At some point, all the guns get sold.

[hsguy]

A very interesting thread. When I retired a couple of years ago I took a part time job in a gun library and now spend a good part of my time buying and selling guns for the company. I often meet widows and children wanting to sell off their father's or grandfather's guns after he is gone. The first question I ask is if their is someone in the family that might want one or all of the guns as a rememberance of the person who owned them. More often than not they just want to convert them into cash. Most of the time the family has no idea of the value of the guns and are easy pickings for the unscrupulous. I always try to offer a fair price despite the family's lack of knowledge. We recently had a woman bring in a gun her father owned and wanted $150 for it, we told her we would give her $1000 for it because that would be fair to her, she was a happy customer to say the least.

Working this job certainly gave me a new perspective on gun collecting. Guns we spend years collecting and enjoying have little meaning to many others beyond their monetary value. Another major concern for a family is maintaining and storing the guns left behind by a loved one. I recently had the opportunity to help evaluate a collection that was in excess of 500 guns and we valued at about $600,000. The family are not "gun" people and I opined that they had a massive maintainence and storage problem facing them. I told them that the condition of the guns will never be any better than they are right now and will deteriorate if not stored and cared for properly.

I think that like others have suggested is to keep detaied lists of all your guns, their value and disposition instructions. My intent is to let my daughter and shooting partner select the ones she wants, gift a few to friends and sell the remainder. John

 

[bettis1]

And for the life of me, I don't understand why she'd give away a Supica but retain the Wilson books. Ugh.

Dick, I understand where you are coming from here. However, I think that you are tempering your evaluation of the books by your personal feelings for the authors. In one case, we have a gentleman who's virtue is unquestioned and in the other, we have a man who has done hard time for a felony. In both cases, however, the results of their research remain valuable for the purposes for which it was done.

Another example which quickly comes to mind are the books of William Bennett. His books "The Moral Compass" and "The Book of Virtues" both remain excellent guides for young people even though the author subsequently admitted to some human failings.

There is no question that authors tarnish their credibility when they fall from grace. It's that old saying: "Do as I say, not as I do". Maybe just tearing out the title page and blacking out the author's name on the spine is the answer.

Bob