Holts main auction is going on today and tomorrow, or as I now think of them as my personal swing and miss auction. Like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football and missing every time, I now know that in the main sale, every gun I am interested in will go for 50-300% over high estimation. Case in point I had a friend who was going to do a inspection and short video about this sale and I mentioned one gun to him. He said he has five other fellows who are asking about the same gun. If he charged each a beer for a report he would be half drunk on one gun. So that one will go for 2-3 time the high estimate.
Being the optimistic fellow I still am, I have nine bids in on guns and will try to bid on a couple of them over the internet. But truth is I don’t seem to have much luck in the main sale. I do have more in the sealed bid auction but shipping cost will soon end that market for me. Hard to pay £500 for the gun, then the house cut, vats and near that to ship it. I’ve raised my price point in the main auction to £2,000 but that ends up with every gun costing $3,500 by the time I get them. Few values are worth what they cost in total. Still I loved the Sear Christmas catalog as a boy and love these auctions. Good luck to all here foolish enough to bid along with me.