Rock Island Auction

[mobirdhunter]

Elaine and I attended portions of two days at the recent Rock Island auction. It was interesting to observe the bidding and final hammered prices of some of the guns offered. As I always do, I made my own predictions for the sale price on some of the guns, and I did pretty well prognosticating this time (but you don't want me to predict how much anything I really want will go for -- I'm always wrong!).

I did not examine the Parker A1S or 20 gauge AAHE other than to leave drool marks on the glass case they were in, but the A1S went for $75K (plus all the extras) and the AAHE 20 far exceeded its estimate, bringing $180,000.

As with all auctions, it's really good to be able to see the guns yourself, or have a person you know and trust to do so for you. I saw several guns that did not really live up to their descriptions -- not that the descriptions were incorrect, but rather they did not "tell the whole story."

I did see some very nice guns, and for the most part they brought what was estimated. As always, there were some higher, and others below their estimated value. It was telling to see the phone bids on certain items. When a good number of the phone bidders poise with their bid cards over an item, it does give some indication of the desirable nature of the piece. There's always the two person bidding for some items, but when the room bidders and phone bidders line up to bid, you know you'll have to pay a premium.

I continue to see English guns go for good prices. Alexander Hamilton's pistols went for a million, and I wondered if the cancel culture will find out he owned guns and they'll boycott the musical (sorry, I couldn't resist).

One of the Parkers that caught my eye was a lifter action 10 gauge. It was in really great condition. I bid on it, but had to bow out after my wife reminded me I'd already spent too much already. Whoever got that has a fine example of Parker craftsmanship.

The market seemed pretty decent for good guns this past weekend.