Time to start selling the guns off?

H

Hal

New member
Time's come to start thinking about thinning the herd.
I'm in no hurry right now, but, I'd like to get some ideas ahead of time.

Nothing in my accumulated mess (can't call it a collection) is of any significant value or some rare treasure.
I believe the two "rarest" ones are a pair of Smith and Wesson Model 17's.

No one to leave them too if I croak.
My daughter passed away & my son is so heavily in debt and terrible with money, his creidtors would take thenevenif I did leave them to him.
My wife wouldn't part with them for anything, but, they'd be of zip value to her. There's other things she and I could do with the money now.

Politics..
Tough call. Nothing in the mess is something that could/would be a possible future "ban" - other than the fact that they are guns...
However - you never know. If Obama get's back in, I'm thinking we may see his true side.
Demand for guns of any type may go up a year and a half from now.
Maybe I'm better of sitting on them?

Where to sell....
Gun show? Local ad in the paper where some guy is buying "collections"?
TFL classified?<- I'm not sure if I want to screw around with the shipping.
Gun store?

Gun safe???
Is there any market at all for a used gun safe?
After "the kids" are gone from inside it,,,,well most of them anyhow....does it make sense to hang onto it?
It's not fireproof so it's not a good home for important papers unless I stick them inside a fireproof container fiirst, then stick them in the safe.

Sorry for the length of this.
Shooting/guns have been a big part of my 60 years on the planet.
Time has come though - being retired, the cash flow isn't there anymore to enjoy shooting them.
Time has come to start looking into this.
 
Well, a fair number of people sell guns here, in the Gun Show Forums, and also at auctionarms.com or gunbroker.com


And yes, there is a market for a used gun safe, but you're probably not going to realize anything even remotely close to what you paid for it.


Really sorry to hear about your daughter.


I'm still fairly young, but I've thought about what to do with my guns when I go. No kids, not married.

Some of them are going to be given to friends, not sure what I'm going to do with the rest.

I thought about having them melted down and made into an urn for my ashes...
 
I would be willing to bet there will always be a market for guns, be they old or the newer ones.

I have a friend who owns a pawn shop, he offered to sell my guns on consignment. Like you, I do not have anything spectacular or very expensive. I always bought (and still buy) what I like.

The first thing I would do is get the guns appraised. I know it would cost a little bit to do it, but with the proper knowledge of what they are worth, yo should be able to easily cover the cost of the appraisal.
 
I'm extremely sorry about your daughter. Also about your son's problems. I raised three children. They have their own minds.

Concerning your guns, this is a really bad time to be selling anything. Money is tight all around.

But if you must, I would go to gunbroker and research via the already sold guns to see what yours might bring. The prices might be so low that you'll change your mind.

If the prices are to your liking, I'd list them here first. If you sell them here, you don't have to pay a listing fee.

If they don't sell here, you can always try gunbroker.

Best of luck to you, friend.
 
IMO sell here, other gun forums, private party. No idea what gun broker charges for commisions. Sorry about your daughter.
 
I've been selling off a few of mine in the last few weeks. Just realized I had a bunch I never use, and figured I could use the money for other stuff.

Most of them I sold on a local gun traders board. The longest it took to sell any of them, was less than two weeks. I either got the asking price, or dropped the price a few bucks, but all of them I got what I really expected to get. No problem selling them at all. Everyone showed up on time, and paid cash money. They ranged from classic revolvers to black polymer semi's.
 
Craig's List for gun safes. Suggestion - have it empty and in an accessible area of your garage - not inside.

When no gun bans are looming, I've noticed that the "classics" rise in value and the "assault-style / high tech guns" fall in value. The reverse is true when talk of gun bans starts picking up. So, the solution is - buy both classic firearms and assault-style firearms and don't sell any.:)
 
I've even thought of selling all of mine. I have already disposed of all my long guns and I'm down to only three handguns, none of which I've fired in probably ten years. There's hardly any point in having them. I'm way over the age limit for the militia anyway and I'm not afraid of my neighbors. The time you are afraid of your neighbors, which I define as everyone, then times are bad.

All of them but one, maybe, and one cartridge.
 
There are only a select few I don't regret selling off in my lifetime.
Mostly, I have nothing but regret. :(
 
I go onto Backpage.com a lot and they have a sporting goods section that is 99% gun and gun stuff. It's good because it is local so you don't have to pay for shipping. Also, it's free like Craigslist so you don't have to worry about that.

Sorry to hear about your children, mine are real little (and one who has yet to be born) and I am really nervous about how they are going to turn out.
 
SW Ohio?

I'm in SW Ohio. I'd like to buy an S&W 17 ftf. I could also use a gun safe. You may as well try here, there's nothing to lose.
 
Time has come though - being retired, the cash flow isn't there anymore to enjoy shooting them.
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I might suggest that you consider a nice .22lr set up. Whether pistol, revolver, rifle or a combination of these makes for some very affordable shooting. That is if you still enjoy the trigger time. I have some very accurate and fun to shoot .22s and shoot these more than any other chambering. Reloading is always an option, especially if you have more time than money; retired.

I personally only keep guns that I enjoy shooting, and have sold many over the years. Most at gun stores on consignment; this has worked for me, no shipping, no worries about who is buying the firearm, no time invested trying to get a buyer, no need to accept credit/debit/trades, no strangers coming to my home... I believe that the 15-20% that I normal give up is "money well spent" for the services that I receive from the gun stores.
 
Politics..
Tough call. Nothing in the mess is something that could/would be a possible future "ban" - other than the fact that they are guns...
However - you never know. If Obama get's back in, I'm thinking we may see his true side.
Demand for guns of any type may go up a year and a half from now.
Maybe I'm better of sitting on them?
Click to expand...

It's probable that the right will bang the gun grabber drum and that may cause the price of guns to spike again.
But the odds are that if you sold now and put the money in a good mutual fund you'd realize more than waiting.

Obama "has" shown his true character. He's a pro business centrist that thinks more of banks than people. He takes delight in hippie bashing, so I really doubt he'd do any more about gun rights than he has now.
So far his acts as president are more pro-gun than red ink Reagan.
 
Hal
Time to start selling the guns off?
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Maybe. How many are you talking about? If it's just a couple/few dozen, then sell it online on Gunbroker.com or AuctionArms.com one or two at a time. Stores will offer less than 50% of their value. If it is a large pile - say 50 to 100, then a real auction house specializing in estates would be a good place, especially one that has electronic bidding.
 
Wow.

This is depressing. Unfortunately I feel whiffs of the same wind blowing on the back of my own neck occasionally.

Hal and BlueTrain - I hope something unexpected and really good happens to you for no particular reason real soon.
 
Wonder what the average age of this forum is?

I am feeling increasingly young here...but I'm not that young.

I would hope you keep a gun or two at least but understand how $ can get tight and hobbies/interests change.

I'm trying to just build a well planned and thought out core/basic group of guns that fill whatever roles I can perceive.

Enjoy life today!
 
Folks - I thank you, first for the condolences and second for the advice!

I'll be hanging onto some of them that are special to me - such as gifts & "old friends/favorites",,,but,, there's maybe a dozen or so that I just can't justify having them sit in the safe.

Some - like the Smith 17's, are just too sweet to not be shot.

(Zippy - when the time comes, you'll have first dibs on one of them.
It may be a while though.)

Dale,
Sad?
No way! I've had a good run of 45 plus years!
Time's just come though to think about putting some of the guns back into circulation so others can enjoy them.

LOL!
Kinda recycle em! :D
Call it "green guns"!
(That'll stick in some liberal's craw, eh?)
 
Wonder what the average age of this forum is?
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Well, I'm almost 60. I don't know how close that is to average.

This is depressing. Unfortunately I feel whiffs of the same wind blowing on the back of my own neck occasionally.
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No need to be depressed. In my case I've just looked in the safe and asked myself, "Why do have all these that I don't use, but keep buying them?" I don't shoot most of them for whatever reason. A lot of them were guns I'd always thought were neat, but now that I've owned them and shot them, something else has replaced them. I've had the experience, so now I'm letting them go on to someone who'll use them and maybe appreciate them more than I do right now.

A couple of examples: I sold a Smith & Wesson, Model 28-2 to a fellow the other day. I had two of them, plus two Model 27's, so I'm not short on N-frame .357's. The fellow I sold it to, said he had sold his thirty years ago, and had always missed it. His face just lit up when he opened the case. I know he'll enjoy it more than I did.

Back in the spring I bought a Colt Official Police with a the stamp of a government agency on it. Pretty neat, but it didn't really mean much to me. It was just a nice 38 special. When I mentioned it on the Colt forum, I got an immediate offer to buy it for X+ whatever I had paid for it. This fellow needed it to fill a hole in his collection of police agency marked Colts. At first I said no, but a few months later I realized it was just taking up space in my safe. Why not sell it to someone who REALLY wanted it and let him get the enjoyment out of it? It was really selfish of me to keep it knowing someone else wanted/needed it.

Sold a Harrington and Richardson 22 to a fellow who planned to teach his grandson to shoot with it.

And to put a happy face on it for you. I sold a Colt Commander and bought a Model 27-2 with the proceeds. So I'm not out of the business.

I can see selling off my more mundane examples and upgrading them to fewer, but nicer specimens.
 
Sorry to hear about your children, mine are real little (and one who has yet to be born) and I am really nervous about how they are going to turn out. /QUOTE]


Keep them out of public school if possible:

I intend to use my firearms as long as possible but as we age I believe the question always arrives what do we do with stuff(?) times have changed certainly not like the "old days" where it was common for children to live close and automatically inherited the folks stuff.
Tough decisions,hopefully it goes to people who need and respect the gift.
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I like to tell people that where I'm from, you either built a house just behind your parent's house or you moved to Texas, either literally or physically. Some hang around the home town, others don't. My father did not stay around home and I ended up being the first one in my line not born in Carroll or Grayson County, Virginia, since before 1800 and even then, it was only 75 miles away.

One of the most frustrating things about guns (and a few other things) is to have them and not be able to use them. I've never been one to collect, as in having something collectible. So eventually, the rifles went. When it became to expensive to buy a range membership, then the guns started to go, one by one. But I still somehow managed to acquire a new gun this year, a Walther P99. Neat gun; made of plastic. One must keep up with the times, even at my age (65).
 
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