Good Gun Deals This Week

[Odinsraven]

Gun Auction Speak

Rarely seen = We only have four in this auction have five unsold from previous auctions

Rare = We have 2 in this auction

Unusual = someone has messed with it

Harder to find model - if you are new to guns and have only ever read three websites

Excellent example - a bit rough around the edges -

Fine example - even rougher

Believed mechanically fine - Well everyone believes in something I suppose !

Mechanically fine - see "excellent example " above stock and bluing is trashed

Good - fair

Fair - rougher than a badger's ASS

Poor - scrap

would benefit
from restoration - Perfect for someone who does not value their time

Crisp rifling - Yep rifiling is good thoat is buggered

Overall a fine rifle - We have not had time to check it properly - but looks good

Good overall condition - forgot to mention the wood is excellent - bore is f**ked

Perfect forest stalking rifle - barrel has been cut short in a vane effort to find accuracy !

Comes with suppressor - Photo shows suppressor fitted - rusted on and bore is f**ked

Barrel could do with cleaning - bore f**Ked
Anyhow some of my observations from 35 years of hanging around auctions !

 

[rookhawk]

Gun Auction Speak

Rarely seen = We only have four in this auction have five unsold from previous auctions

Rare = We have 2 in this auction

Unusual = someone has messed with it

Harder to find model - if you are new to guns and have only ever read three websites

Excellent example - a bit rough around the edges -

Fine example - even rougher

Believed mechanically fine - Well everyone believes in something I suppose !

Mechanically fine - see "excellent example " above stock and bluing is trashed

Good - fair

Fair - rougher than a badger's ASS

Poor - scrap

would benefit
from restoration - Perfect for someone who does not value their time

Crisp rifling - Yep rifiling is good thoat is buggered

Overall a fine rifle - We have not had time to check it properly - but looks good

Good overall condition - forgot to mention the wood is excellent - bore is f**ked

Perfect forest stalking rifle - barrel has been cut short in a vane effort to find accuracy !

Comes with suppressor - Photo shows suppressor fitted - rusted on and bore is f**ked

Barrel could do with cleaning - bore f**Ked
Anyhow some of my observations from 35 years of hanging around auctions !

Great list. My ultimate pet-peeve is this one:

“Brushed bright” or “coin finished”.

It means a gun was tarted up for sale by dipping the gun in tidy-bowl (muriatic acid) to remove all remaining originality and case finish.

Equally tacky, when people buy new guns with a coin finish thinking they’ve dove headfirst into class. You bought a replica of a ruined gun, sorry.

 

[BJH65]

I’ve never posted a deal here but I didn’t know there was an unwritten rule not to post auction guns. Seems like a conflict of interest to me. I thought this thread was about alerting other members to good deals, auction or not.

Being a member of other online gun forums, it seems to be a somewhat universal standard and some even prohibit it in their rules, the notion being the auction item will no longer be a good deal if the information is shared. Only for gun auctions. Then after the auction, much like Rookhawk, members will post the results of the auction and winning bid price. I think this standard is perhaps more important to the pure collector. Others have stated it’s not often one will strike a home run and win the bid at a ridiculous low price yet it has happened to me but not on Safari rifles!

Collectors will scour the internet for online auctions and sometimes guns are misidentified and the collector will bid and cross his or her fingers and hope it goes unnoticed! This is probably more important to a gun collector like my brother, who has 30 rare S&W Registered Magnums in his vintage revolver collection whereas I’m more interested in guns I will shoot and use.

Anyhow, the main principle or thought process specific to gun auctions is sharing this information while the intent may be good, you may be doing more harm than good, since more eyes will see and potentially drive up the bid. I would love to win a bid on a misidentified 500 Jeffery for a thousand bucks! Will never happen but one can hope!

 

[Peter Radekevich]

I’ve posted a number of international auction recaps on this thread, identifying where demand and pricing is rising or falling for a variety of guns.

Not actionable information since the auctions have passed.

What say the members, useful or not useful to get recaps of what’s happening in London and elsewhere?

Very useful

 

[Scott CWO]

Being a member of other online gun forums, it seems to be a somewhat universal standard and some even prohibit it in their rules, the notion being the auction item will no longer be a good deal if the information is shared. Only for gun auctions. Then after the auction, much like Rookhawk, members will post the results of the auction and winning bid price. I think this standard is perhaps more important to the pure collector. Others have stated it’s not often one will strike a home run and win the bid at a ridiculous low price yet it has happened to me but not on Safari rifles!

Collectors will scour the internet for online auctions and sometimes guns are misidentified and the collector will bid and cross his or her fingers and hope it goes unnoticed! This is probably more important to a gun collector like my brother, who has 30 rare S&W Registered Magnums in his vintage revolver collection whereas I’m more interested in guns I will shoot and use.

Anyhow, the main principle or thought process specific to gun auctions is sharing this information while the intent may be good, you may be doing more harm than good, since more eyes will see and potentially drive up the bid. I would love to win a bid on a misidentified 500 Jeffery for a thousand bucks! Will never happen but one can hope!

I get it for collecting and speculating but I appreciate being informed about a gun I want to use and keep.

 

[RR 314]

I get it for collecting and speculating but I appreciate being informed about a gun I want to use and keep.

I am on your page. I don't buy guns to flip or consider them to be part of my investment portfolio. I buy guns, particularly rifles, that I like. Would I love to buy everything under market value--absolutely. Do I? Probably not. .

I have mentioned to a couple of you that I have had the pleasure of meeting that I enjoy the process. I enjoy finding a fine rifle, working on a load for a particular hunt, and being successful on that hunt. Although it makes little sense, I then usually thoroughly clean that rifle, put it in the back of a safe, and then start the process anew. For one reason or another the next rifle in line may get passed up and never utilized. Although I have a fair amount of nice rifles, I don't consider myself to be a collector. Even if I don't take a rifle on a big hunt after it goes in the safe, I will dust them off and use them for something wholly inappropriate for the chambering. For example, I have shot a lot of pigs (all in the head) with .458 Lott and bigger.

Good deals are awesome; however, I seem to be on the selling side of the good deals. Buy high--sell low. It's how I roll. I just purchased a spectacular rifle that went for less than I thought it would/should. Not a lot of comparable sales out there. Was it a "good deal"? I don't know. Likely I never will know.

With all my rambling herein, I will state that I have had many members reach out and ask me my opinion on nice bolt rifles and I assist or provide a heck of a disclaimer if the rifle in question is not in my wheelhouse. It is good to have others to bounce ideas off off in the evaluation process. I was looking for a double to gift to a friend and as I am admittedly not well versed in doubles I reached out to @rookhawk about a William Evans/Purdey's .470 at Holts. He took the time to confirm it was a solid rifle, but also told me the estimate was ridiculously low. I entered a bid, from memory, 1500 pounds or so above the high estimate. I think I was outbid by perhaps 3000 pounds (4500 pounds over the high estimate from memory). His help was greatly appreciated and knowledge was spot on.

I think most of the remaining "good deals" out there are in small shops with limited exposure and (generally) older owners who don't utilize tools readily available. The other example is truly high end shops regularly selling guns in the $75K-250K range who may not appreciate a gun in the $15 K range and may only offer $8K or so in trade and will let it go quickly for $9500 to $10K.