This story comes compliments of a local auctioneer: He was having breakfast with the longtime owner of an antique store in one of the small towns in the area. The husband of the antique store owner had recently passed away and the family was in the process of determining how best to deal with his possessions.
The shop owner’s husband had been an avid gun collector for many decades and at the time of his death had 125 various firearms. The family knew that these were of value, but he also had “several boxes of ammunition for each one” which they figured no one would care about since “many of them were so old they don’t even make them anymore” so they put them out at a yard sale. Some “nice man” offered them $200 for the whole batch and they “were relieved to have it gone”.
OK, you do the math: “Several boxes” times “125 firearms =?
If “several” equals 5, then there were over 600 boxes of ammunition divided by $200 equals less than 33 cents a box.
Ammunition prices are at historic highs (several dollars a box) and old ammunition boxes (yes, even empty ones) are one of today’s hottest collectibles. Try doing a Google search for “vintage ammunition boxes”. Even at a conservative wholesale price of “several dollars” a box, their ammunition would have been worth several thousand dollars!!!