doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Good place to sell a Lefever damascus?

Yes, consigning to a local shop would be the easiest. But be aware that you do not have a high price gun. As you can see, the one in your link on gun broker did not sell. Where I am, it is about a $1000.00 gun, maybe less. Don't know about your area.

My opinion:

The easiest thing to do is to for her to take it to a pawn shop and get $200 for it. Next easiest is for you to give us the name of the city she lives in and we can give you the names of double gun dealers nearest her that she can take it to and get $500. Hardest thing to do is to take pictures, measure chokes, LOP, stock drops, and post them on an online gun selling service, answer inquiries, negotiate an offer, receive the funds, package the gun, drive to an FFL and have him ship it for her and get $1200.

I almost always go to GunsInternational first when I am looking for a double. That is what I would do if it were mine and I wanted to sell it.

Since I haven't seen pictures of the gun those dollar figures are all wrong but you get the idea.

Best,

Mike

She doesn't need to drive to an FFL and pay that FFL to ship it for her. She can drive to any post office and ship for just the cost of the postage.

I assumed since the gun was in California she did. Thanks!

Twisted, I watch a LOT of Lefevers and I think I have a pretty good handle of what they actually sell for. H grades in the overall condition of the one in the link you provided seldom sell for more than $500.00 in a non reserve auction. This one might go for that much because it has the relatively scarce dogs head escutcheon in the forearm. More so because I have not seen that feature in a 45XXX serial number range gun. It could even indicate the forearm wood is not original although the forearm iron serial number matches. Or maybe not. You never know with a Lefever. Overall original condition is the paramount factor. If the one you have has very strong case colors, sharp checkering, uncut stock with no cracks or missing pieces around the sideplates, and uncut barrels free of pitting, it will often sell for more. For H grades in the overall condition of the one shown, without the dogs head forearm, an average actual sales price on Gunbroker will be less than $400.00. Prices are firming up. Five or six years ago, one could easily buy an H grade in this condition for $300.00 or even less. http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=317123510

The one above was for a nice little scarce small frame 16 gauge G grade that tempted me at $400.00, but I didn't need another restocking job. I know if I listed one similar to your example today with no reserve, I might get $500.00 and I might get $325.00. Or maybe less. The ones with the $1800.00 starting bids will be there for a long long time. As DrBob, current RP of the Lefever Collectors Assn. has frequently noted, BlueBook prices and Gunbroker reserve prices and actual real world selling prices are usually far apart.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

Sorry if I made it sound like I've never sold a gun before. I've bought and sold many, many, many -- gun stores, online sites of all kinds, gun shows and in person (though mostly modern pieces; relatively few antiques). I used to have an FFL in CA, in the days before the paperwork got to be too much of a headache.

The one sales forum I haven't had much experience with is auction houses. I'm surprised no one here knows of a good one. Maybe that says more about the state of things in the auction business than anything else....

If you still want a live auction that is not too far from you, get the gun from your mother and take it to Little John's in Anaheim. They have a retail store with tons of guns on display, and they run auctions several times per year for guns and collectibles. Don't remember exactly where the shop is, but the auctions are usually two or three day affairs at the Phoenix Club, next to Anaheim Stadium. Lots of lookers and buyers.

Nobody on this site likes doubles. The name is there just to confuse. Sort of like Iceland and Greenland.

Keith is spot on. I just finished my weekly perusal of the on line gun sites primarily looking at Lefevers. The same guns have been on there for months or even years at highly inflated prices.

In some ways I see this as a negative. I am frequently contacted by individuals inquiring about a Lefever that they inherited or found in Grandma's closet after Grandpa passed away. They do an internet search and find the common on line auction and sales sites, look at the prices and then contact me.

I will give them a quote based on what information and photos they are able to provide. I get feedback that I am low-balling them because they see a similar gun on one of the sites for twice what I quoted. These are virtually all lower grade guns.

I don't closely follow the prices of other makers unless I am in the market for one, so I don't know if this is unique to Lefevers, but I suspect not.

Perhaps a great service that could be provided by this forum would be to have a forum set up to ask "what is this gun worth".
One could either post a link to one of the online auctions or provide information and photos of a gun that has come into their possession. I know that there would be a variety of opinions, but a to and fro discussion among the members of this forum cuold possibly yield a common appraisal.

Perhaps that would cause the listers to be more realistic in their expectations. Perhaps not, since months of a no sale should cause them to come to the same conclusion.

This is a knife that cuts both ways, and I don't know how you fight it. Dealers put guns on auction sites at sucker-fisherman prices. Then they are usually relisted for months or even years. I wish these sites had a search function to filter out guns which have been re-listed over and over. It just clutters things up and wastes our time. As you say, it also confuses folks who are trying to get a handle on what their gun is worth.

But we see the exact same thing at gun shows and shops. If a dealer has a brown roach, he prices it at 110% BlueBook and claims it is pristine. If he's trying to buy your gun, he will magnify every flaw and tell you your Gradfather's Parker is worth little because they're not making parts for them anymore. This is not unique to Lefevers. For every gun that has a Buy it Now price which is set too low, there are 10,000 which have insane reserve prices or starting bids.

I always tell folks who want an honest appraisal to watch the same guns in the same condition for a few months on the larger nationwide auction sites, and take an average of ACTUAL SALES PRICES. Nothing else matters.