Sale of Traps

The best way to sell the trap collection is ???

piece by piece if your not in a hurry,most guys buying a collection will keep a few traps and sell the rest,therefore will not pay as much as the guy needing that trap. Just my thoughts

Plan on the sale of it all and the books anything in print too, the boys just want the bear traps, time to pass it on.

Have an auction. Advertise widely. Plan it far enough in advance that the collectors can make arrangements to travel to the auction.

Don’t have it during trapping season. Have it organized in a reasonable fashion. Consider doing a catalog if you have a lot of collector traps.

If you try to sell it piece by piece by yourself, it will take for ever.

Selling the whole works to a dealer is a last resort. Everything will be gone but you will only get a fraction of what it is worth.

Girard Auctions in Wakonda, SD did a fantastic job with a trap auction last summer. They specialize in collectables. Very professional.

I sold mine to a dealer and they obviously bought at wholesale. If I had it to do over again I would consider an auction in conjunction with a trappers convention, possibly the day before at the convention site.

How big and how diverse of a collection is it?

Thanks for the advice gang, I cant not tell you how many at present but I collected everything did not single out one maker as for the paper side of it quite a bit there also. will for sure get on with this after the holidays are over and talk with a couple auction places that are fairly local to see if they want to take it on.

Thanks for the advice gang, I cant not tell you how many at present but I collected everything did not single out one maker as for the paper side of it quite a bit there also. will for sure get on with this after the holidays are over and talk with a couple auction places that are fairly local to see if they want to take it on.

If you decide to have an auction, be sure to advertise it nation wide. If you’ve got a really nice bunch of traps, people will travel a long distance for the opportunity to bid on them.

If your auction company just advertises locally, you will be disappointed in the results.

I hear ya, have been a member of the NATCA for many years met alot of collectors attending conventions over the years

Online auction isn't a bad idea

wheelers you get a lot of people looking and competing on a auction. The only bad thing is that you have to pay somebody to sell them for you.

I know what I'd do.
I would attend every trapping convention I could find and sell them piece meal.
A good excuse to do some traveling and meet a bunch of trappers.

Will be looking into a couple of places to do an auction. when it is all in order I will place a post with details I would like to thank everyone for their input on getting this underway. i have to get this underway many things to do.

Yep. Correct advertising is the KEY. The more time you have to properly go thru and identify your items and have as many photos and solid descriptions the better for you. Again, given proper time for the ad's to circulate and folks to find out about your sale is very important.

Crazy sale in Voltaire, SD in August of 2006 comes to mind. Met Wiss Miss there and many others from all over the country. Actually, the guy that bought the most traps there was from PA.

That sale bill was something like 28 pages long and did NOT include the guns and paper items. I doubt I'll ever see a trap auction that extensive again.

Sell them here, you know they'll go to a good home.

I sold my little collection myself,,conventions,,Ebay,,and gun shows,,I had as much fun selling it as I did collecting it,,,sold a lot of paper also but still have some left to get rid of,,,