CptCurl, if my notes made in 2009 are still accurate, the part of the Uniform Commercial Code that applies is Section 2-328 ("Sale by Auction").

Bill Lawrence

I've been watching antique gun prices for 30 years, very avidly.  I've seen some types fall, like muzzle loading rifles and cap and ball revolvers.  Some rise quickly, like WWII issue weapons and full auto.  Some steadily creep upwards "better than the stock market over the long haul."   

In general, antiques reached a peak around 2009.  The recession taught a lot of speculative collectors hard lessons, and scared them.  They got out, never to return.  Early American art, furniture, silver, lamps,...all the old "good" stuff is way down.   

What drives the current market increases is fad, sometimes becoming cult items and market bubbles.  If you can get in on one, you can do well.  I did for several years with antique photography equipment.  Now it's heading down again.   

A better trick with these very specialty items is to DRIVE a market.  That is done by writing in collector forums, writing books, and having events that "require" the antique you are hawking.  I've seen it work, for a few years.  It only takes a handful of new, young collectors with money to buy up all the single shots.  Or Pythons, or Diamondbacks.  And drive a bubble market.

think what Azshot says about artificially created markets, bubbles and a couple people creating and driving a market is true. I like antique sharps sporting rifles. After “Quigley” came out there was a huge upswing in interest in sharps rifles. There were lots of articles in magazines, the wait for a shiloh was way out beyond 4 years, a junky beat to pieces original would be 4-5k. I remember the days when there were over 300 people at the bpcr silhouette nationals. Now there is hardly a wait for a shiloh, i dont remember the last article I saw in a main stream gun mag about sharps or bpcr, the 4-5k beaters are bringing half or less of that and i think there were like 60 people at the silhouette nationals this year.  When the potential market for sharps rifles is several hundred people, the market for original sporting rifles a couple hundred and the market for  high end originals measured in dozens or less- the slightest breezes can blow the market.

That Stevens Pope that just sold at That Kiko auction was pretty nice and well worth the 3k it brought. CPA  wouldn’t build you that nice rifle with that quality of wood for that cheap.   lots of people from the site saw that gun at auction  and it still went for a good price.  I know its what some would call a “pope in name only” aka “PINO”  and therefore not desirable but I still thought it was a good gun.  A few years ago it would pretty easily have brought 5 to 6K.  Wouldn’t call it a Honda and the stock didnt look black to me.

excellent!