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November 7, 2015
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steve004 said
Given the juice, sales tax etc. do you insure shipping for $5M or $6M? And what does the counter person say when you ask for $6M in insurance?
The buyer was at the auction. Shipping may not have been necessary.
Mike
June 4, 2017
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If you have 6m to buy this gun you send the corporate jet to pick it up. My son flew corporate jets, they sometimes made a trip to haul the dog, one big banker had him fly to Puerto Rico to mail his income tax because it took 3 days to clear and the interest was more than the jet was to fly. T/R
December 9, 2002
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You Gents are absolutely correct in you’re statements and opinions! IMHO!
For that kind of $$$$$$, it doesn’t get sent through the more frequent method most of us are antiquated with, as was stated by Mike, the buyers was at the auction. Otherwise a private personal courier, with more than one occupant in the vehicle for obvious reasons, would be used/hired to pick up and transport the firearm, and if needed as TR, suggested a private Jet also!
Different Strokes!
Tony
September 19, 2014
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I doubt ANY shipping company we are familiar with insures for anywhere near that value! Tim
April 30, 2023
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Right after the gavel, it was pulled from the display case and shepherded to the back rooms…until the end of the auction I assume. The winner was not dressed much above shorts and flip flops and stayed to bid on other stuff….I mean, why not? 
I’ve been having trouble posting photos for awhile now for some reason, but here’s the display greeting you as you walked in past check-in…
December 9, 2002
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tim tomlinson said
I doubt ANY shipping company we are familiar with insures for anywhere near that value! Tim
Exactly Tim!
The people who buy those rifles and into those higher dollar amounts, self Insure a lot of what they do and how they do it. I’m not saying they don’t have or use Insurance, as think about the word itself, “Insurance”, as all it means, “is a means of guaranteeing protection or safety”! Weather it’s a service paid to a so called insurance company or a hired/contracted set of people/employees or service to pick up and deliver a certain product.
No Shipping company would be used, in most of these higher dollar pieces. IMO! 
Great pics Jeremy! Thanks for Sharing!
Tony
mrcvs said
The sales tax alone on this one for me would have been $345,000, assuming a hammer price of $5 million plus 15% buyer’s premium.
Total = $6, 095,000 plus shipping. I would likely pick it up given the value, however.
If I had that kind of money, it might have brought more as I really would have tried to get it. If one is worth only a cool $1 billion, it’s only 1/2 of 1% if your net worth. It’s the equivalent of the average person wanting to get a firearm for $2500 and having to pay $3500 for it (assuming a net worth of $500,000).
I believe Rock Island’s buyer’s premium is 18.5%. At least that’s what they list on their site, and what I have paid in the past. They are probably very happy to have gotten this listing.
May 26, 2017
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tionesta1 said
Bill Hanzel said
Says 5,000,000(on-site). Don’t know if that’s with the juice or not…. Auction is still live on proxibid, I just scrolled up to see
Hey Bill,
I’ll bring it to the next OGCA show for you to see it.
Al
Please do! Hopefully that’s not all you bought?
March 14, 2022
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Jeremy P said
Right after the gavel, it was pulled from the display case and shepherded to the back rooms…until the end of the auction I assume. The winner was not dressed much above shorts and flip flops and stayed to bid on other stuff….I mean, why not?
I’ve been having trouble posting photos for awhile now for some reason, but here’s the display greeting you as you walked in past check-in…
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NAePSCQvtNLBsJyX6
Hi honey, I’m home. Oh, how did you make out at the auction today? Pretty good, got 3 rifles. Only spent $7 or $8 million.
Shorts and flip flops 😂.
Rick C
November 7, 2015
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I like the thread title, quite frankly it’s beyond my imagination. Diffrent strokes, indeed.
Mike
June 4, 2017
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It has been said that when the minty high grade guns go up in value it drags the lower grades up. If that’s true the value of my collection just went up. If that’s true the flip side is so did the guns that I might buy. Double edge sword.
RIA is good at marketing, my hats off to RIA. T/R
April 30, 2023
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Rick C said
Hi honey, I’m home. Oh, how did you make out at the auction today? Pretty good, got 3 rifles. Only spent $7 or $8 million.
Shorts and flip flops 😂.
Yeah, I left early, contemplating my life decisions and tax bracket. 
November 7, 2015
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TR said
It has been said that when the minty high grade guns go up in value it drags the lower grades up. If that’s true the value of my collection just went up. If that’s true the flip side is so did the guns that I might buy. Double edge sword.
RIA is good at marketing, my hats off to RIA. T/R
I’m not so sure this tide raises all ships. I think it’s more like someone left the water running in the bathtub. But yes, RIA works hard and spares no expense when it comes to selling high end guns.
Mike
January 20, 2023
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I don’t think the market for five million dollar guns has anything to do with the value of anything I own or might ever aspire to. It is a completely different market. That both markets are for collectible guns is deceptive.
The resale value of my 2009 Toyota Tacoma is not influenced by the going collector price of the Mercedes Benz 300SL presented by its maker to Juan Manuel Fangio, the great Argentine who once drove for the marque. That both are cars is irrelevant.
Even If my car were a 1956 Corvette instead of a Toyota truck, the price of Fangio’s ride would still not affect the value of my Vette — unless GM had presented it for some unknowable reason to Stirling Moss.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
June 4, 2017
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RIA by promoting a particular model of gun and selling it for a record high raises the value of similar guns. Collectors see them sell and figure that’s the new value. Example, you see them sell a nice Colt SAA Cavalry model in lot 5 for north of 300K. Next time you see a no condition one for sale you are willing to pay more, not 300k but maybe twice what you would have before. The price of the lesser gun has gone up due to RIA promotion whether it was the video how rare they are or the sale at a much higher price.
I have used RIA surprises to direct me to like gun purchases before the rest of the market reacts. Most of my purchases in the last 5 years have been trying to find the next gun that will appreciate rapidly or at least be a easy sale or trade.
In the case of the 6 million dollar Henry it was serial number 1 and a famous owner during a historic time in history. Any one of these three things raise the price of any gun and all three raise it a lot. The sale of this Henry does not affect the price of other Henrys. I come away from this auction understanding the value of serial number 1, a famous owner, and key times in American history.
T/R
September 22, 2011
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I will say here, without trying to sound too foolish, that collecting the really high end stuff tends to be a top down thing rather than a bottom up thing. In other words, the folks that collect this sort of stuff make a fortune, often unplanned, and were in the right place at the right time, and then develop an interest to feed. They might make some very expensive mistakes along the way—of which this was not one of them—and it really doesn’t matter to them as they can easily generate more income.
I developed an interest in antique firearms at a very young age, well before my 18th birthday, and the stuff I was handling then was by no means as nice as this rifle, nor, for that matter, even as nice as most of what I have collected now. I decided that I would work for a corporation that would pay me handsomely enough to collect virtually anything I wanted to, not even fathoming that a firearm could ever run 6 figures or more. A great plan, except these corporate job offers never materialized.
Putting this all together, this is why you and I are on this forum, the die hard collectors dreaming, fantasizing, and commiserating. And the lucky winner of this rifle is not on this forum, it’s a trophy, firearms probably aren’t even in his blood. Or, another way of thinking of it. We should be using our energy to create the next Nvidia and then decide to collect, and not the other way around. It’s VERY difficult to succeed in the bottom up approach without a lot of luck and connections.
i know an individual in the meat industry, his brother showed up one day, an M.D. in a very expensive sports car, bragged about how he had another ten just like it. Then his brother told me he went to medical school to finance his expensive car interests, had no interest in helping folks get better. And showed up to borrow money from his sausage-making brother as he couldn’t support his lifestyle. Moral behind that story: Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It sounds like the purchaser of this rifle can afford to bite off a lot, as he supposedly won several items in this auction. Most items approached or exceeded the annual income of most individuals in this country.
November 19, 2006
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I’m of the thought that the higher – if not record-breaking – prices we are seeing does help to raise all boats. I get Bill’s analogy of his Toyota pickup vs. a top-end Mercedes, but I think the fact that the commonality between Henry #1 and a low grade Winchester being firearms, is relevant.. What I mean is, when people see others sinking bigger and bigger dollars into firearms, people get the message that firearms are increasingly worth sinking money into. And not only money that was perhaps easy to acquire by a high-roller, but hard-earned dollars too. I think it bolsters overall confidence in collectable firearms.
March 14, 2022
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Well, it certainly set a new record and then some. Unless another has sold for higher since, the most expensive antique rifle ever sold at auction prior to this was a Winchester Model 1886 Sporting Rifle (also Serial Number 1), which fetched $1.265 million at the Rock Island Auction. This is 4x that.
Rick C
May 14, 2025
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Rick C said
Well, it certainly set a new record and then some. Unless another has sold for higher since, the most expensive antique rifle ever sold at auction prior to this was a Winchester Model 1886 Sporting Rifle (also Serial Number 1), which fetched $1.265 million at the Rock Island Auction. This is 4x that.
I was in awe when they sold the Rifleman’s 1892 rifle for 500k a few months back! Who knew that was a steal! 😁😳
January 20, 2023
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There is a reason the Internal Revenue Service does not accept auction hammer prices as evidence of fair market value — the existence of what I call the “Mine is bigger than yours derangement syndrome” that seizes and temporarily throttles capacity for rational thought in the brain of a bidder when he is outbid. Notice that I use the male pronoun.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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