Ducks Unlimited Podcast

www.intothevault.org

What started as a pandemic workaround has become one of Ducks Unlimited’s most anticipated traditions. Jerad Henson chats with David Schuessler and Jimbo Robinson about the origins of Into the Vault, the thrill of uncovering rare items like the 1974 Remington 870 DU Gun of the Year, and how volunteers nationwide help bring priceless decoys, art, and firearms to auction. Every bid supports DU’s mission to conserve wetlands and waterfowl habitat.

Listen now: www.ducks.org/DUPodcast
Send feedback: DUPodcast@ducks.org

SPONSORS:
Purina Pro Plan: The official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited
Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable insights into the world of waterfowl hunting and conservation.

Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails:
Whether you’re winding down with your best friend, or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award-winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.

Creators and Guests

Host
Jerad Henson
DUPodcast Conservation Host
Host
Jimbo Robinson
DUPodcast Host

What is Ducks Unlimited Podcast?

Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.

VO:

Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, doctor Mike Brazier. I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'm your host, doctor Jared Hemphith.

VO:

And I'm your host, Matt Harrison.

VO:

Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, the only podcast about all things waterfowl. From hunting insights to science based discussions about ducks, geese, and issues affecting waterfowl and wetlands conservation in North America. The DU podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails.

VO:

Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.

Jerad Henson:

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm doctor Jared Henson. I'm a be your host today. We got a cool episode for you today.

Jerad Henson:

I've got a couple guys from our events team. I've got David Schuessler, our chief events officer, and I've got Jimbo Robinson with me, our managing director of events. And they're gonna be talking to us a little bit about Into the Vault. So, Jimbo, David, thanks for being here.

Jimbo Robinson:

Absolutely.

David Schuessler:

Thrilled to be here.

Jimbo Robinson:

It's a fun time of the year to be discussing the Into the Vault. I feel like it's on the edge of of hunting season for us in the South, and it's exciting.

David Schuessler:

Exactly like we planned it, Jimbo. Mhmm.

Jerad Henson:

Everybody's getting excited. I'm excited.

David Schuessler:

I'm excited every year for end of the vault. It's like Christmas day.

Jerad Henson:

It's a bunch of really cool stuff.

Jimbo Robinson:

See, I'm gonna go back to the analogy I used on another one. It's like when you get the magazine Yeah. From your favorite hunting store. You've been anticipating it. You've been building it up.

Jimbo Robinson:

They've been building it up, and then it's unveiled. You get to flip through, find the new stuff, find the things you want for Christmas Right. Find those those news, but also the olds that you didn't have that came out years before. That's how I I think of Into The Vault for for most of our buyers or auction people or anybody that's looking through it. They get to sit down from, you know, fresh from scratch every year and look through over a thousand items that is in Into the Vault this year.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. A lot of a lot of scrolling this year. Oh, yeah. Take a while to see everything in this sale.

Jerad Henson:

Well, that sounds awesome. Can y'all give me a little bit of a backstory on Into the Vault? I've I've seen it. I've been through it, looked at it, but it originated in COVID. Is that right?

David Schuessler:

Yep. It it was in 2020, so this will be our sixth sale, And literally, our CEO, Adam Putnam, and I were breaking the law. We came into the building when we weren't supposed to be here. We were trying to figure out what we were gonna do to move some merchandise because we couldn't be in event halls. It was illegal to hold an event across this country.

David Schuessler:

And he looked up at we were out in the warehouse, and he looked up at the top racks on one aisle. He said, what is all of that stuff up there? And I said, well, those are items that have been donated back to the organization from supporters, and we just haven't gotten around to figuring out what we're gonna do with them yet. And he looked at me. He said, sell them.

David Schuessler:

Fortunately, because of COVID and with people like Jimbo and others leading us into this online auction world, we had a way to move them. We came up with the end of the vault because, literally, some of the stuff came out of our vault that we sold that first year, and we put 400 items online and could have never imagined the response from our supporters. It it just the uniqueness of looking at the old items, stuff that you might wanted to have bought when you were 22 and you couldn't afford it, and now you're 40 and you can't afford it. And so it's fun, and and it's grown amongst our chapters out there. Not only are these items that come into headquarters that are donated from families of aging parents or deceased parents.

David Schuessler:

It's also those items that are donated to local chapters who send them to us, and it works as a consignment sale for our 2,400 chapters across the country.

Jerad Henson:

That's awesome. And it looks like it has grown quite a bit since then. Y'all said a thousand items this year, and you started with 400, so

Jimbo Robinson:

Well, it started as, you know, yes, and the growth is is due to the backbone of this organization, and that's our volunteers. Our volunteers have truly bought into the opportunity to sell their some of their collectibles, not only their collectibles, but collectibles they know in in the local community. And so as these people are are passing away, unfortunately, they're giving the opportunity to send them into headquarters, and we'll sell them to the masses instead of on a local on a local level, which, you know, there's certain things, decoys and originals that, yes, it it could sell at a local event, but it wouldn't bring the profit that it does in the end of the vault sale. And so that's the genesis of it is, yes, at first, we sold things that we had been collecting over the years, and some of these things, you you have to hold for three years because of tax purposes, blah, blah, blah, so we held a lot of those, but now it's turned into opportunities for chapters to receive credit for the sale of these items, and the volunteers have jumped all on board and they know a great place to sell it.

Jerad Henson:

And that's awesome because there are certain items that do really well in certain parts of the country and very poorly in others.

David Schuessler:

That's exactly right.

Jerad Henson:

Like, being from Arkansas Mid South, decoys do not do well in the Mid South for a lot of cases like they would on East Coast.

David Schuessler:

But duck calls would.

Jerad Henson:

But duck calls. Exactly. Duck calls do really well in

Jimbo Robinson:

that And that area. So duck calls type

David Schuessler:

thing, as you know.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, yeah. We talked to Spence the other day, and and and one of the things I said that we haven't stumbled on yet, or that hasn't come in is at some point I believe there's going to be a really nice duck call collection come in. And I agree with some of the things that David kind of thinks, asked kind of just threw the question out, why do we think that we haven't received that big duck call collection yet? And it's I think people those are easy to store. Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson:

You can hide those in a shoebox. So when you're passing those things down, that's something that is easy to put up on a mantle or put up somewhere that's kind of out of place. Decoys are not. Yeah. My dad had shoebox.

Jimbo Robinson:

Exactly.

Jerad Henson:

I was digging through it the other day, I was like, dad, did you know you have I had two or three Wheaties calls and some stuff like that. Was like, man.

David Schuessler:

Right now, we're experiencing the largest transfer of wealth in the history of our country, and that's from the boomer generation down to either Gen X or grandchildren, that's the next. And that generation collected.

Jerad Henson:

They did.

David Schuessler:

The greatest generation did not collect For much of their lives, they didn't have money to collect or they were fighting world wars. The boomer generation collected, and so as they downsize into smaller homes or go into assisted living facilities, so much of what comes in are their offspring or their attorneys or whoever it may be contacting us saying the family has kept what they've wanted. They want to donate the rest to Ducks Unlimited. And sometimes it's shocking what the family does not want to keep. I mean, we've had $20,000 decoys come in.

Jerad Henson:

Right.

David Schuessler:

We've had original art, and we've some we've had glass walls come in. That's right.

Jimbo Robinson:

I'm not lying. That's right. There's a guy that wants to donate glass walls from his office.

David Schuessler:

Beautiful. Beautiful. They etched.

Jerad Henson:

That's Glass walls.

Jimbo Robinson:

I don't know where we are in that process.

Jerad Henson:

We need to we need to go get them. Well, there's there's a lot of things that we're happy to take. There's some things we can't. We talked a little bit before we jumped on about a little bit of this. I had someone reach out to me about donating a grizzly bear to us, a full life size taxidermy grizzly bear.

Jerad Henson:

That's not something that we generally are gonna do. We can't take in waterfowl taxidermy. Right. Right? That's a Lacey Act violation.

David Schuessler:

We can't sell it.

Jerad Henson:

We can't resell it.

David Schuessler:

We can't resell it. Could take it, and we do have people that they'll just come in Yeah. To the front desk and say, hey. I've got these four mounts. I don't want them anymore, and okay.

Jerad Henson:

But we have a swan. We have a swan that

David Schuessler:

was donated. That's right.

Jerad Henson:

I think I saw the

David Schuessler:

But you can't resell migratory Yes. A grizzly bear, I don't know. Would I've never had somebody offer a grizzly bear.

Jerad Henson:

I haven't looked into the the law It's as big as this round table desk and about five foot five, six foot tall on

Jimbo Robinson:

a big mouth. There's opening corners in this office that would be fun to put in.

David Schuessler:

But it would be very difficult even if if we could legally sell that.

Jerad Henson:

Logistically getting it to

Jimbo Robinson:

a you store. Imagine putting that on the back of a flatbed and driving it from wherever Wisconsin or wherever this thing is to Memphis?

Jerad Henson:

It's in Little Rock. It'd be riding down 40.

Jimbo Robinson:

That would be awesome. I would wanna be

Jerad Henson:

in the car. So well, you've got a lot of really, really cool stuff, and I don't I I would love to try and jump through a few of these. Some of these items jumped out at me immediately, like, this would be a really cool thing. So do y'all mind taking us through some of the stuff?

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, yeah. This is our favorite part.

David Schuessler:

Every year is different. Yeah. This year, I believe the 2025 end of the vault, end of the vault six will be remembered as the year of the firearms. And some years, we might have 20 firearms in the firearms section. Some years, we might have 60 in there.

David Schuessler:

This year, we have over a 140, and we are blessed with a vast array of our shotguns of the year. There's been 52 shotguns of the year. That program started in 1973. We have forty three years represented 43 of them. Yeah.

David Schuessler:

In the sale, including one of the hardest to find, which is the 1974 Remington eight seventy. Hard to it's hard to find. If you're a collector of Ducks Unlimited firearms, it's hard to find because there were only 600 of them made. It's also hard to find because in 1974 it was the second year the gun of the year program really wasn't to the extent that it would become, and being an eight seventy, I'm sure a lot of those things were bought one night. They were bought on a Thursday night.

David Schuessler:

Saturday morning, were in the duck blind.

Jerad Henson:

That's it. That's one of the most dependable guns ever made.

David Schuessler:

That's right. So people wanna collect the new in box ones, and this one is new in box other than the one we have in our collection up front of the building behind glass. This is the first one I've ever held.

Jerad Henson:

Really?

David Schuessler:

Mhmm. And I've been working for DU for twenty six years. So

Jerad Henson:

That's awesome. So Yeah. Be looking for that.

Jimbo Robinson:

It's been yeah. I mean, it's been one that we've been not hoping or but it's been one of our our it's kinda hard to say a bucket list, but it's been a bucket list item that we would love to have sell in the auction, and and I think that, you know, kudos to to whoever decided to part with this one, but a new one like that. There's only 500. So you think about this. There's only 500 of them made.

David Schuessler:

600.

Jimbo Robinson:

600.

David Schuessler:

500. 500 the

Jimbo Robinson:

first year.

Jerad Henson:

You're right.

David Schuessler:

600. Six hundred second year.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yeah. So 600 of them made, and you gotta think at how many events we have now compared to then and and how many people actually shot it then. To have we know of four that are new in box. Mhmm. There's you know, that we know of the collection of firearms, of complete collections.

Jimbo Robinson:

There's three complete collections by one person, and and David will talk about that in a little while, but so you that we know of four out of 600. That's there's just not a lot out there. Right? And so to have one this year is special.

David Schuessler:

Interesting about the '74 and the '73 is you go online and you'll research 1974 Ducks Unlimited gun of the year or the '73, and you'll find where a bunch of them have sold. And you're gonna go, Jimbo and David, they're pulling my leg. No. We're not. Here's the thing.

David Schuessler:

In those years, Remington they'll the first year was a Remington 1,100. Second year was Remington eight seventy. In those years, Remington replicated what they sent DU and sold it at retail, but it had different serial numbers.

Jerad Henson:

That's

David Schuessler:

it. So to truly be considered a DU gun of the year, even though they're the exact same firearm, there's different serial numbering on the five hundred and six hundred respective respectfully that were sold through our events. And this serial number of this one is DU 18. Yeah. So it's it's a d u and then a and then a three digit number on both of them signifies that it was shipped to D U and then used inside of the events.

David Schuessler:

There are thousands of the replicas, but we don't DU does not recognize those as the gun of the year. Right. It has to have that DU special serial number.

Jimbo Robinson:

There's also a bunch of seventies that have matching serial numbers, which are really hard to find. Yeah. But back in those times, certain chapters kinda you know how this whole industry is relationship building. Right? And so certain chapters would request certain serial numbers based on their chapter number.

Jimbo Robinson:

Is that right? I'm I'm trying to think about

David Schuessler:

Yeah. Well, we we we had so few chapters in the early seventies when you're only sending out 500 guns.

Jimbo Robinson:

It was easier to do.

David Schuessler:

It's like, okay. Well, the Peoria, Illinois chapter gets number 78 every year.

Jimbo Robinson:

Right. So people would get those same serial numbers every year in their gun of the years. Now today, we couldn't do that. It be a nightmare, but so having matching serial numbers is pretty is pretty awesome, and there's a couple sets that have matching serial numbers. And it looks like,

Jerad Henson:

just based on the notes here, so it's, like, '77 through '79, all matching?

David Schuessler:

A '70 we have a '78 and '79 gun of the year that has matching serial numbers, but we have 74, 75, 77, 78, and 79 that are individual Gun

Jimbo Robinson:

of the year.

David Schuessler:

Gun of the year. Yes. Right. And I've never I've never seen that That before. Like, that's incredible.

David Schuessler:

It's it's like opening the catalog, Jimbo.

Jerad Henson:

It is. It is. It's Christmas. It's like Christmas catalog coming in.

Jimbo Robinson:

Obviously, the most popular one continues to be the 87 Gun of the Year fiftieth anniversary Browning a five. Yeah. That's a a and the eightieth, and so the fiftieth is one that seems to be, you know, the one that they want to complete that anniversary collection. And if you're an

Jerad Henson:

a five collector, there's a there's a pretty slick one down there. There's a Belgian made. A Belgian

David Schuessler:

from 1948. 1948, so not all the firearms are DU firearms. Right. And that 'forty eight Belgian made A5 is a great example. It is not new in box.

David Schuessler:

I believe the condition is excellent, good or excellent on But here's one that came in from an estate, and firearms other than just the DU firearms came in. Of course, you know, when everybody has an old browning, the first thing they do is go to the barrel and see where it was made. Well, this one's stamped Belgium. That's awesome. So that's really cool.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. And there's a there's a lot of people out there that really look for those particular guns, so that's a that's a good one to have and and and that '48 is a is an early I mean, that's

David Schuessler:

That's right. Yeah.

Jerad Henson:

That's It is. I think I've got I've got one, but he's like, '61, I think.

David Schuessler:

Yep. That's that's early in that postwar once once the manufacturing had gone back to Belgium.

Jerad Henson:

Right.

David Schuessler:

We have the most expensive gun we've ever put in the vault, an Holland and Holland 400.

Jimbo Robinson:

I got to hold it yesterday.

David Schuessler:

Smooth, isn't it? It's heavy.

Jimbo Robinson:

I bet

David Schuessler:

it'd Well, it's

Jerad Henson:

a 400. I I was

Jimbo Robinson:

impressed. Really? Yes.

David Schuessler:

Well, you hold it and you understand why that H and H, you know, the mystique of it Yep. Of the European craftsmanship, but it's really when you when you ratchet that bolt back, it doesn't feel like my model 700. No.

Jimbo Robinson:

It's smooth. Yeah. It's

David Schuessler:

it's different. No. There's nothing wrong with my model 700. Nope. I've shot a lot of deer with

Jerad Henson:

it.

Jimbo Robinson:

And the balance.

David Schuessler:

Yes. It's it's a work of art.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yeah. And it was graded at 90%, you know, whatever that means. That's a very high grade on a on a gun that expensive. Right.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. So, you know, it's

Jimbo Robinson:

a Is it

Jerad Henson:

a used gun? I mean, has it been used and fired? Is it or is it a newer

David Schuessler:

I believe it has been fired a few times. And and the donor said, okay, I'm done.

Jerad Henson:

Gotcha. Right. That makes sense.

Jimbo Robinson:

I'm sure it was bought by somebody then took it to to Africa and hunted with it one time.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. And then they're done. It's it's been appraised. It did come in with an appraisal and tax implications. It's a $40,000 Wow.

David Schuessler:

Firearm. And that and that's what the opening bid is. Yep. And I'm daring anybody out there who needs a elephant gun, go ahead and bid.

Jerad Henson:

Come on and get it.

David Schuessler:

We might drive it to you. We might have a trunk full of presents if you buy that of other presents if you buy that $40,000 firearm, but we have to try it somewhere.

Jerad Henson:

Right. Well, and I mean, you're not gonna get the opportunity to buy cheaper elsewhere.

David Schuessler:

No, you won't.

Jerad Henson:

Right. That's the thing.

Jimbo Robinson:

So Or if you're gonna find one.

Jerad Henson:

That's

David Schuessler:

it. Or support Ducks Unlimited in the in in the purchase of it.

Jerad Henson:

That's a big thing too. Right? Yeah. All of these all the profits go into Habitat work, into to our mission. Right?

David Schuessler:

Just like every just like every event we do, this

Jerad Henson:

That's it.

David Schuessler:

When I say it's a consignment sale for our chapters, those are donated items that are coming from from our chapters.

Jerad Henson:

And those those that money that the event system raises, that's that's the bread and butter. That's what keeps our our wheels spinning.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. It can be used on the prairies. It can be used on the Gulf Coast, Central Valley, Chesapeake Bay. But it's the money

Jerad Henson:

we use to leverage.

David Schuessler:

And we leverage without it.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. We can't leverage.

Jimbo Robinson:

It's the greenest dollar. I've heard Adam Putnam say that and others say that, it is the greenest dollar we make.

Jerad Henson:

All of the work we do, we get a ton of public funding, but that all requires match. You can't do it without that match money, and this is that match or wherever else it's needed. So I saw one other gun on here, and I know that there are some some Bonelli folks out there that are always looking for H and K or SBE one.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. Jimbo Jimbo doesn't wanna promote this one. Don't know.

Jimbo Robinson:

I'm not gonna talk about this one. So

David Schuessler:

last year, very, very late, very late in the preparation for last year's sale, Jimbo Jimbo and I were in a meeting, and we have dedicated staff. All they do every day of the year is get ready for this sale. And they are not maybe as versed in shotgun history as Jimbo and I are. And she said, well, we just had a firearm come in. I'd like to show it to you.

David Schuessler:

She brought it up to the meeting, and our eyes got real big, she opened the box, and there was a there was a DU edition SBE one from the late nineties, which is all black, synthetic. Mhmm. That's when I was a regional director for the organization. I remember those firearms well. There was a very small allotment.

David Schuessler:

It was hard to get an SBE at your local gun store. Many people were going to DU events to buy this new revolutionary Yeah. Automatic shotgun that was rewriting how we, you know, hunted ducks. So we were blown away. It did very well in the auction last year.

David Schuessler:

There was a volunteer out of Wisconsin that watched it Really? And said, I have one just like it, and I'm gonna send it to y'all and put it in the sale. We have we have another one. Okay. It did so well.

David Schuessler:

We started a conversation with Benelli over the summer about, hey, could we

Jerad Henson:

Bring something back.

David Schuessler:

Could we bring something back maybe as a for our ninetieth anniversary? It was a it was a great discussion until they took a look at the molds and said it's not possible.

Jerad Henson:

Really?

David Schuessler:

So there there will be no SVE ones. Like, this is it. Like, you're not don't wait. They're not coming. Nope.

David Schuessler:

So this is an opportunity if you didn't get one in the late nineties or if you want that piece of history.

Jerad Henson:

And this is a black synthetic?

David Schuessler:

Black on black synthetic. I love it because it has the most basic Ducks Unlimited stamp on it Mhmm. That you've ever seen.

Jimbo Robinson:

The barrel's bent a little bit. It shoots way left and That's what all Benelli do. Right? Scratched, you know. I don't think it's no.

Jimbo Robinson:

This one's this one's flawless. Really? If you're a Benelli guy, like, it's I saw it last year, it just it brought back so many memories of my my father and That's you know, him shooting, and he still shoots an SB one left handed.

Jerad Henson:

Really? Mhmm. Well, I was I was thinking when I saw this item, so my dad and my grandfather both had the walnut.

David Schuessler:

Mhmm. Well, that's what you got in stores.

Jerad Henson:

Right? No. There's a DU. They have the DU in the in the in the pistol in the bottom of the the grip. Yep.

Jimbo Robinson:

Those are the ones

David Schuessler:

who wanna donate them to

Jerad Henson:

the vault? H and Ks.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, they're H and Ks.

Jerad Henson:

They were custom. So but they have DU logos on them, and they bought them at DU events in the nineties Just like you were talking about, like, they wanted that revolutionary gun, that was where they could get it, and they paid they paid for them. But, man, that was a cool gun.

David Schuessler:

Thinking back to it, much in how, you know, like, some of these and I'm not a huge bourbon guy, but, you know, you hear about, you know, bottles of Pappy are sold before they ever hit the shelf. That's what was going on with Super Black Eagles.

Jerad Henson:

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

David Schuessler:

But at a DU event, everybody got a chance. And as a regional director, I think I had five a year to spread out amongst 42 chapters. Oh, wow. So there were five chapters that that earned the right to put that gun on their live auction, and I would get phone calls in my office saying, hey, the Sanford, North Carolina events tonight, is the SBE gonna be there? Yeah.

David Schuessler:

No. Okay. Well, where is it gonna be? And and that's they would come, wait for the auction, hope that they were going to bid. If they couldn't, you would watch them walk out

Jerad Henson:

the back of the door.

David Schuessler:

They were there for that fight.

Jerad Henson:

That gun. Yeah. Yep.

Jimbo Robinson:

So Yeah. So I'm glad we've spent this much time talking about it because, you know, last year, I think I made it about fifty minutes in the sale of that one. I've had one bid on it, and it was out of my price range quickly.

David Schuessler:

I'm not the

Jimbo Robinson:

only one that's in love with it.

VO:

Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.

David Schuessler:

But there's more than just firearms.

Jerad Henson:

There are. That's what yeah.

David Schuessler:

We are blessed with some fantastic original art this year. Every year we have some, what I like to refer to as no name original art.

Jimbo Robinson:

Right.

David Schuessler:

And and that's the original art I can afford to collect. But we have some big names this year. We have a Ralph McDonald, which back in the nineties, 2 thousands was a mainstay inside of our event system doing the youth based images. Mhmm. This actually is a a black lab retrieving a candida in a cornfield.

David Schuessler:

No youth in So it's really cool. It is. Yep. It's a McDonald without that that trademarked little boy or little girl in it. We have an Art Lemay artist who is still painting out of Florida.

David Schuessler:

Everybody if you you don't know the name Art Lemay, you have seen his work. Mhmm. A lot of the classic pictures of of or excuse me, prints of four or five of a species in flight. The boys were the real famous one he did Right. With all the Drake puddle ducks on a log.

David Schuessler:

And then three Jim Killins. And Jim Killin what what Art LeMay was to painting youth, Jim Killin was to painting dogs. He is considered one of the greatest canine sporting artist ever. The three we have have no dogs in

Jerad Henson:

them.

David Schuessler:

Really? They're all images of flocks of ducks coming in. They're gorgeous. They're beautiful. Jim passed away in January '24, and as a tip of the hat to him, these three will start at the at the same price level of the last one he appraised for us, which is well below well below their value.

David Schuessler:

But as a as a as a tip of the hat to Jim, we're gonna stick with his very humble appraisal of his own artwork that he would give us when we would have an original.

Jerad Henson:

That's awesome. So this is a unique opportunity.

David Schuessler:

There's there's not gonna be any more made.

Jerad Henson:

That's it.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yep. That's it.

Jerad Henson:

Yep. Looks like lots of decoys.

Jimbo Robinson:

Well, the second biggest or maybe the the biggest the second biggest or biggest grouping, I think, is is decoys.

David Schuessler:

We get a lot of them.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. Well, and I see great names here. I mean, people always recognize Masons and and Job's, Animal Trap, Hudson Bay, those questions.

Jimbo Robinson:

So What's what's cool, and and David will tell this story, but what's cool is when we get a massive box of them Mhmm. And people don't know what they have. Yep. I mean, we got one this summer. We got one right before the sale last year.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. It's it's they're still out there. You know, that antique roadshow, they're still out

Jerad Henson:

there. They're still there.

Jimbo Robinson:

And and I

David Schuessler:

think we're about to see a a wave of them. Not every decoy that we have donated makes into the vault. If they exceed a certain threshold in value, we have a partnership with Gayet and Dieter, who are the premier decoy who is the premier decoy auction house in the country. And they will take it into one of their sales at no cost to DU as a partnership we have with them. This one decoy that we did it with, a box came in.

David Schuessler:

I kid y'all not. The ITV staff came to my office and they said, hey, a box of decoys came in. We'd like for you to take a look at some of them. I I know just enough about decoys to be dangerous, and I can go into a room and look around, and while I can't exactly call out the artist, usually I could get the part of the world it came from and Right. And have an eye for we ought to do some research on that one.

David Schuessler:

And I'm looking at them. I kid you not, there are old carry lights on the floor.

Jimbo Robinson:

Really?

David Schuessler:

There are old g and h's on the floor. Yep. And I'm looking at them just kinda giggling to myself going, yeah, I don't think I can do anything on that one. Although, I did think they put them in the sale, and that's cool. Can't get those old Italian carry lights anymore.

David Schuessler:

No. I saw one, I said and I I I picked it up, I turned it over, I didn't know the name. And I said, I don't know this name, and I I can't remember the name right now. I said, but this is a this is a really, really, really good looking decoy. Yeah.

David Schuessler:

So they researched it. It was a North Carolina carver who had not carve for very long, and his last decoy had sold for $25,000. Wow. So I sent a picture of it to Guyette and Dieter, to John Dieter, and his first his text back to me is, how many do you have? And I said one.

David Schuessler:

He said, foam it and send it. You know, we put foam around it and package it and send it. They sold it for $20.

Jerad Henson:

Really?

David Schuessler:

And it came in a box with carry lights and G and Hs.

Jimbo Robinson:

Same story. Last year, I'm already out of Kansas, same thing, and you'll know the name Peterson. Was it Peterson? What was the one that John Ritchie had?

David Schuessler:

That's the one I just told the story.

Jimbo Robinson:

That was it?

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yeah. That's and so when I remember being in the phone after you found out from Guy and Dieter how much it was calling John and he going, really? That just came off a shelf at a, you know, volunteer. I think a volunteer bought them at a, like, a yard sale Yeah. Or something like that.

Jimbo Robinson:

Can't remember

David Schuessler:

the exact not an estate Yep. Deal. Like, there was nobody to call and say, hey. It was literally they were they were to garage sale, bought them, said send them in, see what they're worth.

Jerad Henson:

That's it. So well

David Schuessler:

They're out there.

Jimbo Robinson:

They're there. Decoys for sure.

Jerad Henson:

Well, and so You can't

David Schuessler:

put decoys in a shoebox, Jimbo.

Jerad Henson:

No. No.

David Schuessler:

Like duck calls.

Jerad Henson:

That's it. And it sounds like we have a really good flight of decoys for this year.

David Schuessler:

Oh, yeah. We do. We absolutely But if you're

Jerad Henson:

a collector Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson:

Or if you just like certain species

Jerad Henson:

That's it.

Jimbo Robinson:

Like yeah. There's a few out there that and I'm not gonna call him out again, but I know that there's a gentleman that that likes a certain species that not everybody else loves. Right. And so

David Schuessler:

he Would that be a shoveler?

Jimbo Robinson:

No. Not a shoveler. No. No. It's actually coots.

Jimbo Robinson:

Coots. I did it again. Sorry, Cody.

David Schuessler:

Calling you out, Cody Orr.

Jimbo Robinson:

But there are like, he has a coot corner in his office, and he has some awesome coots. He bought some last year, and apparently, he likes puffins too, but we're not gonna talk about that.

David Schuessler:

Don't have any puffin decoys.

Jimbo Robinson:

No. Not this year. But he has a and so he buys them, and so it's just really neat. People like certain species, and they have a bond to to something for some reason that that not everybody knows, and so they'll go through and buy the the ones that may not be as as high valued, but they like to have a collection of those certain decoy species.

Jerad Henson:

Right.

Jimbo Robinson:

We hear about those too, and those are really neat. Those are great stories too.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. Generally, people collect by manufacturer. Right. Right. That's, you know, a lot of people go for Manufacturer or Carver.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. Or or Ward Brothers or something like that. But

Jimbo Robinson:

Yep. There's LL Bean, the old LL Bean court decoys are really cool. They are. They may not be the highest valued, but I remember seeing those from back in the day in the in the magazines, and they're just really neat. I think that's a a staple.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. I was talking to somebody the other day who did not know LL Bean had done decoys. I'm like, how do you and it was a duck hunter.

Jimbo Robinson:

I mean,

David Schuessler:

big time duck hunter. I'm like, how do you

Jimbo Robinson:

They probably didn't wear bean boots either.

David Schuessler:

No. They weren't from East Of The Mississippi. Yep. And I think West Of The Mississippi, they're just nobody knew. Right?

Jimbo Robinson:

I mean, L. L. Bean

David Schuessler:

I hunted over some bean decoys with my grandfather, old ones.

Jimbo Robinson:

I my dad had had some. Yeah. But I mean, L. L. Bean was a staple in our house.

Jimbo Robinson:

Everybody had L. L. Bean boots. You had a L. L.

Jimbo Robinson:

Bean back pack.

David Schuessler:

You were the East Of The Mississippi though. Right?

Jimbo Robinson:

Mean, it was you know,

Jerad Henson:

my grandfather always wore bean boots. That was his go to duck boot.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, yeah.

Jerad Henson:

We're on the other side of Mississippi, but not far.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. Well, I think the bean boots, every I mean But boots

Jerad Henson:

was his duck boot.

David Schuessler:

They tamed the West.

Jimbo Robinson:

Right. They did. I mean, but you go back and look at Ella Bean's coming back.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. I think that's a good

Jimbo Robinson:

The kids, like, both my daughter has an Ella Bean backpack, and so it was kind of a full circle moment this year when she's like, dad, I want this one. I was

Jerad Henson:

like, really?

Jimbo Robinson:

I had a blue one.

David Schuessler:

We have so many decoys in our warehouse. We get a lot of like, that seems like that's the first thing that comes in from these estates. At some point, we're going to have to do an end of the vault decoy only sale one summer. We have boxes and boxes and boxes of them.

Jerad Henson:

Well, if you're a decoy collector, you definitely need to be following along on this end of the vault.

David Schuessler:

Or a Terry Redland.

Jerad Henson:

Or a Redland. We have a lot of them. I need to hide this. Actually, I'll probably send it to my mom. My mom loves she's got, like, five or six Redlands.

Jerad Henson:

Really? Yeah. They're all brands from Medieval banquets, but, like, loves Redlands. Loves them.

Jimbo Robinson:

There's a special place for Redlands. I mean, like,

Jerad Henson:

I I can name do light, it's gorgeous.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yeah. And I I I can name so many volunteers of mine throughout the years when I was a regional director that they would buy a Redland, and they knew the exact place it was going in their house, and it it's probably still there. I mean, mantles and and and redlands are, to me, are just different than other prints, and and they fit in people's houses, and there's a lot of them out there. And I think that that's why, you know, your mom, I knew another lady then, she had four or five of them and they were in

Jerad Henson:

her hallways. That's it. Well, they've got that they've got most of them have that waterfowl side. Some lifestyle. But it's it's not just waterfowl focus, so a lot of women love those prints because you can put a outdoor print in your house, but it brings a lot of color and a lot of not just waterfowl focus.

Jerad Henson:

So they did really well there, at least that's why my mom liked them. I'm not saying mom's an interior designer, and so she loves that pop of color.

David Schuessler:

We're gonna have more than two dozen of them. We we Two dozen. We have an we have a nice collection of Redlands, a big collection that came out of Wisconsin. Really? Yep.

David Schuessler:

And so every year, we're we're putting two or three dozen on the sale. Mhmm. And they're great. And there's they still retain their value. You can't get an original Redland.

David Schuessler:

I know a very I've always actually, I've only seen one. Right. So the the the prints are what's there, and obviously, Terry's passed on, and there's not there's not gonna be any more made.

Jerad Henson:

No. And there's nobody else doing it like that.

David Schuessler:

And there's there have been many that have tried.

Jerad Henson:

That's it. They've tried, but it's not the same.

David Schuessler:

He was he was one of a kind.

Jerad Henson:

Looks like duck stamp prints and going way back.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. We've got some old ones, some very hard to find ones when the when the additions were very low from the the thirties, and have really more more older ones this year than new ones, and that's just what comes in. Right? So a lot of a lot of federal stamp and prints. Again, a lot of good old ones.

David Schuessler:

A lot of people collect stamp and prints based on the date to signify something in their life, either got married, were born, something like that, and have a lot of great just prints. Just overall

Jerad Henson:

Oh, yeah.

David Schuessler:

Duckhart. Got some mosses and some Reese's and Radix's and boots. It's a good collection. It's hard to say what has been the best into the vault. Jimbo, I can't think back to one having this wide a selection of all the different categories.

David Schuessler:

I mean, all the knives. There had to have been a knife collector that sent in his collection. I've never

Jimbo Robinson:

seen Absolutely.

David Schuessler:

I've never seen this many knives of the year in one sale.

Jimbo Robinson:

Well, and we one year we'll have one a lot of years, we have one item that makes that category stand out. Right. This year, we have a wide variety in every single category, and I don't think there's just that one thing. Last year it was the the knives, the steak knives.

David Schuessler:

Oh, Randall. The Randall knives.

Jimbo Robinson:

Right. They made that that that collection stand out. This year, it's just the the variety. And it and I think it allows for more opportunity Yeah. Because it's it's what people like.

Jimbo Robinson:

It's it's there's something that fits different. And what's what's crazy is to watch people bid in the collectibles. That's my favorite part because it's so random. Right. And it'll be something that we don't think about that will get big bids, and and that's in every category.

Jimbo Robinson:

Like, there'll be somebody that'll start hitting certain certain items, and so when you have such a wide variety of items in every different category, it brings in so many more new people.

David Schuessler:

And and this this year's collectibles is full of one of a kind items. And that so I'll give give everybody a kind of a cheat sheet item here. If it says prototype, it's one of a kind. Every year Yeah. We have our merchandise committee, which is made up of volunteers from around the country that come in and vote on what's going to be in next year's merchandise package that goes out to our events.

David Schuessler:

Some years, you'll get these items that have already been designed with Ducks Unlimited on them and everything. They're one of a kind. They're a prototype. If they don't get voted in, the company will say, y'all go ahead and keep it and use it for your fundraising efforts. Some years, there might be 10 of them.

David Schuessler:

Some years, there might be 50 that end up staying here. This year, this past year, was a very big year of prototype staying with us. So that collectible section, it is full of one of a kind items that nobody else is gonna have it. That's awesome. And it's gonna get sold on on this sale.

David Schuessler:

So if you see prototype, think one of a kind. Because anything that's one of a kind has higher value than something that's been replicated numerous times.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, yeah. Right.

David Schuessler:

Jimbo, what's your item this year? Not that you want. What's your item? Do you you you were just talking about the ones that like the Don Knott's the signed Don Knott's picture of Barney Fife a few years ago that went for some unbelievable amount of money because five or six people wanted it. What's what's your item this year that you think is just almost going to be comical in how many people want it at a at a relatively low price?

David Schuessler:

The ornaments. Ornaments. Okay.

Jimbo Robinson:

There's a there's some ornament people out there, and I think that there's a couple ornaments. I know that there's a couple prototypes. I think one of those is gonna hit.

David Schuessler:

Okay. Mine is the 1996 Minnesota fireplace hearth clock.

Jerad Henson:

Fireplace We

Jimbo Robinson:

have a lot of supporters from Minnesota.

David Schuessler:

Think my people not that I'm from there, if you can't tell from my accent, but I think my people in Minnesota are gonna want that clock.

Jimbo Robinson:

The hearth clock.

Jerad Henson:

Yes. It's awesome. I can't wait to see what all comes through.

Jimbo Robinson:

There's some salt and pepper shakers that are kinda funny. The real world cast resin. There's some figurines. We have Buster.

David Schuessler:

Of the Boomer Buster and Skeeter series that you can't find anymore.

Jimbo Robinson:

1996, Doug. And what's cool about collectibles, some almost start at a dollar. $5.10, see where

Jerad Henson:

it goes. Right. And see

Jimbo Robinson:

where it goes. And those are the fun ones to to watch. You know, we all kinda have our time. Tripp and I go deer hunting every year on Thanksgiving morning, kind of our tradition, and and so he he loves to ask me, hey, dad, what's what's going, you know, well, and and what funny items? And so we'll we'll sit there, and and we're in a big box blind so, you know, we can show each other and we kinda have a great time of loading and reloading and reloading again that that site because it's constantly changing.

Jimbo Robinson:

See where it's at. Yeah. And then you'll see the big afternoon. David kinda watches it late Thanksgiving. I like to watch it early Thanksgiving morning, and then late Thanksgiving, David will watch it, but there's always there's always that that group of people that finish their their Thanksgiving lunch, hit the recliner, hit the couch, have a little football on, maybe a fire, and they start bidding.

Jimbo Robinson:

Yeah. And you can tell when when because there'll be one person who'll hit seven items. Right. And he's been kinda scrolling through, and so that's a lot of fun to watch, and a lot of those random kinda collectible items will get hit. You know?

David Schuessler:

My family watches it while we're eating Thanksgiving lunch.

Jerad Henson:

Do

David Schuessler:

you? Yeah. Because as my boys were growing up, I would have them come in and help, either clean, you know, print glass, getting ready to be photographed. And so there was a kind of a a family buy in on the success of this, especially during COVID when we had nobody in the office. Right.

David Schuessler:

And so, yeah, we turn it on and and I give updates.

Jerad Henson:

That's that's fun. I'm gonna have to do that this year.

David Schuessler:

It's fun. It's a lot of My

Jerad Henson:

mom's gonna be bidding. I know. She's

David Schuessler:

On the Redlands?

Jerad Henson:

So Redland well, she likes all the collectible stuff too.

David Schuessler:

Okay. Good.

Jerad Henson:

And then I got a buddy of mine that's a decoy guy that will will go through it every year.

David Schuessler:

There's a lot of decoy. More than a 150 decoys.

Jerad Henson:

But he does.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. That's a lot.

Jerad Henson:

And like you mentioned, people have their specialties. He likes the older factory decoys, but like southern factory decoys. Yeah. That's his specialty.

David Schuessler:

Pascagoula. We have some Pascagoulas in there.

Jerad Henson:

His that's his go to, so being from this area. Well, we've talked about a lot of really awesome items. I'm super excited about it. Give us a little more detail on dates and how to how to go about, like, finding all this stuff, but then also, like, we've talked a lot about this was all stuff that our volunteers and people have donated to us. If people have stuff that they want to donate to End of the Vault or to DU, let's start there.

Jerad Henson:

What's the best way to do that?

David Schuessler:

Jay Robinson? Oh, boy.

Jerad Henson:

Coming in hot. Set you up for that one. Yeah.

David Schuessler:

Jay Sanderson at ducks dot org.

Jerad Henson:

J sanderson.

David Schuessler:

Jsanderson@ducks.org. That's Julie Sanderson who oversees all of our end of the vault operations. If you have anything or if you know your regional director or somebody on your local chapter committee. Right. You can contact any of those people, and they will know what to do with it, how to get it here.

David Schuessler:

The the access for the sale is into the vault.org. It will start 09:00 central time on Monday, November 24. That's the Monday before Thanksgiving, and then we will run it thirteen days. We will close it Saturday night on December 6. I believe they're closing it at 09:00 that night, but all of that information will be on the site.

David Schuessler:

Some some tricks, there is a search feature on the site, and with the thousand items, if you're just interested in decoys, I mean, you can certainly just type that into the search. Or there's a drop down function where we have everything categorized where you can just pull up those sections, whether it's firearms, originals, trips, decoys, whatever it may be, there's a selection of about 12 to go and choose from. A big thing to remember is that we do not charge shipping out of this sale. We also do not No shipping. No shipping, no buyer's premium.

Jerad Henson:

No buyer's premium.

David Schuessler:

If you buy an item for a $100, your credit card is going to be charged a $100, and we are gonna ship it out of this office within four to five business days of the auction closing. And we know a lot of people by their by some Christmas presents on this, and we we wanna get we wanna get the items out as fast as we can As possible. So they're there in time for Christmas. We also have a buy it now section, which is some of our current merchandise. That'll come boxed up ready to be wrapped.

Jerad Henson:

Ready to go.

David Schuessler:

Ready to go.

Jerad Henson:

And if you buy a firearm, that's gonna have to go to an FFL.

David Schuessler:

Your local FFL, you'll be contacted by somebody in the office on Monday or Tuesday following the sale to let you know where it's going or to discuss with you where you would like it sent.

Jerad Henson:

So if you're interested in that bent barrel Bonelli

Jimbo Robinson:

Yes. Scratched up.

Jerad Henson:

You know where to find it. Well, Jimbo, David, thank you all so much for jumping in today and and going through. Are there any other things y'all wanna kind of hit on before we we jump off here?

David Schuessler:

No. You know, the last thing I would say is even if you have no intention of bidding, just go look around.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, look.

Jerad Henson:

It's see what's there.

David Schuessler:

A 100%. So much fun.

Jerad Henson:

It is. There's a lot of really cool stuff.

David Schuessler:

There really is. And there are always deals. Yeah. Every year, there are plenty of items that I look at the sales manifest and I go, how in the world did this not sell for more? And there are there are huge steals on this.

David Schuessler:

The more items we put in we started with 400. We're at a thousand now. The more items we put in, the more steals that happen every year.

Jerad Henson:

That's it.

David Schuessler:

Scroll to the end of every category because I'm gonna tell you, a lot of people don't get to the end.

Jimbo Robinson:

And if you're out previewing it right now, you'll notice it's under construction. It's in draft mode. That's one of the cool features that we kind of offer is you get to see the house being built along the way. And so if you get there and you see a gun that's a dollar right now, it's not gonna end up being a dollar to start the bid. Right.

Jimbo Robinson:

But the in the preview mode is is turned on. So if you go to intothevault.org right now, you can you can see the house being built, see the items being added, and they're they're adding items every single day, and they will add items even throughout the sale, and and and they will add more items as the sale is going on. So keep keeps people coming back.

David Schuessler:

They'll add, yeah, they'll add items all the way up until the time we turn it on. Yep. And then we'll keep adding.

Jerad Henson:

Keep adding if you keep getting them.

David Schuessler:

All the way up through the sixth. Really? They'll keep adding items in there.

Jerad Henson:

So keep looking. Oh, yeah. Be sneaking things in

Jimbo Robinson:

there. And a lot of times, she'll hold some gems back. Yeah. Okay. And put those in after three or four days

David Schuessler:

Literally, hold some gems back.

Jimbo Robinson:

Oh, yeah.

David Schuessler:

Yeah. There's a great jewelry section in there.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. Mhmm. So so if you need to get out of trouble with your wife

David Schuessler:

Go and buy you could go and buy the h and h and then go and buy a piece of jewelry.

Jerad Henson:

As long as you make sure you get something for

David Schuessler:

Both in there in time for Christmas.

Jerad Henson:

Isn't hers. Yep. Best way to do it.

Jimbo Robinson:

Well, Jared, thanks for having us.

Jerad Henson:

Yeah. Jumbo, David, thank you. I'd like to thank Chris, our podcast producer, for always laying down a World famous World

Jimbo Robinson:

famous Chris Isaac That's ladies and gentlemen. The man of myth,

Jerad Henson:

the legend. And as always, I gotta thank the listeners. Thank you all for listening in. Y'all tune in next time.

VO:

Thank you for listening to the DU podcast sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.

VO:

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, stay tuned to the Ducks.