Selling Guns from an Estate

Question
Hi.  My brother, who died a year ago, left behind a variety of handguns.  I am encharged with selling them on behalf of the estate.  Can you steer me to a couple of good online websites that would help me in placing ballpark values on these items?  Any other advice or tips?  Thanks.

Answer
Jim,

I'm sorry for your loss.

A good place for you to start would be http://www.armchairgunshow.com/gunvalue.htm

Besides that, if there is a reputable gun store in your area, you could talk to the owner and manager and tell him about the collection.  Ask him if he would be willing to bring out his book of values, and have him assess the guns.  If he's a honest merchant, he'll have no trouble doing that with the book open in front of you.

A few things to bear in mind:

The value of a given gun will be greatly affected by its condition, and someone who sells guns is in a better situation to determine that than the average gun owner.

Whatever the selling value is, the merchange will be able to give you 50-70% of that, depending on his overhead.  Keep in mind that he probably won't be interested in them all, only the ones he knows will sell (he won't want to tie up his money in things he doesn't think will sell).

If you don't mind waiting on the sale of them, you can probably put them on consignment.  The shop will likely take in the neighborhood of 20% of whatever a given gun sells for.  Two things to keep in mind with this:  1) you won't get your money until the guns sell.  2) if you want to get the gun back, you'll need to fill out the backsground check forms to do so (yes, even though they're your guns).  If you state has a "one hand-gun-a-month law," you may only be able to get them back one a month, so ask a lot of questions before you consign them.

I wish you well.