coming up next week, you don't see a buttstock like that every day

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There are some really interesting items in this auction but if you're going to bid you need to read the special terms. Proxibid will inform the auction house of your maximum bid and also allow the auction house and it's employees to bid on each item. If you left a maximum bid of $3000.00 on a rifle and regular bidding slowed at $1500.00, chances are you're going to pay $2950.00 for the rifle. Be careful.

I'm not a huckleberry born last night, of course there are games played at auctions, it all boils down to what degree. I have a friend who runs a gun auction in upstate NY who is one of the most honest guys I know. I've won auctions for considerably less than my highest left bid. I've also been to another auction house near me who was auctioning a sword with a starting bid of $25.00 when he remembered he had a left bid of $400.00 and he jumped to $400.00 and said do I hear $425.00. Nobody else bid. I wouldn't think of leaving a bid at that place. I don't know the normal policies of Proxibid, but as a third party that is supposed to represent the bidder I think it's unethical to reveal the bidder's highest number to the auctioneer. The only thing that keeps a shill bidder halfway honest is the chance he may inadvertently win the auction and thus leave nothing for the auction house. Just my two cents.

I doubt Proxibid is doing this, but any auction house that accepts online, or absentee bids could be guilty of running bids up. Does it happen, or can we prove it? My guess is it does happen, but at which auctions?
I rarely absentee bid on firearms, but I have won guns for the opening bid, or for much less than my maximum bid; so I know this certainly isn't standard practice for all auction houses. Maybe others who've won items for less than their maximum bid can also comment? I hate to see this kind of info passed along if it's a rare exception, or not true.

When I saw the link, I was hoping it was for one of his German engraved Ballards with the carved stocks with a reclining nude woman.  Saved me a bank loan being a unadorned stock 

830singleshot wrote on Jan 25^th, 2023 at 1:04pm:


I believe you might have to contact Gary Quinlan for that one.....

J.Francis wrote on Jan 25^th, 2023 at 6:43am:


At the risk of offending anyone, I've got to jump in here. I bid in a small way in probably 35 different auctions, the majority covered by Proxibid. The safest auctions are the ones that reset the bidding clock back about 2 minutes every time a bid is beat. No shill bidders that way. Just keep in mind that guns, even cheap ones, are almost always bid up to or even over the accepted going price. It's just not smart to post a high max bid early. You increase it in stages. You can tell how determined a competing bidder is by how he responds to your bids, read your hidden max bids. When he starts slowing down, he's wavering, real or shill bidder. If you're still within your comfort range, you're in the driver's seat and you should win the item for your price.  What the smart bidder is really after is satisfaction, a gun or barrel or whatever he needs or can't live without and has the money for it. Best, though, are the total surprises. Here are three examples: I bid on a "Mauser shotgun, 28 Gauge". Now, bolt action shotguns to my knowledge were born after WWI, fashioned out of surplus rifles. Since I have an excellent Mauser barrel, I bid and got it for app. $200, plus shipping. It turned out to be a professionally sporterized K98k 7mm, mfg. in Erfurt in 1937 with  clear waffenamts. Excellent deep reblue, pristine bore, beautiful stock. Some "shotgun". Example 2: A #5 RB, average wood,  described as "rough". Someone had traced a thin line of welding along the bottom of each receiver face, obscuring some stamping. I paid $200, shipping etc. another $60. A tight-fitting dry patch through the bore and it appeared UNFIRED. Turned out to be a Swedish #5, bearing the crowned block "C". Example 3: A Model 1867 .50-70 RB, Remington mfg., had a period Swedish rebarrel, shiny and pristine the whole way through. So you really can find happiness in an auction, and have fun too.

My days of submitting Absentee Bids are over. Three times I submitted absentee bids with one auction company and all three times I "won" at my maximum bid. Once is a coincidence ... twice is questionable ... three times,there is something amiss.