Estate / Trophy Room Liquidations ?
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: Pope125
31-Mar-19
I have a good friend that is trying to get rid of his trophies , due to age , and down size and moving into a smaller home . Any suggestions to point the guy in the right direction ?? I have herd of the Lacy Act , not sure how it really works .
From: Jaquomo
31-Mar-19
Not much market for them unless they are super-giant or very unique. Lots of older hunters like him, or deceased, and the market is pretty flooded. One of my now-deceased friends was able to give his to Scheels for a new store they were building. There are a bunch of us on this forum facing that decision down the road. I told my only daughter she could sell them for the value of the antlers per pound.
Etsy seems to be a good place to sell to people who want to decorate lodges, etc..
From: kota-man
31-Mar-19
Funny Jaq...I never took you for an Etsy guy...;)
From: Buffalo1
31-Mar-19
Look in a SCI Safari Times Newpaper for ads.
May want to consider donating to a museum and receive a tax write off for a donation.
From: Jaquomo
31-Mar-19
Kota, thats where I sell the elk ivory nipple rings I make during the long winters up here!
From: JL
31-Mar-19
Maybe see if places like BPS, Academy Sports, Cracker Barrel, etc have some type of program to buy things like that for their new stores??
From: MarkU
31-Mar-19
Dog chew antlers sell for a good price on camofire, as Lew alluded to.
Haven't had anything "stuffed" for about thirty years because they are like your underwear. Who wants them when your dead?
From: Scar Finga
31-Mar-19
Jaq, I ordered 4, but have not received them! Can you send more pictures please and let me know the status of my order!
From: Trial153
31-Mar-19
One of the reasons I stopped mounting things ...waste of space and waste of money
From: EmbryOklahoma
31-Mar-19
Sad to think about, but It's true, nobody wants our old mounts. Gonna be a lot thrown in the landfill in the next 10-30 years.
From: kscowboy
31-Mar-19
kscowboy's Link
I was asked this question by a friend's family recently after he passed. The taxidermy studio we use for all our international taxidermy recommended Taxidermy King auctions. See the link. As many others have pointed out, you'll get a fraction of what you have into them.
From: LKH
31-Mar-19
Local auctioneer sold a bunch on line. Friend bought a 340 6x7 bull elk shoulder mount for about $700. 2 others of similar size sold for about the same. Were a lot of animals and a cougar went for about $1,200.
From: Chuckster
31-Mar-19
Chuckster's Link
Found this website. Don't know anything about it, just passing along.
From: Dale06
31-Mar-19
I expect mine (about 25) will go to the landfill when I’m gone. It seems to me the value in them is almost entirely to the person that arrowed them. I wouldn’t give a dime for a trophy I didn’t take.
From: APauls
31-Mar-19
I bought some guys prized whitetail on kijiji for $20 so I could cut off the antlers and use them as rattlers...but I never told him that
From: Watts
01-Apr-19
A little consolation in being a sucky Hunter is that I don't have to pass that burden on to my kid when I kick the bucket! ??
From: altitude sick
01-Apr-19
I’ve started to rotate older ones out by giving them away to nieces, nephews, any one that might want to Hang them on the wall.
From: Bou'bound
01-Apr-19
they are not worth much more than the memories and the memories are non-existent to a stranger so your market is pretty skinny.
we mount to enjoy not to recoup
From: BULELK1
01-Apr-19
My niece has a Staging business for selling homes/log cabins ect here in a few of our Rocky Mountain states.
Her and I have worked out a pretty fair agreement via my new Trust that she gets most every one of mine and can use a few now.
Good luck, Robb
From: Charlie Rehor
01-Apr-19
I’ve been giving some of mine to my local archery shop for display in his shop. Trying to minimize the number of dumpsters needed after I’m gone:)
From: Bigpizzaman
01-Apr-19
Huge Funeral Pyre!
From: greg simon
01-Apr-19
I like the way you think Bigpizzaman. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory!!!
From: Bake
01-Apr-19
I told my wife to try to sell my mounts on ebay or something similar. This is one reason I do a lot of euro mounts. Not as much in them if they end up in the trash. Or can be sold for rattling antlers like to people like APauls :)
I've got a decent African/Asian/American hunting library. Some of them rare. Many of them signed or limited editions. I've got a list of them, and have left some book store information for my Trustee to sell them to.
Hopefully my daughter/nephews will want the guns. . . .
From: Jaquomo
01-Apr-19
Here in CO with the "universal background check" I suppose the executor will have to do a background check on the heirs?
From: Bake
01-Apr-19
Little piece of advice for people. . . . Make lists of your stuff. Take some pictures too. Keep this stuff somewhere other than your house. Not only is it good for estate purposes, but it's VERY valuable if you ever lose your house and file an insurance claim.
My insurance agent lost his home in a tornado a few years ago. Literally lost EVERYTHING except for a 100+ year old anvil that didn't blow away. Totaled the tractor next to it, but didn't hurt the anvil. He's always preaching at me to make lists, take photos, and keep somewhere safe, in case of an insurance claim
From: Florida Mike
01-Apr-19
After the nipple ring revelation I'm not sure I'm on the right forum. FM
From: DL
01-Apr-19
Be very careful. Some animals are illegal to sell. Then there’s states like California that everything is illegal to sell. Migratory birds like waterfowl are protected by USFW. Sales advertising selling mounts are watched by them. I talked with USFW one time about this. He said the problem is that when a hunter with animals dies his survivors advertise to sell his mounts and that’s where we get involved. It’s best if the owner of them gives instructions on how to dispose of them. I had a lady call me and ask if I was interested in buying her husbands mounts? I informed her to look out about advertising. There are also sting operations around to try and nail people for buying illegal mounts that certain states have deemed illegal.
From: BOHUNTER09
01-Apr-19
I made a list and emailed it to myself. It’s in cyberspace where i can retrieve it if needed
From: No Mercy
01-Apr-19
I do some of the taxidermy displays for Scheels-like the mountain and some of the more unique displays. The taxidermy market is VERY soft-we get alot of the stuff we have donated to us from estates and the like type situations.
Watch out if you are selling any CITES regulated animals-be sure and check the laws in your area.
From: Z Barebow
01-Apr-19
Z Barebow's Link
Guys like this are flooding the market.
From: No Mercy
01-Apr-19
In the old days if someone stole money from the farmers and ranchers, there would have been a public lynching. I am not opposed to that for this case either......
From: Z Barebow
01-Apr-19
I hear you Jason. This guy is real POS.
From: deerhaven
01-Apr-19
Contact Lolly Bros. In Missouri. They specialize in auctioning wild game and taxidermy collections. Been doing it for a long time. Will send an estimate from your pictures I believe. Will also come and pick up if you have enough and take that cost out of proceeds I heard.
From: craig@work
01-Apr-19
This thought crossed my mind which is why I never did another mount after my first one. I much prefer taking a bunch of pictures and filling photo albums.
From: Bou'bound
02-Apr-19
Pat I remember the lion video on the semi-live hunt but can't find it now. it was so cool. do you have a link to that? those mounts are spectacularly well done.
From: altitude sick
02-Apr-19
These guys can just burn their mounts.
These guys can just burn their mounts.
From: BigOzzie
02-Apr-19
I do all European mounts, when the day comes I will take them all to the family cabin and nail them to the back wall of the cabin.
I do not see a market for them, as said above they are like buying somebody's used underwear. I would buy cheap to cut them up and give them to the family dog owners as Christmas gifts. They love that.
oz
From: crestedbutte
03-Apr-19
Hope this leaping Silver Fox stays in the family?
From: TrapperKayak
03-Apr-19
I had the first deer I ever shot mounted when I was 16. Nothing since. I just have a trailer full of antlers to sell maybe at the Jackson Hole antler auction someday. And use the money for whatever. Maybe more hunts, or some other travel. Or maybe some health related expense...I don't have mounts to worry about, and I don't have kids to not want them.
From: Adventurewriter
03-Apr-19
I know when I am driving rural I like going in and seeing things on the walls of gas stations..... restaurants...feed stores etc find some in the area you took it or other and set it up to have them get them...come on these are special wonders of nature we put our hearts and souls into....dog chews......land fills...burn them...come on......that is like using a Gutenberg Bible for outhouse wipes!!!
From: lamb
03-Apr-19
gave 90% of mine to wild bill's bistro in high rolls new mexico. kept my Wyoming governers cup mule deer and a doe spike in velvet.plus a few others
From: Zbone
03-Apr-19
Last summer was traveling by a antique/junk store and happen to see a mounted moose head of pretty good size antlers that caught my eye while driving by, so I turns around to get a better look... The mount was old and dirty and not in the best shape, so I figured it's price would be maybe a hundred or two, so I ask the guy, and the dude wanted 4 grand for it... I about fell over... No thanks...
From: Bou'bound
03-Apr-19
Some day a lot of hunters will wish they had less stuff stuffed and had invested that money in more hunts and adventures
From: wildwilderness
03-Apr-19
“All 12 sheep” - is that all North American or international as well?
From: Paul@thefort
03-Apr-19
I have a friend ( 76 year old) that just sold ALL of his mounts to Scheels, the outdoor store. By all, I mean, 2 African lion full mounts plus others from African and then many, many North American shoulder mounts, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, whitetail deer, I bet 50-60 in all. They paid a "fair" price, came and collected them all and carted them away. Many might do this when one get older or when one might be selling the house.
From: Bearshaft
04-Apr-19
I will cherish my mounts and the memories they created until my last breath. After that, I guess I don't really care what happens to them as I won't be around to fret over it. There is not a chance in he!! I would sell my mounts/horns just to go on another hunt. To me, that is disrespecting the animal and self-serving. Just my opinion.
From: Bou'bound
05-Apr-19
It would be disrespectful to the animal to sell it?????????? It's not disrespectful to perforate his lungs with a razorblade and end his days walking the earth for sport, but sell him and that will really disrespect him.
If you want to respect him shoot him with a camera. He'd appreciate that a lot more than whether or not his skin stretched over some foam is hanging in the house of the hunter or someone else. Just my opinion as well.
From: TrapperKayak
05-Apr-19
LOL!
From: elkster
05-Apr-19
x2 Bou'bound
From: BillL
22-Apr-19
Wile E. Coyote
Wile E. Coyote
I looked at one of those reseller links and there are ridiculously high prices on some really crappy mounts. There's a javelina that looks like it is stretched over a coyote form with a jawset from a dog, and some African mini-antelope that looks like it is stuffed with a cardboard tube.
Just because we hunters would never buy somebody else's "trophy," doesn't mean that a squeamish nutcake won't pay those prices and use someone else's trophy to create the right ambiance in his "mountain lodge."
From: Watts
22-Apr-19
This grizzly should fetch a handsome fee.
This grizzly should fetch a handsome fee.
From: M.Pauls
23-Apr-19
Watts, isn't that the famous squirrel from "Ice Age" in the background?? I swear I seen him last time my kids were watching that
From: Scrappy
23-Apr-19
Watts that things eyes makes me sad.
From: wild1
23-Apr-19
There is another way.
For the personal finances, consider donating them and using it as a tax write-off, you can pretty much double what they cost you on the tax forms. Schools, local museums, interpretive centers, restaurants/bars, universities or conservation centers.. Thinking outside the box, you'll find many establishment that will be happy to take them off your hands - they may not be willing to purchase them, but they'll happily take them for free and then you write it off. Better than the bonfire.
From: Ollie
23-Apr-19
These days you are probably "lucky" just to get the cost of the taxidermy back in a sale.
From: txhunter58
23-Apr-19
"They mean everything to us. But they mean nothing to just about everyone else"
That about sums it up!
From: painless
23-Apr-19
I've given a few of mine to a friend that owns a restaurant. He likes them for decoration. I get to go sit at my favorite table and enjoy a great crawfish chile relleno and margarita and my old mounts at the same time.
