I woke up the other morning with the realization I'd gotten old. I've got a decent collection of guns and reloading stuff, far more than I'll ever use so having thoughts of holding an auction. Is it legal to auction off our own stuff without the services of a professional auctioneer? I believe most auction houses charge around 25% of the sale plus the buyers premium and figured that money would look better in my account rather than theirs. I know much more about each of my guns than any auctioneer could ever know and feel I could do a better job selling than someone just looking to make a buck. I also have a good friend thinking along those lines and would most likely have me sell his guns at the same time but not sure of the legalities involved as I'm not a licensed auctioneer. Any ideas or thoughts on this?
Anybody ever held an auction?
- Thread starter Tnslim
- Start date
NdIndy
New member
Reality check from some one that has been to thousands, milions, possibly a trillion auctions. Well probably not but I've been to a lot.
You're concerned about paying the sellers premium, but ok paying to advertise, have staff an ffl and security.
Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes comes to mind.
You can't sell your guns for more than the auctioneer at an auction because the buyers don't care about the stories or the sentimental attachment. They're there for a deal or because you have an item they want to add to their collection. If it's a typical auction it will last hours even going quickly. Once the stories come out, it grinds to a halt and the busiest part of the building will be the exit door. A slow auction is painful and unless someone is really after a specific item, they're gone.
At least 75% of buyers at every gun auction I've been to were dealers. A dealer will wait to the end no matter how slow you go. Because competitors drop out and they are getting deals.
Personally I'd have the full inventory priced out on gunbroker so I could have a limit set for each gun. Once my profit limit was passed I was done and waiting for the next. I did pick up a couple oddballs just because they were odd. The people that just wanted to buy a gun were there with the expectation of getting something cheap, end of story.
Most states you can auction your stuff, you can't auction someone else's stuff.
You need/want an auctioneer.
Unless you have a LOT of guns to sell you're not going to get one to do a private auction. It's not worth their time. But it's easy enough to enter them into an existing gun auction. Just put a reserve on them so you either make the $$ you want or it comes back to you. Your reserve has to be reasonable though. Once too many go unsold at an auction even the dealers will leave. It's not worth their time just to stare at guns and heAR "reserve not met, moving to the next lot".
You're concerned about paying the sellers premium, but ok paying to advertise, have staff an ffl and security.
Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes comes to mind.
You can't sell your guns for more than the auctioneer at an auction because the buyers don't care about the stories or the sentimental attachment. They're there for a deal or because you have an item they want to add to their collection. If it's a typical auction it will last hours even going quickly. Once the stories come out, it grinds to a halt and the busiest part of the building will be the exit door. A slow auction is painful and unless someone is really after a specific item, they're gone.
At least 75% of buyers at every gun auction I've been to were dealers. A dealer will wait to the end no matter how slow you go. Because competitors drop out and they are getting deals.
Personally I'd have the full inventory priced out on gunbroker so I could have a limit set for each gun. Once my profit limit was passed I was done and waiting for the next. I did pick up a couple oddballs just because they were odd. The people that just wanted to buy a gun were there with the expectation of getting something cheap, end of story.
Most states you can auction your stuff, you can't auction someone else's stuff.
You need/want an auctioneer.
Unless you have a LOT of guns to sell you're not going to get one to do a private auction. It's not worth their time. But it's easy enough to enter them into an existing gun auction. Just put a reserve on them so you either make the $$ you want or it comes back to you. Your reserve has to be reasonable though. Once too many go unsold at an auction even the dealers will leave. It's not worth their time just to stare at guns and heAR "reserve not met, moving to the next lot".
masshunter
Active member
If you have any really valuable, or collectable pieces you might want to consider consigning it with one of the big houses that get nationwide, even worldwide exposure. I sold a Winchester through James Julia and thought I did OK. They have a sliding commission scale, so mine was only 7% on a $6500. sale. It was a good experience all around, and they sent me the catalogs so I could compare similar sales. Its worth a call to them.
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204 AR
Well-known member
I don't know how many you are talking about, but I would try and sell privately first. People go to auctions looking for steals. I had the not so pleasurable task of auctioning off my dad's life collection of farm equipment after he passed away and people couldn't care less what something is worth to you. And rightly so I guess. Add the fact that right now is a buyer's market and I'm afraid you'd end up disappointed.
jcs271
Active member
You have received lots of good advice in the above posts. Since you are NOT dead yet, just start posting ads for a few at a time or better yet, get a table at some larger area gun shows and sell them that way. If you price them to sell then they will all go to new homes. If you are wanting to grind out top dollar then be prepared to bring them all home after the show! Like it was said above, nobody cares about your sentiments, price is the only thing people are interested in.
Just throwing out another idea......Maybe find a gunshop that will allow you to sell your firearms on consignment. There are a few shops here in Tulsa that do that. One evens puts them on Gunbroker for you and takes care of all the paper work. Of course, they make money off it too but usually get good results.
varminter .223
Well-known member
Forums like this one and 6mmbr along with GunBroker. I'm never afraid to pay for a good service but I think we all hate to share money and sounds like you've got the time to take care of the sale and deal with the online part of it. Some gun shops will do 10% commission and handle the sale. However your guns maybe out for people to handle and put handling marks on in that case.
