Gun auction today....prices are nuts

[bladeworks123]

Went to a gun auction today where they were auctioning off all the firearms from a pawn shop. Among the treasures was a Century CETME, gap at .009" triple frame 3/16 inch out of plumb, cocking tube mangled near the charging handle end. 1 magazine.. It sold for 700.00. Right behind a Romak that went for 750.00 and a Colt Sporter AR that went for 1k.....Needless to say I was not bidding....

[okie shooter]

Been to lots of auctions that went that way, the last sheriffs auction later in the auction stuff hit the roof. Thus I got luck on the fourth lot, I got a M-11 for two hundred. The later ones went for twice that.

[Noskov]

I want to guess that the high bidders don't have much if any access to the internet? Gunbroker and the other sites have CETME's for $550 or less; some with tons of accessories and they aren't selling at all.

[bladeworks123]

This was kind of surreal today. I also saw a RIA .45 commander go for $650 missing a lot of bluing, and a cardboard box with eight partial boxes of assorted CF rifle ammo, (nothing exotic) maybe 75 or 80 rounds total, go for $175. It was like the people bidding had no clue whatsoever.
Ruger Vaquero in .45 long colt, in rough shape $500 bucks. Colt SA .22 buntline, rough, no box & no mag cylinder, 700 bucks. Turkish Mauser that went for $600. Just crazed buyers I guess. And Yeah, you would think, that with a sale brochure that had been put out almost a month ago, listing these weapons,,,, that people would have checked into the prices for the stuff they were there bidding on before they came to the auction.....

[Noskov]

I missed out on a bargain at my dealer's shop. It was a Enfield revolver in .38 from 1944. My dealer was asking $40.00 for it cause it had been refinished. Sadly no firearms auctions here. Any confiscated firearms are destroyed.

[Milsurp]

That sounds like the prices at the local gunshows around here. Thats why I stopped going. There aren't any auctions around here to go to that I've ever seen.

[jdowney]

Auction fever is really fairly stupid.... I was watching every Browning Hi Power auction on GB a few years ago for a couple months, looking for another BHP to buy... Guns that started at $0.01 would seem to sell for $650 or so, same gun that started at $525 would sell for $525 after being listed for half a dozen auctions. All about knowing that there are fever bidders for your item and exploiting the insanity - about the same time I sold a couple of Clawson's .45 books for about $100 more than I was expecting, starting the auction at $0.01... Seen lots of guys start the same item at $300 and get no bids at all.

Blade, I bet the pawn shop would still be open if they could have sold their inventory at that kind of prices!

[bladeworks123]

.......Blade, I bet the pawn shop would still be open if they could have sold their inventory at that kind of prices!

No doubt,,,,,they had a girl from the pawn shop there before the sale answering questions about the guns and filling out backgroound check paperwork, I asked her if I could inspect it and check the gap. She said, sure and made the comment that they knew all about checking gap because they had sold a lot of the Century Guns and had to return a few because of bad gap....I know they weren't selling them for what this one went for.

[vista461]

Back in Feb a state auction site here had a used Hi Point up and bidding was up to 325 when I saw it, almost double list price for a new one. lol

[Buddymack]

This reminds me of an issue I was discussing on Gun and Game, some people are so misinformed on the market that they bid way too much on GB or Auction Arms for something so simple to beat on J&G,Centerfire,AIM and so on ...I cam close to getting a fairly good deal on GB on a long rifle M1911 and someone who apparently never saw other dealers on the net went way over the market value....people are some funny animals with this stuff.