Good afternoon.

We'll get started here with the auction in just a few minutes, but first I was asked to say a few words . . .

I started attending these auctions back in the early 1970's. I started helping out at these auctions in the late 1970's. But unfortunately, I am here today to tell those of you who don't know already, that Sig Shore, the man who started these auctions in the mid-1950's (these auctions that helped Shore Galleries to become the biggest firearms concern in the Chicagoland area) passed away yesterday. He was 79.

While I am only one of a dozen former employees who have gone on to do well elsewhere because of what I learned here, Sig Shore, my teacher, was actually more one-of-a-kind.

He recognized way back in the 1950's, just how strong an interest the American people had in firearms. And that interest led to auctions. And these auctions led to Sig obtaining collections from around the world to sell at auction. And those worldwide travels brought guns here to Lincolnwood led to having the industry's first black powder replicas made in Belgium and Italy.

With today's huge and relatively new interest in Cowboy Action Shooting, many people don't know that the black powder/replica business in the United States was actually started by three friends: Turner Kirkland of Dixie Gunworks, Val Forgett of Navy Arms and Sig Shore of Centennial Arms (here at this location).

Sig's overseas dealings also led to the importation of conventional guns and ammo on a "grand" scale.

Guns Magazine, which many of you still read today, used to be published right down the street in Skokie, IL. years ago, it routinely had great covers and wonderful two-page color spreads of guns brought in the United States by Sig Shore and his Mars Equipment Importers!

All of the original Cetme Rifles (a gun seeing a big resurgence today) were imported by Sig Shore. So were all of the original 27,000 Argentine 1911-type 45's, MAB pistols, all kinds of sporting shotguns, and ammo deals that nobody else had set him apart from the myriad of "surplus" buyers and dealers that existed in the 1960's.