TexasCHLforum.com

So, yesterday was the auction. Strogg and I carpooled out there together from Denton County.

The other day the deputy I spoke with said "no guns or ammo" will be allowed. We figured knives would also be forbidden. So we leave all our handguns and knives in the truck. We get to the security checkpoint. I was turned away since I still had my XDS OWB and my LCR OWB holsters on my belt (empty). "No holsters allowed". 1st trip back to the truck to get rid of holsters.
Strogg then had to go back to the truck since they didn't like the look of his flashlight - 2nd trip back to the truck to drop it off.

We had to take off our boots and belts, plus all pocket contents, to go through the metal detector. Oops, I forgot I had a casecutter. I just let them keep it. I've got plenty. Strogg passed this time. But they never noticed his handcuff key! Yuck, yuck.

They had 4 women at a table just outside the courtroom, checking the ID's of all who wanted to bid. They required DL, telephone number, and email address. They were calling somebody and giving the DL information. Apparently they wanted to pre-check that no felons were going to be attending the auction. It seems to me that they should have been asking for LTC, but they never did.

I would estimate that there were approximately 50 bidders in the courtroom for the auction, with a few friends who were not bidding.
The event had a pretty big crowd. I couldn't tell where anyone was from, except for 1 guy who had on a Coppell, TX jacket.

The attorney seemed to be from a private law firm (not a Kaufman County official lawyer) and laid out the rules for the auction. He said that the firearms had been seized for non-payment of business property taxes. So, it would seem they came from a local gun store FFL, or pawn shop FFL.

The firearms were laid out on a table for the bidders to look over.

Pistols: The Beretta was a pink Nano. No thanks.
The CZ100 was black and of no interest to me since it was a very old CZ, and had terrible reviews for a bad trigger.
The Glock was a 43, and appeared to be the newest of all the weapons.
The Springfield Armory was a used XD45, all black, and sported a price tag of $499.99.

Shotguns: There were 4 of them. The Benelli seemed to be an entry level model, all black, pump.
The other 3 didn't seem too special.

Rifles - As listed in the link.

What was somewhat puzzling was that all the firearms had price tags on them. It was unclear if these had been put on by the person from whom they were seized, or if the KCSO had affixed them. These prices were retail or more for each firearm.

Before starting the auction, the lawyer laid down the rules. He advised the crowd to not even bid if they have legal problems or owe any property taxes from prior tax years.
If they won the bid, paid the money, and were later found to be in violation, their money would be forfeited.
The initial offering would be all 18 firearms sold in 1 lot. The opening bid would be $7,500.
If no one took the entire lot, the guns would then be auctioned 1 at a time. All sales would be cash. No checks, no plastic.
The figure for the entire lot, $7500, was chosen since that was about the tax debt owed. Not because anyone had really assessed the worth of the 18 guns.

The initial link to the KCSO stated that the transfer fee would be $20, but when we got the handout at the auction, the transfer fee was quoted to be $25. Bait and switch a little.

At the conclusion of the auction, the firearms could not be taken home. They were to be picked up at an FFL in a town I never heard of, and could not find on a Texas map. Talty?? The guns were to be picked up on 1/24/20, between 10 AM and 500 PM. If not picked up, the bidder would lose their money and the guns would be re-sold.

On to the auction!!!
The auctioneer opened up and asked if anyone bid $7500 for the entire lot. A guy 2 rows behind me bid $7500. At that point the courtroom became chaotic because everyone that wanted to buy single guns stood up and started to exit. But the bidding was going strong! Within 60 seconds, I am not kidding, it became a bidding war between apparently only the initial bidder and 1 other guy. The bids were going up fast at $100 each time.
Yes, within 60 seconds, the winning bid for the entire lot was $8,600!!!

At $7500 for 18 guns, each gun would have gone for $416.67.
At $8,600 for 18 guns, each gun was sold for an average price of $477.78.

Strogg and I were stunned that someone had $8600 cash for that assortment. So that's the story of Kaufman County's 1st firearms auction.

Comments on this are encouraged!!

SIA

Thanks for the rundown. I'm sure a lot of people were ticked off by the whole lot selling. My guess is the next time they do this, a lot of those folks won't waste their time.

No holsters? What a joke.

Like I said in my first post on this thread. That is stupid high money for a bunch of cheap guns. 7500 was already more than what I would have paid. I believe people get to an auction and lose all sense of value. They get all caught up in "Winning" the bid. Same thing happens on Gun Broker. I have sold guns for crazy high amounts of money after a couple bidders start battling over them.

S-I-R wrote

At $8,600 for 18 guns, each gun was sold for an average price of $477.78

But wait! There's more.
Unless I'm mistaken, the "Winning" bidder also paid $25 per gun transfer fee.
That means he paid $502.78 per gun or a total of $9050 for the lot.

Chemist45 wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:56 pm S-I-R wrote

At $8,600 for 18 guns, each gun was sold for an average price of $477.78

But wait! There's more.
Unless I'm mistaken, the "Winning" bidder also paid $25 per gun transfer fee.
That means he paid $502.78 per gun or a total of $9050 for the lot.

Well, all I can say is "To the high bidder, 'Here's your sign!' ".

Was it at least entertaining enough for the time you spent?

It was definitely an entertaining experience, a chill drive, and an overall excellent way to spend an afternoon. I would do it again knowing the outcome. I wasn't planning on taking a gun home that day anyway.

no holsters? that's crazy....and I'm not sure that passes the "law" test....

Yes, I would say the time spent was worth it. We had no idea how the event was to unfold, so attending was somewhat akin to open a gift-wrapped package. Everything was going to be an unforeseen surprise.

Should some other LEO agency hold an auction, I might go to that one too, just to see who in the wide, wide world of sports wants to plunk down serious coin for a collection of someone else's choosing.

Yes, the "no holsters" rule was a new one on me. But where I thought I would get some comments on this thread was the ID'ing of the bidders and calling in the DL information to someone who was not at the venue. Plus the email and phone numbers. But they never asked for LTC's, even though it was a gun sale.

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:19 pm Yes, I would say the time spent was worth it. We had no idea how the event was to unfold, so attending was somewhat akin to open a gift-wrapped package. Everything was going to be an unforeseen surprise.

Should some other LEO agency hold an auction, I might go to that one too, just to see who in the wide, wide world of sports wants to plunk down serious coin for a collection of someone else's choosing.

Yes, the "no holsters" rule was a new one on me. But where I thought I would get some comments on this thread was the ID'ing of the bidders and calling in the DL information to someone who was not at the venue. Plus the email and phone numbers. But they never asked for LTC's, even though it was a gun sale.

SIA

I suppose I just assumed they were making sure none of the bidders were felons.