A curious experience with Gunbroker

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BLACKHAWKNJ

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Dec 30, 2007
Messages
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Saw a Browning HP slide listed, bid on it, I was the only bidder, checked back, the listing had disappeared-? My previous 2 experiences with Gunbroker positive, bought 2 Ciener units, no problem communicating with the sellers.
 
Very likely a "too good to be true" deal. I put in a "take a shot" offer on a Taurus T22 the other day. Said it was under consideration. Looked back 48 hours later and offer had expired, which means it was essentially ignored. No response to it whatsoever. The heck with it, from now on it'll be buy now or not at all for me.

Mac
 
It happened to me about 1.5 years back. The item in question was a nice Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine with a cocking piece aperture sight. I used the buy-it-now option but the next day the item had vanished and the seller never contacted me. I quietly cursed their parentage and found another, slightly less expensive rifle -- minus that sight, darn it!

Reading details of other listings by the same seller indicated their items were listed simultaneously on GB and available for in-person sales at a brick-and-mortar gunshop. The most likely possibility was that the item had sold before I acted and the seller had been slow to remove the listing.

Of course, they could also just be jerks playing games. They didn't bother replying to an aborted $1700 online sale, so probably not the most ethical and considerate dealers out there.
 
If a gun has bids I don’t believe it can be ended/deleted. I once accidentally listed the same gun twice. When I discovered my mistake both auctions had bids. All I could do was edit the auction with fewer bids to add in caps, DO NOT BID ON THIS, see our other auction etc etc. The real auction ended up going for 1000, but the duplicate still “sold” for $427, since apparently a lot of people couldn’t be bothered to read the added text at the top.
 
I've had very good luck both buying and selling on GB. There are things to watch out for, but generally most folks on GB do the right thing. Every firearm I've purchased on GB has been in at least as good of condition as was depicted and was listed at a price I was willing to pay. I've gotten a couple of screaming deals there too, but I was patient and looked for gun for several months before I finally found one I would pay for.

As always, though, there are scammers out there. I could see politically motivated scammers selecting victims from GB intentionally. But I also think GBs account controls are more robust than eBay. If you buy a firearm and don't receive it after payment, GB will step in and that seller likely won't sell again unless they make it right. Stark contrast with eBay these days. I've had good luck on ebay too... but I've had several investigations where eBay was used and they seemed quite slow to close accounts with obvious fraudulent activity.
 
I've bought six revolvers on GB over the last eight years with no issues. Most arrived in better condition than I expected. Two were LE special contract models not listed as such but I recognized. The last was a 'too good to be true" NYCPD Service Six for my $305 bid. Like the Peruvian contract S&W Model 10-7 snub I won, the Service Six wasn't listed as a NYCPD gun. Sometimes you can get a good deal if you're careful and lucky.
 
I bid on an item once. Won it.

As soon as the auction ended I got messaged by the seller that the item had been listed for the wrong price so they weren’t going to complete the sale.

I looked into this behavior and found that it is pretty common on GB with no real recourse other than negative feedback. So that is what I did.

This seller was a registered and verified FFL with good feedback. I guess the negative feedback I left was worth it for the MAYBE $100 or so price under value I won it for.
 
earlthegoat2 said:
I bid on an item once. Won it.

As soon as the auction ended I got messaged by the seller that the item had been listed for the wrong price so they weren’t going to complete the sale.

I looked into this behavior and found that it is pretty common on GB with no real recourse other than negative feedback. So that is what I did.

This seller was a registered and verified FFL with good feedback. I guess the negative feedback I left was worth it for the MAYBE $100 or so price under value I won it
Click to expand...
Had that happen on ebay a few times. Started as a penny auction, and the postings usually had descriptions that were a little abnormal for the item sp it wouldn't come up using normal search phrases. I won a clean imei working iPhone in 2009 for $80.00. They were going routinely for 300+ at the time. The seller stated that they expected more money. I replied by telling them that this was an auction, I abided by the terms, and I expected them to... reminding them that they chose not to start the auction at their minimum desired price. They refunded me then blocked me. I complained, but the only real recourse was bad feedback.
 
1KPerDay said:
... Gunbroker is becoming a wretched hive of scum and villainy :D
Click to expand...
This right here. I've done a lot of buying and selling on GB over many years, but in the post-pandemic era it has become the last refuge of the scoundrel. The new owners/operators of the site are also obnoxious cash grabbers. Just not a pleasant place to do business unless you have "FU" money and don't care.
 
I've only had 1 bad experience.
I've gotten all of the firearms that I've won, but I've learned the hard way about the trickery/ dishonesty that people use to make their firearms look more appealing than they are.

I won't buy through there anymore unless I really want something and can't find it.
I stick to local FTF transactions if possible or through forums. You seem to get much better deals.
 
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