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AL bout this Auction
adies and gentlemen, as always, it This auction will likely be our last Premier
is a pleasure to welcome you to our auction held in our Illinois facility. A feeling remarkable August Premier Fine and Historic that is somewhat bittersweet but also Firearms Auction. This sale holds true to the incredibly exciting. Our December Premier
RIAC standard of offering the very best in the myriad of fields that make up fine and historic arms collecting, from the most celebrated and revered collections extant.
The unspoken word is that every auction we put forth is the culmination of many months of planning and organizing, long days, and long nights. The constant deadlines and crunch time coupled with our standards and expectations breed many emotions: anxiety, excitement, frustration, and elation. The auction business
is a hell of a ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Yet, in many ways, each auction is so much more than four, five, or even six months of planning. In many ways, each auction represents years of building relationships, years of demonstrating consistency and innovation, and without a doubt, years of proven results.
It is for these reasons and more that we are given the opportunity and the responsibility to present such iconic and important collections as the Greg Lampe Collection, The George Lewis Collection, The Tom Selleck Collection, and The Joe Hilliard Collection in this single sensational auction.
Auction will be our inaugural sale at our brand new, state-of-the art facility at:
3600 Harwood Rd.,
Bedford, Texas 76021
Having a Texas facility has been a dream of ours for many, many years. In December,
it will become a reality. Two years ago,
we took the plunge and purchased an 11- acre, thirty-year-old retail shopping center, anchored by a 90,000-square-foot former Walmart. That old Walmart building is now the most advanced and spectacular brick-and- mortar auction venue in the United States. The thesis of our Texas expansion is simple. Fine and historic firearms are a drastically undervalued alternative hard asset investment and a drastically underrated discipline in
the many fields that make up the decorative arts. Texas has the best "gun culture" in the world. The DFW metroplex is a juggernaut
of wealth, centrally located in the US, with two massive airports. We built our facility to accommodate a couple thousand people with the ability to split the auction hall in half and run two rings simultaneously, should need be. The main auction hall has a 50-foot bar in the back and the ability to broadcast our auctions using multiple camera angles for a premium live streaming and bidding experience. Our preview hall is 4,000 square feet bigger than our existing space, and we built a 3500 square foot room dubbed "the boardroom" as a mixed-use, ultra-luxury space, part gunroom, part event hall, and, you guessed it, part boardroom, to host lectures, display firearms, and all around advance our exciting world of fine and historic firearms collecting. To say we are excited is an understatement. We can’t wait to show it to everyone.
As always, we look forward to seeing everyone in August for this spectacular sale.
Kevin Hogan, President Rock Island Auction Company
You're Invited Please join us for our annual
BBQ
Thursday, August 24th 5:00pm - 7:00pm (Auction Preview Day) in the Auction Hall
Visit us at the RIAC Premier Auction BBQ
with food from Jim's Rib Haven, drinks, live music by Southern Cross along with plenty of reminiscing, gun talk and appreciation of your support!
I believe that responsibility, in every sense of the word, as it relates to doing a collector, their collection, and their legacy justice, gets lost
on most. For RIAC, I believe it is our North Star and part of our DNA. This auction, and likewise this catalog, is an exhibition of the sense of responsibility our team feels each
and every day. To the RIAC team, I say thank you. You are without a doubt the most talented auction team in our field, a team that I would put up against any of the major houses in New York, London, Hong Kong, or anywhere else on the planet for that matter. You are world-class.
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