Remington 597 .17 HMR - What Now??

[kimmie@richmondauctions.com]

Yes, the dreaded recall rifle...

Here's the transparency; we are an auction company. We had a local guy sell us his collection of firearms due to health issues and needed the funds quicker than later. In this collection was the dreaded Remington 597 semi-auto in .17 HMR.
If you are not aware, it had a recall on it due to that round being too powerful for the barrel. Remington offered a return or repair to change it to 22 Magnum.
This rifle has not been re-barreled to 22 Magnum. I called REM Arms for advice. The rep gave me three authorized dealer repair locations to call to see if they would do the repair. None of the three had the 22 Mag barrels to replace it. Two of three guys I spoke with suggested keep it as it is, don't shoot it, because these are now rather collectible since the majority of these rifles were repaired.
Great, but there's that liability someone won't follow directions of storing it for collector value so we won't be offering in our auction.
Any suggestions on what we should do with it???

[Mainspring]

I am not a lawyer but do recommend you let your legal department offer a course of action.

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Option ~ Send it to Remington and let them handle it.
Option ~ Print out all the recall info, attach it to the rifle, include it on the receipt when you sell the rifle. Have the buyer sign the receipt.
Option ~ Destroy the rifle.