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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.