Any body else watch this E-bay auction of 51 S&W grips? Man, I had my bid price locked in and nervously awaiting the seconds to tick down and "WHAMM" the bidding blew right by me. Didn't even get a bid in. It ended up $4850.

If they were all S&W factory grips like the seller said, there was some rare never seen by me grips in that bunch.

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Vietnam 1969-1971

I'm sure Kris will be posting Pictures soon

(Congrats on pretty grain LOT. I'd bet these came from ex-employee)

Not sure they were all factory. Pretty strange that the seller would not post more pictures. If the lot was heavy on N frame stocks then it was probably worth it but there could be allot of K frame stocks along with the Js to in my opinion bring the total value of the lot down. As I said unless it is heavy on N frame stocks I expect the upside will be light. The buyer obviously saw something in the pile he or she wanted.

There are two pair in entire lot that are NOT original Factory.
In the second to bottom row, the first and third pairs from the left are aftermarket.
Between the Birdseye Maple at top, numerous Rosewoods, a couple of Diamond Targets ... the pretty G.A.'s are just gravy.
The seller obviously was not a grip collector and could not identify them individually. Selling them as a "LOT" was easiest for him.

I was watching that too.

I think it brought a lot of money.

Some of the grips look like they were modified, I see s set of targets that look shortened and another that seem rounded off on the bottom.

I also see a pair that look like Mustang grips.

My thinking is that smooth presentations stocks don't bring big money and the good pieces can't make up the value.

Paying over $91 (average) per set seems high to me, but hey I am (cough cough) frugal...

Well i saw about five pair i really really liked and hope they were K frame. Also saw some variations that were very new to my eye. If the seller was correct on the condition I would be happy to own that collection.

I told Kris last week that lot would probably go for 5, I was pretty close.

Assuming they're in excellent to new condition, I think there's close to $7K in wood there for a seller who knows what he's doing.

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SWHF #448

Look at the BRIGHT SIDE! Now you don't have to find more guns to put them on! Bob

And to think the seller paid around 650.00 to sell 4850 worth of grips.. should be called scambay not ebay.

Their 10% doesn't bother me.Where else can the unknowing unload a lot in one batch? I've liquidated all sorts of stuff,where I wouldn't have a clue of getting more than a low,low,wholesale price otherwise..or anything at all.
The 3-3+% of paypal however,always bugs me.

Its like what 13%? Thats a small fre to market yourself to a large audience. Youre not going to get aything better for that cheap to as large of market.

Whats acceptable to you? People do this free out of their goodwill?

Local Auction house around here is 20% for sellers.

I get more bugged that paypal only is accepted for ebay.

Furthermore, a friend of mine talked to the Ebay seller over the phone two days into the auction. The seller expected his grip lot to reach about $1200
I'm pretty sure he is happy to have paid 13%.
Ebay is not for everyone but it obviously is popular for most of us................. with all the discussions and all

Yes I hear you guys but you have to admit only being able to use and accept PayPal which Ebay owns and have to get hit another 3 plus percent is crazy not to mention they now also take money from the shipping fee as well...

I don't like the fee on shipping either,but i totally understand why they instituted it after a while..
Sellers were offering items for a dollar,with the real value reflected in an inflated shipping price,effectively sidestepping the ebay 10% fee.

I did not realize people were doing that. Make sense but still do not think its right. I sold something a while back that was quite heavy and charged actual shipping cost which was about 120 and then seen I lost a good chunk from the money for shipping. That just left a bad taste in my mouth that they had to make money on the cost of shipping that I actually had to pay fully on.

I sell everything on GunBroker....2-3%... 10% is ...I'll refrain.

Far smaller audience on GB which usually means less money. is it more than 10%? Depends on the item.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe it is 10 percent plus another 3 percent for any item besides vehicles? So pretty much 13 plus percent.

Well. I was doing the difference between GB and Ebay. 13-3 is 10% so to be equal youd need to make extra 10%.

Ebay has changed its fee structure so I dont know if its just a percentage now or not. I simply sell ship and receive my money. Its **** Im trying to get rid of, not something im trying to run a business off of.


I do believe it is 13% it may change at certain $$ threshold?

I would rather have some more guns!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

The seller may very well may not understand to potential value of some of these grips. So he takes them to his LGS to sell. Seller gets same old line I really don't have any need for them, everyone is into autoloaders. But Mr. LGS owner being the nice person he is offers the seller $500.00 - $750.00 for the entire lot. Now 13% to sell 51 sets of grips for $4,800.00 really doesn't look to bad now, does it?

It really surprises me the number of folks who trash E-bay every chance they get, but will spend hours scouring it, looking for a great deal. If any business is that bad stop doing business with them.....

I don't think the buyer will be unhappy with this lot !

I don't know, I think the price was close to market value. Sure, there was some silver washer birds eye grips, some diamond targets and maybe some rosewood grips with the flush hardware but a lot of it was K frame and there was no telling what the condition of some of them truly was.

The guy said they were from his dads estate who was a retired police officer so the guy had some knowledge of what he was collecting.

I also think the price was close because there was about 7 or 8 j frame targets that anyone can get for $55/each. I am also not sure that a lot of those weren't simply k frame targets with the later hardware. I was averaging them out at about $100/piece with some being worth triple that and more being worth half that.

I think I know the buyer and I don't believe he's a member but does a lot of grip buying and selling. For him the margin doesn't have to be too big because he does a lot of grip business as far as I know.

Having said that, I sure would have loved to get those birds eye grips but I wasn't going any higher than $2500 and it didn't stay at that price for more than a few seconds from what I saw.

Are the 4th from the left on the bottom row "Cokes"?

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

No cokes in there.

That is what happens when you are looking at a picture on a cell phone at 2:30 am while it is flooding rain outside. I can see it better on the computer now. Stayed up to to keep up with these problems and the rain is just getting started.

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

$95 a pair seems pretty high looking at some of them.

I would have broken the batch into four lots.Slightly more fuss,but more potential buyers.Then again,he wasn't expecting the batch to go into that price zone.

I think the standout feature with this lot is the spectacular grain some of the stocks exhibit. A number of them appear to be real presentation-grade stocks which will bring quite a markup in value. While smooth K-frame target stocks are a dime a dozen, those with the figure exhibited with these are a whole different ballgame. Looks like there's a lot of rosewood among the lot, too, which is always a premium.

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SWHF #448

wow, 'pt barnum' was right after all........very interesting NOT knowing just what frame they fit after all ( or in the first place) If being "retired LE", my bet most were off K-L frames as thats what many of the departments around here did back then when they had revolvers...now is ALL semi autos...this reminds me of when Bub Brown of Cherry Corners gunsmithing had offered us for a wall full of packaged S&W grips and there were even MORE Colts, hanging there and it was far less than what these pictured grips of the OP went for ...............ah, the "good old days"
good luck 'kris'

and I agree , hate to see so many "bash" a site but see they are right in there, using it, bidding and on and on and on.......hhhhmmmm

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA

I thank ebay everyday when no one buys my **** on craigslist. 13% loss is better than 100% loss of sitting at home

Just be thankful ebay doesn't do the 15min rule. It would be rampant with inflated garbage because people don't know how to stop once the price gets at or above retail. I shop on these sites to get a great deal. Not to pay 30% above retail like others enjoy doing.

I hate the GB 15min rule. It should be a countdown and everyone puts in their max bid before it hits zero and whoever bids the most gets it. Not an extra 15min for some pud to one up you. I know ALL the GB sellers will avidly refute my OPINION because it is the seller and GB who makes out on this. The buyer on the other hand is at a loss, when somebody who makes 5x more than you from LA wants to stretch their financial muscles. Like bidding on a contract. Everyone who wants a chance at the contract submits their lowest bid all at the same time, and whoever is lowest gets the contract. Not extend the clock so someone else can drop your price by $25 and steal your contract. Or in the case of GB, up your amount by $25.

That is my opinion. So let me have it all you GB sellers.

I honestly don't see that it makes that much difference. If GB didn't have the 15 min rule, people would just bid their max in the last 3 seconds like on ebay and the end prices will be pretty much the same. Not to mention that if they didn't have the rule then people would use something like phantombidder and your chances of winning without it will be extremely low. At the end of the day the 15 min rule is about allowing the person that wants it the most to get it - the seller just benefits because of it.

My first bid on a GB auction will be at 15 minutes, but it will not be for the max amount I'm willing to pay. I may eventually get there, but it will take a while as I find more success by letting the time drop to under a minute and then bidding. The longer the auction goes on, people have more of a chance to change their mind. What drives me crazy as a buyer is people running up an auction days from the end. Why would anyone bid on something before the last 15 minutes - all you are doing is running the price up? Maybe if the price is low and the seller has it in a store location where it could be bought before the auction ends I could see bidding right away.

As to ebay and their 13%... if listed correctly with quality photos, the huge level of exposure more than pays for their fee. Seriously, how many of us get emails of items we are looking for from them everyday? I try to check the classifieds here often, but most days I don't - and I miss out on a lot because of it.

Are you saying highest bidder wins ipac? Sounds like you hate people with more money than GB itself

Back when Smith & Wesson closed the Wood Room, they sold the surplus stocks the their employees. The cost, $1.00 a large paper shopping bag.
One of the guys that loaded the bags came to my house with over 3,000 pair of smooth J's, K's and N's. Most of them were Presentation grade, bookend matched. Some were spectacular. He asked me to sell them all for him. He wanted $3.00 a pair. I started separating them by frame size. The J's were easy to pick out. The K's and N's weren't. I used a K frame Model 19 as a gauge. To my surprise, most of them did not fit properly. I keep some and sold the rest to a dealer in Albany, New York.

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Don Mundell

Though I only offer guns on GB,I like the notion of the 15 minute.It's not quite a level playing field on ebay,when some have programs to enable them to snipe in the final second or see other bids.That said,everyone should just establish their max,and they get it..or not.

I have always believe the art of a deal are if both parties are happy and it appears in this case they were. Bad deals are when one of the parties involved walks away feeling they got screwed.

Plus another fee if you transfer it to your bank account. They get you comin and going.

I don't know what anyone would want with all those, except keep a few you want and sell the rest individually to turn a profit. Do people actually collect grips?

If I had that much to spend, I'd want some stocks that still have the gun attached.

What fee? I dont have a fee

I think at least a couple do.

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SWHF #448