Gun Collector/Hoarder - HELP & Advice

[TK-007]

Hi Guys,

This is my first time to the forum and my first post - hopefully it goes through. I am a gun owner and NRA member.

SITUATION: A friend of mine passed away this February. He was considered an "extreme hoarder" - as seen on TV. For example - he had 20,000 toys in in house when he died. He had over 1,000 POUNDS of unused stamps and many other collections. However - one of the things he collected was firearms, ammo and swords. To give you an idea - he has over 1,000 firearms, about 3 tons of ammo, and about 100 swords and bayonets - among other goodies.

The executor of his estate hates guns! I have been hired to broker the collection on behalf of the estate. I am aware of the gunbroker websites and others.

My question is this: Ideally, I'd like to sell the collection in one shot (pun intended). If anyone out there knows of any serious collectors, please drop me a note. I am in the process of cataloging all the weapons. Do date, 720 are cataloged. If anyone has any words of wisdom or advice, I'd welcome hearing from you.

Thanks much!

[Azzy]

These guys buy whole collections: http://www.durysguns.com/

If you do not live near San Antonio, please give us a call at 210-531-2629. We can help you in various ways to simplify the selling process, from estimating the value of your firearm to providing a shipping box with a convenient pre-addressed UPS call tag. (A UPS call tag sends a UPS representative to pick up your gun from your home.)

For more sizable collections, arrangements can be made for a personel visit to your location.

Tom Gresham on Guntalk advertises that he used them for his father's estate.

(also, image what you could get with setting up an auction....)

[The_War_Wagon]

If you REALLY want to get their money's worth, you're gonna HAFTA list 'em individually - you'll get pennies on the dollar if you sell them by the pound, and that's true of everything else as well.

I'll take a couple hundred pounds of .223 and .45acp off your hands, if that'll help wheedle it down, though.

[thebearpack]

Check out local auction houses or take your time and sell them individually. You could even post your list once it's complete and take offers. Posting a list on sites like GunBoards for example will get you good responses. It wouldn't be that hard.

Whatever you do, don't just walk into a dealer and try to sell them all at once without really knowing the value. That's the fastest way to get screwed. There are plenty of collectors here in the Pittsburgh area - me included - who would give a fair price for individual pieces.

Why take the easy way and wind up shorting the estate out of a lot of money? The only one who will benefit then is the dealer you sell the lot to.

[TK-007]

I'm in Pittsburgh. Thanks for your note. I'll check out the link you sent me!

[-JD-]

Here in the east is Alderfer Auctions (http://www.alderferauction.com/). They do a quarterly firearms auction and I've used them for some inherited older/wartime stuff that didn't fit my "plan" and bought a couple things too. IMHO, I think they generally get very solid Gavel Prices - A lot goes for more than I'd be willing to pay retail and there is a 10% buyers premium on top of the gavel price - (http://www.alderferauction.com/Contents/results.aspx and select one of the older "Firearms Auctions" to see the prices).

With that large a collection, I imagine that they'd (or anyone else you'd work with) be willing to negotiate their seller's commissions. Alderfers would probably need to run 2 specials in order to handle that many items. Typical recent auctions run 350 or so firearms + sundries. The contact there is Lon Clemmer.

Good luck.

[indianjack]

Hi Guys,

This is my first time to the forum and my first post - hopefully it goes through. I am a gun owner and NRA member.

SITUATION: A friend of mine passed away this February. He was considered an "extreme hoarder" - as seen on TV. For example - he had 20,000 toys in in house when he died. He had over 1,000 POUNDS of unused stamps and many other collections. However - one of the things he collected was firearms, ammo and swords. To give you an idea - he has over 1,000 firearms, about 3 tons of ammo, and about 100 swords and bayonets - among other goodies.

The executor of his estate hates guns! I have been hired to broker the collection on behalf of the estate. I am aware of the gunbroker websites and others.

My question is this: Ideally, I'd like to sell the collection in one shot (pun intended). If anyone out there knows of any serious collectors, please drop me a note. I am in the process of cataloging all the weapons. Do date, 720 are cataloged. If anyone has any words of wisdom or advice, I'd welcome hearing from you.

Thanks much!

Reading this one thing comes to mind, you aren't from Nigeria are you?

[TK-007]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Still trying to figure out how to respond to each of you individually. Great advice from all. I wouldn't mind selling each one by itself. The problem is transfering all the handguns. I'm estimating the handgun count alone to be around 600 or more when the final numbers come in. That's a lot of transfering with the executor - who hates guns. Could be a problem with him.

I'll keep you guys posted as time goes on. Thanks again!

[TK-007]

Nigeria??? Really??? LOL! What the heck would make you think I was from Nigeria? I better re-check my post. Born in New Jersey and living in the Burg. All Irish my friend, all Irish!

[-JD-]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Still trying to figure out how to respond to each of you individually. Great advice from all. I wouldn't mind selling each one by itself. The problem is transfering all the handguns. I'm estimating the handgun count alone to be around 600 or more when the final numbers come in. That's a lot of transfering with the executor - who hates guns. Could be a problem with him.

I'll keep you guys posted as time goes on. Thanks again!

If you are considering selling them individually, maybe you could be named as limited a co-executor to enable you to do the transfers.

ETA: And have a big-ass stamp made to fill out your "seller" info.