Firearms Consignment – How?
What is firearms consignment?
Firearms consignment is when an owner pays a seller to find a buyer. Once the transaction is complete the original owner (or consignor) is paid for the sale minus a small fee to the seller for selling the goods. Many businesses will sell things on consignment: furniture stores, clothing stores, auto dealers, and jewelers to name a few.
Rock Island Auction Company operates primarily on consignment. When you agree to consign, we take care of everything: shipping, photography, storage, insurance, legal paperwork, and advertising. There are no hidden fees for these many services. We take care of all the work and charge a simple, flat percentage on the sale price of your item. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
For the record, Rock Island Auction Company is able to buy guns and collections, but we strongly recommend placing them in our consignment process to receive the most possible money for your item.
See our blog on the path of a gun when selling your guns with Rock Island Auction.
Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4
Firearms consigning with Rock Island Auction can be boiled down to a simple 4-step process.
- Evaluation. This step takes care of the frequent questions we hear, such as “What is my gun worth?” and “What is this old gun?” The best way to determine that is with a pre-auction evaluation. Sometimes this can be done with a simple phone call, while other items may require a visual review. If you are located near us, you can always set up an appointment to bring in your items. If you are not within driving distance, we can often begin the review with a few photos and should your collection consist of many items, we can review from a detailed inventory list or arrange a visit. There is no obligation or cost for us to evaluate your items.
- Transport. Once an agreement has been reached the next step is getting your items to our facility. We have several options available to make transporting your items to our facility as painless as possible. Shipping will be the most efficient method when dealing with a small number of firearms. By law, the shipper is not required to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Just securely pack the item and take it to a shipping service of your choice. Should that shipping company ask for our FFL, please contact us and we’d be happy to forward a copy. If you have a large collection of items to transport, we will be able to pick up your items with our D.O.T. certified drivers. In many cases, even for smaller collections, we can arrange a pickup the next time we are in your area.
- Selling. Once the firearms have arrived at our facility, our firearms auction production team immediately goes to work. Your items are inventoried, expertly photographed, described in detail, and securely stored. While your item is awaiting its big day it will be marketed heavily! Our marketing and advertising are second-to-none in the industry and are one of the reasons that RIAC sells 2-3 times more guns than our closest competitor. The marketing only ends when your items sell in one of our industry leading firearms auctions.
- Payment. Checks are cut and sent out 35 calendar days after the completion of the sale.
How can I get started?
- Call us at 1-800-238-8022
- Email us at guns@rockislandauction.com
- Fill out a firearms consignment request by clicking here.
What amount does the bidding start at?
Bidding generally starts no less than ½ of the low estimate. If there are a lot of absentee bids placed on an item, the item may start at the low estimate or even above the low estimate. The discretion of the starting bid is determined by the auctioneers.
