Having to sift through a dead man's gun stuff

[Suck My Glock]

So the father of a family friend passed away last month. They lived across the street from us when I was a kid. Their daughter and my sister were best friends. I attended the funeral of course, and while there, I was asked if I could go through the man's guns and related stuff to help them ascertain values. I of course agreed.

It's a sad duty to do such work, but necessary. One day, someone is likely going to be doing the same for my stash of nifty things. It's a reminder to keep a record of what stuff is valued at so your surviving family members are armed with knowledge so they don't let stuff go for ridiculously discounted fire sale prices.

For instance,...this fellow bought most of his reloading components and ammo stash during the Clinton years. This is evident from the packaging that is out of date and the price tags. His daughter had no idea that 1000 primers were currently selling for $60-$70. She thought they were still only worth $16.50 from Annette's Powder Keg. (I miss that place. It was a good little supply shop.)



Price tags on the powder showed they sold for under $15 per pound.



The daughter was shocked to realize how much money her father had locked up in his 3 full-size gun safes. She thought there might be about $10,000 total. When I told here just the safes themselves are worth half that, she nearly fainted. We're still running down values, but it looks like there's probably close to $50,000+ if it were all liquidated.

Yes,...if I get tasked with disposing of this stuff, I'll be posting it here so you all can salivate over it and start the bidding. It might take a while though. She want's to see if there are relatives who might want a gun or two, which is only proper to offer. It will take a little time to see how that works out.

Once I'm done with this friendly service, I'm gonna have to go and gather up and catalog all my crap and make a 3-ring binder with values and such. I'd roll over in my grave of some of this hard-earned gear got sold for pennies.

[Lion Armament LLC]

Sorry for your loss. Good on you for doing that for him and his family. A good reminder to do this detail work for the sake of our families.

[Doc]

Reminds me of a running joke in most the circles it run in…off roading, race car stuff, pew pew, etc….. “if I die tomorrow, help my widow sell it for it’s worth, not what I told her I paid for them”

I’ve got 2 very close friends that have been tasked with this when the day comes, I’m also tasked to do the same for them. I’ve gotten into the habit of using “yard sale stickers” to put the price I’ve paid and the date of purchase.

It’s an awkward responsibility, but an important one no doubt.

If all goes well my family will be left with a small fortune and no need to liquidate.

May God bless you @Suck My Glock for stepping up and assuming the responsibilities.

-Doc

[Lobo2087]

You're a good man

[thom]

I understand that what you are doing is a very gracious job, while helping someone who is in pain. I have been thinking about logging everything that I have also. I have already asked a gun friend to help my wife if I became too old or die. This reminds me of a running joke between friends. If you know how many guns that you have or their value, you don't have enough.

[Ballistic Therapy]

I went through this a couple times.
It is never easy.

[XJThrottle]

Reminds me of a running joke in most the circles it run in…off roading, race car stuff, pew pew, etc….. “if I die tomorrow, help my widow sell it for it’s worth, not what I told her I paid for them”

-Doc

This runs in my house. My wife knows I've totally BS'd her on what I told her I paid. She also knows that in the event something happens to me, the house will be paid for and she will be pretty comfortable for a while when the gun stuff and shop stuff are sold off..

[knockonit]

lol, rule of thumb for my ole gal is, wait a year or more to sell, as every one i know who knows what i have will be over to buy days after i croak, hoping for sympathy deal, she would have to sell, as i only have one son in law worthy of my chit. maybe a fire, its insured so, wtf.
happy thursday
rj

[Abbey]

I have a spreadsheet with actual guns & values (more for insurance than estate planning). I've told the wife where I keep that list and left a "when I'm dead" letter on top of the important paper stack in the safe that includes all the important details. She could look at it any time she wants. That said, she is so completely not interested that she probably doesn't remember where that spreadsheet is if you asked her.

I expect my family will take a hit selling my (stuff that rhymes with "hit"), which kind of keeps me in check a bit and I've been trying to declutter and sell things I don't use often (might have to take another pass through the safe). They shouldn't lose too much on the actual guns, but all of the accessories/tools/etc are almost impossible to keep up to date tracking inventory & value. "That pile of stuff is mostly junk. But _that_ pile over there says 'HK' on it and the selector lever alone costs $200"

A friend of mine retired a couple years ago and sold all his reloading gear and other tools (after loading hundreds of thousands of rounds) and 80% of his collection because he wanted to downsize and travel more and not have the burden of all the stuff. I'm not there yet but I understand his point.

[admin]

Sorry for your loss.

I keep a list of prices of the firearms I have, along with mag quantities, types, etc. I try to update the values on a yearly basis as they change over time. I have a few higher dollar accessories included in that spreadsheet; things like optics... but it doesn't include stuff in my parts bins - and there is a lot of $$ in there as well. If I were to pass away unexpectedly, I would imagine that much of it would get sold off in bulk to some gun shop at pennies on the dollar for the parts bin stuff. For the firearms and accessories, I'd expect my kids will keep a few that they'd want but that the remainder would go to some auction house that would take a decent percentage of the sale money along with fees - but it will mean less hassle for her. My kids will be in the stage of life where they are just starting out and not really 'settled' where they'd be want to deal with managing a large quantity of firearms. Hopefully I live another 40 years and they can move beyond that stage of life where they might be more interested in inheriting a larger collection.


Also, to be clear, since you mentioned "start[ing] the bidding" here - listing things for sale in the classifieds here will require fixed prices. You can add "obo" of course, but it cannot be an auction-style ad.

[Yellowcarbon]

My mom's brother assigned me the task of determining values of his gun stuff when he dies. Both his sons like guns, but don't love them like I do. I'm close with them, so I will definitely be helping them out. I also expect the possibility that they may not want my help as part of the grieving process. Although I do believe my uncle was very explicit in mentioning his wishes.

The more I think about it, I've leaning more towards the 'Death Cleaning' process of thinning out things as you get older. Nobody values things like a collector does. I have bought many items at estate sales that the family wanted no part of. If I want top or close to top dollar, I'll have to sell myself before I get too old.

[brandyspaw]

This post hits home as I've been putting off the inevitable task of listing out my guns, gun gear, ammo and reloading components for a long time now. It would be a major job for my wife or family to have to sift through it all plus there's also all the guitars, tools and car/truck stuff to get rid of as well.

Of course, it's all kind of a moot point anyway. Even if its neatly organized and carefully listed out it's going to be rather difficult to get close to current pricing on most of the stuff. No one will buy unless they're getting a deal and certainly no one would be interested in everything.

Since it'd be a major undertaking in the time needed to sell everything individually, the likely outcome will be be for her to sell everything at an estate auction. However, with so much stuff bundled together and all the fees my wife will likely only net 20-40 cents on the dollar of the current prices so the market prices won't be realized anyway.

[Yellowcarbon]

As warning to everyone, I bought a Winchester 94 .30-30 and 1200 shotgun for $150 (for both) years ago. At the time, the shotgun was worth $200 and the 94 worth $350-400. It was at a garage sale where they were selling their dad's stuff to clear things out. I also bought plastic models for $1 each.

Sell it yourself if you want to get close to top dollar.

[SupportTheSecond]

I've gone through that, and I made up some spreadsheets in the Apple Pages app that work well for everything record and value wise. I even made one for my ammo and my survival cabinet so there is no question of what is there and at least on the weapon side value since I really didn't do that on the ammo or survival sheets.

You're a good neighbor and person for doing what you are for them.

[Yellowcarbon]

Another word of caution is to regularly update the spreadsheet. I have an old one with guns and list what I paid for them. I got some smoking deals over the years, so that isn't what I want my wife to sell them for. A decent to bad deal from 5-10 years ago, is not even close to current value. I have everything I need (multiple 9mm, AKs, ARs, etc.), so I only buy new if it is interesting or cheap. The last couple years guns haven't kept up with inflation, so you can still find some deals out there. But it's mostly leveled out recently.

For example, I bought a fully dressed out Romanian WSAR-10 AK (Magpul folding stock, MI railed handguard, Houge grip, extra mags) for $450 right before George Floyd protest kicked out. I could easily get double for it and would hate for my wife to take $400 for it as it was close enough to what I paid.