
The Higher Road
Handling estate sales for grieving families is part of your business. Look beyond an immediate profit.
The gift of being involved in the shooting sports has many levels. One is in serving the needs and wants of the guests who take time out of their busy lives to visit your operation. In my travels to hundreds of you across the country, I have watched the interactions that take place and see the excitement on both sides when a sale is done. There is a bond that is created. In that bond is a comfort and trust they now have with you. The guests tend to brag about such things with their circle of friends and that in turn helps you grow as well. This should, and can be, a long-term connection, a connection that sometimes extends past death.
The passing of a fellow shooter is sadly part of life and part of your environment of being a dealer. When a shooting sports enthusiast passes, the family will seek out solutions to their concerns and fears of what to do with their loved one’s collection. How you elect to deal with this high honor is critical.
When Jayne and I ran our operation, we had a group of special folks we lovingly called our “whales.” They loved the sport greatly and bought lots from us every year. After we sold the business, many members of this group kept in touch with us over the years. Last year one of them passed away quite suddenly. His wife, not in the best state of mind due to her husband’s death, quickly reached out to a local gun store and a pawn shop to see what his collection was worth. After looking at her itemized list, they both came back with bids of $2,890 and $3,285, respectively. She then shared this with some of his friends (fellow whales of our past), and one of them called Jayne and I late one evening and asked us to come look over the collection in question. We did so and determined the value to be closer to $44,000.
To say I was upset is an understatement. Taking such gross advantage of someone in a very vulnerable position is heartless. In addition, it does nothing to help grow the shooting sports.
So, yes, we stepped in and offered to take care of this estate for her in such a way that she and the family ended up with close to 70 percent of its value. Going with either of the previous bids would have only yielded a roughly a six to eight percent return to the family. Furthermore, the process would have left a bad taste with a family in grief and done nothing to enhance the reputation of our industry.
Taking the higher road allows a dealer to still make a tidy profit while letting the family see that the collection was indeed valuable. In fact, we have over the years seen hundreds of folks who initially had no idea that their loved one’s “gun hobby” could be an investment that actually paid off very well.
We not only consigned the guns, but all the associated gear. This included holsters, scopes, and even a wagon to hold shotguns when you hit the sporting clays course. There is inherent value in those things as well, and we learned taking in such items created an interesting secondary market for bargain hunters who would come in regularly. If you stop to think about it, many of us buy high-quality gear that will outlast our regular usage, creating a second life for many of these products. Some of these things won’t sell; that’s okay, as long as you understand that and have a plan to discard those items.
Having us take on such estate sales allows the family to experience a clean break during a challenging time. You are helping them deal with their grief in a positive way, and you not only benefit monetarily, but reputation-wise as well. Because we treated them honorably and with care, those families ended up recommending us to their friends, which, in turn, helped create new guests for our store.
The Simple Truth is that the long-term connection you have built with a guest goes beyond this earthly life. As a respected leader in your store and in the industry seeing beyond today is the best and most profitable path.
Taking the higher road allows a dealer to still make a tidy profit while letting the family see that the collection was indeed valuable.


Estate sales are an unfortunate fact of life. Taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable position is heartless. In addition, it does nothing to help grow the shooting sports.