More Important Considerations In Choosing A Firearms Auction Company

Our In-House Auctioneer Team
 

Patrick F. Hogan	Kevin Hogan	Jessica Tanghe	Laurence Thompson

Rock Island Auction Company has four in house auctioneers. The lead auctioneer is Pat Hogan, the owner. The other three are Laurence Thompson the Executive Director of Operations, Jessica Tanghe Director of Client Services, and Kevin Hogan director of auction services. The reason that the auctioneer team is so important in making a decision to consign with Rock Island Auction is because these are the people who deal with you throughout the consignment process. We understand the intricacies to certain pieces which we will take the time to articulate to the crowd and we know when a particular piece holds a special place in your heart. Auction houses that bring in “mercenary auctioneers” have no vested interest in how the item does. They have no relationship with the seller or any knowledge of the product. They are simply paid for their services and then move to the next job. Because we understand the product we are able to take more time talking about the piece and working for an advanced bid which can ultimately land you higher prices realized.  

We Build Auctions We Just Don’t Have Them

Unlike most auctions houses, Rock Island Auction strategically plans each and every auction. What does that mean you may ask? Each auction has a theme. We strongly believe in the “critical mass theory”. The premise of this is that each auction needs to have a comprehensive theme of complete genres because we want to attract a certain type of collector. Therefore when you flip through our catalogs pay close attention to the grouping of arms you see. A good example will be a complete grouping of Winchester, or WWII firearms, or Civil War era carbines, muskets, rifles and accouterments. If you consigned to us your very rare civil war revolver and for that upcoming auction we were light on Civil War pieces we would advise you to put the item in the next auction in which we had other spectacular Civil War arms and accouterments. The thought process is that by building these deliberate genres we excite the buyers and stimulate the market place. We wouldn’t want to just trow the revolver in with Winchester. We want to give the buyers a reason to come to the auctions and to be excited.   


Multi Media Campaigns

For large collections and high end pieces promotional videos are many times created to show our customers more information that is not found in the catalog listing. We encourage you to look at YouTube video channel. There you will see the passion we have for firearms and our consignors items.

In this two minute video you will get an idea of our facilities at auction. We create an atmosphere of fun and fellowship for the gun collectors that attend. Hear for yourself comments made by a few customers who attended this auction.