Need advice on selling out

NDAR15MAN

NDAR15MAN

Member
Folks.... first let me say this post is not ment to get inquirers on items I plan on selling so please don't PM on that. I don't want to get into trouble with moderator. I am 57 no kids to leave all this hunting , fishing equipment too. Problem is I had 1 knee replacement 16 months ago that did not turn out well. Lots of pain stiffness and they said nothing they could do. Now going to different surgeon and get other knee replaced in June. To be honest they are not optimistic on this one , they say I have lots of nerve pain going on in this knee too and will be hard to stop that. People say wait as long as you can on getting a knee replaced .....wrong wrong wrong. It is the nerve damage that gets you.

Now for the biggie.... 10 weeks ago had detached retina in my right eye. My shooting eye. Don't get much worse then all this for a guy that hunts , traps , fishes all the time or should I say use too. Right eye It is not doing well after the surgery. Dr not optimistic on this ether. Said in a few more weeks I will get u in some new glasses maybe. But says no more shooting with shotguns. No trap shooting , no deer slugs and I live in shotgun state. And Nothing bigger then 223 cal rifle to shoot because recoil on the eye. Also he said I have a 70% chance of torn retina in the left eye before I am 70 years old. So I will need prevention laser treatment on left eye in 6 months plus no guarantee it will not detach. So the handing writing is on the wall for me , the stuff I live for i don't think I will be able to do anymore. Or very very little. My question is this.....what is best way to sale out ? All of this hunting , fishing , trapping equipment. ? The guns are easy to sale , only going to keep 2 or 3. But what do I do with all of this other stuff ? Anything and every thing related to waterfowl and bird hunting will needs to be sold I guess. Cannot walk or see ( take recoil of shotgun ). Hunting clothes , waders , binoculars , ammo , scope stuff. I found 8 ice fishing buckets with the seats in them , over 20 baut caster and spinning reels etc. I would say 5000.00 worth of stuff I will never need again. Some us real good quality but I know you don't get much for used stuff but I just can't help that people would not buy a pair of 180.00 camo chest waders for $60.00 that have been used 6 times, am I out of line on this kind of price for example? Small items I could ship to buyers but big items I don't think buyer and seller could ever come out on a fair price. I have No place to store it , paying 100.00 for 15x30 foot storage unit plus another 55.00 a month for a little smaller one. Tons of good quality taxidermy stuff. Excellent quality some items just few years old. I am talking like 4 deer heads in the 150's and lots of nice fur mount rugs. I cannot afford to keep paying storage on this stuff and don't see myself ever target shooting again. I was a moa shooter don't feel like trying shoot anymore if the deck is stacked against me know before I even try with the bad eye. ( I use to target shoot every Saturday ) just bought 6.5 creedmoor 1 month before the detached retina , 600 rounds ammo ready to shoot. What am I going to do know with a nice gun like this now after getting it all set. Makes sick just thinking about my past life and now my future with not much hunting and fishing. Hunting stuff like you would not believe , coyote trapping stuff , like 6 dozen nice 4 coil traps. All modified to be the best. And all other stuff to go with it. It is a downer for sure. Auctions house gets 25 or 30% of sales same way with estate sales. I have seen so many people get cheated by auction house on their nice stuff. Auction has shell bidders at auction and I have see auctionineers slam their gavel down sold on a 100.00 item and they bought / bid it themselves for $1.00. So how would you go about selling all this stuff ? It sad but don't know what to do. We will all have to face the music some time . You folks with kids and grand kids are lucky. It is just me and I live in apartment now. Cannot keep paying storage on it. Need your ideas on what is best. Thanks. Marty
 
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Learn to use ebay and take detailed photos.

Don't forget, ammunition cannot legally ship through USPS, so don't even try. You'll end up in some serious trouble mailing ammo via USPS. Stick to UPS and FedEx and follow their guidelines.

If the internet and mailing isn't your gig, you could post it on local Facebook groups, Craigslist, Armslist, etcetera. There are a lot of local options online now. If you have small hardware shops with bulletin boards you could post there, too.

Good luck!
 
Your health situation sounds bad, BUT I say where there's a will there's a way. All a guy has to do is look around and I can guarantee d@mnT you that there are guys in much worse shape health wise that are still shooting and still hunting. Hang in there.
 

Marty,

I am sorry for your health problems, BUT, you are too young to give up!!! I am 71, have heart problems and very bad blood circulation, HOWEVER, I still golf, fish, and am starting to hunt again after years of non-hunting.

I have kids and grand kids who are not hunters nor do they fish so, I am like you in that way. I have a TON of stuff that needs to be gone as I will never use it up. I have started to use eBay, Gun Broker, Craig's list and Forums to sell my stuff. There are items that I will keep until I no longer am, but the rest is going away slowly but steadily. The extra income from the sales comes in handy for sure and cleaning, preparing, photographing and packaging the sale items keeps me busy and active.

I wish you all the luck in the world and stress that you are too young to give up, hang in there, you can get around your obstacles!

Marcos (elalto)
 
Darn,sorry to hear of your health problems.

Can't offer much help on selling out, but would suggest that you give it a lot of thought and don't do anything you might regret later. Been there, doing that.

Hunting, fishing and the outdoors have been one of the most important facets of my life, as well. Just as an example, I hunted over 200 days the first year after I retired (My long suffering wife has put up with that behavior for 60 years! Fortunately, she shared my love of the outdoors, just not the hunting or fishing part.)

I have been blessed with reasonably good health all my life, but, due to combined deterioration of my wife's health and my own (a 40 year old back injury is responsible for severe back pain & my dominant eyesight is failing fast due to macular degeneration, and a few other misc. issues), have been unable to make an overnight hunting trip in the past two years. I have managed to make two one half day hunting trips this year, and you wouldn't believe how they picked up the spirits! I really appreciate even the short trips ever so much more than when I was hunting every week.

It still gives me great pleasure to sit in the living room amidst my taxidermy and reminisce of the details of the particular hunt represented by each one. I still enjoy a trip to the range to tweak a load or just get a whiff of burned gunpowder or brush off the old .22 target rifle once in a while and it's been 20 years since I last shot smallbore competition. Once in a while I even get an opportunity to share some firearms knowledge with a youngster at the range.

Took me a long time to get to the point of this rant(sorry), but what I'm trying to get at is, don't do anything rash. God never closes one door without opening another. Under the circumstances, it makes sense to pare down the toys, just don't completely sever the ties to all of your great memories.

Best of luck, Marty, hang in there.

Regards,
Clarence
 
The thing is I live in apartment and just don't make sense to pay 155.00 to store it. If I had my own garage or building it would be different. People lives are changing and just cannot use all this stuff. At $155.00 a month storage unit fees don't take long to loose the value of your 3 dozen decoys. The thing is I have used eBay to sale if items 15 years ago pre pay pal days. I have about a 1500 plus positive rating. But just don't know if I have the time for eBay any more and the pay pal thing. There seems to be 2 kinds of buyers...... 1 buyer the guy that is going to use your item the other guy wants to buy and sale on eBay himself. I have so many small items that are easy to ship. Seems to be a 35 % difference on what the person will pay for your item. A $200.00 pair of camp chest waders I bought new 3 years ago and used 6 times The eBay buyer that comes to your auction estate sale only wants to buy them for $25.00 so he can resale and make the fair profit on the item I want to sell them to the duck hunter that will use them and pay $80.00. Might have to Craig list them or eBay them or list items on these types of forums but it will take years to sale it one item at a time I think. Marty
 
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Sorry to hear sir. I hope all works out. Maybe mods here can allow you to post some things and allow you to move them. I would think about it and don't rush into it. Understand you are paying to store it but it took you a long time to acquire that. You may begin to need it again
 
so sorry to hear of the health problems you are having. really hope things turn around for you.

my take on ebay. the fees to sell have got way to high. way better off trying to sell the stuff on one of the sites that are still free.

good luck.
 
Sorry to hear about your health issues, sounds like you've got a tough row to hoe. It also sounds like you're not in a hurry to raise fast cash so you can hold out for better prices. If you decide you do want a quick sale without a lot of hassle I would suggest finding a good local auction house, perhaps selling in increments to see how things go. You won't net as much cash but you won't have to deal with as many headaches either. If you do sell in person, I would try to find a public place so you don't have a bunch of strangers coming to your house and eyeballing your stuff.
 
I hate to hear about your luck. Will send prayers.
I do all of my sales in wal mart parking lots. If anything shady goes down they have video footage on almost 100 percent of their parking area.
 
I would say do a garage sale on all your stuff, but see you are in an apt so that can only work if you have a pal with a house, garage you can haul all your stuff to and set up.
 
Been thru some health issues myself, and sold some stuff to pay the bills thru it all. Different items have different markets. Right now fishing, boating and camping stuff will sell better, hunting and trapping stuff later in the year. Archery stuff may go well now as people are starting to practice thru the summer. A lot of gun shops will sell your weapons and some other things on consignment. Have yet to pay Ebay for anything yet, but they have their place, as do consignment auctions specific to your items. Some stuff is just yard sale stuff to make it go away to someone else. Classy's on online hunting sites such as this are a good place to start. Hint - list your items on sorted lists on your computer, then it's just a matter of copy and paste to relist what doesnt sell elsewhere again later. Local paper classy's sometimes work out well too. As stated above, meeting in a public place NOT AT YOUR HOUSE OR STORAGE UNIT is a great idea. Cash only, bs walks, and I have my 357 handy when doing these deals too. Never can be too safe. My experiences have all been good, but havent push the Craigslist type sites too much yet - scam artists abound there they say, but can be a good avenue to move some items nonetheless.

On your health issues, learn what you can comfortably do, and do it! Long-term nerve damage & pain sux......I know! Keeping mentally and physically active with things you enjoy - MAYBE NOT THE WAY YOU ENJOYED THEM BEFORE - is key. You may find you buy back a lot of the stuff you're looking to sell off now, but you never know. In the end, it's just stuff, but some holds memories and pride that makes a heart swell. Push onward, and PM me if you wanna talk about things pain sometime.
 
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