There is a long-standing joke among men who own firearms that says “my biggest fear is that when I die my wife will sell all my guns for what I told her I paid for them.”
To avoid costly mistakes, appraisals should be obtained whenever firearms will be sold, donated, or distributed in a manner that requires an equalization of value between beneficiaries. This is especially important in cases where the firearms are obviously part of a collection. Copies of any documentation of history or provenance should be provided to the appraiser.
Gun shops or individuals who have an interest in buying the decedent’s firearms may not have the expertise to recognize the historical or collector value of particular firearms, and have an obvious bias against providing a true fair market value.