You're right Mac, Holts is a terrible place to sell airguns, and the amount they cream off is extortionate, business or no business. The only way you can do well out of it is if their 'selling power' means that bidders go well above estimate, as sometimes happens.

I sold off quite a large number of airguns, including plenty of non-exceptional ones, a few years ago through Holts, mainly because it suited me that they were happy to collect them in one go and take care of everything, leaving me with nothing to do except hope there were plenty of well-heeled, keen buyers on the day (there weren't ).

But in the end I reckon I received only half or less of what I might have made if I had advertised them privately, boxed them up, and posted them individually.

The lack of decent insurance nowadays when posting air rifles doesn't help...

With their fixed costs falling through web-based advertising, digital publishing etc, commissions should be going down, not up.