22 ammo and were selling at regular retail prices…like $19.95 for Federal Bulk-Paks (limit 1 per customer).
When they got to the guns, things became even goofier. First item was pretty ragged Savage 311 12 ga. that went for around $100 but the second piece was a ‘well-used’ Ruger Ranch Rifle @ $1025(!), followed by a completely mismatched M98k for $350 (the receiver was ‘Nazi-marked’) and, a few minutes later, an S&W M&P 15-22 (missing its magazine) for just over $400. At that point, I decided I’d had all the fun I could handle so I paid off my tab, picked up my goodies, and got the H*** out of there.
Bill
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the auction house didn’t have an FFL on-site. They made a deal with an LGS where you bought and paid for guns at the auction then took your receipt to the LGS (5 miles away) to fill our your 4473 and pay a $12 (per gun) transfer fee but the LGS wasn’t going to call in the background checks until Monday so you wouldn't actually be able to go back and get your gun until next Thursday. And, it didn’t matter if you had an FFL or C&R…you still had to pick up your gun (and pay the transfer fee) through the LGS.
Got there about an hour before the sale started so I could take a close-up look a few of the pieces listed on the online catalogue. First thing I noticed was that all the guns were secured in battery with nylon tie-wraps…no way to get a look at the bore on anything! Asked one of the auction house staff if I could open the bolt on a moderately decent Carl Gustav 94/14 and was told, flatly, “NO!”. When I questioned this policy, the answer I received was “It’s an insurance issue, because we’re also selling the ammunition, the guns have to be kept secured while they’re in our possession.” In other words, the whole sale was a ‘pig in a poke’ proposition…no way to examine bores or check mechanical function on anything…with a big sign on the auctioneer’s podium reading “All sales are final. No warranties or returns.”
Next, I went the tables of ammo and reloading supplies and found, literally, thousands of rounds of 'amateur' (as opposed to 'reman' or 'commercial') RELOADS in plastic ammo boxes…most marked only with caliber and number of rounds; no load data on the boxes. (and some of the stuff that did have labels was kinda scary; like .30-30 170 gr. JSPs marked ’36.0-H4831’ and 45-70 500 gr. LRNs marked ’27.5-AA5744’) Then, there was a whole table of cast boolits in wood trays…all lubed and sized to JB diameters; .429 44s, .308 30 cals, and .458 45-70s…that later sold like cold beer at Cubs game. Another table had can after can of assorted powders…3/4 of which were ‘partials’ (and some of those had been ‘relabeled’ using masking tape and a Magic Marker).
The actual selling started off pretty slow…in the first few minutes, I snagged a couple thousand Win. LRPs for $25/K and an unopened 1 lb. can of IMR4198 for $20…but once the auctioneer got things rolling ‘interesting’ kicked in big time. Believe me, there were a lot of guys still in ‘panic buy’ mode: 50 and 100 round boxes of ‘no-data’ reloads selling for 1 1/2X-2X new ammo MSRP, bricks of low-end .22s (‘Thunderbolts’ and ‘Wildcats’) for $75-$80 a pop, factory ammo at double the sticker price on the boxes. Milsurp ammo went the same way with guys paying a buck a round for Romanian 7.62x54 and Chinese 7.62x39 What I really found funny was that this week a couple of our ‘big box’ stores had begun receiving .22 ammo and were selling at regular retail prices…like $19.95 for Federal Bulk-Paks (limit 1 per customer).
When they got to the guns, things became even goofier. First item was pretty ragged Savage 311 12 ga. that went for around $100 but the second piece was a ‘well-used’ Ruger Ranch Rifle @ $1025(!), followed by a completely mismatched M98k for $350 (the receiver was ‘Nazi-marked’) and, a few minutes later, an S&W M&P 15-22 (missing its magazine) for just over $400. At that point, I decided I’d had all the fun I could handle so I paid off my tab, picked up my goodies, and got the H*** out of there.
Bill
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the auction house didn’t have an FFL on-site. They made a deal with an LGS where you bought and paid for guns at the auction then took your receipt to the LGS (5 miles away) to fill our your 4473 and pay a $12 (per gun) transfer fee but the LGS wasn’t going to call in the background checks until Monday so you wouldn't actually be able to go back and get your gun until next Thursday. And, it didn’t matter if you had an FFL or C&R…you still had to pick up your gun (and pay the transfer fee) through the LGS.