How and Where to Sell Antique Guns in the US

Step 1: Antique Gun Appraisal

The goal of this stage is to figure out what your asking price should be before you try to sell your antique gun. For this part, you can get the gun appraised by experts or try to do it yourself.

Generally, that means doing the following:

• Determining which type of antique gun it is and what model
• Assessing the condition of the gun
• Confirming that it’s an antique gun (as noted earlier, it has to be pre-1899)
• Checking its current market value based on type, condition, and demand

So how do you figure those things out? Here are the options:

Option 1: Get an Expert Antique Gun Appraisal

If you’d want the certainty of a valuation from experts, this is the best route to take. You can have this done in person or online.

If you want to do it online, you have both free and paid versions.

• FREE: You can submit your gun's details here to Cash for Arms for a free appraisal. We usually reply within hours.
• PAID: Bluebook Publications (the publisher of the Blue Book of Antique American Firearms and Values) offers an online $50 appraisal. It can take up to 3 weeks.

If you’d rather get the appraisal done in person, remember to seek gun shops or gun dealers who specialize in antique firearms. Others won’t be knowledgeable enough to give you a fair value for your gun.

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Option 2. Use the “Blue Book of Antique American Firearms and Values”

This reference has long been used for antique gun valuation. It covers more than 2,100 firearm models manufactured prior to 1 January 1899.

The hundreds of high-resolution color images in this book should make identifying your gun easier, although it obviously won't help much for condition-based appraisal. You can grab it here.

Option 3. Check Gun Marketplace Data for Similar Models

Specifically, you should start by going to gun marketplaces like Firearmland or Gunbroker. From there, run a search on their completed auctions or sales.

You can usually find this in their advanced search options. Look up similar listings, whether by name or through photos.

This will not only help you find the going price for the antique gun but also the model if you don’t already know it. It’s a great way to do some DIY appraisal, though you should consider all the factors affecting prices (like gun condition).

As an aside, this also lets you see listings that never sold on some platforms. It’s worth looking at them too because they can help you identify what prices may be too high for the model.

Step 2: Where to Sell - Who Buys Antique Guns?

Once you’ve had it appraised, it’s time to sell! There are at least 5 ways to sell an antique gun in the US, with each one having its pros and cons.

Here are the steps for all five antique gun buyers.

1. Sell to Cash for Arms

This is one of the fastest and easiest options for selling an antique gun in the US. As mentioned earlier, the process of selling guns to us even includes a free appraisal on which we base our offer.

If you’re not satisfied with our offer, you can also consign your gun to us. We’ll use our contacts to sell it on a marketplace where it can still get top-dollar for you.

Pros:

• It takes only a couple of minutes to submit guns.
• We usually reply in 24 hours.
• We have a best price guarantee.
• Payments are issued within 24 hours of us receiving your gun, with all sale and insured shipping costs covered by us.
• We actually have the expertise to fairly appraise and value antique guns.
• We offer some of the best prices in the market, as our clients attest.

Cons:

• You will have to ship the gun.

2. Auction Online

There are several options for this, but Gunbroker is the usual choice here. As one of the biggest gun auction sites, it lets you access a big pool of buyers. The auction format also means you can get a good price if there’s a lot of interest in your gun.

Pros:

• Lets you set a minimum price while opening the possibility of more than that through bids.
• On bigger sites, this method offers a quick way to get exposure to takers.

Cons:

• Limited platforms available.
• It can be hard to sell if you’re new to a platform, due to reputation point systems that favor site account age.
• There’s no real guarantee of a sale with auctions vs. immediate offers like those from Cash for Arms.
• The sign-up process for auction sites like these can be troublesome.
• Listing creation for these sites is usually a long process.
• The platforms charge additional fees on sale.

4. Sell It on a Forum

Some gun forums, like TheFiringLine.com and Calguns.net, have marketplaces for private gun sales. They’re an alternative to gun auction sites if you still want to do private person-to-person sales.

Pros:

• Most buyers will be open to negotiation.
• Depending on the forum, this can be a good way to find communities of likely buyers.

Cons:

• You’ll need to spend time building credibility within the forum’s community first.
• You have to go through all firearm sale requirements yourself, e.g. running background checks on buyers, covering shipping fees or doing meet-ups, etc.
• This often requires the most time and effort of all options.

5. Sell at a Gun Show, Auction, or Local  Shop

Most gun shows, gun auctions, and shops will have people (usually dealers) who’ll consider buying antique guns. That said, there’s no guarantee of that, so it may sometimes take time to find a potential buyer at these locations.

Pros:

• This can be a fun and social in-person experience.
• This is a good option if you don’t want to deal with shipping.
• Unless they offer to take the antique gun on consignment, you usually get the money upfront.

Cons:

• You don’t have a guarantee that you’ll find a buyer.
• You also don’t know if you’ll find someone who specializes in antique gun appraisal.
• You need to travel with the firearm to the location.
• Gun shops and dealers in particular will hesitate to buy low-demand guns.

6. Sell to a Pawn Shop

Selling to a pawn shop should be your last resort if you want to sell an antique gun for profit. Pawn shops are ubiquitous, sure, but they’re also not known for gun expertise.

Antique guns require even more specialized expertise than regular ones for appraisal, so you’ll already be losing there. Pawn shops generally don’t base their offers on your appraised value but on theirs, after all.

Pros:

• Pawn shops are easy to find.
• You get your money upfront.

Cons:

• Most pawn shops can’t appraise antique guns fairly.
• Even if a pawn shop knows the correct value of your gun, it will offer the lowest possible price for it.
• Most pawn shops may not buy antique guns, as they have a more specialized market.
• Most pawn shops don’t buy guns of any kind.

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Sell an Antique Gun Online Today

This tells you that selling an antique gun can involve a lot of effort or hardly any, depending on which route you take.

If you want the smoothest path to profit, it’s clear that Cash for Arms is superior to all the other options. It’s the most convenient choice, combines free appraisal with sale, is legally safest, and in most cases, also nets you the best prices!

To have us make an offer on your antique gun, simply submit it to us. It can take as little as two minutes and we’ll have an offer ready for you in 24 hours! You can call us at (904) 977-5477.