Ever been cheated in a trade?

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TexasGunbie

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The other day I listed a gun for trade. I got an offer saying that he has a Glock and 3 mags without a box. When I got there, he said he forgot to bring the third mag. I was already nice enough to drive 30 miles to meet him up. In the end, I hung onto my own box and told him that if he finds the mag, let me know so that I can come back and trade my box for it. Well he never call back...

Anyways, what's the worse that ever happened to you on a trade?
 
Call me a hardass, but if the item isn't exactly as described (and that includes all accessories and extras) then I take my gun and go home.
 
During the AWB, I traded an out of town dealer (not out of state though) a compleate Dan Wesson .44mag barrel (barrel, shroud, and barrel nut) for a HK VP70 mag, which he said he would mail to me. He even gave me his buisness card, but after two weeks and no mag I called only to be told by his secretary he was in a meeting.

I called every three days for a month at random times and every time his secretary told me he was in a meeting and he never returned my calls, until the tenth or eleventh call when he told me he didn't have the mag, I wasn't going to get my barrel back, and if I continued to harrass him he would have me arrested (hinting he was very close to the local sherriff).
 
If you mailed the barrel to him then I'm pretty sure you can go after him via postal inspectors for mail fraud.
 
I've been outsmarted but never outright cheated. As W.C. Fields said,"You can't cheat an honest man."
 
Wideym-Assuming the guy was an FFL "dealer", the ATF might even have been interested in hearing about his shady dealing. At least the threat might have some weight.
 
If you mailed the barrel to him then I'm pretty sure you can go after him via postal inspectors for mail fraud.

Postal Inspectors won't touch anything that small from what I can gather. There may be small/localized exceptions to that but they really are gonna be going for big time scamers that are stealing 10s-100s of thousands.
 
As W.C. Fields said,"You can't cheat an honest man."

The back half of that quote, IIRC, is "... or smarten up a chump." Sadly, a lot of chumps are out there looking to take advantage, especially in deals conducted over long distances. I once bought an otherwise nice Walther PP from a guy several states over. When the gun arrived, it didn't work. His comment when contacted: "Well, it worked when I sent it." It cost me a trip to the gunsmith, along with some spent brass (my 'smith reloads) and a bit of cash. I later suggested to the seller that he refund the price of the repair, but he never responded. He also wasn't allowed to post any additional firearms for sale on the Walther Forums.
 
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Cheated on a deal??

For me, being in the car business almost 50 years, the saying that comes to mind is "It's Not the deal you got-it's the deal you THINK you got"..:confused:
 
I think we should start a sticky thread just to report people who have legitimately scammed us. Username, address whatever. Yes I do realize the potential for slander in such a thread, but the protection of our rights, weapons and monies is also something we need to think about.
 
I've never had a fraudulent transaction where anything was purposely misrepresented, but on one occasion I traded two guns that worked - at far less than I could have sold them for - for a more expensive one that did not.
 
On buy transactions, I've at least broken even, and on one occasion did really, really well.
As a buyer, I never chip people down on price, and on a couple of occasions slipped in a little bit more than they asked for.
 
Buy enough of anything and you will inevitably have issues. Most of the problems I've had with guns bought online were, I'd like to think, honest mistakes on the parts of the sellers. I've had very good luck getting these things resolved to my satisfaction.

This was not a trade, but the closest thing I've ever been to cheated was when I bought a Colt AR online that arrived with a clearly aftermarket bolt carrier so crudely made it appeared chiseled by hand. Lots of people in the chain of custody of that sale, so I'm not sure who to blame. It took some time, but I was able to sort out even that fiasco.
 
I've never been outright cheated, but I did encounter an honest mistake recently.

I had traded a PX4 Storm plus some cash for a beautifully engraved Rossi 92. The fellow who I traded with was the engraver. He had only bought the gun to engrave it. He told me from the get go that he had not fired it, but had cycled some rounds through just to check it. He told me everything the previous owner had told him.

So I got it, and was very happy with the trade, until about a week later when I broke it down to clean it. I removed the bolt, and noticed some epoxy on the receiver. I thought "Uh oh, that ain't good", and proceeded to remove this epoxy only to find a massive crack in the receiver. Whoever put it there had done a good job of hiding the crack, and it appeared as if the epoxy had been there for a long time. You really wouldn't have been able to notice it unless you completely broke the gun down, so I don't think the guy who I traded with had any clue.

I called him and told him, and he immediately wanted to make it right. He apologized up and down and sounded very thankful that I noticed it before I shot it. We met up the next day and reversed the trade. He was a very stand-up guy, who I think made an honest mistake. The guy he got it from pretty much told him he was stuck with it. I felt for him, but that was between them. I think he was able to get it fixed by Rossi for free, so I guess it wasn't too bad.
 
I've never came out on top in a trade and never quite seem to get what I want out of the deal. So from now on, I'm just gonna keep all my guns... I'm an aspiring gun hoarder...
 
I traded a Nice S & W Model 39 9MM semi auto like new inthe box for a Star PD 45 Pistol used but seemed like nice shape, Shot it that night it was a cracked frame, I did to announce the Fraud as he refused to make it right till I announced his bad dealing over the Gun show PA, I hated to do it, but he would not trade back and laughed about it? That made him find me and trade back< LOL a mans gotta do,whats a mans gota do?

RON
 
I've never been cheated, but on my 21st birthday, I let a gunstore here in Corpus charge me way too much for my 1st pistol.
Oh well.


*I* , once upon a time, outsmarted and, in a way, cheated a gunshop owner who thought he was going to cheat an 18 year old out of a sword and money.
 
hartmen

The Star PD has an aluminum frame, and uses a shock absorbing buffer to cut down on some of the wear and tear of the frame. I don't remember exactly but you were supposed to replace the buffer every 500 to 1000 rounds. Perhaps the previous owner didn't replace the buffer, and ran some hotter than normal loads through it.
 
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