AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: Avlrc on May 09, 2024, 03:47:03 AM
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Friday and Saturday. This looks/sounds very interesting. Even if you are not interested in purchasing, you should enjoy this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIu21jR0Ofo
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Judging from the preview materials, it looks like there are some interesting items in the show. Thanks for sharing!
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This should be interesting!
John
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I spoke with Brian at length at the Knoxville show. Please understand that this is a new and complicated endeavor. Brian is a gentleman, scholar and craftsman of the first order. This effort will be a major benefit for those who collect longrifles!
I'll leave it Brian/others to speak to the details, but as a business professor of almost 30 years, he has come up with a brilliant idea in my opinion.
Thanks for listening to my rambling,
Carl
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I’m going to give it a shot!
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This is a new and interesting concept, knowing Brian, it will be handled well.
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This is a new and interesting concept, knowing Brian, it will be handled well.
Yeah, I think it is a great concept. I guess this is a sample of rifles being offered.( more on YouTube) Presented well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3glyPBPm8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B79QADddy2s&list=UUDtIBxd4b-K5oW6_TfpJjsQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z85aQDgKfHM&list=PLO73h-e_i7Wom3PmTxCBkcjRt4RWUWk-7
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Will this be limited to originals or are contemporary rifles included?
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Will this be limited to originals or are contemporary rifles included?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-cEJozDpU
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The photography is outstanding.
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This project is a lot of work not to mention the website expense. I again applaud the effort and hope it is a wild success. I trust the sellers (consignors) basically set the price and a guess is that they are collectors who are selling. While there are no fees to the buyers there must be some fee charged to the consignors as would be appropriate. Regardless of fees the question to me is how realistic are the prices going to be? An old collector told me he never wants to sell at a price lower than what he paid. That approach resulted in his collection lingering for years and only sold when he realized they had to go. It still seems like setting an opening "bid" at the reserve price and then let it proceed from there would be a good approach. I too will be looking in and wishing Brian all the best.
Friday AM comment: Why do I get a "Shopify" page to "create and account" on some listed items?
Later Friday AM: Other than not being able to view 2 items because I get flipped to create a "Shopify Account" link, it all looks and seems to work well. Prices do not appear to be excessive but then my opinion of prices is limited. Actually, my opinion is unlimited but my knowledge is very much limited! Representation also seem thorough, photos are great. Lots of work for Brian. I wish him well.
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Love the quality of the photographs and videos. I am curious how this ends up, very similar to what Tim does with his website https://www.aspenshadeltd.com/ —but with videos and a limited listing time.
With Brian examining the items for previous repairs, and showcasing them in video/pictures is a win for the community, collector's, builders, and hobbyists alike.
I wish him the best in this endeavor, and will certainly be keeping an eye out!
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https://lamasterarms.com/pages/buy-now
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He has some really nice gun on there, and some pretty fair pricing on most as well!
Interestingly, he has a couple of my old guns, both priced about 30% more than I sold them for. Guess I should have asked for more at the time, though that was many moons ago!
I hope this is a great success for him, as it'll be a good reference point for others!
John
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I see most I would be happy to own, and a handful I'd be thrilled to have. Excellent way to get around the thing people often suggest, to "handle a lot of them before buying one". I would not be afraid to buy in this format, if the price was what I was wanting it for. The excellent photos and then the video show you everything you need.
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Brian is an honest and knowledgeable guy, the disclosures of repairs that he gives on each gun are 100% trustworthy, that’s better than you get at most gun shows.
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I thought the prices were reasonable. The photos were very nice, and the descriptions of each item were detailed and professional. It's a great learning tool, in my opinion. I hope they do more of these.
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Brian has done a great job at introducing a new method to market early longrifles... and hopefully powder horns in the future. As I went through it, I kept wondering how many hours and hours he had to invest in this effort, to make it so professional, properly explained, and beautifully illustrated. I'm guessing not many of us would be willing to devote that much personal time to such an undertaking, and I hope it prospers as he goes forward. As previously stated, the photography and descriptions are superior, and better than about any major auction house with his pinpoint descriptions.
We'll all probably have our own "take-aways" from this innovative sales method. After watching the sale off-and-on during the day, it seemed to me to be a pretty good reflection of the current state of our collecting world. Fine articles still sell, mid-range articles need to have a little "sparkle" or something special to sell, and some articles are simply an item a specific collector has been looking for, so he/she grabs it while most viewers would let it go.
It also appears guns by finer makers, if they don't have all the "bells & whistles" normally seen on their better-known work, just don't move as well as expected. I think the sale also points out the growing trend toward focusing on finer or better documented items as we go forward... which means unsigned pieces, even if good quality and/or attributed, are going to be a harder sell in the future... kind of like good quality pieces with more than a smidge of restoration. And I think attributions that leave some room for doubt may suffer even more.
Overall, I think Brian has taken on an important, and difficult, role as a leader in exploring new marketing methods for our cherished old rifles, pistols, and hopefully powder horns. It's a tough job, and he's shined at what he's done so far. As others have commented, I look forward to his next effort... but geeeeze, Brian, you need to get more southern rifles and Tansel horns in your sales!
Shelby Gallien
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When I last looked this morning, it looked like 5 items had sold. But I didn't get a chance to look near the close time.
I for one hope he continues with these sales!
John
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As of about 5 PM Saturday, four guns and the "indenture". I think all guns were under or about $4000 to $5000 but not sure. So what was learned? Maybe the audience was just too small and maybe the prices were just too high. Not something Brian can easily "fix" but the initiative has many superlatives. Don't know how it could have been done any better. Maybe it is also a reflection on the market and the future trend of prices.
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On the one hand a "virtual gun show" is an interesting idea. On the other hand, it's not like a live gun show, where if the guns don't sell that weekend, they are packed up and taken away, not to be seen again that year. Selling onlines means they are available and viewable at any time, except for the rules he's set up. What this is trying to do is make the buyers "hurry" to buy, because then he takes them down - no longer for sale. It is trying to merge the competition of other buyers seeing and getting a gun at a real gun show, but with a much bigger audience than a live gun show. Basically, they are a for sale posting like any online site does - with the added factor of a curtain goes up, you see the gun for a short period, and must buy now of you might miss it, because then the curtain goes down.
I don't think Long Rifles are in demand (and/or the prices were too high) enough for that to work towards a "sweep" where a bunch of them sell. It's not like an IPO of a newly public stock where hundreds or thousands are ready to buy.
And it's not like a regular auction with no or low reserve, where the auction house has to sell them all by end of day. For regular auctions, most items DO sell, because selling for whatever they bring is paramount for their clients, they don't have a reserve. This format has some good features like the nice photos, but I don't like the rushed nature, as they are selling things on commission, prices set by the seller. Not by the market.
Most live gun shows end with 1-5% of the guns offered being sold because most sellers are not in a hurry, they'll carry the gun to the next show and eventually, maybe...sell it one day. If 5 out of 40 actually sold, that's about par I'd say.
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It was an interesting process to say the least. I enjoyed seeing some of the rifles that ended up being listed, unfortunately my focus is very narrow and nothing had me purchasing, however I was doggone sure looking.
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I really like what Brian is doing here. Hopefully he will be bringing out more contemporary work in the future. It’s a great way to look at pieces that we may never get to see or own!
Thanks Brian!!
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Like any show, "the show is not over"...sort of. Interested parties have the opportunity to make offers which is one reason the info is still up, last I looked.. Sellers should realize that failure to sell in the "show" does say something about the price. Yes other considerations are there too but offering it as was done also says something about the sellers desire to sell. Now, let's get together. I know what you would accept. Here is my offer! It would be nice to know about those after the show sales.
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Very true. One of my favorite gun purchases was from a guy I had talked to a local flea market for a couple years. Then I saw him at a gun show and he had a very nice gun I would have really liked to have, but it was $4900 if I recall. I got his number because we were becoming more acquainted and talked about other guns he had. I called him a week or two after the show. He invited me over and after some negotiation, I got the gun for $1800. Both of us were happy.
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A downside from this type virtual sale, alluded to in a prior response, is that while presenting new items to the marketplace, a majority of items will sell privately "behind the scenes" so only the buyer & seller know the price. When it becomes a private sale, the marketplace has no feedback on price/value. If would be nice to get that feedback, but I doubt it will happen, since we are all a little hesitant to divulge private buy/sell prices... just part of this collecting community's mentality.
I think a good way to view this type of sale is to acknowledge it's basically a new twist on advertising. It presents a good array of new items coming to market, which benefits all of us. A few items will be purchased quickly by buyers looking for specific items who accept posted seller prices, but after the initial excitement wears off, most sales will be private. And that's fine, since Brian has been open about it, encouraging after-sale offers and communications. We won't get the "good deals" available in public auctions that perhaps some of us were expecting, but that's not what this type of sale is designed for. Brian's sale protects the sellers, which is needed to get them to place these better items for sale... and give us the opportunity to purchase them in a safe, honest, lower fees, straightforward manner. We all want "deals," but when it comes time for us to start moving our own collections, and it becomes a daunting task, it will be nice to have a site that can do it for us and protect our investments better than an auction. And for those looking for "deals" like I like to do, we still have all the weekly big and small [my favorite] auctions to pick from.
Shelby Gallien
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Very well said.
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But there are still some conclusions that can be drawn. One is that the private sale was lower than the set price. That might not be true if many interested parties surface after the sale ends and start competing for the gun...but that's not likely. I think knowing the upper range of a particular gun is most informative. If I really wanted the southern rifle offered at $3500 knowing that it did not sell, stages the future sale to some degree and suggests an offering price.