Here's my problem:

I have 2 old guns I need to get rid of (re-enactment grade 1912 SMLE MkIII* and a Webley Naval Mk I), and one modern reproduction matchlock (Jurgen Kreikel Dutch Matchlock c. 1635). How does one go about selling such items? What are the legalities?

Mike

I don't know where you're located but finding out the local laws is a must. A call to a local gun store should answer your questions. If you don't know the value of the firearms the gun store can help you out there too.

Neither Pennsylvania nor New York require any special procedures for standard shoulder arms like the SMLE or the matchlock. They are often advertised in the newspaper and can be sold by an individual to another individual. It's a very good idea to keep receipts and a bill-of-sale. They should include both parties names and addresses as well as the serial numbers of the guns at the very least. Driver's license info would be great. God forbid that five years down the road the police tell you your firearm was used in a crime and you don't have proof of sale.

It's my understanding that NY and PA require handguns to be sold through a licensed dealer. I haven't dealt much with handguns so I could easily be wrong about that.

I've not heard of this having changed here in New York so last I knew you didn't need to do anything at all to sell non-fixed cartridge weapons ( black powder) either musket or pistol . For fixed cartridge long arms as long as the sale is between private citizens and the weapon is not on a banned list there is no paper work required either but pistols must be handled
through a licensed gun dealer . However different municipalities have thier own laws that may be more stringent than the state they're located in so its best to check . Either a gun dealer or i've also found the State Troopers to be very helpfull regarding this sort of information .

I recently applied for my first FOID (Firearm Ownership ID card, required to own a firearm in Illinois) and found this site while searching for Illinois gun laws: http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/Default.aspx. They have a pretty extensive list of federal gun laws, as well as state laws (by state, of course). I make no claims to the organization itself -- I just found the laws page via a Google search.

There are a couple respectable online gun auction sites. The two big ones seem to be http://www.auctionarms.com and http://www.gunbroker.com. One of my good friends has purchased rifles over GunBroker.com and said that the whole process was very smooth. As a seller, it's much like eBay -- you can set a reserve so as not to lose out. They also provide a list of FFLs in your area to mediate the transaction. (again, I have not used this service myself yet -- haven't purchased a gun myself as I'm getting some family rifles, and those will hold me over while I spent my money on sharp and pointy things). You might be able to find some good collectors looking to buy on there.