Watching the Holt’s auction prices seem very solid. No joy so far for me other than a case and accessories. Guns selling for high estimate and above but a few lots don’t attract any bids. They must be tougher than they look. Hope other are having more luck.

I seem to have a knack for bidding my max right at the hammer price. The last 3 successful bids have required a wait for the invoice to arrive...or not. It is possible someone put in a bid at my price before me and in such cases they give the commission bid to the earlier submission. Hopefully I will find out tomorrow whether I won a 16 bore M/L! I thought the pricing was solid and some of the high-value guns sold, e.g. 75,000 sterling (inc. com.) for a pair of 12 bore round-bodied Boss of recent manufacture (right at the low estimate). Did anyone else have successes or failures? I went 1/3, maybe.

I really wanted a Coggie sidelock. eat 1000-1500. I lost it after bidding my final bid, again, or was it again-again. It went for 3,000. I would have kept going but the chokes were British IC and 1/4 which would be light Skeet and our IC. Call it .005&.010. I have no doubt it would have grown in price more had I big again. But with the combination of exchange and house vig I was at $4,800 plus import duty and import fees so I was bumping $6,500 I figure
For a gun I never held. What kept me going was condition and barrels which were almost brand new. You don’t see that many 75 year old guns that are so near new. Had it been IC and Full would be the only thing to make it better for me.

I did have one bid which got lost on the internet on another gun. Sold for less than I bid. Is happens and I’ll just bid on a couple similar guns in the sealed bid in a couple weeks. I thought the box lock ejectors went for a bit higher prices than they have sold for lately. Maybe a bit better guns or better buyers.

The Rigby I was looking at sold for double the high estimate!

Minimum barrel wall thickness of .023-"/.023"

https://auctions.holtsauctioneers.c...++1480+&refno=++195237&saletype=

Everything I bid on I didn’t win. A lot of the stuff I wanted either for personal use or sell went for double the estmate or close to it.

A client won a double rifle at way over the high estimate, still seems to be a good deal. I was outbid on a dozen or so items, most of which I bid above the high estimate.

Most things sold, but I noticed that at least one item had a minimum reserve bid that was not reached (a Boss SxS). Fairly common that not all items are being sold absolute?

Bushveld, I own and shoot a number of guns with barrels that thin or thinner. I do not get real worried until the get to .020. And those barrels I was told were pristine without any pits, roughness or even built in misses. That was built near 6 pounds, 6 ounces, as a lighter weight 12, with 30" barrels. I doubt it had more than a .025-.030 barrels when brand new. More likely .025. And where is it thinnest? If not within the first 24" I do not care very much. I bought a double a couple years ago with "barrels below recommended thickness" and found out they were only thin in the last two inches, where some owner had the chokes removed. They ran .025+ up until the last two inches and were .017 &.018. I was assured that this gun would not disappoint and was in excellent condition. If it had more choke I would have kept going, I think. But I was told Teague chokes would most likely not be an option, so I was going to have a Skeet and IC gun which is a bit limiting. I shoot open choke guns, but love a bit of choke when I can have them. Long range shots are a thing I enjoy, even in Sporting Clays.

Battle, you must have good taste as well. Everything I bid on seemed to go for twice the estimate. In a past sale a gun I was bidding on went for seven times the high estimate. That tells me everybody saw what I thought I saw as a great gun. I did not see that much like that in this sale but what I did see was of a bit higher quality than the last couple sales I think. Good thing because it looks like the Sealed Bid Sale has a lot of very low value stuff in it. Ton of box locks and worn out hammer guns or 1100 field guns which will struggle to bring $125.00 but will cost you near a grand when you get them imported.

Well all my sealed bids are in, perhaps better luck in that sale. I still have a few accessories coming in and a oak and leather case so I will get an early birthday present.

I missed on the 3 guns I bid on. By a lot...most were more than 2.5 times their high estimate. I guess I have stellar taste (and a cheap budget)

On a different note, can't wait to get back to NC from WI to see two purchases from the November Holts auction. They arrived hours after I had to leave to head north. Wife says the box was in perfect shape so hopefully the contents are too (a Woodward double rifle and a Dickson rook)

Chris

One of the pieces I missed on was the EM Reilly 577/450 sporting martini from the first auction day. If I had looked back over my previous watched lots from earlier auctions I would have bid much more and got it. Oh well.

Has anyone received their invoices yet?

Check your spam folder if you're sure you won. Last year in the sealed bid sale my invoice went there.

Did not win on any, all were beyond my number.

On a previous Holts auction it took over a week to get my invoice.

In the past non gun items like cases take about two weeks for an invoice. Gun items seem faster. The non gun might be slower because I ask for total bill including shipping and guns end up going to an exporter. I have not received my accessory bill yet. sealed bid auctions take longer but you go from 500-600 to 4,00 lots so no surprise there.

So the sealed bid auction ended today. I did worse on this sale than the main sale. I bid on 11 lots, for a total combined of 2,600 pounds. I got shutout and it looks like the combined total of winning bid was well over 6,500 pounds, plus the house cut. Ouch. One gun I liked, that I bid 880 pounds, well over the 500-700 estimate sold for over 2,200 pounds. Usually I find a few bargains or decent buys, in the sealed bids but the prices seemed better, higher, than the main sale. Hope others did better than I did.

I liked the gun I bid 880 pounds on but not nearly 4,000 dollars worth, which would be the delivered price to me. Wow. 2200 pounds plus house cut, plus import cost, plus exchange rate and bank fee for wire transfer adds up. I figure right on $4,000.00 for a gun I thought I was over paying for at 1750 imported if I won. I might be priced out of Holt's auctions at these prices.

I can't find any results. I had 3 bids in.

The Sealed Bids results sheet is on their website.

I left some optimistic bids on some .410’s and some cartridges plus a rather more realistic bit on a Winchester A5 scope with case (but no military markings). Got nothing.

2 of the .410’s were Spanish sxs both estimated at £80 to £120. A well used AYA BLNE with 28” barrels and newish looking Ugartecha BLE with 28” barrels.

Hammer price on the AYA £400 and on the Ugartecha £220.

Jonny Carter of TGS and Simon(?) the Holt representative discussed "low vs. high" bid estimates on TGS. Holt wants the estimates to be low so as to stir up interest in an item. Too "high" on a bid estimates Holt feels discourages interest. With the upcoming lead ban in place, it is surprising, at least to me, the fact that so many on this forum who participated got skunked. Is that an indication that there are more bidders from countries that don't have the strict lead ban than bidders in the UK or is it an indication that quality sells to even those affected regardless of lead ban or not? Gil

I won a few, a couple of Mannlicher's, a rook, a rifle case, some project single shots(to add to the pile).

I wonder too, if Americans and others aren't driving prices up suddenly.

Way more retail buyers in the post Covid era is my feeling.

Low estimates do generate interest for certain. But after many years of watching and later bidding on these type auctions I definitely think prices are much higher than they were just a couple years ago, even last year. Most guns you can look at and come within a close number for its final selling price but not this sale. I bid 50-100% over high estimate and got outbid by a large amount. The upcoming steel shot issue does not seem to be driving down prices. In fact I think people are buying Spanish guns as a use and dispose of type solution to the problem. Hammer guns are also doing much better than I expected. If prices stay at this level it will price me out of bidding when I add in the cost of importing.

The sealed bid auction guns are usually the lower end of the gun market. Guns with issues, or ones who just do not bring much money in general. I loved one gun and thought I was going to be overpaying for it at $2,000 then watched it sell for twice that and without the bidder having to pay importing it. A couple other guns that I bid on could be bought from US dealers for less than the auction prices, house cut, importing cost. It makes little sense to keep bidding over there when I can find similar things in the US and for less money. I will keep trying but will not just say the heck with it and start placing stupid crazy high bids just to win something. Perhaps I just need to hit on a few to get back into the game but it looks like my game may be done. I wish I had had more interest in hammer guns a decade ago, when nobody seemed to want them at any price.