Life has changed and I am thinking of liquidating a lot of my collection.  I do not want the hastle of gunbroker or the EE here.  Was thinking an auction might be the way to go to unload more than a few at once. Has anyone dealt with Montrose Auction?https://montroseauction.com/

I’ve not used Montrose but had similar thoughts last year.  My collection was primarily military collectibles.  American infantry rifles 1816-1982 and German pistols , primarily Lugers and P.38s.

I used Centurion Auctions in Tallahassee and was very pleased.  He has a firearm auction approximately every other month and a military’s auction every other month.

My collection was 125 military and 5 civilian + various lots of ammo, mags, clips, pouches, etc

They came to inspect, inventory, picked up, insured, researched for description accuracy, photographed, listed, sold, shipped, FFL’d, collected money, and gave me a printout and check afterwards.  

Soup to nuts.  I had dreaded selling these myself and dealing with 150 different buyers.  They handled from soup to nuts.  I couldn’t have been more pleased with the result

Their audience of bidders knew what they were bidding on.  My more rare arms brought great prices.  My common arms brought good prices.  My civilian stuff went cheap.

My stuff sold last October.  Go to the website and you can see the items and how much they brought

Excellent! Thank you for the recommendation. I have a similar quantity and just don’t want the hassle as you had said.

Could you describe the process? I am guessing they scheduled a day to come in and inventory… did they show up in a truck and haul it all away then?

I am in a situation where I have separated and moved to Alabama. The safes are in Georgia and I want to minimize my time here.

Did they sell ammo also? I stacked deep in the Bush years… have not really shot that much in the past decade.

Thank you again for your reply!

Let us know the auction details if/when the day comes

They sold some of the ammo.  Basically, they sold the factory ammo but not reloads.  I sold reloaded ammo locally.

Here's the link: https://www.centurionauctions.com/.  Ask for the owner, Malcolm Mason.  He will call you back.  Or PM me, I can give you his cell #.  Tell him what you've got.  He'll answer any questions.  He and one assistant personally came to pick up my stuff.  I thought they were going to show up in a truck, but he actually wrapped the guns and put them in his car.  I already had a list with S/N's, so as we loaded, we checked off the list.  Of course, he also took the ammo, holsters, slings, bayonets, books, mags, etc.

I had 49 Lugers, so I had concerns about the number diluting the bids for the lower valued Lugers.  I had 2 of the 1,000 American Eagle Test Lugers evaluated in the 1903 US military pistol trials and thought about splitting them.  He said his audience had the resources, so spreading them out over several auctions wouldn't affect the price.  He was right.

Common stuff like Garands, M1 Carbines, '03 Springfields, Krags, Trapdoors, etc. brought right at market prices or maybe a tad better.  You can check the auction site to see what they brought.

He will go over the contract terms.  Essentially, I paid 10% seller's fee.  There was no separate charge for transporting, insuring, inventorying, transfer fees, etc.  If I recall correctly, anything over $1k (or $2k I can't remember) and the the % decreased.  I'd have to look at my contract, but I think it went to 7%.  It went significantly lower for items sold for $5k.  He will go over all that with you.  I don't want to step on his toes in case his rate has changed.

There was a several month delay between pickup and auction.  I think he picked up my stuff in May and auctioned in October.  Although I gave them descriptions for my older stuff, it took a while for them to research my descriptions for accuracy.  They even corrected me on a few of the 1800's stuff.  I was impressed.  After the auction, it takes a month for them to collect the funds from the buyers.

I encourage you to go to their website and browse the auctions and past auctions to get a feel for what they sell and how much it will bring.  My stuff was October 2021.

From my perspective, they picked up the guns and eight months later, they're sending me printouts.  A month later, they've sent a check.  I was very pleased with the no hassle.

Tell Malcolm, I said hello and that I recommended him.  And good luck!  

eta.  I just checked the contract and copy and pasted below:

LEVEL 1: 10% of the “Hammer Price” per Lot (Property) sold in its Auctions between $.01 and 1,000
LEVEL 2: 7% of the “Hammer Price” per Lot (Property) sold in its Auctions between $1,001 and 2,000
LEVEL 3: 5% of the “Hammer Price” per Lot (Property) sold in its Auctions between $2,001 and 5,000
LEVEL 4: 3% of the “Hammer Price” per Lot (Property) sold in its Auctions between $5,001 and Greater

Thanks all!

Just fyi any online or organized sale is going to get you a 1099 nowadays. Nobody has explained how you establish cost of good sold and profit for taxes as they slid it in another bill. It’s in a book but the book is 100000 pages.

@Jack-of-Hearts

Thank you again. I spoke to Malcom and I think he is the man!

Robpiat…. 1099… eck.  I’m already on the hook for 30k to the irs for a fuck up I made in 2019. Ugh.. I guess this is what CPAs are for :(

Here's a tip.  I kept my plans on the down low with friends and family.

When they hear you're selling, they'll want a "deal" on something.  My personal policy is to not make money off my friends, so I sell to my friends for whatever price I paid.

I had one friend who knew about my plans to sell.  He begged to buy my Rock-Ola M1 Carbine.  I told him that's the only one I'll sell.  I sold it to him for the $750 that I paid a number of years ago and told him that I could get about three to four times that amount at auction.

At least maybe he'll appreciate it more.

So keep your plans close to your chest.  Don't post it on Arf hometown forum or anything.  Oh wait.  

??????????

Interesting discussion. I actually wandered into the Centurion storefront a few months ago and saw some of the upcoming auction items on display.

Update… they are coming next week to pick up.  Everything should be in the August auction…. Not sure if im allowed to say that or not! Mods delete if it is not permitted!

Great!  If your friends ask to buy something out of your collection; now you can tell them "Sure!  You didn't think I wouldn't give you a chance to have it, do you?  I'll give you the link for the auction site."  

Curious to hear the results. I have thought about thinning the herd.

Quick update… they came today and loaded the truck. 30 plus years worth of stuff.

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Shucks, that radio looks cool.

This

Ammo too?

Everything! (Well almost).

Two cannons gone… still have one for fun :)

Ammo fort is no more



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Nice fort.  

I got the radios in the early 90s

One of my buddies was a1st LT in the guard.  They had a chance to do some airmobile operations… but their radios were down.  So my buddy borrowed mine for his unit ??

Well, now I really want it.

Are the items with the Montrose Auction?

Centurion.https://www.centurionauctions.com/

Everything should be in the August auction as far as I know!

Awesome, thanks for the heads up.

All that militaria, ammo AND a beautiful C3....that's one sexy ammo fort!

Nice Stingray also.

Just a small update… gotten a couple of calls from the auction house requesting info on some of my pieces. Hoping the auction does not get screwed up by any new legislation!!!

Edit: I am an idiot and forgot you changed auction houses.

Just as an FYI.

Montrose will charge you sales tax for their location, not based on the buyers zip code.  I don't know if that only applies to in-state bidders.  This is a bit different than my experience with other auction houses.  Also, they don't provide a shipping quote until after the box it is boxed and shipped.  Again, my experience with other auction houses has been shipment cost included on the final invoice.  If you pay by check Montrose will request you leave a credit card number on file to charge the final shipping amount.

Also, OP you picked a good auction house to maximize your sales.  The auctioneer will do everything in his power to avoid hammering on a low price, it was ridiculous listening to some of the lots. "400,400,400,400,400,400,400..."  Jesus man, just hammer it and move on to the next lot!

Looks like the August firearm auction is no more, they list one for September.

Hmmmm… They did not notify me… looks like they moved me to Sept 17.  :(. That is one of my 1919a4s with the crank master :P

Just got the pdf document showing the low/high estimates.

Should be on the web site soon…. 220 items

https://www.centurionauctions.com/upcoming-auctions

The level of interest is encouraging.  Not all the photos are up yet and bids have already started to roll in.

I hope it works out well for you.  

Was all of that yours or did they add other sellers to the mix ?

Yeah… looks like they mixed mine in.

Thanks!

@jack-of-hearts

Question for you - how did you handle the IRS with the sale - taxes after the sale I should say.

Thanks!

Good question.  It made me google answers when I got the money.  Basically, its not income or payment for services so there's no 1099.  It's all self reporting.  My understanding is that you generally owe a capital gain on anything you sold for more than you paid.  But you don't get to offset any gains with losses from other items.  And you don't have to report any sale proceeds where you broke even or incurred losses.  It's a complex question.

Read this article on guns and taxes

When you get your proceeds, go talk with your CPA if you feel you have tax situation.  And please let me know what you find out.

Awesome! Thank you! I will let you k ow what my cpa says once the auction is over.

Auction was today.  There were a few things that did not sell - a Cannon, off brand 12GA semi (mid 1970’s) and a lot that contained 10/22 and MkI mags.

Big surprise? Ammo and my SPAS-12

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My CPA says that for the items I do not have original receipts for I can use market value prices from around the time of purchase. Internet way back machine and I have our work cut out.

Capital gains taxes suck.  Still not sure how the taxes will play out.

So far I have been very pleased with Centurion Auctions - when I get the check I will let you know if there were any gotchas.

I had bids on the spam cans of 30-06, but they went above range.  I was pretty close on some lots of 5.56/223.  I'm guessing some of the ammo went to locals as shipping can add up quickly for heavy lots.

Some of the lots went for way too much, I often wonder if the bidders at auctions know what they'redoing.

I think people just get caught up in the competitive nature of auctions.

I agree with all the above posts. All I really know is someone REALLY wanted that SPAS12!

I guess. On some auctions I'm like, you know they still make that firearm and it can be purchased for less after you account for BP, tax, and shipping.

I get the older/rare stuff, but the newer items...it baffles me.

Anyway, glad for OP that those people exist, sounds like he did well.



How else are you going to live out your Jurassic Park fantasy?

Tell us about the cannon that did not sell

Interesting story about that cannon….

I was in grad school in the same department that they taught Industrial Education (teaching students how to be shop teachers)

One of my advisors was divesting himself of worldly goods in case he had to flee from and ex-wife!  Among his thing was this cannon. He said he made it as a project for one of his graduate classes. Said he had fired it one time.

I got it from him for a song!  It is a 1 inch bore… has a fuse hole, wooden carriage in a naval style.

I have fired it a few times using about a teaspoon of powder and wadding.