I can offer some insight. I recently helped the wife of a deceased hunter-friend liquidate a trophy collection of over 150 various species.
It's important to check state laws first because each state governs what can and cannot be sold across state lines (e.g., leopards are one that usually make the state list) or sold at all (e.g., post-ban elephants). Due to the size of the collection, I used a reputable auction house, Western Sportsman Auction, based in Ft. Worth Texas. They are absolute professionals with an on-line auction that reaches many more prospective bidders than a live auction that requires bidders to allocate time and expense for travel and hotel.
In this case, the collection was based in Pennsylvania. We had a lion and 2 leopards. We photographed them, took measurements and sent those details to Western Sportsman. They subsequently used the pictures in the item descriptions at auction time.
Western Sportsman picked up all the trophies (except for the lion and leopards) for a fee which they then deducted from the auction proceeds. The lion and leopards had to remain at her home and could only be bid on and sold to PA residents. Not only did they sell everything, the lions and leopards were verifiably sold to PA residents who picked them up once they settled their winning bid with the auction house. Thinking through that still amazes me. It would have taken so much time and cost to find legitimate buyers of those lions and leopards, let along the others, if we went about selling them on our own.
I can also tell you that price is in the eye of the beholder. The bigger, more complex and more costly taxidermy specimens brought surprisingly less than expected. That can often be attributed to the physical space they require. Still there are as many buyers out there as stars, some of whom will pay handsomely for a grand animal. In my experience over the years, many people don't know what good taxidermy looks like. So, even if an item has some "warts", things will sell. It comes down to the level of exposure to the right audience. The online auction gave us that exposure.
As a side note, I had asked Western Sportsman for estimates before the sale. They don't blow smoke and they were generally spot-on except for some good surprises. It might be helpful to know that Western Sportsman will also buy trophies outright, and they will auction single pieces and collections.
Auction is just an option. I will provide contact information for Logan Thomas at Western Sportsman in case it's ever needed by anyone. Email:
logan@westernsportsman.auction. Phone: +1 832-829-0000. Good luck.
