Selling guns in Indiana.

Where we go in Indiana

Northern Indiana is next door. South Bend, Elkhart, Michigan City and the whole US-20 corridor are an easy run for us, and Fort Wayne is comfortable. Indianapolis and the south of the state are a longer day, which is a matter of planning rather than a reason to say no.

South Bend, Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Indianapolis, Gary, Michigan City and Evansville — and everywhere between. Where you are is our problem to solve rather than a reason to rule yourself out.

What collections in Indiana look like

Indiana has one of the strongest recreational shooting cultures in the region and it is not concentrated in the cities. A lot of the best material here sits in ordinary houses in small towns: hunting rifles and shotguns bought new and used carefully for forty years, handguns bought for the range, and the occasional serious collection assembled quietly by somebody who never told anybody what they had. Estates in northern Indiana in particular turn up a lot of well-kept sporting arms.

Estates in Indiana

Indiana estates lean heavily toward guns that were bought to be used and then kept, which is the situation where condition varies most inside a single collection. It is common to open a safe here and find one rifle that was carried every season for thirty years next to another that was bought at the same time and barely fired. Those are not the same item at valuation and separating them properly is most of the work. Small-town estates in the north of the state turn up a disproportionate share of the better older shotguns.

Why get a number from out of state

Northern Indiana is close enough that there is no premium for the distance and no reason to treat it as a special case. If you are in the South Bend or Fort Wayne area with a collection to move, we are one of the nearer buyers who will take the whole thing rather than the pieces we happen to want.

How a visit to Indiana actually works

Northern Indiana we can usually reach on short notice, and for South Bend, Elkhart and Michigan City that often means within a few days. Fort Wayne and Indianapolis take more planning but not much more. If the collection is split between a house and somewhere else — a relative's, a storage unit, a farm — say so when you write and we will see all of it in one visit.

Questions we get from Indiana

I am in South Bend. Do you actually come this far?

Regularly, and it is not far. Northern Indiana is closer to us than large parts of Michigan. Tell us roughly what you have and where, and we will tell you right away whether we are coming.

Some of it belonged to my father and some is mine. Does that complicate it?

Not for the valuation — we look at what is there and price it. Who owns what is worth being clear about between yourselves before anything is sold, and if any of it sits inside an estate that is a question for the family's attorney rather than for us.

Cash, consignment or trade credit

Three ways to be paid, priced side by side so you can see the difference before you commit to any of them — and you can split a collection across them.How the three compare.

What we buy

Whole collections rather than the good pieces out of them. Rifles, shotguns and handguns — modern, older, collectible or entirely ordinary — along with the ammunition, optics, safes and the accumulated boxes of parts that come with a lifetime of it. Dealer inventory and shops winding down as well.

What determines value ·How to sell a collection ·You inherited firearms

Where else we buy

Michigan, where we are licensed and where most of our work is — and Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.