Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Eis
George, I think you did the right thing to walk away. If they were unwilling to even give you a written estimate on each gun then there is something wrong with that, if nothing else so you would know which guns had value and which didn't. Maybe to ones that didn't have as much value you may have wanted to give to family or a friend and send the others to auction.
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Eric: I was prepared to take less on some guns, the ordinary ones, hoping for a better result on the rarer ones and an overall average that I could live with. That, unfortunately, was not forthcoming as I did not know what their estimates were or how they were arriving at them. It seemed to me that the person doing the evaluating was only identifying the guns make, gauge, model, ejectors or extractors. Nothing about condition, rarity, maker, history, etc. Each evaluation took @ one minute and then his estimate. Not very professional at all in my view. For instance, I have a Parker Bros. DHE 20 gauge that I purchased from Holt's in England several years ago. It has London proofs on the barrel flats. It is in very fine original condition with an initial plate bearing the name "S.D. McGraw" and the number "2" The Parker letter gives it's manufacture date in 1925 but has no detailed information as to who ordered it or where the factory shipped it to. I was hoping that a competent auction house would be willing to do some further research on it and find out who it was made for (there was a major league baseball manager with the name McGraw around that time) I overheard their estimate of around $2,500. I thought that they were looking at the wrong gun. I guess that I must find a more competent outlet to sell my collection.
Best Regards, George