Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire People that buy gun collections

I see in magazines and different places people offering to buy gun collections. Big or small, top dollar paid.

What do they pay? Fifty cents on the dollar??
I can see old ladies getting taken advantage of.
It kinda pisses me off to see one of those adds.

About as much as you'd get at a pawn shop probably.
I bought 10 guns off a guy once. He inherited them, wife said he couldn't bring them in the house and wanted them out of his trunk bad. Browning double auto, Colt trooper nickel plated, mini 14 stainless folder among some total junk. Still have the mini for some reason. Always had a soft spot since I saw one on the A-team as a kid.
Think I paid him a grand or so. He named the price, I told him they were worth more. He was scared to death. Don't think he'd ever handled a gun in his life. It was a client I did a lot of work for.

Couldn't bring em in the house?

haha

Better have been some 5 star punani

Hanco, my Dad used to buy collections up to 20 guns...no collector guns just hunting rifles. He would go through what his bottom dollar would be on each gun and then deduct 10% more of the group price. A typical buy might be a few old Savage 99's. maybe an older Remington or two, a couple of old WINCHESTER 22's, maybe a couple of single shot shotguns, and a few older 22's. Say his lowball figure was $3500...he would then deduct 10% more or $3150. So he would pay about $160 a gun as an average. Anything extra like brass bullets or loading equipment, he would get them to throw that in or leave it behind. He used that stuff to scatter out on the table to get people to stop. He never had the money to play w/the big boys but he made a lot of money in Tulsa over the year. He also bought a lot of guns dirt cheap and fixed some minor problem to get them working again. One year he to Tulsa w/58 rifles/shotguns and after 3 days of trading, buying and selling he came home w/54 guns and $3800. He loved doing that after he retired and I did it with him for about 10 years. powdr

And she probably took the money.

Closer to one star. He'd have been better off taking the guns in the house and putting HER in the trunk

Not guns, but Mom and Dad called out a danged junk collector one time. Money was always tight, but it must have been worse for my folks at this time. I walk in the house, and there's this guy digging through all our storage and cabinets. I asked Mom what the h3ll was he doing there, and was told he'd be buying some things. I literally lost it. I viewed all this stuff as family heirlooms and didn't want to see any of it sold. I'm pissed about it to this day. Nothing of great value, but all "family" stuff I didn't want to see go.

As far as the guys buying gun collections. I realize this is what they do to make money, so they've got to buy stuff at a price that allows them to turn a profit. They serve a purpose for those in need of moving this stuff, but not wanting to go do a gun show or run ads in the paper.

They do serve a purpose. The alternative for a non-gun person is to call the cops and have them picked up and destroyed.

If you buy guns or prospect for gold, as long as there is no deception in what you do, what is wrong?

There are good ones and bad ones. I've known a few. A guy in Waco has been buying estates for a long time and at times has some truly fine guns. K80's, Perazzi, Parker, L.C. Smith, etc. He is a good man and a fair trader but no fool when it comes to high end firearms. Another guy in North Ft. Worth was a maintenance man for a school and started buying estates. He paid for his trips to Africa doing that but sadly he died a while back.

Pawn shops will rip you off.

That's the kicker in most cases.

In my younger years, if I ran across something that was worth many times what someone thought it was, I would have just shelled out the cash.

I'm more apt to try and inform them of what they have these days.

Taking the situation into consideration...

If called to come buy a collection from snowflake kids because they inherit something they don't want, have no interest in, and look at like it was a pile of stink.... I'd probably lowball and feel okay.

Some widow trying to make ends meet... I'll help her all I can.

Not up to me as a buyer to educate a seller....
Whether it be a pawn shop or a private sale.
And a sellers emotional attachment holds no value to me.
I will state that as politely as I can also.

In my experience, it depends upon the value and resale-ability of the gun. If it's something that they think they may have to sit on for a while to find the right buyer in a limited market, it may be 0.20-0.30 on the dollar. If it's nice, desirable stuff that be be turned quick, maybe as much as 0.75 on the dollar.

If you want top dollar, sell them yourself and be prepared to sit on some for awhile. Otherwise, it's just business and a middleman that is looking to make a profit on goods. Nothing personal about it.

Do unto others...

Yep, separating wheat from chaff. If you have to buy a dozen Marlin/Glenfield model 60's to get a mint condition Nylon 66 the lot price had better be inexpensive.

I would sell my stuff for 1/2 of what I paid.

I just don't buy much for guns if I can't get into them for less than I can sell them later for. They are investments as well as tools period/ MB

I have the business card for a local gunshop/auction company taped to my list of guns just in case. There's that danged 20% sellers fee, but sometimes guns go for crazy prices at auctions so its probably the easiest way for heirs to liquidate a healthy collection. As I update my estate planning many of the guns on the list will have the name of a relative, friend or club next to it so they go where I want them to before the rest go to auction. One problem I have is: I like weird guns in weird calibers, and giving an 8.15x46R to a nephew who only hunts once every 2 years would be pointless..... or maybe it would be sentencing him to a new hobby....

Poole

As with all things in life there are gun collection/estate buyers who are ethical guys and there are snakes who will rip you off. Knowledge is power, before selling a collection or estate it would be prudent to research values for what you want to sell by checking prices realized at completed auction sales. Keeping in mind that there is a 25-30% commission involved in auction transactions, some auction houses ding both the buyer and the seller for this amount and it is best to avoid these kind of operators. As the seller no matter what method you choose to sell you always have the option of saying no to an offer you feel is not fair.

When I ran the gun store, rule of thumb was to try to buy used guns for half of new retail. Example: $500 rem 870 new, buy used for $250 and put on the shelf for $350 or $400. $1000 citori new, buy at $5-600 and sell used for $7-800.

All depends on condition and desirability. Goal was to always make at least $100. We paid same money for trades or outright purchases.
Of course all purchases were some what flexible, but if we couldn’t make at least $100 on each gun we’d let them walk. Never took advantage of people and often gave them more than they asked for if they didn’t know their values.