What you actually receive
Most appraisal firms will not show you their work product until after you have paid for it. Here is a complete one, section by section, with notes in the margin explaining what each part is doing and what a reviewer will look for.
Everything below is invented
The trust, the museum, the five firearms, the serial numbers, the dates and every figure were written for this page. This is not a client report with the names taken out. It could not be: appraisal results and client information are confidential under the USPAP Ethics Rule, and a collection stays recognisable to the people who were in the room long after a name has been removed. So nothing here came from a real file, and nothing here is an opinion of value about any real item. The numbers illustrate what a reconciliation looks like — they are not price guidance, and you should not carry them into your own filing.
Prepared for a charitable contribution
Report date 19 May 2026
Appraisal of five firearms held by The Halloran Family Trust
Effective date of value 14 May 2026 · inspected 14 May 2026, at the donee's premises, Prescott, Arizona
Client, intended users and intended use
- Client
- The Halloran Family Trust, Ms. R. Halloran, Successor Trustee
- Intended users
- The Halloran Family Trust and its counsel; the Internal Revenue Service as a party relying on IRS Form 8283
- Intended use
- To establish fair market value in support of a non-cash charitable contribution deduction reported on IRS Form 8283, Section B
- Donee organization
- The Bradshaw Mountain Heritage Museum (a §501(c)(3) organization)
- Effective date
- 14 May 2026
- Date of report
- 19 May 2026
- Report option
- Appraisal report (not restricted)
This report is prepared for the intended users named above and for the intended use stated above. Use of this report by any other party, or for any other purpose, is not intended and is not authorized. A report prepared for a charitable contribution is not interchangeable with one prepared for insurance scheduling, division of marital property, or a claim of loss.
Type and definition of value
- Type of value
- Fair market value
- Definition
- “The price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or to sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts.”
- Source
- Treas. Reg. §1.170A-1(c)(2); IRS Publication 561
- Market level
- The most common market in which the property would be sold to the public — here, the collector secondary market, not a dealer wholesale market and not a forced-liquidation market.
Scope of work
What was inspected
All five lots were examined in person on the effective date, in daylight, removed from their cases. Each was photographed from both sides, plus close photographs of every marking, serial number and defect relied upon. Actions were cycled and bores examined with a light.
What was researched
Completed sale results from three major firearms auction houses and two national online sale venues, restricted to sales completed within eighteen months of the effective date. Asking prices were reviewed for context and were not used as evidence of value.
What was excluded, and why
No cost approach was developed: these are secondary-market collectibles and replacement cost bears no reliable relation to what they change hands for. No income approach was developed for the same reason. Both exclusions are stated here rather than left for a reader to notice.
What was assumed
That title is unencumbered and that the property is lawfully held and transferable. No legal opinion is expressed. No item was disassembled beyond opening the action, so no representation is made about internal components that a field examination cannot reach.
The property appraised, lot by lot
Each lot is described in terms that can be checked against the photographs. Condition is reported as observation rather than as a grade, because a grade compresses the very detail a reviewer needs and different grading conventions disagree with one another.
Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle, .30 WCF, 26″ octagon barrel, crescent buttplate. Receiver marked with a four-digit number consistent with 1901 production.
Condition. Original blue thinning to grey at the muzzle and carrier; bore bright with strong rifling; wood sound with honest handling marks; mechanically correct.
How the number was reached. Six auction results within eleven months, three of them same-configuration octagon-barrel guns in comparable original finish.
Colt Single Action Army revolver, .45 Colt, 4¾″ barrel, hard rubber grips, second generation.
Condition. Approximately 92% original blue with cylinder drag line; case colours strong on the frame; grips uncracked; timing correct.
How the number was reached. Second-generation guns trade in a deep, well-documented market. Nine results inside eight months; the spread is narrow enough that condition, not scarcity, drives the number.
Smith & Wesson Model 27-2 revolver, .357 Magnum, 6″ barrel, with original box and tools.
Condition. Near new, unfired appearance; box complete with sleeve, papers and screwdriver.
How the number was reached. The box and papers are not sentiment. Matched-box examples clear a consistent premium over loose guns in the same condition, and that premium is measurable in the record rather than assumed.
Marlin Model 39A lever-action rifle, .22 LR, with period Weaver scope.
Condition. Original finish worn thin at the receiver ring; scope optics hazed; mechanically sound.
How the number was reached. The scope is worth less than an intact rifle would be without it. Priced as a rifle in this condition; the optic contributes nothing and is disclosed as such rather than left implied.
Remington Model 11-48 semi-automatic shotgun, 16 gauge, 28″ barrel.
Condition. Honest field condition throughout; forend wood refinished at some point; function correct.
How the number was reached. 16 gauge suppresses value against the otherwise identical 12 gauge. The refinished forend is a further deduction, taken explicitly rather than folded into a general condition adjustment.
Reconciliation and conclusion
The sales comparison approach was given sole weight for every lot. Each of these is a fungible collectible traded in an active, well-documented secondary market, and completed sale results are therefore the most reliable evidence available. The cost approach was considered and rejected: replacement cost for a 1901 rifle is not meaningful, and where a modern equivalent exists it bears no relation to what a collector pays. No income approach applies.
Within the sales comparison approach, weight followed the quality of the comparable evidence rather than its quantity. Lots 2 and 3 sit in deep markets where the spread between results is narrow and the conclusion is well supported. Lot 1 relied on six results across eleven months, with adjustment for barrel configuration and finish. Lot 5 is the weakest supported of the five, and that is disclosed rather than smoothed over: 16 gauge examples in field condition trade thinly, and a reasonable appraiser could conclude a figure meaningfully either side of the one reported.
The conclusion is the sum of the individual lot conclusions. No blockage discount and no premium for the group were applied, because these five items were not assembled as a collection and would not be marketed as one.
Assumptions and limiting conditions
Title is assumed good and marketable; no opinion of title is rendered. The property is assumed to be lawfully held and lawfully transferable, and no opinion on any federal, state or local firearms regulation is expressed. No item was disassembled beyond opening the action, and no representation is made about internal components a field examination cannot reach. Information supplied by the client was reviewed for reasonableness but was not independently audited; where it could not be verified, that is stated at the lot. This report is valid only as of the effective date, and values change.
Certification
The appraiser certifies that, to the best of his knowledge and belief:
- The statements of fact contained in this report are true and correct.
- The reported analyses, opinions and conclusions are limited only by the reported assumptions and limiting conditions, and are my personal, impartial and unbiased professional analyses, opinions and conclusions.
- I have no present or prospective interest in the property that is the subject of this report, and no personal interest with respect to the parties involved.
- I have performed no services, as an appraiser or in any other capacity, regarding the property that is the subject of this report within the three-year period immediately preceding acceptance of this assignment.
- I have no bias with respect to the property that is the subject of this report or to the parties involved with this assignment.
- My engagement in this assignment was not contingent upon developing or reporting predetermined results.
- My compensation for completing this assignment is not contingent upon the development or reporting of a predetermined value or direction in value that favors the cause of the client, the amount of the value opinion, the attainment of a stipulated result, or the occurrence of a subsequent event directly related to the intended use of this appraisal.
- My analyses, opinions and conclusions were developed, and this report has been prepared, in conformity with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.
- I have made a personal inspection of the property that is the subject of this report.
- No one provided significant personal property appraisal assistance to the person signing this certification.
On an issued report, the signature block appears here — the appraiser’s signature, printed name, Arizona certificate number and the date signed. It is omitted from this specimen deliberately. A complete, signed-looking certification carrying a real certificate number is a document that could be lifted and misused, and no amount of marketing polish is worth minting one.
Qualifications of the appraiser
An issued report carries the appraiser’s qualifications in full: certification and its scope, continuing education, relevant experience with the property type, and any prior service regarding the subject property. Read this section against the property being appraised — a residential certification does not reach commercial real estate, and general appraisal experience is not the same thing as experience with the item in front of you.
Addenda
Photographs of every lot from both sides plus close views of markings and serial numbers; the comparable sale records relied upon, with venue, date and realised price; and the appraiser’s qualifications. The comparables are included in full rather than summarised, so a reviewer can disagree with the reasoning using the same evidence.
What to take from this
If you are comparing appraisers, the useful comparison is not the fee. It is whether the document tells you what was done, what was not done, and why the number is what it is. A report that states a value without showing the reasoning is fine right up until somebody tests it, which is usually years later and always at the worst moment.
The other thing worth noticing is what is missing from this specimen: no adjectives standing in for observation, no conclusion without a reconciliation, and no fee that moves with the number. Those are the parts that survive review.
The figures above were written to illustrate a reconciliation. They are not opinions of value about any real firearm and must not be carried into a filing, an insurance schedule, or a negotiation.
A value opinion is specific to an item, its condition, an effective date and an intended use. Nothing on a web page can substitute for one.
Ready when you are
Send what you have. You get a written quote back with a fixed fee and a delivery date — usually the same day, always within one business day.