Dick’s Sporting Goods isn’t the only company to wade into the gun control debate. Auction-hosting site Invaluable recently told auction houses it would stop selling “all Class III weapons, ‘assault-style’ semi-automatic rifles” and similar items. In response, Rock Island Auction Company has pulled its 2018 June Regional Auction—which consists of 10,000 guns—from the site. It’ll also no longer do business with Invaluable’s sister site AuctionZip.
For those who want to participate in live bidding, RIAC is launching a new live bidding service. The bidding service has a one percent fee; Invaluable has a three percent fee. You can also place sealed or absentee bids before the auction begins on rockislandauction.com.
Here’s RIAC’s full statement:
Rock Island Auction Company Statement
Recently several major corporations have made news by taking a stance advocating for stronger gun laws. The most notable of this movement may be Dicks Sporting Goods, who also owns outdoors specialty chains Field & Stream and Golf Galaxy. Dicks announced on February 28, that all of its stores would no longer sell “assault-style” rifles and introduced minimum age limit of 21 years old to purchase any style of firearm, regardless of local or Federal law. A later announcement stated that all firearms and accessories affected by the new policy would be destroyed.
In the same vein, online auction-hosting site Invaluable made a similar announcement in May, sending an email to auction houses utilizing its services stating that it would no longer sell, “all Class III weapons, “assault-style” semi-automatic rifles” as well as other items.
In response, Rock Island Auction Company has pulled its entire 2018 June Regional Auction, and its nearly 10,000 guns from the site and will not be listing its auctions on Invaluable, or its sister site AuctionZip, in the future.
Next Steps
For those who still wish to bid online with RIAC, two solutions are readily available.
- For those who place sealed or absentee bids before the auction begins, you can place these exact same type of bids on www.rockislandauction.com.
- Those who bid live, online can utilize the new RIAC Live bidding service. Not only can you bid in real time with a live feed, but it also interacts with your account on our webpage, highlighting items if you’ve added them to your wishlist.
Everything for RIAC Live is taken care of in-house right at Rock Island Auction Company. If you have questions on an item, need technical assistance, want to make special shipping arrangements, need to make a billing inquiry, etc, you only have to call one phone number. Plus, bidding directly with RIAC is cheaper with no additional fee for sealed bids. Bidding with RIAC Live is only a 1 percent fee instead of the 3 percent charged by Invaluable.
As always, please contact us with any questions, or if we can be of any help to our bidders who used the Invaluable platform.
June Regional Auction
RIAC’s upcoming June Regional Auction runs from June 21 to June 24. It starts at 9 A.M. CST each day. There’s a ton to peruse if you’re a collector. We’re talking everything from antiques to modern firearms of every type. To check out the catalog, go to rockislandauction.com.
