What to do with my guns?

[Former Cav]

I Did strictly word of mouth.
I had a flood at my house and the flood mitigation outfit had all there workers bonded and insured. sold 5 guns to the owner of the company.
I priced everything very fairly priced
example: m1a preban 1980 with bayonet, scabbard, 10 magazines GI, stabilizer, E2 wood pistol grip stock and std stock wood, sling, chicom made bi-pod (good copy of GI model) and 500 rounds of radway green $1200 !
sounds LOW, but I bought it in 1980 for less then 600 with the E2 stock. and, I sold it to a life long friend. I could have sold it to my dentist, i was askimg 1500 and he wanted it for less! so?
sold an HK usp 45 with 5 14 rd mags for 600. In 1993 i paid about 500 for it, etc etc

[dryheat]

I have sold and bought hundreds of guns. I kind of hate doing the gun show. It's three days of standing watch and I hated standing watch. Not that it is all bad. You do meet some nice people. It's just that I can't stand still for that long. But the gunshow is $100 for three days and no fees or tax. DO be careful of your local and national gun laws. If someone comes up and wants you to sell a gun to his buddy who is a resident, so he can get it, look out. I swear we have had ATF set us up. We don't fall for it. But, some folks have multiple residences. Lyman would be better versed in this.
Gunbroker isn't bad. Yes, you pay a fee for selling something but it isn't onerous. Basically,you pay 6% on the first $250 and anything above that it's 3.5%.
6% X 250= 15. Say you sell a $900 piece. It's $15(for the first 250) and $22.75 for the remainder. Total- $37.75. You don't HAVE to use Paypal like you do with Ebay but you can't sell guns there anyway(don't get me started on Ebay).
Now the thing is with Gunbroker, don't look at guns being sold similar to yours and figure that's what you should ask. If you want to really sell something(and maybe not nine months from now) figure out a reasonable asking price, OR start your auction at a penny. If you have something that is nice the folks who peruse GB know what it's worth. It will get bid up to that amount thereabouts. The theory behind the penny start is someone is certainly going to bid $5 just to get it on their watch list. A couple more of those and you have few bids on your piece. That gets the herd interested. Something is going on. That has worked for me... and then sometimes it hasn't. GOOD PICTURES. Your selling something that no one can pick up. Don't be the guy that puts up a rifle with pictures taken on the kitchen table with no light. Everyone wants to take pictures with a white background. Wrong. The bright white makes the camera dim down the pic. You get a very dark rifle. Figure out how to get some shots of the important parts. Not fifteen pics of wood.
OK, that's enough.
Actually, just coincidental contact can work too. I sold a very expensive shotgun to the good ol boy who was working on a buddies house. A regular guy with a job. Just be careful.
And don't mention how much you hate most democrats. I'm not sure that will help.
I'm am probably going to croak with some guns in the closet. I have told my ares(sp) about what they are worth and it's up to them to follow through. I don't care.

[free1954]

i used to laugh when i was buying guns and say "this is my retirement." now it's not so funny, they are worth a heck of a lot more now than what i paid for them. some are family guns which will go to some other family member. the rest i will sell if i need to. some, fellow collectors are standing in line for. the rest word of mouth.

[Major Tom]

I once owned a Devine Texas M1A that I bought when they were first introduced. Paid $200 plus another $20.00 for GI ammo, came with a sling and 2 magazines. Serial number was real low at 00234. I sold it a few years later for $1500.00. Today they are worth almost twice that amount.

[Sunray]

Any of the grand kids interested?
"...funds the Fed's will take..." Won't be when you go to the home. But they'll tax what you have anyway.

[lyman]

RED,

did you decide what you wanted to do?

[dryheat]

I'd trust Lyman, well, as far as I'd trust anyone in sales, but his earlier post was accurate in every paragraph. If your smart and honest you can't go wrong. Here's a little ditty for you: You never go broke taking a profit. It's scary(Red doesn't get scared) to venture into something new like internet sale. But, unless you have horrible luck you will surprised how well it works. Another little ditty: I've never been screwed by a .30 cal. shooter.