A friend of my wifes wants me to help her sell a few guns her husband had when he passed away. I checked them out last weekend and inventoried them and although there was nothing extremely collectible, he had 7 or so new M700 Classics, most unfired, but she doesn't know what happened to the boxes. Calibers are 375 H&H, 8mm Rem Mag, 264 Win Mag, 280, 25-06, 222 Rem, 17 Rem, and 35 Whelen. Nice collection of calibers I'd say. Well, I'll help her sell them, and she's looking for a fair value. Can anyone help me out with estimated value?

Most are in perfect shape outside, but I have to run a good brush and patch down the bores to make sure they are in like condition.

Any help would be appreciated.

Do a search on gunbroker.com, auctionarms.com, and gunsamerica.com and get a feel for what others are pricing them at. Remember that what they ask for and what they sell for might be two different things. Lack of box hurts a little in getting top price (from a collector standpoint).

They will probably be priced according to a fair user value, but I did see the 375 and 8mm Mag selling for a couple hundred more, well...at least the asking price was that much more. Thanks.

I see them fairly often NIB or 99% selling in the $500 to $600, a few at $650, range. I think if you can get her an average of $550 you've done very well and if someone offered $500 apiece for the lot, I'd take it in a heartbeat if it were me.

I just saw a new 700 classic in 35 Whelen for $550 here in Montana. There are several others in town priced higher that are not selling (8mag, 375H&H). I would agree if offered $500 each for the lot, take it. A gun dealer will offer about 25% less.

Thanks guys, that's about exactly what I was figguring, really I thought $450 would be more realistic for most of them with the magnums in the $550 to $600 range.

I told her there wasn't anything she had that was worth 'thousands', just good clean rifles that would bring a fair price. But with 38 or so rifles, pistols, and a few shotguns, she should get a tidy amount to use for whatever she wishes. Better that than have them sit there another 5 years.

Matt,

If these are going up for sale, how about posting a list of what is available, other than the Rem Classics, in case any of us are interested. We could then contact you if necessary. Thanks

Thaine,
I'll be doing just that after I put a value on all of them. I'll put up a big list in the classifieds, in fact this will be the first place I advertise

Matt:

The .264 should bring the highest premium of the bunch (simply because that caliber is extremely hard to find in any rifle these days), followed by the .375 and the 8x57. These guns are good property and should be fairly liquid, precisely because they're not worth "thousands", but rather are in the "everyman" price range.

When in need of cash, it's better to have a fleet of "Chevys" you can sell than a single "Rolls Royce" you can't.

They can be consigned to a local auction (as long as they are properly advertized) for only 5% commission and this always seems to bring the best money.