clarence said

JWA said
I guess one of my questions is where are the guns coming from?  AlmostARanch has been a seller for many years with hundreds of sales, are these still leftovers from the husband’s collection?  Maybe, maybe not…….  

If that’s the case, it strains credulity to believe her story is anything but a sham.  Even the name, like “Dad’s Old Guns.” suggests a calculated con.  But, waste no sympathy on the dopes who fall for it.  

Her husband was Ronnie Thomas and he passed away November, 2017.

mrcvs said
Anytime I would see something like “Dad’s Old Guns” or the grieving widow sob story, it’s a clue to look elsewhere.  Plenty of fish in the sea…

It smells like a scam, for what it’s worth.  Or, bid a little extra to subsidize the grieving widow, who probably has a lot more money than you do.  

I think we’ve all seen an endless amount of scams over the years and they aren’t exactly rare.  In the case of this seller, she does honor a three-day inspection – which you can’t say of all gunbroker sellers.  I don’t believe this is a scam – vs. the scenario where you send (or wire) your money off and nothing ever shows up.  If I were in the market for a refinished rifle, I would feel comfortable sending her the money and I would have the expectation a box would arrive with a refinished rifle in it.  I think if rifles weren’t actually showing up or she didn’t honor three-day inspections, that would show up in the feedback.  The, “widow” aspect of her auctions has two potential purposes.  One is the sympathy aspect.  The other is that it provides a plausible rationale for not providing the usual amount of description that gunbroker sellers typically provide.  She may or may not know more than she implies.  Again, I could care less as I take very little stock in gunbroker seller’s description anyway.  We all know the word-smithing gyrations that gunbroker sellers use.  For example, a percentage of blue is provided but they are careful to not specifically state, “original.”  Or, Dad’s Old Guns… if you order a boxed Winchester from him, it will indeed come in a box with a label that says, “Winchester” on it.  And, “Winchester” will be spelled correctly

deerhunter said

This is the same seller.  I remember your multiple posts on the forum identifying the fakes.  “Almostaranch” has been on my black list to never do business with ever since.  Seems more like they’re “almost” (or far from it) on everything they sell.

Don  

I have enjoyed everyone’s comments and I’m increasingly suspicious of what’s going on with this seller.  I guess I do believe there was a husband and he did pass away.  Prior to that, it seems he sold a lot of suspect rifles (some of which were previously discussed here).  His spouse had been involved in the business for years before his death and it sounds like she handled the correspondence with potential buyers.  Presently, she is perhaps just disposing of the, “inventory” that was left behind.  Or, there is some inflow to that inventory – and that inventory is similar to what had been sold for years.  In recent times, it looks like she’s been selling primarily reblued guns, and they are selling for about what reblued guns should sell for.  They are not represented as original, but they are also not represented as not original.  She posts a lot of good quality photos and lets the photos tell the story.  By my eyes, the photos are good enough such that the refinishing is detectable.  As I’ve stated previously, with rare exception, a gunbroker (or big auction house) stating their opinion on the originality of a piece, has little meaning to me.