Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Carter
What they know that this site does not is to take the Blue Book of gun values as accurate without consideration of condition or current market conditions. The antique dealer is not necessarily a gun dealer and has to rely on information that can be in error.
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A few years ago I purchased at open auction a nice signed in plate Exhibition Poster painted by Picasso for $75 as a gift for my high school daughter. A couple of years later at a sale where we were selling, she had the poster appraised at the free appraisel booth for $750. We sold almost everything we had the first day and actually attended 2 outside auctions that night to restock. We sold all that the second day and were actually asked to leave by the show director because the other dealers were experiencing zero sales and complaining that we were "ruining the show".
The truth is we made a healthy profit and their results were typical of everything I ever experienced. They tend to hold merchandise at ridicupous prices for ever, and then clear their shops out at a quiet auction somewhere, where people buy it and repeat the process.
About the time I moved here, we were in a small antique shop downtown and they had an old Parker Lifter in really dirty and below average condition. It was priced at what now would be a reasonable amount for a pristine medium grade Parker. I believe I saw it there for at least 10 years.
I hung out in that world for several years and could only be amazed at their business model. They actually all beleved in their system and kept several auctioneers in business just trading their inventory back and forth.