Have any of you had a call from the wife of either a close friend or a casual acquaintance who passed away and the wife wanted you to help her sell off his gun collection?
Twice. One of my best friends and one of my uncles.
How did you handle it?
I gave them some research on current asking prices I found
What I've done for them is give them their options of selling prices and let them decide how to proceed.
Option 1. Fast sale, below retail market value close to what a gun store might offer.
Option 2. Fair retail price. Generally not at the high end more like a bit below average.
Option 3. Collector value. A gun store would unlikely give collector dollars to a seller, and time to sell would be longer than the previous two options.
Option 4. Putting them on consignment in a LGS.
The best friend's wife wanted nothing to do with the sale of the guns as his death was sudden and unexpected and she was overcome emotionally. I took pictures, researched prices somewhere between wholesale used and used retail depending on condition/collectibility/etc, composed an email with pics/prices, and sent it to everyone I know from shooting. I had her sign off on all the transfer forms for the handguns in advance. They were all sold in about 2 weeks. There were about 14 guns involved.
My Aunt wanted to go the gun show route, which was a good thing as this was a larger collection than the aforementioned one. She was hoping to move most or all so I did the same pricing research and a local gun club, to her, was having a show. $20 a table was all they charged and because we were more reasonably priced than many others we moved almost everything. My Aunt had final say on any bargaining/offers. There were 45-50 guns involved. We did really well and actually paid off her new car.
I guess how fast the surviving spouse wants to move them and if they're trying to wring every dollar out of them are the biggest factors. As well as how much of this you want to be involved in it. No judgement in that as I have no idea how close you are to this person or what else you have going on in your life.
The LGS I'm most friendly with asks $100/gun for consignment sales. I didn't go that route as $100 off of guns in the $400-$700 range adds up fast. If it was a collection of Perrazi and Kriegoff shotguns that might have been a different story.
Good luck with this. Let your conscience be your guide. You can't feel bad when you're doing your best to help someone.
Another option is to penny auction them on Gunbroker. It is a large enough audience that usually you don't get much below fair market, though I have observed that people often get below what they think it is worth.
Twice here. Its a honor and a chore and I wouldnt have it any other way.
CW
Quote from: gnappi on June 25 2020 05:39:03 AM MDTWhat I've done for them is give them their options of selling prices and let them decide how to proceed.
Option 1...
You missed one...
Quote from: sqlbullet on June 25 2020 10:58:14 AM MDTAnother option is to penny auction them on Gunbroker...
This is the correct answer.
I've bought and sold guns on GunBroker, and it's quick and easy, you'll get top dollar (especially for anything rare/special), and it's safe (you won't get ripped off).
Nothing wrong with the Gunbroker idea either, but the relatively small town gun club gun show I did with my Aunt had some other beneficial outcomes as well. She was never really into shooting and didn't know any of the people there. They were all incredibly nice to her, especially knowing the circumstances of my Uncle's passing. She made some new friends over that weekend and started to develop an interest in shooting. Fast forward 10 years and she now belongs to a women's shooting group, owns guns more suited to her, and seems pretty happy.
This may not apply to your situation, but I thought I'd share it. Sometimes you meet the nicest people at gun clubs/ranges and that can be very helpful after a loss.