Is there any way to find out who won a certain Lot # in the February Rock Island Auction.  There is an item in one of the lots that I would like to purchase if the winner will sell it.  Thanks for any help.
OPS

An auction company should not release a buyer's personal info.   

However they might be willing to privately contact the buyer and  facilitate your purchase for an appropriate fee.

Slumlord I have been watching the results realized from RIA's auctions for quite a few years as well as some others. It appears from these observations that RIA's realized prices seem to provided the best monetary returns and their pre-auction full color advertising brochures are second to none.

J.Louis

I believe 15%

In dealing with any auction house with items of any value as a buyer, and even more as a seller, read ALL the small print two or three times and unless you are a lawyer have one read it as well.  There can be all sorts of charges, advertising, photography, cleaning, packing etc etc.   The good reputable firms are up front on this but there are a LOT of small details that can get overlooked particularly in estate situations where there can be a lot of cross currents at play.
Personally, if I had a collection of guns of value to be concerned with I'd probably consider making a new appraisal made as part of the estate business and having the family lawyer help with the auction house dealings.

Ok in that case better send the lawyer on ahead to clear your path

From what I've heard RIA is pretty reputable.  I know that when Warren "weeded" his single shot collection a few years back, he, working with Denny Hurososky (ex-ASSRA Pres and I may have spelling wrong) chose to go through RIA and from what feedback I got they were happy.  It might be worth touching base with Denny  If you look back 2 or 3 year in the SSRJ his contact info should be in there.

What ever you do have all of your firearms tagged with detailed information as to make, model, features etc. I do not know who RIA employes to make up their listings, but this Feb auction they had about a half dozen rolling blocks improperly identified, some seriously. That may or may not be the same with other makes etc. but I would not leave it to chance.  They are pleasant folks to deal with, just need some upgrades in the technical areas.

I'm afraid my view of Rock Island, and the other auction companies, is less positive.  I think they can be a good thing on the buy side, less so for sellers.  A little more than a year ago I contacted Rock Island about the custom Sharps I was trying to sell.  Without looking at it, they offered to put it in their premier auction with a reserve of roughly 1/3 of what I had in the rifle.  I declined!  Based on my phone conversations I did not find them to be particularly knowledgeable about single shot rifles.

They advertise an auction sale rate of something like 95%, which unless you believe that there are thousands of retail buyers out there, means that many of the guns they sell are in effect being wholesaled to dealers.  I could not afford to risk that on one fairly expensive rifle.

What I think these firms are, is a mechanism for people like estate lawyers to claim that they got the "market price" for the rifles without working at it.  Although their brochures show you the few special rifles which sold for record prices, I don't think those transactions are typical.

So my advise would be, if you want the true value, sell it yourself before you die, don't leave it to your estate.  If you can't bring yourself to do do that, your family is probably going to get a little or a lot less.

The idea of having a detailed inventory with some indication of values is a good one.  You might be hit by a bus.  You don't have to show the inventory to anyone, just make sure they know it exists.  Put it away with insurance policies and the like so they don't get taken too badly.