Auction Consignment Services

Are you worried about complying with all the Federal and state laws related to the sale and transfer of a firearm? Do you know the special rules for shipping firearms or which carriers are willing to accept shipments from a non-dealer? Is the person buying your firearm legally permitted to own a firearm? Putting your firearm on auction consignment with The Trophy Room, LLC is the answer to these questions.

The Trophy Room, LLC is happy to accept your firearms for consignment. Our goal is to maximize the amount of money our clients can realize from selling a firearm in a reasonable amount of time. If you are looking to sell a firearm, you can hold out for a year for the one person in the world that will pay you top dollar, or you can sell it in a reasonable amount of time for 95% of its value. If you are trying to sell a firearm, it is probably because you believe you can utilize the cash for something that means more to you than the firearm.

Our Process

We conduct our auctions using Gunbroker.com. In advance of the auction listing, we will photograph the item and create a professional listing. After the item has sold, we will contact the buyer and ensure that all laws related to the transfer of the firearm have been met. Finally, we will package and ship your item to its final destination. Do not take the risk of selling a firearm on your own. Put a dealer between you and the ultimate purchaser.

Unless otherwise discussed, we start our auctions at $99.00 with no reserve. We never end our auctions on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and always attempt to have the auction run for at least 10 days. This maximizes the exposure of the items for our clients. By starting the price at $99.00, multiple bidding usually begins early in the auction. By getting multiple bids for an item and by exposing the item for at least 10 days, this ensures that you get the true fair market value. Bidders in an auction tend to emotionally rely on other bidders to justify their own bid. In other words, if someone else thinks the item is worth $2,000 then I can justify my own bid of $2,025. A bidder is more likely to up someone’s bid then open the bidding at a high number when they are unsure of value.

Our auction consignment fee is the greater of $99.00 or 25% of the final sales price of the item. Generally, the buyer pays any shipping and insurance fees, but you, as the seller, are responsible for the Final Value Fee we pay to Gunbroker.com. We encourage you to visit Gunbroker.com for an explanation of the Final Value Fee.

In addition, in an effort to maximize value for the item, we may utilize other services provided by Gunbroker.com such as Showcase Item or Thumbnail Pictures. The seller is responsible for these fees. Examples of these fees are Thumbnail: $0.25, Showcase Listing: $4.95, Featured Listing: $2.95, Colored or Bold Faced Title: $1.00. Of course, these, as well as the Final Value Fees, are the actual costs from Gunbroker.com and are subject to change. However, we do not mark up these fees.

Should an item not sell in a no reserve auction after 2 consecutive listings, there is no fee to remove the item from our consignment. All ATF rules apply when removing an item from consignment.  If an item sells for $99.00, the seller will receive no proceeds from the sale and will owe no money to The Trophy Room for the Final Value Fee or any other expenses incurred.

Reserve or Minimum Price Auctions

Since our goal is to maximize value to our clients in a reasonable amount of time, we generally do not recommend reserve or minimum price auctions. However, reserve auctions or minimum price auctions can be agreed to in advance.

In addition to the Final Value Fee and any other fees related to other services utilized on Gunbroker.com, Gunbroker.com charges a fee for reserve auctions. The Reserve Fee is 2% of the reserve price and is payable to The Trophy Room, LLC in advance. The minimum Reserve Fee is $1.00 and the maximum is $100. The Reserve Fee is only charged by Gunbroker on the first listing. It is not charged on the next 3 automatic relistings.

There will be a fee should the item not sell. Should (a) the owner wish to remove the item from consignment prior to the end of the 3rd consecutive reserve or minimum price listing, or (b) the item not sell after 3 consecutive reserve or minimum price auctions and the seller does not agree to a no reserve auction, then our fee to retrieve the firearm from consignment is the greater of 5% of the reserve or minimum price or $50.

A Note About Dirty Guns – Detailing Services

Many people find the firearms of a deceased relative in a closet or have been left firearms by a relative or friend which they know little about firearms. These firearms may have been neglected for many years and as a result have surface rust or just need a good cleaning. It is our policy to wipe firearms down before photographing them for auction. However, we will not clean a firearm in advance of photographing the firearm unless arrangements have been made with the client in advance. Detailing a firearm before photographing may significantly improve the value realized by the client. It may also save the client the hassle of a firearm that gets returned for a defect that was undetectable prior to cleaning. We charge $50 per 30 minutes to clean and detail a firearm. Most firearms will only need 30 minutes. However, once we start, it may take longer depending on the amount of neglect. Ask us about our detailing services.

Please contact us via email about our brokerage and auction consignment services. Our email address is [email protected].