I attended an estate auction yesterday. The first gun up was a smith and Wesson 38 spl Featherlite. The suggested retail is $587. They announced that he had purchased it 45 days ago from a local gun shop for$600. They said the receipt was in the box. The gun sold for $950. I also saw a man carrying a case of 12 ga field loads he said he paid 14 a box for them. He seemed to think he got a great deal.

People are paying 60 cents/round for 9mm odd brand fmj’s. So why not. People are idiots and pay way up for ammo/guns because its the cool thing to do at the moment. Prices will stay high while the idiots keep buying it out. Not sure the reasoning, whether its because of time of year or someone wrote an online article or they arent making any, but you cant find any pheasant or heavy lead loads around here.

Auctions around here don't do background checks, so they go higher because anyone can buy one, even felons.

Was the S& W worth that much? Probable not, but, was it a relative who bought it? To a relative, sentimental value has no limit.
Now if it was an individual, to me they paid to much. Being in the auctioneering business for over 50 years, I have found that an item is worth what ever someone is willing to pay, just like buying something from a store. Do they want it and are they willing to pay the asking price. Now, as for the shells, around here shells are hard to get and it comes down to supply and demand. The shells were there, the buyer wanted them and was willing to pay the price. From my experience, the word "Estate", in this area, is very valuable when advertising an auction. Another thing to remember, someone may have paid that much for the S&W and the shells, but someone else was only one bid away from getting them. An auction like that, I love them.

I used to know a gun dealer who bought cases of old beat-up cheap Mauser rifles; stuff like from Argentina, Chile, etc.. He would put one at a time on a local flee narket auction that was held ever Saturday. He woul at least double or sometimes triple his money.
People go crazy at auctions.

auctions make some people crazy especially with guns

watched a bolt action stevens 12ga go for 175 back when you could buy them for 75 never understood it but some people seem to get to auctions and not gun shops apparently

it isn't like they don't have paper work to fill out with the auction company any of them around here that auction guns have an FFL or work with place that does

they have to announce before the bidding on guns , ILL residents you need to have your FOID card on you if you plan to bid

others say ILL residents may not bid on this item we are not dealing with the cross border sales

best price I have gotten on 12ga trap loads was 7.88 out the door at Wally and 9.80 out the door at Fleet

they are hard to find right now I felt lucky to get 5 total boxes from 2 different stores and they were also 2 different brands

I had a clilent who ran Butterfield and Butterfield, and he told me to come and check out the guns they had in a special auction the next day. He thought I could get a good number at a price so I could re-sell them in my shop. There were at least 400 guns on display and I figured I could buy fifteen or so if the price was right.

The next night at the auction I was blown away. Guys were calling from the east coast to bid on 1100's, Ithacas and Model 12's paying WAY over real prices. I'm pretty sure they haven't made any money in the interim and that was 18 years ago.

Auctions do lead to poorr decisions made by some. I guess that's why they have them.

Pete

you see that on gun broker , some people really want a specific thing and those east coast guys don't seem to mind paying for it I guess if your going to blow 200 taking your wife out for drinks and dinner what is paying 200 more than you should on shotgun

they must have a very inflated market locally

worked with a guy that would say I want a gun but they are so expensive , after a while I gave up he would go drop 180 on dinner drinks and tip for 2 and complain about how expensive a 300 dollar gun was he eventually bought a shotgun from his brother.

I found a 100 rd box at Wally for $22.

Why I stopped going to auctions People get caught up in the moment and over pay way too much.

I like buying beat up old truck guns and re doing the stocks and clean up surface rust with a cold blue.
I'm no pro but I enjoy working on them.

I remember going to an auction about 10 years ago. When they came to the firearms one of the shotguns was a Browning A5 Belgium. There was a lady who was told by husband who couldn't make it to the auction to bid on the Browning as long as it didn't go too high. The auctioneer was calling the bid at five fifty, then six, then six fifty, etc. When it finally hit eight fifty, the lady was declared the winner at eight hundred and fifty dollars.

The lady, not familiar with guns was shocked when she said, "When you said eight fifty, I thought you meant eight dollars and fifty cents!" It was sold to the next highest bidder at $825.

I do also but I don't want to pay new price for a beat up truck gun , I want a deal

sounds like her husband lives in fear of her selling his gun collection for what he told her he paid for them.

auctions are great for short handle shovels , handsaws , and one wheel wheel barrows ,no one is that interested in work to bid those items up.

Good point! If he dies I want to make it to the auction!

I have bought quite a few guns at auctions, I do some research on the guns i want to buy and set my price limit. I don't get caught up in having to win the bid. When it hits my limit I'm done. Sentimental value really plays into some of these auctions. Was at one a couple weeks ago where the family was bidding on most of the guns. They had a break open single shot .410 Springfield that I swear felt like it was going fall apart in my hands when I opened it up to look down the barrel. The family members got bidding on it and it ended up selling for $1400.00. I ended up getting a Howa 1500 in .223 for $350.

Same thing happens in the world of antiques. It seems that some folks think that if they are buying at auction it MUST be a smoking deal. I have seen many times people pay way over retail for multiple items. This is why I stay away from auctions and the time they takd. Instead I hit garage estate, and farm sales where good buys can still be had.

Of course at every sale I ask "Do you have any old guns or trapping stuff that's not out here?" You would be surprised how many great scores I have made with just that line.

Moosetrot

Could get old single shot cooey shotguns for 10-20 bucks.

The main rule on auctions is to decide the top amount you're willing to pay before the bidding starts and never go any higher.

A good auctioneer can get bidders excited and once ego kicks in, many people will over pay.

This year, I'll spend close to $60,000.00 directly or indirectly at auctions. I have 6 buyers, who buy for me at auctions. I pay them for small livestock, mostly by the pound. Most of them buy for several other people too. The 2 youngest guys buy considerably more for me, but their profit margin is much less, because they will allow themselves to get in bidding wars. Cody, the one who buys the most, will try to buy everything to try to keep other larger buyers from coming back to that auction. The older guys will screw with Cody and drive the prices up, dropping out to leave Cody paying to much. I try to make sure only one guy is buying for me at any given auction.

Small, poorly advertised auctions are where you will get the best prices typically. There are hundreds of auctions like that, within 60 miles of almost any decently populated area in the US. I really like the small online auctions. I've done very well at them.

Keith