You knew an elderly lady, who lost her husband, and had no children and is now in the possession of her late husband's 20+ firearms, what would you do? Someone is going to own them, sooner or later....

I mean, don't ask at the funeral, but ask before she gets rid of them!

You could offer to help her sell them. If she has anything of value there, she may not know how to go about getting fair value for them.

There's nothing wrong with giving her a fair offer for the firearms.

Keith

Buy them from her at a fair price

I agree. You’re not taking advantage by any means but you also don’t want to see them rot. Be fair and she will appreciate the offer.

Find out first if he has any will or request in what he wanted to do with them . Something in writing , possibly .

If there is nothing , then proceed to the next suggestion. Make sure everything is covered well legally , and fairly.

If she asks your advice.

Offer a fair price for what you want.


Offer to help her get them to a dealer or auction for sale if she wants.

Help her out if she wants and try to help her not sell them for what he said he paid for them.

Give it a couple weeks after the funeral to be polite, and then ask if she has a plan for the firearms. If she does express interest in purchasing some yourself, if she doesn't offer to help her set a purchase price.

Lampi Auction in Annandale holds firearm auctions frequently and they typically get a good amount for their guns.

He has been gone for some time. I only met the lady while measuring her home for a flooring estimate. Maybe she has nephews and nieces that want them IDK? I might stop by and talk to her and see if she any plans or if I might buy them.

Like the woman that was left her husbands guns and put them in the garbage can to be thrown out....I know the guy that got them...

I hope She wants to sell, and sells them to you.

This exact same thing happened to me over 30 years ago when I had a floor covering store. Widow had me measure for carpet in the living room. She said “go all the way to the wall, I’m having that built in gun cabinet removed, I always hated it.” The husband was a big safari hunter. Case was full of double barrel rifles and bolt guns. I asked her what she was going to do with the guns. She said “why do you ask, you wanna trade guns for carpet.” I said sure, but they are worth more than the carpet.” She said “not to me, I always hated them.”

It took about 2 weeks for carpet to come in. When it came time to settle up she said,”oh, the guy who came over to remove the gun cabinet was a gun appraiser so I had him look at them. Lucky for me he was not only a gun appraiser, but he also bought guns so I sold them to him, I’ll just pay cash for the carpet.”

I was young and dumb, shoulda closed the deal right away, or at least took a couple .416 doubles for a deposit! Live and learn I guess still kinda hurts after all these years.

No matter how you handle it, plenty of others that didn't get in on it will consider you a scumbag! LOL I can live with it.