Democrat Presidential candidate Al Gore once famously claimed to have invented the Internet. Let me offer you all a little free advice. If ever you choose to go into politics and start making bizarre unhinged claims about how awesome you are, you might want to choose something less checkable. It wasn’t too tough to pull up the Internet and see that the it was actually invented by ARPA (the predecessor of today’s DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) back in the 1960’s. At the time, Al Gore was a college student at Harvard who, by his own admission, spent too much time, “watching television, shooting pool, and smoking marijuana.”
The Internet has subsequently transformed the human experience. Previously, if you wanted to divine some obscure fact you trekked up to local library and dug through piles of moldy books. Nowadays the collected knowledge of mankind is never more than a few keystrokes away. While we should be harnessing this unprecedented power for the advancement of mankind, we’re actually using it to distribute pornography and silly cat videos.
Online Gun Auctions
Previously gun nerds banded together with like-minded brethren to prowl traditional dingy gun shows looking for bargains. However, nowadays, we can do that from the comfort of our living rooms any time of the day or night.
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GunsAmerica.com and GunBroker.com are like massive coast-to-coast gun shows that run around the clock. GunsAmerica typically operates in a classified ad format. GunBroker is an auction site philosophically similar to eBay. You can find some proper bargains in both places. Additionally, following GunBroker auctions for weapons similar to what you are seeking will give you an idea of their real world value. If the price is what the market will bear, this is where you divine that.
What really trips my trigger, however, are regional online gun auctions. These can be drawn from estate sales, Law Enforcement seizures, or just guys wanting to thin their herds. In the past, these auctions could be tough to find. Nowadays, BidtoBuyGuns.com serves as a clearing house bringing them all together in one place. BidtoBuyGuns.com is frankly addictive.
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How It Works
You sign up for each auction site individually and provide a credit card they keep on file. I’ve been doing this for years and have never had one compromised. Auctions are sometimes both live and remote, but most of them are digital-only run by a computer. The auction sites make their money via buyer’s premiums that are added to the final total. The industry standard at these small houses is either 10% or 15%. Shipping and an FFL transfer fee, usually about $25 per gun, go on top of that. You’ll lose track of that ancillary stuff if you buy a $1,500 vintage Luger. However, land an antique Velo-Dog revolver for $30 as I did a while back and the extra fees do kind of sting.
The auctions run in a variety of ways. A few are just timed auctions that end at a certain point on the clock like eBay. Most add a couple of minutes to an item if somebody bids at the last minute. This can stretch the process out considerably. A few add time to the entire auction every time anybody bids on anything. Those auctions sometimes run fairly late. The details are always displayed at the bottom of each item for sale.
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All of these auctions let you place your highest possible bid and then work upward for you automatically against the competition. If you go back and increase your max bid later it does not let you bid against yourself. Each site has its own bid increments that are included in the terms. Whoever has the highest bid when the clock runs out gets the piece.
Pitfalls & Benefits
There are risks and benefits to buying guns in this manner. For starters, you obviously can’t touch it. There is just so much condition information you can glean from grainy Internet photographs. Some sites are better than others in this regard. You can ask specific questions of the auctioneers in advance, but they are often not really gun guys. I have bought guns before via online auctions that looked great only to find that they were refinished or uglier than expected. That’s just a risk that goes along with gun collecting via this medium.
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The opposite is also the case. I once landed an absolutely gorgeous Lee-Enfield No 4 (T) sniper rifle that was all original and unfired at a sweet price because it was nestled in amongst a lot of flashier iron that might be more appealing to the masses. The hunt is half the fun. Just set limits for yourself and be satisfied if it doesn’t pan out. There will always be other opportunities for other cool stuff later.
Ruminations
Big-name houses like Morphy’s and Rock Island Auctions offer truly high-end pieces. That’s where you go to find movie guns, weapons owned by famous people, or one-of-a-kinds. Those guys are very gun savvy and produce both magnificent pictures and honest condition assessments. However, their premiums are higher. Just read all of the fine print before you jump in.
I’ll be honest with you all, I’m addicted to this stuff. I make up a Wishlist whenever I see a fresh auction and then check it periodically as the big day approaches. If I am not available during the actual auction, I let the computer do the heavy lifting. If I’m around the house, I might do it myself. These auctions have done a splendid job of efficiently separating me from my money for several years now. The process is just great fun.
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