Gun auctions

danban

Well-Known Member
Hi guys where is the best place to go to gun auctions? I have never had anything to do with these.

Has anyone ever been to any? Have anyone had any luck?
Regards Dan
 
Holts are probably the biggest and have good website based previews. Be careful with VAT and auctioneers fees as these can mount up. Have been tempted many times but have never taken the plunge myself
good luck!
 
i bought a lovley (lovley to me anyway) jj langley side by side boxlock ejector for £200 inc fee's at a local auction the gun fits me well and was made around 1900 im really chuffed with it i dont know what its value is but im sure at £200 i did ok
 
2 things to be careful of: shipping costs and how the gun will be packaged. If coming from a private party, be sure to go over how you want it packed. Make sue to have padding at the butt and muzzle ends. With professional gun sellers, this is not as much of a problem. I had 2 guns arrive damaged because the shipper did not know how to pack them. Both had to go back to the seller.
 
I have bought from Holts and also visited the preview a number of times. On their website they now have a helpful calculator to let you work the actual you will pay given a certain level of bid. Given that most that goes through an auction is 2nd hand there is no such thing as the correct price. Sometimes you see a modern gun, say a Beretta Silver Pigeon go for far more than you would pay in a gunshop or a private sale, but then on others you can get a bargain. I bought my Ferlach built combination gun through Holts. It was made in 1974 by Joseph Hambrusch, pretty much unused and and long storage wax all over it. I wrote a check for just a little over £1,000 for it. I put a bid in so that the auctioneer could go up to just a certain price. I was the only interested party. Similar guns are now making £2 to £3,000 and to have one built today would be the best part of EURO 20,000.

You do need to factor in that Auctions it is bought as seen / described, where as 2nd hand from a gunshop will give you a level of warranty for a period of time. Given the Internet auctions are no longer the place for real bargains, and certainly with Holts you are competing with the International market place, and this is certainly the case for the top end guns - the Purdey's etc. But if you are after a nice English / Scottish game gun - box lock ejector / non-ejector well worth a look and probably quite a bit cheaper than on a dealers shelf. But then you don't have the level of a dealers service.
 
Be very carefull
They are there to make money from you, no more, no less.
If buying, and they see you are interested they will bounce it off the wall against you.
Beware!
 
I can't agree with Yoda's pessimistic view.

I have never known any reputable auction house "bounce it off the wall" and I know this because I have many times bought items for less than my maximum bid limit left with such.

Do Southam's know that they still owe you money? Again they actually are one of the quicker payers and I have never had to wait more than three weeks for settlement.
 
Well worth checking out your local auction house. The nearest one to me is Mitchells at Cockermouth in Cumbria. They have a sporting sale twice a year. Fishing paraphernalia, stuffed animals and birds, leg of mutton shotgun holders, the odd lot of cartridges, some sporting rifles, air guns, paintings of country scenes, the type of stuff you'd expect when an old farmer passes on. You can go along before the auction and have a look at the guns and handle them, so at least you can check them to a certain degree, have a squint down the barrel, check the action and in the case of shotguns how tight it is and whether the ejectors work (bring a couple of snap caps along).

Many of the lots will be old guns that have been propped up behind a farmer's back door for eventualities for the last 50 years and will have seen better days. But you do get some hidden gems, the odd good quality old English gun or an AYA No. 2 or something similar. Certainly worth popping along for the odd half hour to see if there's anything interesting.
 
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