How do I sell my deceased father's handgun?

[thebearpack]

Thank you all so much. It's a Colt King Cobra that's never been fired and doesn't hold any heirloom value to me. My brother and I gave the gun to my father as a Father's Day present about 10 years ago. My brother went and purchased the gun by himself, I just gave him half of the money for it. Unfortunately my brother and father both died within months of each other around the same time the gun was purchased 10 years ago and the gun has sat locked in its case for that long because I didn't know who to ask or what to do with it.

Very sad to lose two close members of your family so quickly like that. That must have been rough.

Only advice I can give you on top of what has already been offered is to educate yourself about your firearm's value, compare going rates on Gunbroker, maybe list it for sale yourself on a few sites. Determine fair market value before taking an offer from a local dealer. No reason to rush into a sale and cheat yourself.

[smitty56]

I am sorry for your double loss, even if it was ten years ago.
A search on GunBroker.com, completed sales, says that your gun is worth from $600 to $1000 or so, depending upon what type it is. (stainless or blue, length of barrel, with or without box and papers, unfired or used, etc, etc.)
You would get the most by selling it yourself, as opposed to selling it to a dealer for resale. You can advertise it here on this website for free and then go a gunshop or FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee) to transfer the handgun to the new owner. As others stated before me, PA state law REQUIRES a legal transfer by police or an FFL. The FFL has the new owner fill out the correct forms, then the FFL calls in to the state for PICS (Pennsylvania Instant Check System) to make sure the new owner does not have any past acts that would prevent the FFL from handing the new owner the handgun.
Various FFLs charge different prices for the tranfer, anywhere from $20 to $50. The buyer generally pays but everything is negotiable between you and the buyer. As others have said, keep a record of who you sold the gun to. It is a good gun and you won't have trouble selling it. The lower the price, the faster it will sell.
Good luck.

[tommy610]

I would really encourage you, unless there is some reason you are not able to, to learn to shoot it, and enjoy it. Two years ago I would never have thought about shooting a gun for fun, but I do it a lot now.

[PA Traveler]

I would really encourage you, unless there is some reason you are not able to, to learn to shoot it, and enjoy it. Two years ago I would never have thought about shooting a gun for fun, but I do it a lot now.

I would say exactly the same thing. My father spendt years as an employee entitled to employee discount on Colt firearms. If I'd only known then what I know now. Not familiar with the model, but if it were to come to me now, I'd be delighted. Good luck.

ETA: Good description here... even though I rarely trust Wikipedia for much of anything...LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_King_Cobra

[Xringshooter]

A Colt King Cobra: .357 Mag, blue or stainless, black neoprene round butt grips, 2 1/2, 4, or 6 inch solid rib barrel (blued), 2, 4, 6, 8 inch solid rib barrel (stainless), blued made from 1986 to 1992, stainless made from 1988 to 1998. A blued model that has not been fired would be worth at least $495 (probably more since they are not made any more), the stainless would be worth $550 (again probably worth more since they were discontinued 12 years ago).

If you go to GunBroker.com or one of the other auction sites, you can get a good idea what they are selling for.

[GunLawyer001]

Pretty good advice in this thread.

When you sell a handgun to another private party or to a dealer, you'll have your name as the seller entered into the dealer's bound book, and the new buyer (if it's not the FFL) entered in there as well.

You could do this with any gun, even one you found on the street, and nobody would care unless it was stolen or lost or some other issue arose. The system mostly cares about the purchaser, who a gun is transferred TO, not from.

In this case, the State Police database would probably show the brother as the previous purchaser through an FFL, but there's no legal requirement that he be the seller for the next recorded transaction. There is no required chain of ownership, there can easily be gaps, where "Person A" buys it, legally transfers it to his spouse, "Person B" (one of the limited exceptions to the FFL requirement, along with grandparents, grandchildren, parent and child); then his spouse leaves him, and gives the gun to her dad, "Person C", who later sells it to his buddy through the local gun shop. The paper trail would show Person A as last buyer, and Person C as next seller, and no law would be broken in the process.

[Coops]

Coincidentally (within the last hour), it so happens someone is selling the same gun in the classifieds here for $750 (at least that is the asking price on gunbroker.) There are pics for you to compare yours to.

[jjeez]

A few have said there is no registry in PA.
My BIL says he was pulled over and they asked him where he was going? He said the range to shoot. They wanted to check all his guns.
He said one came back as registered to someone else. He said it was a mix up as they had the last digit as a P instead of a 9 on the serial and it was cleared up by contacting the gun shop he bought it at. what registry are they talking about here?
Any ideas?

[Statkowski]

A few have said there is no registry in PA.
My BIL says he was pulled over and they asked him where he was going? He said the range to shoot. They wanted to check all his guns.

At that point he should have demanded they show a search warrant.

He said one came back as registered to someone else. He said it was a mix up as they had the last digit as a P instead of a 9 on the serial and it was cleared up by contacting the gun shop he bought it at. what registry are they talking about here?
Any ideas?

They were illegally using the PSP Record of Sales database as a de facto registry.

Lacking any probable cause to suspect the guns as stolen, their search (and it was a search) was illegal.

[BigGame]

I am a Pennsylvania resident, as was my father. I have his .357 Magnum that I would like to sell but I am not a registered gun owner. Do I have to first apply to be a registered owner in order to sell this gun? I don't have any receipts for this gun or a registration card. (I honestly don't know if they come with a registration card or not but if they do, I don't have one.) Does anyone know if this gun can be sold with just a death certificate of the registered owner? Thank you for any assistance you can give.

If there was no will then all the assets will likely have to go through probate for you to take actual legal ownership of the firearm. Once you are given letters of testamentary (permission) by the judge to sell your guns you can legally sell them. If you are wanting to sell them online via auction, you could sell them on a site like GunBroker, or use Armslist to sell locally.

You could go to a local gun store (but do your research first... don't give it away). Or, there are online buyers too like Guns.com, Cash my guns, or cashforarms.com.

Good luck!