Auction frenzy ..94 Winchester

[Hillbilly]

The end of the world may be upon us...

Garden variety Win 94 ( 174*** range sn, 30WCF) with buggered screws and a Williams sight fetched $800 at an Estate sale yesterday. I got out at $450.

The lady who won it did not have a clue to what it was..or what it was worth for that matter.

Same sale had a nice 1905 era Colt SAA for bid too... a .32-20...no finish but no real patina yet. VERY tight!
He started bids at $1000 and this pistol went for $2500....I had my pick of similar 5 1/2 examples for about $800-!000 at the OKC gunshow Sunday.

The acution sent a OK '73 Winchester Octagon rifle out the door for $2800... I see 3 in town every week (2 are factory refinished with letters ) for way less.

Auctions are crazy... he couldnt give the other stuff away. I saw a couple of 3 K total, diamond rings go for less the $250.

Oh... I ended up with a Stevens 311 20 Guage for $260....always wanted one in 20.

[gunslinger598]

I was at an auction some time back where T post almost bent in half brought $4.25. At the time they were $2.89 new.

[mescalero1]

Hillbilly,
Pretty sure I have told this story before but,
years ago I went to an auction of a hockshop in Portales,N.M.
those guys had people buying used guns for more than they could go down the street and buy them NEW for!
Completly irrational, but they were good auctioneers; you have to give them that.

[Griff]

I was at an auction some time back where T post almost bent in half brought $4.25. At the time they were $2.89 new.

Send me the buyer's info... I have lots of bent T posts!

[Hillbilly]

I bid on one of those 3 point tractor booms.... you can lift stuff with em once... got out at $50 bucks...

Two other guys just had to have it.... it went for $90 bucks.

On the way home , I bought a new one at Tractor Supply for $79...shiny paint and all.........

I was kinda hopin' to slip out of there with the Colt for about $600...had the green light from the wife ...but the auctioneer found his mark way too easy......

I got some of them bent T posts for sale ......$3.25 each. I got to make up the labor for settin em and pullin em up some how.

[J Miller]

I quit going to the auctions a long time ago. People are just plain stupid. I can't believe how they just loose total control over reality when they start bidding.

It's not even fun to watch them.

Joe

[rangerider7]

I know what you mean. I was at a western auction that had about a hundred spurs and other old west items up for auction. The spurs were going high. The people bidding were from way off and apparently just got into collecting. Two couples were going crazy over a pair of spurs that were contemporary. They had gotten up to 1500.00 when I leaned over and told the guy's wife I would give her a card that they could call the same spur-maker and get him to make them the same pair for 475.00. She grabbed her husband and told him STOP! They were quite pleased and they did not want the card they thought they were old spurs from the wild west. It happened about twenty more times that day but I decided to let it go. They learn better that way because they don't forget a good burning.

[Mike D.]

I just can't figger what gets into some folks when it comes to auctions. I have to shake my head in wonder at their sheer stupidity. There are always some poor condition guns that get WAY too much attention at some of these places. The over exuberant auctioneers are partially to blame on this phenomenom, too. They can pump up a clunker so that folks believe it to be a true one of a kind. Too funny sometimes.

[Noah Zark]

This thread illustrates once again why I don't waste my time going to auctions of any sort. Sure, I may miss a deal every 10 or 12 years but I'm not willing and have not been willing to wasting the time going to the number of auctions it would take to get a "hit."

Noah

[morgan in nm]

Hillbilly,
Pretty sure I have told this story before but,
years ago I went to an auction of a hockshop in Portales,N.M.
those guys had people buying used guns for more than they could go down the street and buy them NEW for!
Completly irrational, but they were good auctioneers; you have to give them that.

What year was that, I think I was at that auction.

Farm auctions around here are like that. I once went to one in Pleasant Hill, TX and seen with my own eyes a model 60 marlin missing the magazine tube sell for $200 and a rossi single-barrel break-open in 20 guage sell for $400. At the same auction, they had a flat-band winchester sell for $250 which didn't make sense because it was nice. Went to another auction in Clovis about 2 years ago at an old gun shop and they sold a modern marlin 95 for $900

[Scott Young]

i love going to auctions. i love proving to myself that i am indeed smarter than most of the other attendants. the best was a roll of used bailing wire used for an electric fence. it was rusty and bent but "had it molecular structure aligned so it used less electricity". the auctioneer was joking, but the lady beside me entered the bidding on that note and walked away with two rolls at $1500. i had the two new spools in the truck that i could have given her for that money.

why is it i don't find these idiots when it is time i want to sell something???

[Gun Smith]

Some of auction frenzy comes from those who need to WIN over any competition. I have seen this when attending a couple of collector car auctions during Hot August Nights in Reno, Nevada. Two "collectors" will go at it until one "blinks", and the other pays half again as much as he should. The floor men are artists at promoting this. If you ever watch the Barret -Jackson auctions in Scottsdale you see some of the dummest people with money attending. I don't waste my time with gun auctions either, I will bid on Gunbroker, but I see that happening there also. I will buy if the seller uses "buy it now" and the price is right. I 've had some luck with the Gun List paper though.

[mescalero1]

Morgan in NM,
Try 1979-1980 ?