Anyone ever put a "Want to buy guns" ad in a local paper?

[Trebor]

I've been thinking about putting a "Collector buying guns" ad in the local paper in an effort to "shake the gun tree" and see what falls out. I'm not looking for any specific gun in particular, but I know the types of things I'm interested in and what would be a good deal.

I'm targeting people who have guns they don't really want or need and who otherwise might turn them in at a "gun buy-back" or otherwise dispose of them. Of course, I'd follow all local and state laws and I'd only be buying guns for my own use and collection, not for resale.

Has anyone here tried this? Any negatives you see?

 

[Slabside]

In this situation, a good idea would be to run the serial no's of prospective items w/ your local law enforcement agency to make sure they are "clean" before puchasing. A bill of sale would also be a good idea in this situation since you are soliciting for items and not just responding to an ad.

Also, be prepared for a possilbe call from the chief law enforcement ofcr or an investigator from the DA's ofc. Believe it or not, those ads are looked at every wk and the phone numbers looked into, regardless of what you're told.

I'd also suggest that you contact your local gunshops and tell them that you are in the mkt for items. Many times the shop owners know of folks that are interested in selling but aren't actively promoting it.

Best of luck to you.

 

[JamisJockey]

Any negatives you see?

Security. Use a cellphone number so that your home address can't be looked up. Take someone with you when you go to make a purchase, and go armed.
Good luck,

 

[sturmruger]

I have been thinking about doing the exact same thing. My concern is I wouldn't want people coming to my home address that might endanger my family. I would need to do the transaction somewher that is private. I still haven't figured out how find a place that would work.

 

[Trebor]

I have been thinking about doing the exact same thing. My concern is I wouldn't want people coming to my home address that might endanger my family. I would need to do the transaction somewher that is private. I still haven't figured out how find a place that would work.

I'm going to have to go to them anyway. I'm in Novi, but the "local paper" here is the Detroit Free Press, and they wouldn't run the ad anyway. I go to Lansing, about an hour away, on a fairly regular basis so I thought I'd run the ad in the Lansing State Journal. Last I knew, they accepted gun ads. I'll just tell the people who call that I live in Novi and arrange a time to meet them in Lansing, either at their home or at the gun range in Williamston. If anyone balks, that's OK, I'll just find someone else to buy from.

 

[sturmruger]

Trebor I would be interested to hear how this works out. It sounds like a good plan. My concern would be buying a gun that was stolen.

 

[444]

"Security. Use a cellphone number so that your home address can't be looked up. Take someone with you when you go to make a purchase, and go armed."

I agree.
Not exactly the same, but similar: A guy I work with advertised a gun for sale in the paper. A guy showed up to buy it. He asked to see the gun, produced ammo from his pocket, loaded the gun and then robbed the guy.

 

[manwithoutahome]

I've done this before. What I did was set up a meeting at the local gun shop that I was always at (this was in GA), with the owners permission of course. I would then ask the owner to "come over" and take a look at this "great deal" of which he would memorize the serial and then excuse himself and then call it in to the number that they had for pawn shops to check if something was reported stolen or not. And then would come out and say:

a) That is a great deal!

b) If I remember right, the blue book is actually $$$

A means that it's clean. B means that the cops are on the way and DO NOT buy it.

I paid $5 to the owner for this service and he was happy with it (the call is (or was, I moved out of GA) free to the owners). I also bought a couple of boxes of ammo for the gun when I did this. About 5 times out of 10, the person would purchase another gun after he/she had sold me the one they didn't want. I only made three purchases this way before I moved.

Cell phones were expensive back then so I didn't have one but the number was unlisted so it wouldn't come up on any searches on the net.

M.

 

[JamisJockey]

I would need to do the transaction somewher that is private

Not that private....Gunshop or gunrange would be my recommendation. If you do it in a quiet, private location, then you're setting it up for robbery...

 

[Darkside852003]

Trebor the Macomb Daily will accept a "Looking to buy firearms" ad, I have only seen it listed as rifles or shotguns.The local papers here do it too, Warren weekly has had a few have not seen them lately though.
Jeff