[Chuck Perry]

I used my local dealer today for a transfer on an internet purchased used pistol. I was shocked when he wanted $40. To me, 5 minutes of paperwork is not worth $40. I understand you gotta keep the lights on, but...wow. I hadn't done one of these with him for awhile. Last time I did it was $25. I sold two pistols locally in the past month, and used him for the transfer. Cost? $25. He stated that since he was cut out of the loop ($) on internet deals, he charges $40 for the transfer as opposed to the regular $25. After a brief exchange, he agreed to accept my $25 this time. I think it is the last of my money he will get.

[Lennyjoe]

Transfer fees here run anywhere from $15 to $40.

Luckily I found a guy who does it for $15. Its a little drive from where I live but its worth it. Great guy who's easy to do business with.

[P95Carry]

Oh my - some of you guys really do get hit!!:(

I must be amongst the few who luck out .. my guy charges me $10 .. and has done so for quite some time. Was originally $20 ... then $15 ... but for last (oh hell .- how many!??) transfers ... just the $10.

I do put quite a bit of business his way but ... he does also do a lot to help me ... guess I am just lucky.:)

[Standing Wolf]

A local dealer charged me $35 for a transfer. I haven't been back to buy anything since.

[Mulliga]

I understand people have to eat - ever since Klinton worked FFLs over, it hasn't been the same. Gun shops really don't get much revenue from transfers, so they don't like doing them (at least mine doesn't).

[hillbilly]

I feel no sympathy for gun dealers when it comes to transfers.

Are they actually selling a gun? No.

However, they are getting essentially free money.

The transfer fee is buying an ink-signed photocopy of the FFL and a form 4473.

Dealers who charge or $30 or $40 for one ink-signed photocopy and the standard gun purchase form deserve to lose the business of the person they ripped off.

Doing transfers on Internet sales is basically getting money for free for a dealer.

Cripes! They make pure profit and don't even have to actually PURCHASE the gun they are going to make $10 or $15 or $20 on. They don't pay the SHIPPING on the firearm, either.

Dealers who can't figure that out, or who refuse to figure that out deserve to lose customers.

hillbilly

[Tamara]

How much does Wally World charge for a transfer?

[P95Carry]

How much does Wally World charge for a transfer? Hahaha ........ Tam's - you didn't qualify that with any smilies so not sure quite how to take it!! Thus far tho ..... LOL!!:D

[JohnKSa]

Cheapest around here is $10.

I know of another place that's $15.

Most places are $25.

I wouldn't fuss too much about $30 but that's about my limit.

[hillbilly]

Not only do dealers make free money, they also make friends that way.

A dealer who makes some free $10 bills by doing some transfers not only gets the $10 a pop, he also impresses buyers who buy things to go along with their transferred guns...

Ammo, cleaning supplies, new grips, reloading supplies, magazines, etc. etc.

So um, the dealer makes free money and impresses a customer who needs to buy more gun stuff in the future.

Yeah....doing transfers is absolutely taking money out of a dealer's pockets...........

Let's see.....If I'm a gun dealer, I can do three internet transfers today and make $30 for making three photocopies and signing my name three times, or I can shell out a couple of hundred dollars of my own money to buy a gun at dealer price, and then put it on the shelf and hope someone comes in to buy it so I can make about $80 or $100 profit or so.

I can make $30 on three transfers right now and not sell a gun and in all likelihood create three repeat customers, or I can buy a gun that might sit on the shelf for days, weeks, even months before someone actually buys it and I can make some profit on it....

hmmmm...................

hillbilly

[M2 Carbine]

The first dealer that accepted mine charged $10.
After several he acted like I was trying to put something over on him so I didn't ask him anymore.
The guns I ordered were guns he didn't stock.


Today he lost two sales to another dealer who charges $15.

I called the second dealer and asked him to order the guns.
He said he would but it would save me money if I would order and pay for the guns and he could just charge me $15.

Needless to say this dealer will get more of my business.
I'm already looking at a 45 he has in stock. :)

[Kodiak AK]

My guy charges one of two fees . If you do all of the paper work ,phone calls , and payments , and he just needs to send out a copy and do the form , he charges $20. If you have him do the order , put down a deposit , and let him pay until you come to get it he charges $40 . I won't complain because he is the only guy in town that will do them .

[Calumus]

Wow, you guys are getting much better prices than I was quoted. 1st place I asked wanted $70!! plus $15 for the NIC. Needless to say, I won't be darkening their doorstep again. Dumb way to do buisness. You blow any chance you may have had at a repeat customer who'll tell all his friends what a great shop you have. Instead, you now have someone bad mouthing you all over the place, and for what? A couple of extra bucks right now. Call me crazy, but I think I'd rather sell you $40 worth of ammo and supplies a month for the next couple of years and have you bring in friends, then make a quick $70 and never see you again. JMHO. Cheers,
Shawn

[Beav]

There's a shop around here that will charge $25 plus another 10% of the guns price if they deem you bought it at dealer cost. So if you got a good deal and paid $1000 for a rifle they'll want $125 for the transfer. :cuss:

[LegalBean]

Wow, I guess I'm extremely lucky to have a friend who has an FFL. He doesn't charge me anything for a transfer. In fact, on Monday he'll be receiving a P239 that I bought on this board last week.

I do roast coffee periodically for him though, which he claims is the best coffee he's ever had. So maybe we're even. :)

Dennis

[rayra]

one of the only good things I can say about my CA laws - if I understand it correctly, transfer fees are capped to a max of $30 - AND no CA FFL can refuse to conduct a transfer.

[threeseven]

In Australia, it's regulated.

My local gun store charges $11 for a intrastate transfer, which is quite reasonable. However, they charge $50 for an interstate transfer. They only get $11 out of that $50, the rest of it goes straight to the government.

[berettaman]

I'm with legalbean on this one.My guy doesn't charge me anything either.I used to work with him years ago and as we were the only gun nuts in the company we pretty much had to stick together.Of course I try not to abuse the situation.I try and throw business his way and he only charges people I refer to him $10.00.

Man have I sunk so low that I'm pimpin' gun transfers?:evil:

[cracked butt]

I used to buy alot of stuff from a certain gunshop until one day I wanted to order a pair of rifles. I asked for their price and was told $50 per transfer. I asked if I could get a discount on that since I was ordering 2 identical rifles from the same source. Answer I got from the owner was "nope, $50 each"
I now shun that shop like the plague:mad:

[EOD Guy]

one of the only good things I can say about my CA laws - if I understand it correctly, transfer fees are capped to a max of $30 - AND no CA FFL can refuse to conduct a transfer.

Not quite true. The cap on fees is only for private party transfers where both parties are in the shop to do the transfer. Also, a dealer is not required to do handgun transfers if he does not sell handguns.

There is no legal limit to what a dealer can charge for out of state transfers.

[general]

These shops tend to forget we are a repeat customer and will frequent the shops that treat us well and even if we don't get a great deal - at least we feel like we got a good deal.
(yesssssss- my precious) (sorry - it was all the WE stuff)
Having said that... I joined a gun club that gives its members free transfers.

[whoami]

Argh. I've been looking into ordering a number of AR-15 stripped lowers (4-5), and considering the prices, I'm really not keen on shelling out the 150-200 bucks for all the transfers......I could get another 2 lowers for that!

[Charles S]

Two years ago I ordered a custom rifle from Virgin Valley Guns. I paid for the total cost of the rifle prior to shipment. When I spoke to the one gun shop the owner told me he wanted 20% of the value of the rifle to do the paperwork.

Not only is this rifle something he does not stock it is something he cannot get, yet he wants $200 of my money for 5 minutes of his time. I was pissed, I was a very good customer with purchases almost every week and a firearm about once a quarter.

I now mail order most of my reloading needs and accessories, and I drive to my friends in Dallas for most of my firearms purchases. If I need to order something more conveniently I drive to Grave's Guns in Atlanta Texas. He charged me $10 for the transfer.

I needed to vent that, but most people are not gun people and they just don't understand.

Charles

[M2 Carbine]

WOW, $40, $50, $25 plus 10%, $200:what:

That's outrageous.

A dealer that does that is stupid. He has not only lost your business but the business of everyone you tell.


Like that dealer yesterday that suggested I order the guns even though he lost what he would make on his dealer markup and instead makes $15.

Smart man. He knows I'll check his place first for my future guns.

BTW
He's local to me but I think he does a lot of mail order.
http://www.sportingarms.com/index.asp

[Ed]

I used a new guy to do a transfer yesterday, I was paying him and asked "is it $15? "he said no, only $10. I had never been in before. I'll keep using him. Last guy I used was $15 but he wanted to charge me sales tax on the gun. I talked him out of that but won't use him again.

[azrael]

I guess I am one of the lucky ones....My ffl "guy" while yes being a friend of mine (he is one of my holster dealers) he also LOVES doing transfers!!!...There are some around where I live that WILL NOT do a transfer.....he charges $10.00 if he only has to fill out the paperwork...IF he has to order it for you then it is 20%

He charges $5.00 for instore transfers between 2 customers..

Needless to say This is the guy I buy my weapons from and my reloading supplies..

Also I will say this...Try and get WAL-MART to do a transfer :fire:

[gulogulo1970]

Auction Arms has a help. Type your zip code and it will give you an FFL dealers list and their prices for tranfers. I found one that would do it for $20.00. Some would for as little as $10-15, but they were alittle far away.

[Chuck Jennings]

My experience out here in CA is that a good deal on an out of state transfer is $40 total. I regularly see dealers that that charge $50+ in addition to 10% of the sale price.

My current guy charges $40 total. ($60 if you are a non NRA member.)

[Smoke]

I've told this repeatedly but now there is a happy ending.....

Local gun dealer from which I have purchased a lot of guns, ammo and other stuff (also the only hardware store in town) did transfers for $20.00

Then they upped it to $30. then $40. The claim was that the "Management" ordered the increase.

Short time later they priced them at $85. Story seemed to be that the local ATF agent came in and told them to increase the price. The store said he told them "that we're (ATF) putting a stop to the internet gun trade"

I scour the large metropolitan area nearby. Seems to be a recurring story. Most are in the same $85+ range and telling a similar story about pressure from the ATF and lamenting the expense of filing paperwork for 20 years.

Finally found one that would do it for $35.00 I did a couple of transfers with him. At a later date I did another transfer and he screamed bloody murder that it was from an individual (as opposed to an FFL holder). Said he would not do any transfers from non-FFL holders. He would continue to do transfers but the seller must ship through an FFL holder.

At this point I figure I'm out of the gun buying business unless some dealer just happens to stock or have what I want. $85 and shipping plus it has to come from an FFL? No thanks.

Jump forward a year or so and visit with a friend that tells me the local pawnshop (new management) will do transfers for $20.00 ANd he is tickled to death to do them. Individuals? No problem. Recently had two guns shipped in from one seller and he did the transfer on both guns for $20.00. He doesn't even charge tax on the $20.00

[wipes away a tear] I'm so happy.

Smoke

[starfuryzeta]

I'm in a town that has quite a few gun sellers (I won't call them dealers anymore, because they refuse to deal). A friend introduced me to a jeweller that has an FFL.
He does a transfer for $30. Higher than I'd like, but when $transfer + $shipping is usually $50 to $100 less than local prices (before tax), I'll gladly give him a visit when I must order online.

[45Badger]

$10

Life is good.

[Atticus]

A shop down the road from me charges $50. A shop across town charges me $20. I buy a lot of stuff now from the guy across town...at least $30 a trip. I can buy the, "small businesses can't compete with giants" story...but this is apples and apples.

[bfox]

I was at a shop today the guy wanted 19 % plus shipping. Anyone know of a good place around Pittsburgh , Pa. ?

[Cacique500]

Go here and search:

http://www.auctionarms.com/help/fflnetwork.cfm

[J Jones]

Gunbroker.com and shotgun news online sites have transfer FFL lists too.

[CleverNickname]

I think I got ya'll beat. A guy in my IDPA club just got his FFL and is charging $5 for transfers. Better than the local range that wants $50.

[Trebor]

Are they actually selling a gun? No.

However, they are getting essentially free money.

That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at is is that every transfer they do is a gun they DIDN'T sell. Even if it's not something they stock, the money the customer spent on the gun that is being transfered is now NOT available to be spent on a gun in their store.

I've never worked in a gun store, but I have worked retail, and it's a harder way to make money then people realize.

Btw, personally, if I did own a gun store, I'd do cheap transfers as a way to attract customers, but I'd also track to see how many of them actually bought things from me at any point. I mean, if you do a bunch of transfers for people who never buy anything from you, are you really attracting customers?

[P95Carry]

I'd do cheap transfers as a way to attract customers Potentially a good point Trebor ... my FFL is only charging me $10 but ...... he has had good business from me and will again ... and he knows that.

He has done more t'fers than I can shake a stick at but .. I will always be seeing him for various bits and pieces, as well as other gun purchases .. he has my loyalty. And has earned it.:)

[TechBrute]

The going price around here that I consider fair is $25. The place I use does it for $20.

Now I'm going on a rant:

A local shop has the nerve to charge $650 for a Glock, and then whine that everyone wants to buy off the net. Duh. His response is to charge 10%, minimum $65, for transfers. Meanwhile, the shop about 10 minutes away charges $20. So he drives customers away with his prices, drives them away with his attitude, and then thinks that he's going to get someone to pay him $65 (minimum!) for the privilege of doing business with him. HA!

Rant off.

I don't buy much off the net. I only buy guns that my dealer can't get quickly due to limited production or out of production guns. Take the ubiquitous Glock as an example. The best price you can find is usually around $480. Add $20 for shipping, and $20 for transfer, and you're up to $520. You can get them all day long locally for $510, plus tax. So yeah, you can save like $20 by buying off the net, but there's value in dealing locally.

[J Jones]

There sure seem to be a lot of folks in the gun industry, in excess of most others, that think they're doing the customer a favor by taking their money and selling them something.

[PigPen]

I understand several if not all sides on this issue. Why should a dealer use his assets (which include a sizable investment) to assist your buying from some one in competition with him. It has to grate on him some. It helps if you buy some of that over priced ammunition that he has in stock, or a holster that you have been wanting or something while you are in the store.

Now back when every Dick & Harry had an FFL things were a little different for those who didn't have the overhead of a store front.

OTOH, My dealers understandably don't stock the variety or number of models (both new and used) that are available on the net................and the prices before the net. whew!

I guess this is an issue with many facits depending on your position in the frey. Each side has a justifyable point of view.

PigPen

[BlkHawk73]

Usually I get all mine done through my brother (has FFL) @ no charge. last time I bought I couldn't wait so had another shop do the transfer. Asked a pert-timer and was told "I think around $25". Well, when I went to picjk it up, I was charged $50! After expressing my feeling about this cost they were told that I would never be a customer of that shop again. The kicker was that they had messed up the books and I saw it and told them about it. Wish I had let their error go unmentioned now.

[Zeke Menuar]

Most of the stores around here charge around $35 and/or a percentage of the price of the gun for a transfer. Since I got my 03 FFL I am finding I can get good quality C&R eligible guns to fill specific needs and avoid price gouging gunstores altogether.

ZM

[tcsd1236]

I charge $15 per long gun, $20 per handgun, and if its a new handgun that requires I make the 3 hour round trip to have the test gun fired ( with MY ammo ), thats another $15. I don't think thats too much to ask, especially since that is also covering the cost of a mandatory trigger lock, the sales tax I pay on my fee and also goes towards recovering the State and Federal dealer license costs I incur....

[arjohnson]

Gun Transfer Charges
I used my local dealer today for a transfer on an internet purchased used pistol. I was shocked when he wanted $40. To me, 5 minutes of paperwork is not worth $40. I understand you gotta keep the lights on, but...wow. I hadn't done one of these with him for awhile. Last time I did it was $25. I sold two pistols locally in the past month, and used him for the transfer. Cost? $25. He stated that since he was cut out of the loop ($) on internet deals, he charges $40 for the transfer as opposed to the regular $25. After a brief exchange, he agreed to accept my $25 this time. I think it is the last of my money he will get.

Chuck, I know exactly what you mean, I live in the Pgh area and have been through the same thing. The last guy also charged me 40.00 to do a transfer and he is in the Pgh area. That was also the last 40.00 he'll get from me, I also noticed you are a member at ACRC( seen an add on the board) drop me a email sometime and we'll go shoot some rnds. Thanks John
Also sent you a PM

[azrael]

tcsd1236
I thought that to ship a gun to New York they had to include a piece of "fired Brass"???

[tcsd1236]

"tcsd1236
I thought that to ship a gun to New York they had to include a piece of "fired Brass"???
"
The law only applies to new guns and for quite a while after that law went into effect the guns were still arriving without the casing, in which case I had to/ have to make the trip to have the gun test fired and the case collected by the NYSP.
Even if the case is included with the handgun, I have to ship it to the NYSP certified mail, return receipt. Have you priced recently what that costs? I haven't been passing THAT expense along, which means I am basically making NO money on transfers of new handguns