doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Holts Auction 12/14

Once again my bids are in for Thursday's auction at Holts. I try just about every time to pickup a item but my luck is like Clevelands luck drafting qbs. Worse because I bid on several items most sales. I must be gifted in finding the gems because most times the items I want goes for two or three times the estimate bid range. I have won a few of the non gun items lately but nothing that goes bang. Still I try. It's like Christmas to me and I hope this year to get that bb rifle for Christmas. Good luck to others bidding on every thing but my items.

http://www.holtsauctioneers.com/auctions.html

Holt's Auction going on. Prices are not that bad. Most going for 90-95% of low estimate but a few have exceeded the high estimation. Wonder if prices are stabilizing or if it is just too close to Christmas? More likely the latter.

My first two items I wanted went for more than I had early bid, even after increasing my bid on the internet. Oh well. It is so hard to let them go but prices are what they are and having to figure in shipping does come into it.

I felt the same way. There were several interesting lots, but when you add export, import, shipping, hassle, wait, excise tax, etc. I am not interested in bidding for an item for less than 3,000 sterling. My finger did hover over the "click to bid" button a few times. That online bidding platform is dangerous...

Did you look at lot 990? A Macnaughton skeleton action in 450 bpe. Definitely something you don't see every year.

Ken

You have a good eye. 16,000 pounds of beauty. I have an eye for guns that sell for three times their estimate. Sad when I watch one after the other go to other homes. I watched one go for almost four times the estimated bid after I dropped out at three plus. Almost glad I lost because it was going to cost a few bucks more to get it here.

The prices were decent for a lot of gun with a couple of pairs being real values. Overall the hammer guns were bringing very much more than the estimate. I can remember when that same lot would have failed to get a single bid for just about all of them. Those days are gone for now and I wish I had taken advantage of those good old days.

Well it looks like I successfully took one baby step closer to bankruptcy and acquired a piece of interest to me. As a data point it went for about 20% over max estimate which was not or less what I figured it would go for.
Jeremy

My friend picked up the bar action Grant hammer gun. He is talking about sleeving it to 31"

Question on bringing a gun back. ATF says that if a gun is made before 1898, you can stick it in your luggage and just bring it back without any documentation. I once did this with an old wall-hanger Pashtun made hammer gun I got in Quetta. How would the British authorities (or the French) feel about that though?

I was bidding on that gun. Was told it was very shootable but a bit of work might make it better. Don't know if I'd buy a sleeved gun to have it sleeved again. Were the barrels welded or soldered? It might make a difference. Had one Smith over there refuse to sleeve a gun which had been sleeved before. Don't know if it was entirely because of the sleeve job, it was a bit of a mess, or if it was a single bite and he thought it would not pass current proof. Anyways I wish your friend good luck with his new gun. Be interesting to see how it turns out.

That is where you hit an issue. The Brits(not sure about the Frogs) require an export permit to get the gun out of the country. Additionally for a gun to be "off ticket" in the UK it needs to be in an officially obsolete caliber, not just built before 1898. This means for you to take possession of the gun it needs to be on your firearms license which most Americans do not have. I can get your antique gun to my shop from the UK for 300$ plus shipping/insurance from me to you. For that price you need to wait for my group shipments which happen 3-4 times per year.
Steve