Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors John Wright's firearms to be auctioned (1st of two)

Yeah, but I got mine on a widely based internet auction, and at a price about 3/4 of it's value. I passed on equal, lesser, (and better) cars for a lot more money as I shopped, even though I had a bankroll big enough (and wanted one badly ).

Anyone know of a good cheap MG-TC?

A few months back I asked around for info on an old scope for Tommy. No one grumped that he might actually sell it, which he did, to a member of this forum. The member talked him into a 3 gun bundle, and was happy to share the Sidle scoped rifle with us at Noxen.

Amen!!!’n

Really? Really! Guys telling other guys how or how not to spend their own money. How's that work with your wife? Just saying.

Hypothetical conversation...

A Friend: "Hey George, I've known you for 15 years and we get along pretty good. I noticed you buy your ammo at Dick's Sporting Goods. Did you know they are anti-2A and higher priced than the local gunshop? You might want to take a look at them and save a bunch of money."
George: "HOW DARE YOU TELL ME HOW TO SPEND MY MONEY!!!!"
A Friend: "What the [bleep]????"

What I buy, where I buy, who I buy FROM, or how much I spend is nobody's business but my own. Very VERY seldom do I go the auction route. People get all caught up on emotion and wind up in a bidding war and we all have seen that. It is simple. Tom Mitchell offers up a gun, and by the way, he sells ANY make of gun, and gets his price, it is totally between he and the buyer. He doesn't like to type and he will tell you so. Call him and you will be pleasantly surprised. I am pretty sure he doesn't lurk on the campfire. Sometimes it takes awhile, but he gets it. Like any good business man he will deal, but the deal will most likely be on his terms.

I was quoted as saying this , (If you don't want to spend the money, move out of the way) and I must have. I think it most of the time with folks bid at auction KNOWING they will stop before market price is even approached. .

I for one am glad this topic comes up periodically. It shows newbies just how much of a disease the collecting hobby can become.

Hint: don't become a "collector". It does strange things to one's psyche!

So it's probably a good thing I'm more of a 99 enthusiast than collector? 🤔🤣

Join the club!

On a totally different subject... though maybe we haven't explored this one in-depth enough? Anyway..

Got in my rifles in from John's estate auction last night. UPS gorillas pretty much totally destroyed the boxes they were shipped in, but fortunately each gun was wrapped in about 3" of bubble wrap and came through okay. It was sad to open up the invoice and read the included factory letters from JTC to John, he'd given me the serial numbers and dates for all his letters in April to help refine date ranges for the book.

To absent friends.

[quote=Calhoun]On a totally different subject... though maybe we haven't explored this one in-depth enough? Anyway..

Got in my rifles in from John's estate auction last night. UPS gorillas pretty much totally destroyed the boxes they were shipped in, but fortunately each gun was wrapped in about 3" of bubble wrap and came through okay. It was sad to open up the invoice and read the included factory letters from JTC to John, he'd given me the serial numbers and dates for all his letters in April to help refine date ranges for the book.

To absent friends.[/quote

The thought of having a gun I buy shipped to me makes me cringe. I like my fancy guns and want them to still be in the shape I bought them in when I get them. I bought a gun from that auction company before and drove to Cleveland to pick it up.

I bought a Crescent grade gun, that to date is the high point of my collection. I talked it over with the seller and he agreed to purchase a hard case. He included the shipping in the selling price and I told him I would pay for the case. I honestly didn't know Plano made such a case. The rifle made it here totally unscathed. Knock on wood, to date I have never had a gun damaged in shipping.

+1

I don't even have fancy guns and still hate shipping them... I bubble wrapped my EG as much as I could while still being able to close the box when I FedEx'd it to McGowen, and I still have doubts that the wood will return in the same shape it departed in. 😬

The honest to God truth is, I'd ship some guns to Tom Mitchell to sell for me if I wasn't so worried about getting them there intact.

I bought an Enfield No.2 MkIV (.22 single shot training rifle) earlier this year. Thanks to the C&R license, stuff like that comes directly to my door. FedEx dropped it off in the middle of a rainy night, into a water puddle outside the front door, adult signature requirement be dammed. The box was soaked so badly when I discovered it the next morning that it literally fell apart in my hands. Luckily it was so well wrapped in plastic and bubble wrap that the gun was unscathed. So yeah, I too cringe when mail ordering guns, but I still do.

Sounds like typical FedEx to me. I routinely find hazmat packages (powder/primers) in the yard beside my front step when I get home from work. Guess "adult signature required" is a bit of a loose term 🙄

I actually can't remember signing for one a single time, now that I think of it.

The "Adult Signature Required" option on UPS and FedEx was put on hold last year due to Covid and social distancing requirements. The most I had either UPS or FedEx do during that time was to ring the doorbell as they dropped the package off.

30 years at UPS and I have never had a box damaged from UPS, FedEX, or USPS. Seems that if you work with the gorillas you have an inkling of how to pack something and not have it damaged. I bought a rifle from a member here and it arrived in two ratty, been used 100 times boxes, no packing at all, not a Kleenex, and it made it fine. Miracles do happen. The only thing you have to know about shipping a rifle is it's long and skinny, and fragile. UPS puts packages up to 70 pounds in the general load.. If your long skinny rifle is in a nice cardboard box, wrapped in bubble rap, it has no structural integrity. If the muzzle is resting on a nice solid box, and the butt is on another nice solid box, but the middle is resting on a lamp shade with no stiff packing, and the gorilla puts a 70 pound John Deere wheel weight right in the middle, good chances it will snap in half. I asked my LGS owner how many rifles were damaged in factory boxes per year? He looked at me like I was nuts, and said in his almost 50 years he has NEVER had a factory boxed rifle damaged. I don't know how many people have told me THEY should not have to go through all that trouble to make sure the box doesn't get damaged. Once they give it to UPS, it's UPS's responsibility, to see that their terrible packing makes it safe, because they took it like that. That is the most asinine, stupid, stupid stupid response I've ever heard. I fretted over my 1928 K with the Noske side mount for weeks. I can't afford a real, unmolested K. This is one of my Crown Jewels. The seller couldn't get the barrel off to break it down. He finally put it in a hard case and no problems. I've had people tell me flat out, "there is no way I'm buying a hard case, over the cost of shipping, as insurance". Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I know Roy's luck, and the last time this subject came up, I believe I asked him how many of his outgoing guns were damaged. As of several years ago, I believe it was ZERO. But, he has received something like 6-7 snapped in half. One run over by a forklift. Bet none of them were in hard cases. If you got a gun shipped by me, it would not be damaged, because it's my responsibility to get it there. End of story, and rant.

I agree, any time I ship a rifle out it goes in a hard case. Never had one damaged.

But I can’t control how auction houses pack their shipments.

And I have had a rifle in a hard case damaged coming to me.. maybe two. Basic Plano, tougher than any factory rifle box I’ve ever seen. Slammed/dropped so hard that the bottom of the hard case was broken into pieces. Tang cracks resulted.

I had two 1895’s shipped to me in cardboard boxes with form fitted foam inserts and bubble wrap. Again, boxes thrown or dropped hard enough for both rifles to force their way thru the foam, thru the bubble wrap, thru the cardboard and end up with the muzzles poking out. Again tang cracks and one had chunk of wood missing.

It shouldn’t require packing reminiscent of delivering nuclear materials to get a package safely thru a common carrier.

It shouldn't but it does.

Plan accordingly.