The Spoon Road Show
 

I look through lots of spoons every week at auction from border to border left coast to right coast and even across the oceans... I have well over 100 items that I am tracking every week.

The Majors for Spoons (in no particular order of importance): All have their catalogs on line, only Julia's is still only a brick and mortar auction. These guys carry the best of the best and get the best prices...I have seen a spoon fetch 1M USD at Julias, 700K at Little Johns...

1. Julia's in Maine
2. Rock Island in Moline
3. Greg Martin Irvine
4 Little Johns in Anaheim

Up and coming: or honorable mention..He carries the best of the best to mid grade stuff. His prices are mostly pretty good on both ends of the trade.

Amoskeag in Manchester NH.

Also Rans: These guys are not consistent sometimes good some times bad. Bonhams in Knightsbridge and Gardiner do run top notch stuff..but it is too far to drive..

Bonhams in Knightsbridge and SF, CA
Cowans in Cincinnati
Kull Scupia in Kansas..a S&W guy
Australian Arms Auction..down under
Gavin Gardiner..West Sussex

Then there is everyone else: This is where I find most of my stuff..These guys host on line live auctions that are held at 100's of auction houses in both the US and Europe every month So for the most part these are both brick and mortar and Internet auctions. Some houses are running more than one Internet source of bidding at the same time. Auction Zip is like the phone book of upcoming auctions. Literally they have 500 to 700 auctions across the USA of every description listed for every Saturday.

1. Art Fact Live
2. Live Auctions
3. Proxibid
4. Auction Zip

The Gun Buying Sites: I use mainly GB to sell, I watch but don't buy so much here. These are more or less sites for dealers to sell their wares. I see stuff bought elsewhere at auction and soon after it shows up on these sites..Gun Runner is an online only auction that is held every month, he does get some interesting stuff but his prices do tend to run high.

1. Gunbroker.
2. Gun America
3. Guns International...
4. Gun Runner..
5. Auction Arms

The Dealers:

1. Collectors Firearms in Houston
2. Monte Whitley in PA
3. David Condon in VA
4. Ivory Beads in Covina, CA
5 Conn Shotguns
6 Track of the Wolf
7. Safari Outfitters

Hope this helps! On one hand this list of sources took me quite a while to compile. However I gave U too much information, because what you are left with is the work of sifting and sifting and sifting..through hundreds if not thousands of auction lots every week to find that one item you eventually will buy at the right price.

For instance I found at Bauer Auctions in Matoon Ill this weekend 4 pristine Colt 1911's..I told my friend down in Miss bout them so he set up a phone bid situation. The spoons he bid on are...

1. Colt 1911 USN 1913....sold 7200
2. Colt 1911 British 1915 Contract...sold 3300
3. Colt 1911 1918 US Army..he didn't bid so I don't know the price realized
4. Colt 1911 1917 US Army...sold 4500

The prices realized are basically retail. No deals, people paid the going rate on these items. There was no bargain here. So the point is one will look at lots of stuff but it is not everyday that one will fall through the cracks and go for a bargain. Bauer Auctions is a brick and mortar auction only, NO Internet bidding. So even here lots of eyes saw these pieces and went for em. BTW my friend didn't get a thing.

The idea is not to chase anything, but have an idea of roughly what ya want to pay that is realistic for what it is worth and if you come in at a bid or maybe even two of what you WANTED TO PAY..then you dun good. Most of the good stuff I have bought over the years was my last and final bid and was just over what I wanted to pay. The only time that I am willing to go to the ends of the earth, with regards to bidding is rarity and condition. Will I see it again anytime soon as in anytime in the next decade?

tabitha...where is a great source for a decent gun safe?

Tabs,
Your post is a great resource!

Thanks,
Tom

The Citadel here in LV carries a line of safes that has the space between the interior and exterior walls filled with a quick drying cement. What this does is provides not only security but fire protection. I believe the company is called American Security Products. But if that fails give Citadel a call and ask em which line of safes it is. I don't pay much attention to safes cause I am not in the market for one. You do see them at auction from time to time. However most gun safes are not safe from a Sawsall nor offer a great deal of fire protection.

Tabs,
My friend has a WWII Stevens 520-30 that has never been fired, complete with bayonet and original ammo. any idea on value? I've checked and can't find a similar one. Thanks!

What configuration is it? Is it marked US or US property?

Trench

Riot

Long Barrel

Big differences in prices..

And another one coming up in my corner of the world Page Title

Tab,
It's a trench gun with full barrel shroud. I'll dig up a few pics because I don't remember how it's marked.

So what will this one end up at? And how do you think it will shoot? :)

Factory Engraved 100th Anniversary Colt 1911 : Semi-auto at GunBroker.com

Here's one
 

Stevens 520-30 WWII USA, never fired...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294085329.jpg

and he's got a few of these...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294085440.jpg

Whatever the guy is stupid enough to pay.

If I won the lottery...
 

If I won the lottery...

A few more...
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294086051.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294086178.jpg



These 3 M1911A1'as are in Clawson's book...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294086127.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294086236.jpg

On the Trench Gun let us say $3750 might be a good place to start.

The USS 45 looks like a rework..you can tell by the sand blasted nature of the slide. If reworked right around 1000 if it were straight up from the factory 2500 to 3000 is about right.

I coulda bought one of those USS 1911 A1 for $300 back in the day...I am nonplussed by them.

WW2 stuf does not punch my ticket. I do like very high SN Garands..H&R's and Sprigfields and I pre WW2 stuff.

Tabs,
Thanks for the info! The M1911A1's are all 100% original, documented and not rebuilds. The poor quality photos I took really don't do them justice. Three of the .45's were photographed for Clawson's book, which is why I photographed them next to the book. I'll have to take better pics. My friend would gladly part with the shotgun for $4000, we just need to find a buyer and I've already tried gunbroker and gunsamerica. I need to find a place that specializes in military arms that won't rape him with a crazy commission. How do you like those bayonets?

A few more...
 

US Switch and Signal M1911A1...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294091146.jpg

Same pistol, from the book by Clawson...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294091233.jpg

The "stains" on the slide are just lube... gun is perfect...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294091303.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294091353.jpg



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1294091435.jpg

My friend also had an extensive collection of Revolutionary War, Civil War and WWI militaria, edged weapons, firearms, uniforms, etc... but sold all of that. He's 84 years old and is almost totally blind, so his collecting days are over...