What to do with my guns?

[RED]

I'm 75 and have no idea of how many guns I own. Most of them are in a well hidden in a secure safe at my son's house in KC. I will never shoot them again... I don't have acreage any longer, and the only public range around here is closed because vandals kept destroying the outhouses as well as the benches (togor's protesters in action).

I am considering leaving my Colt's to a museum. I don't want to sell them because that would just increase funds the Fed's will take when I have to go to a nursing home. I don't need the money and my grandkids education is already financed in my trust.

If you are an old fart with this problem what are you goin to do your guns?

[k arga]

they all go to my son and he can do as he wants.

[S.A. Boggs]

Same here, Samantha already has them so I know they ae in good stead. What about the NRA museum?
Sam

[Major Tom]

My Grandson will get what guns I have left. I've been selling a few at a time for extra income. He will also get all my reloading equipment/supplies and other firearm related stuff.

[clintonhater]

Same here, Samantha already has them so I know they ae in good stead. What about the NRA museum?
Sam

I promise you they don't want them unless they're truly museum quality.

[clintonhater]

If you are an old fart with this problem what are you goin to do your guns?

A big problem I worry about all the time. If you're talking about modern guns, & don't need the money, give them to some organization you support, let it auction them off. Most of mine are antiques or collectibles, so much harder to dispose of properly. Even the dealers I bought many of them from are as old as myself & now retired!

Leaving anything to a museum is generally a bad idea--most museums are already stuffed to the rafters, far too much stuff to display more than a fraction, & will merely sell them to raise operating funds. As for giving them to your kids, what usually happens the next day after you croak is a phone call is made to some big auction house, their truck arrives, problem solved.

[SUPERX-M1]

What to do with your assets:

Yes, a problem. Children, grand children probably won't be grateful enough and see your assets as their right. Still a solution. Charities benefit themselves too much, too often. Museums, well, it is the curator who would appreciate your collection. You could make it your focus to turn them into cash. Money may have dried up re common guns. There is Gun Broker, Rock Island Auction and the other high end auction that ria disparaged, perhaps out of self interest. Some have consigned guns to dealers, gun shops and when they go belly up, all goes to the bank including your consigned guns. Be careful, folks are happy to take advantage. Auctions are an auction, goes to high bidder and that bid could be low. Some have taken bad hits. If you are not going to arrange the actual disposal, you need to plan the disposal, label, describe, value roughly each, method to sell each. Big or small , collections , of anything, are a trap and a problem. Difficult to turn over and get out. Online auctions are said to be the thing now. RIA has events where guns are high end, and other events are more common guns. They are online, and each lot is gone in 30 seconds. The auctions are big with many,many lots. The descriptions seem tiny and inadequate at ria. The ria auctions are very large so I suppose they are working ok. Still, I feel dubious with success at RIA- probably somewhat unfounded concerns. Gunbroker has reserve price if you want, some say better not to have reserve, then less buyer reluctance.

Lyman, of this board, is a gun shop owner who has sent collections to auctions. Perhaps, when he has time, he can give his know how to us. In the mean time, hit the internet, there must be info out there. Tell the rest of us. Don't keep knowledge to yourself.

I have inherited silver-plate and china and glassware collections and also baseball cards- still sitting, items not id and labeled, so hard to value without knowledge and current valuations of. There are books out there. Specialized dealers know. Value of such collections has collapsed. People, who are now old collected. Now, younger are not interested, have no room, no desire for such items. Current value may be 25% or 50% of value 10 years ago for many collectibles. See PBS Antique Roadshow. BB cards of 80s and 90s have no value.

How about a bit of philanthropy- endow educational scholarship for less privileged. or...

Read this book: Die Broke . Leave nothing. Spend it all.

Most of us will prob leave this mess behind for others to botch taking care of it. Good luck to all of us.


Edits: Need ffl contact for shipping. Get curio and relic license to ship older guns.
FedEX and usps ship info. Get camera, learn how to post with pix, pix on gun broker, go to some gun sites as cmp-for sale and list with a price. There is Blue Book of Gun Values-sometimes not accurate. Can look at completed auction sale prices at GunBroker. If you think this is overwhelming, so it will be for your successor. Looks like the shooters, not the collectors, have the win here.

[PaFrank]

I'm a bit younger, but like you, was concerned about what to do with my more desirable or collector grade stuff. I've been selling it off. All my collectible stuff is now gone, save for one rifle. My M1. All thats left is common stuff, and my kids have already called dibs on which they want. I'll continue to casually sell off the common stuff I don't use anymore, just to save them the aggravation and the strong possibility of being taken over the coals by a greedy dealer or other smooth talking shooter..

and besides if you sell it, who says the money has to go back to you? Have it paid to your kids now, the NRA, your favorite charity or whatever.. I know its hard, but there is a lot of ideas here and you have lots of options... just not a lot of time, so to speak..

[togor]

Gradual sell-off of those pieces that are not going to family or friends has worked for some collectors getting out of the hobby. Good luck, hope it goes well for you.

[Gun Smoke]

I am lucky in regards that both my son and daughter have some interest in guns. Their history? Sadly no. Just what they are at face value.

My daughter has her own place and so far I've given her a couple of my 2" snubs to carry with her after she obtained a conceal and carry permit.

My other guns will be given to them if/when they put dibs on them. I will have to keep things equal though. To make things worse, one day I will either inherit my brothers guns or at least be left to dispose of them. This puts quite a few guns in my hands including my own to farm out.

For those of you who want to sell and can not or do not wish to go through a local dealer you can always sell on GB. You don't need a FFL but the gun of course goes to an FFL dealer after being sold. All you need to send with the gun is a copy of your DL. The best thing is to send your guns to dealers on GB who sell on consignment. Most charge 15% and do all the work of listing, photo-ing, boxing and accepting payment. For some reason these sellers get more too than an individual would fetch so that makes up for the 15%.

[JB White]

Gradual sell-off of those pieces that are not going to family or friends has worked for some collectors getting out of the hobby. Good luck, hope it goes well for you.

Bingo! The ones my son wants are either already his or are tagged with his name on the gun sacks. My daughter only wants to know how much they're worth. (Flaming teeth gnashing liberal she has become)
So the safe queens have been slowly going down the road. After a few good sales, I've told my son "Let's go spend your sisters inheritance"
That makes his day!

[Sako]

Bingo! The ones my son wants are either already his or are tagged with his name on the gun sacks. My daughter only wants to know how much they're worth. (Flaming teeth gnashing liberal she has become)
So the safe queens have been slowly going down the road. After a few good sales, I've told my son "Let's go spend your sisters inheritance"
That makes his day!

Hahaha that's a pretty cool way to handle it.

[clintonhater]

After a few good sales, I've told my son "Let's go spend your sisters inheritance"
That makes his day!

Bravo for that! But it would be safer to actually get them into your son's possession without her knowing about it. If you drop dead & they're still in your house, tags won't mean anything.

[SUPERX-M1]

This thread needs YOUR helpful comments.

[Griff Murphey]

CA55EFF7-0516-4C2C-BA33-534E230A3DA0.jpgAn Air Force armorer who rebuilt two M-1s for me became a wheelchair case after some USAF back surgery that went poorly. He passed away in 1991 and when some of his USAF marksmanship friends went out to his house to pay respects and were treated to seeing his relatives walk out with armloads of guns, specie, etc.; rather appalling.

I prefer the concept of selling through a dealer / my favorite local just raised their commission from 15% to 20%, which is too high. Grrrrr! I think a gradual sell off is the best idea when a person gets to that point.

Now I have a collection of about 1,000 1:1200 scale waterline ships. Some are WW-2 ID models, some kitbuilt, a few are scratchbuilt. The average one is probably worth $15-20 but you’d be surprised at what some of the finely detailed ones out of Germany sell for. Not a “big” hobby. Hard to part that one out...