German "Gun" mystery...

[Shae1324]

So, I'm currently working an estate sale for the daughter of a WWII veteran. Ive been in this business long enough to safely say that at least 95% of the time these old veterans will have a least a couple of guns stashed somewhere. But so far we hadn't found any firearms of any kind until today.

We'd been staging for the sale for about an hour when I ask the lady, "You're absolutely sure that your father didn't have any guns in the house?"

"Well now that you mention it, I think he had a German gun he brought home from the war, but I don't know where it's at."

At this point my heart rate has sped up tremendously. Damn could it be a Luger? A Mauser sidelatch? A Walther? She said "gun" not "pistol" or "rifle."

Well, then we began to really, really dig. Firearms have the potential to make or break an estate sale for us.

About three hours later, one of my guys hollered from the back room, and.......................



A damned old EM - GE, Model 22k. AND not even a functioning or even some semblance of a complete one at that.



Then she says, "Well, wait a minute, I got some pieces here." And......



For a different gun entirely. Needless to say, I was ready to tear my hair out, and shocking no one more than myself, I gave her $2 for it.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Lol.

I was at my LGS recently when a nice little old lady walked in and handed the owner a plastic bag. She said her husband had passed, he brought this back from the war, she didn't want it, have a nice day- and left.

Inside was a French MAB .32, fully loaded with 1940 head stamped rounds.......

 

[FL-NC]

Set that piece aside for a gun buyback. That's definitely worth the $50 gift card they will give you.

 

[entropy]

Agreed, good buyback gun.
Although not a war trophy, the widow of a local baker brought her husband's shop gun, which he had bought from the shop I was working at, and they didn't want it, so I bought it from her for (she set the price) $25. It was a S&W Model 32. It had a round count of exactly 5, one cylinderful, fired in the alley behind the bakery right after he bought it. The bluing was completely gone from being in the humid bakery, and the grip checkering was filled with dough. I Oxpho-blued it, dug all the dough out of the grips and sold it to my BIL's brother.

 

[MAKster]

Handguns like this EMGE and Rohm are the perfect comeback when someone won't stop talking about how great German built products are!

 

[desidog]

"Firearms have the potential to make or break an estate sale for us."

Shae1324, can you elaborate on this line?

 

[Stope Rat]

I have a 5-gallon bucket of similar "guns" in the garage. Someday, somewhere, there will be a buyback I can get to, and they will pay for a weekend in Vegas.

 

[Shae1324]

"Firearms have the potential to make or break an estate sale for us."

Shae1324, can you elaborate on this line?

Certainly! When we do an estate sale for a client, 9 times out of 10, it's related to a death in the family. In my particular area, we have a lot of elderly folks staying on the same family farm for a couple of generations. I wish every estate sale was chock full of good ole' antiques, but most of the time, they contain a few good pieces, and a couple of lifetimes worth of the average stuff. My business ends up being all about volume.

However, when we get on an estate that has a few firearms in it, or military collectibles, etc - not only does that stuff sell, but it brings in a whole lot more foot traffic than a lot of other collectibles. I can advertise glassware for weeks, and might only get a few serious buyers walk through the door. If I advertise firearms, stamps, coins, military collectibles, vintage fishing gear, etc. then customers are practically beating down the doors an hour before the sale.

Some antiques just don't have the same value that they did ten years ago. Firearms are an exception to that rule for the most part. An example of firearms breaking us on an estate are the ones that turn out to not be what the client thinks they are. Like this little EM-GE that my client thought was a war capture.

Hope that I explained that well.

 

[Shae1324]

Lol.
Inside was a French MAB .32, fully loaded with 1940 head stamped rounds.......

Some guys have all the luck, lol. I haven't found anything that nice on an estate yet, but fingers crossed.

I must say though, I think a lot of folks would be shocked to discover just how often these little old ladies hand me firearms and say that they don't want anything to do with them. I have ended up selling some nice pieces that I think should have stayed in the family.

 

[ontarget]

This is exactly why I will be leaving behind a list of exactly what is in my accumulation and approximate values. God forbid my wife knows what they are worth while I'm still alive. She'd kill me herself.

 

[Shae1324]

This is exactly why I will be leaving behind a list of exactly what is in my accumulation and approximate values.

A list is always helpful. If I may suggest, make several copies to disperse to family members and keep one with your Will. I have discovered such lists in the middle of a sale or even after the sale has concluded. The family had simply forgotten about them, or misplaced them.

Lol, my wife is much the same. She wouldn't know a hand grenade from a hood ornament. God help me if she ever figures it out.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

This is exactly why I will be leaving behind a list of exactly what is in my accumulation and approximate values. God forbid my wife knows what they are worth while I'm still alive. She'd kill me herself.

And why I plan to start selling some of mine off before a list will be necessary...

 

[Waveski]

God forbid my wife knows what they are worth while I'm still alive. She'd kill me herself.

"DITTO" he typed , nervously.

 

[Texas10mm]

And why I plan to start selling some of mine off before a list will be necessary...

I'm still "young" at 58, however my mom died at 53 and my dad at 62. I've already survived cancer. I'm starting to downsize my collection. It is/was pretty modest, coming in at a peak of 70 firearms. Since both my children live in states on the left coast I fear that many items would not be able to be passed on to them.

 

[Shae1324]

Since both my children live in states on the left coast I fear that many items would not be able to be passed on to them.

That is a healthy fear to have really, because I don't sense an end to the idiocy over there any time soon. Memphis has it's share as well from the opposite end of the spectrum

 

[redneck2]

And why I plan to start selling some of mine off before a list will be necessary...

My accumulation has dropped from 70+ to less than a dozen. And it’s gonna drop more. Given some away, sold most.

 

[WestKentucky]

I keep a list, but there is also a file saved in 3 locations that a few people know about. It’s on my work computer, my home computer, and in my email. The file if opened by anybody else wouldn’t make much sense. It actually details the guns pretty well and looks like a web link, and has the password to my safe in it, but only if somebody knows what they are looking for. There are 3 other people who know my combo, and about 5 that know how to find it in my file.

The way I have it laid out, somebody can type in the info to Gunbroker and get a very reasonable value. The description list is in the safe to help decipher the guns.

Example... what I will list for my newest aquisition will be:
Butler.22s.006.grbrpl.brlgol.frmblk.1car.100.1218
That equates to: brand.caliber.serial(last 3). description(repeat as necessary).#shot/type.Estimated value at time of record.date acquired (mmyy)

So that description is
Butler, 22short, serial ending 006, grips brown plastic, barrel gold, frame black, 1 shot cartridge (as opposed to muz), worth roughly $100, I got it December of 18.

Anybody want to guess what this one is???
Rem.270win.877.bdl.stkblkpl.tasco.sco3/9/50.400.0900

See it’s a bunch of gobbledygook until you know how to decipher it. And now y’all can pretty well peg 2 of my guns.

Is it paranoia? I don’t think so, it’s just one more layer of protection that I can give my family for when I’m gone. I do like though that it’s not as obvious as “here’s my list of guns”