Selling guns in Illinois.

Where we go in Illinois

Chicago and the collar counties are a routine trip for us, and the north of the state — Rockford, Waukegan, the Wisconsin line — is straightforward. Central and southern Illinois are a longer haul and worth it for a substantial collection or an estate rather than for one gun.

Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, Joliet, Peoria, Springfield and Naperville — and everywhere between. Where you are is our problem to solve rather than a reason to rule yourself out.

What collections in Illinois look like

Illinois is really two firearms cultures in one state. The Chicago metro holds a large number of collectors and a lot of quietly serious collections, often bought rather than inherited and often documented properly. Downstate is agricultural and the guns reflect it: working shotguns and rifles, bought to be used, frequently in families for decades. Both are worth opening properly and the mistakes people make with them are different.

Estates in Illinois

Illinois estates split along the same line the state does. In the Chicago metro they are more often deliberate collections, bought over years, sometimes with paperwork and provenance that materially changes the numbers — and those are worth going through slowly rather than quickly. Downstate estates are working collections: shotguns and rifles used on the same ground for decades, usually undervalued because they look plain, occasionally holding one piece that is anything but.

Why get a number from out of state

Selling a collection in Illinois usually means dealing with somebody who wants the four best pieces. Taking the whole lot in one transaction — including the ammunition, the optics and the safe — is a different proposition, and it is worth finding out what that number looks like before breaking a collection up.

How a visit to Illinois actually works

Chicago, the collar counties and the north of the state are a routine trip and easy to schedule. For central and southern Illinois we plan a longer run, which works best when we know the scale in advance — a rough count of firearms is enough. Parking and access are worth mentioning for city addresses; it is the sort of detail that turns a two-hour visit into a four-hour one.

Questions we get from Illinois

Is selling out of state complicated for me?

Not on your side. The requirements sit with the licensed dealer, not with you, and we handle them. What you do is decide whether to sell. We will tell you plainly what the process looks like before anything moves.

I would rather the neighbors did not know. Is that possible?

It is the normal way we work. Nothing is listed, published or advertised, we arrive in an unmarked vehicle, and nothing about a purchase later identifies where it came from.

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, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.