Garage sale spoons

[J P Stein]

Estate sales, flea markets, nickle ads.......anyone have any experience here or is it a waste of time?

[Paul K]

It really varies. Most of the Yard Sale spoons I see are tired & overpriced. Ditto on the Nickel ads. Of course, everyone knows a story about the guy who showed up at the estate sale early & the widow sold him a bunch of nice spoons for pennies on the dollar.

That's the wow factor, baby!

[Mo_Gearhead]

I purchase spoons at estate sales, every chance I get.

Naturally, it depends on the condition of the spoon and how active the bidding becomes. You have to do your homework, know the values and realize when the bidding reaches your tolerance level (don't get caught up in the mano-e-mano bidding war frenzy) ...know when to say NO.

[Mo_Gearhead]

Try here: auctionzip.com

Key in the limit of miles you want to travel to a sale and your zip code. You will get a list of every auctioneer and their sale (that participates).

I sometimes go to three auctions a week. It's a passion of mine.

[on2wheels52]

I'm fairly in touch with the used firearm market in my area. I never go to auctions though I hear plenty of anecdotal stories from those that do. They don't tell of many killer deals but there's lots of paying over Blue Book stories. If I wanted to sell my bunch I'd likely do an auction rather than putting them on my for sale rack.
Jim

[HHI944]

That's how auctions around here are....people are stupid....they'll pay 500+ for a worn out glock, but pay no attention to the pre64 Winnie with a little patina. I got my pre64 1894 for 200 bucks. The next item after it was a used keltec that brought 400

[Dantilla]

I suppose it's like digging for gold- Gotta go through a lot of dirt to find a valuable nugget now and then.

[tabs]

Last year at an online estate auction I bought an Elsie 4E in good condition for 3.5 large First of all FIND ONE, second find one for under 10K.

I don't even leave this seat to find more stuff with good MARGIN than I could ever purchase. Surprisingingly you can even purchase at some of the big spoon collector auctions for bargain prices. At this moment I have over 200 items I am watching across the USA. I even watch and purcahse internationally. Ask me about the 3 Smiths I picked up overseas...

Every weekend there has to be at least 1000 little estate sale auctions going on across the USA..about 15% to 20 % have some kind of spoon in them. Mostly junk.. just take a look at Auction Zip. It is mind boggling...back in the day Auction Zip did not have a search engine and one had to go through the lists of all auctions to find the spoons.

That Elsie mentioned above had 3 or 4 lousy pictures and virtually no description with it. It took me about 1/2 an hour to confirm what it was by using the books (pictures) on the subject. Second I gave a call to the auctioneer to give me his eyeball assessment. Some people on this Board even argued with me about it..that it wasn't a 4E..they were WRONG.

I can tell if a spoon is basically straight from terrible pictures..Every picture tells a story...Then you need to make the call. I know what it is supposed to look like..finishes etc. I also have the research material to back it up. I have no qualms at spending $400 for a book on a subject because it can either make or save you a lot of dinero. I have even made money on books...on spoon subjects.

I bought a lot of 3 books for 220, sold them for 200, 150 and the third is an 800 book on Colt govt 1911's that I needed , that is now FREE.


Then there is knowing PRICING..sometimes one makes a mistake, usually I know it pretty quick. The idea is to take your loss and move on to the next item. Usually that next item either makes up part or all of the loss. Sometimes I just ekk out a small profit, that would not have warranted the iniatial purchase price. Then there are the good margin scores and the jackpot, end of the rainbow pot of Gold scores. Like the Elsie.

If one cruises all the auciton lists one sees an endless array of run of the mill mass produced spoons like Remington 870's, 1100's etc...one is looking for that one or two pieces in the auction that are interesting. Last year a Swineburn Double Rifle showed up at an auction in Ill. Made circa 1860 in GB, it featured an unusal style of rifling and is considered to be fairly rare. It went for 2500, next I see it at a bigger venue Spoon auction where it went for 7500. Interesting. I was the under bidder in the original auction, however I was after something else as my primary interest. I didn't get my Primary interest item either(it went for too much money), but did get a nice CW Union Sniper rifle for 1800. Sometimes the order in which stuff sells in auctions works against you.

The idea is to NEVER CHASE an item...I usually will get the item I am after for one bid more than I want to go...I guess the other party has the same idea as to value. That is acceptable otherwise you would get nothing. Unless the item you are after has rarity, desirablity, exceptional condition or all of the above don't chase. If it meets the above criteria there are exceptions to the rule if that piece is a needed addtion or want to a collection. When if ever will you see it again, is a good question to ask yourself? A coupla years back I sold a S&W Triplelock TGT in 44 Spl wt factory 4 inch barrel...it lettered...this was a factory Special Order it would still be with me if it were not refinsihed. I will NEVER see another one.. it did turn out to one of those Jackpot end of the rainbow scores...2.5 X initail purchase price. If it were not refinished it would have been about double the price I sold it for.

However I digress, on run or the mill or common recent production spoons with the advent of the internet auctions prices are invariably within a tight range across the USA whether it is an online auction or purely a brick and mortar operation. S&W 686's are all going to go within a $50 to $75 price range on any given Saturday from coast to coast. It is tough to make margin, unless you want it for yourself. The ones I bought were from a used spoon Dealer in Houston, as his pricing was as good.

When bidding one has to keep mental track of the Buyers Premium, Shipping and if applicable FFL receiving costs. BP's usually run 10% to 20%. That IS A MAKE OR BREAK proposition on margin. With online auctions the Online Buyer pays a 3% to 8% or higher BP than the onsite bidder, absentee or phone bidder (some auctions charge the onsite buyer 0% while charging the online buyer 15%) Therefore as I have told NUMEROUS auctioneers from coast to coast that puts the Online buyer at a BIG disadvantage. However most auctioneers don't really care as the online bidder drives prices higher for the onsite buyer. The other notable thing is that the onsite buyer having personally inspected the spoon is usually willing to pay more for good items. Conversely they avoid the junk, so as an online buyer it is best to note whether one is bidding against an onsite bidder or internet bidder. At one local auction I attended in person I caught myself bidding against an online bidder for an item, I abruptly stopped when I caught myself doing it. The item was good however condition was an issue that made the price a bit too much.

[tabs]

Generally with local non online auctions, one might be the only person who knows what an item is really worth, two might be the only one one to take a chance and risk the dinero or the competitions pocket books are not deep enough. Thus an opportunity to steal. With the Big Venue Spoon actions that are well advertised good luck with any of the above..Online Bidders bring more eyeballs on the merchandise than if it were just sold locally. Therefore with th eonline auction not much will escape attention, which makes it harder to find a diamond in the rough and not have to pay the going frieght. Thus prices even out across the world really.

Then there is a fatigue factor to consider, at the end of February there were quite a few big spoon auctions going on. The Little John Gangle Auction in Orange CA ran 1700 hundred pieces in 4 sessions over 2 days. Add in the other 7 or 8 good sized spoon auctions running afew thousand more pieces in the same week and you have buyer fatigue...there were deals to be later in the auctions..

The word about the LJG auction in SO CAL was that there was nothing special in it, so apparently a number of the strong local buyers didn't show..they instead hit the Carol Wilkeson auction down in Irvine instead as prices ran higher down there.

I did pick up a coupla nice things outa the LJG auction and something out of a VA auction several days later..the piece in the VA auction had a lousy description, pictures and apparently no bidders locally that either knew value of what they were looking at or didn't care. We will see when it arrives.

Also with the advent of various Price Guides (The Blue Book & Standard Cataloge of Firearms) with descriptions every idiot in the world can find a relative value on Spoons. If one were to look under Rigby Rifles in the Std Catalog of Firearms..one would see a picture of a BA Rigby spoon ...the spoon came with a luggage case, factory scope wt leather case and factory letter stating it was made in 1915. The buyer paid 3K at a Jeff Faintich Auction in 1999, which was well under estimate. Also it was pictured on the cover of the 2000 edition of the Std Catalog.

[Jandrews]

Tabs....in general, how accurate are the "estimated prices" in these auctions? And where do those "estimates" come from? For example, a shotgun that lists an estimated price of $200-$400.....how much would you want to be in it for?

Thanks,

JA

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Jandrews

Tabs....in general, how accurate are the "estimated prices" in these auctions? And where do those "estimates" come from? For example, a shotgun that lists an estimated price of $200-$400.....how much would you want to be in it for?

Thanks,

JA

Every auctioneer plays a different game with estimates. John Gangle LOWBALLS his estimates, Julias tends to Pump them up, Rock Island tend to be a bit high as well. Best way to check is to check prices realized vs estimates over several auctions...Generally I like to check those realized prices vs estimates as a gauge of how well it went. Also knowing prices on what you are after is derigure..

If U are buying something that is currently in production. There is Retail, then there is what the Dealer buys it for from the Distributor...a used spoon in new condition is worth just under Distributor price. Let us say 400 is Distributor...380 is what I would want to buy it for hoping I could sell above the Dist price. However below Stocking Dealer is where it is at...I found a NIB Ed Brown Exec Carry for just under Stocking Dealer delivered.

The Rock Island people told me that 30% to 35% of everything in one of their auctions is owned by them. That is where they make theri real dinero. The consignments are just filler. However a M $ collection is more than filler. So if you have HIGH $$$$ items you negioiate your Sellers Commish...

Generally an auctioneer wants 20%, Rock Island is or was at 17.5%...However if you bring in a bank collection it is called ZERO or 1% Sellers Commmish. why because the guy is going to make at least 15% on the BUYER. so a 1M $$ hammer priced spoon is going to net the auctioneer a cool 150K for 3 minutes of time on the block. Nice work if you can get it. What I don't get are all the auctioneers who will spend the same 3 minutes for an item that is less than $5.00.

[Jandrews]

Very interesting. Makes sense. Thanks tabs.

JA

[tabs]

Then there comes the matter of RETURNS if the auctioneer misrepresents in his description the item....Rock Island will NOT...Amoskeag, Julias, Carol Wilkeson WILL. The others ?????

There is one paticular auctioneer that I would like tohave told to go fk himself...as I got burned several times...however there may come a day when I want something that he has. And I did get one really great item outa him in the past. This guy thought he could Bully the ATF boyz but they showed him by taking his FFL license...so to get back in biz his daughter had to get an FFl. This guy sold everything from farm animals to spoons and everything in between. It is all just merchandise to hime, so he describes everyting on an assembly line baiss. It a Winchester ahhh mdl 94 30 WCF SN # NEXT.....ahhh what about that bulged barrel mr Auctioneer?