Building a Glock by buying frame, and then upper - Cheaper than new?

[gunsrfun1]

Way back when I was shopping for my first AR, I read that it was cheaper to buy a lower and upper separately, because if you bought the gun complete, there was an excise tax levied on it. This was a long time ago, so not sure if it is the case today.
So -- I am wondering if this is the same thing going on here:
I have seen some legit online vendors selling OEM Glock bare frames, for less than $100. They are serialized and must be shipped to an FFL, of course.
I am wondering - Would it be cheaper to buy an OEM frame, add a lower parts kit (OEM or aftermarket), then a slide, barrel, and upper parts -- vs. buying a complete Glock?
And if yes, is that due to the excise tax thing?
Reason I ask is that I am toying with buying a G34 Gen 5, but they are going for ~ $700. Too much for my blood. So I am thinking I could get the G34 OEM frame and add all the remaining parts, including barrel and slide, for a lot less. Might not be all Glock OEM, but I am ok with that.
Am I making sense, or am I missing something?
Thanks

 

[LoonWulf]

You might be able to shop around and save some cost. But in all likelihood, unless you scored a real deal on a number of the major components. You're going to spend more assembling the gun from scratch, and if you're going to do that, you might as well get premium quality components and have a 12 to 1400 dollar Glock instead of a $700 Glock......

Or at least that's been my experience on building things other than AR's... Now you can generally buy an AR for cheaper than you can assemble one at least in the most common configurations.

 

[gunsrfun1]

Good point, thanks. After I posted this, it dawned on my, based on another post, that Gen 3 or Gen 4 parts, while available, won't generally work on a Gen 5 frame. I don't see a lot of aftermarket slides and barrels for Gen 5. So as you said, I would probably spend more trying to piece it together myself vs. just buying a real Glock.
Guess I better start saving up!
Thanks again

 

[12Bravo20]

I have built plenty of Polymer 80 frames and unless you stick with a plain Jane build, you won't be able to build one as cheap as you can buy a factory built Glock. And most complete Factory Glock slides go for almost as much as a complete pistol does.

And if you do decide to build your own with either an 80% frame or a 100% serialized frame, make sure to stick withOEM Glock parts for the best reliability. The same goes for slides, use OEM parts.

 

[12Bravo20]

Good point, thanks. After I posted this, it dawned on my, based on another post, that Gen 3 or Gen 4 parts, while available, won't generally work on a Gen 5 frame. I don't see a lot of aftermarket slides and barrels for Gen 5. So as you said, I would probably spend more trying to piece it together myself vs. just buying a real Glock.
Guess I better start saving up!
Thanks again

If you are wanting a G19 then yes you can use a Gen 4 slide on a Gen 5 frame and a Gen 5 slide on a Gen 4 frame. I have even modified a few of the Strike 80 Gen 3 and Polymer 80 940CL (compact long slide) frames to use Gen 4/5 slides. I also have a few of the Lone Wolf frames that use Gen 4 parts and am running Gen 5 slides on all of them.

 

[dogtown tom]

Way back when I was shopping for my first AR, I read that it was cheaper to buy a lower and upper separately, because if you bought the gun complete, there was an excise tax levied on it.

https://www.ttb.gov/images/pdfs/faet_importation_information.pdf

The manufacturer pays that tax, its not collected at the point of sale.

I have seen some legit online vendors selling OEM Glock bare frames, for less than $100. They are serialized and must be shipped to an FFL, of course.
I am wondering - Would it be cheaper to buy an OEM frame, add a lower parts kit (OEM or aftermarket), then a slide, barrel, and upper parts -- vs. buying a complete Glock?

Maybe, but not due to federal excise tax. Glock doesn't sell bare frames, only complete pistols so the excise tax was already paid. The reason a complete Glock (or other brand) may be more expensive than buying frame separately is due to MAP.......Minimum Advertised Price policy by the manufacturer.
example: say that MAP on a Glock 19 gen3 is $499. Retailers cannot advertise that pistol for less than $499, either on the internet, or price tag in a store. Glock and other have MAP because such a policy insures that every mom & pop gun shop will want to stock Glocks because they know that Academy, Cabelas and Buds wont sell them for less than cost to drive out the competition.........with dealer cost at $440 and MAP of $499, the dealer makes $49 in gross profit selling a complete G19gen3.

So........to get around MAP, some retailers will "part out" brand new pistols. Selling the frame for $100, the slide/barrel assembly for $375, the two magazines for $35 and the box for $10........that $440 pistol now earns the dealer $80 gross profit.

And if yes, is that due to the excise tax thing?

Nope. Excise tax was paid by the manufacturer.
If your local gun shop is building complete pistols from bare frames and barrel/slide assemblies......he has to pay FAET.

 

[dogtown tom]

And as an FYI........buying a parted out frame or bbl/slide assembly? Note that Glock puts a serial # on all three.

I've had an ATF firearm trace on a Glock frame that was sitting in my safe. The requesting agency didn't get that number from the frame of the gun they were running the trace on, they got it from the barrel or slide. So much for ghost guns huh?

So envision this........you buy a Glock frame off the internet, put your own aftermarket bbl & slide on it. Some dirtbag buys the OEM bbl/slide assembly off Ebay and it gets recovered at a crime scene. Guess where the trace will go?

 

[12Bravo20]

And as an FYI........buying a parted out frame or bbl/slide assembly? Note that Glock puts a serial # on all three.

I've had an ATF firearm trace on a Glock frame that was sitting in my safe. The requesting agency didn't get that number from the frame of the gun they were running the trace on, they got it from the barrel or slide. So much for ghost guns huh?

So envision this........you buy a Glock frame off the internet, put your own aftermarket bbl & slide on it. Some dirtbag buys the OEM bbl/slide assembly off Ebay and it gets recovered at a crime scene. Guess where the trace will go?

And there has also been instances where law enforcement has used the model number instead of a serial number when recording a pistol recovered from a criminal. There was a case of this happening recently where a polish officer used the model number on a Polymer 80 build. And the records showed P80 940C as the serial number. Well guess what, all of the Polymer 80 brand compact frames say P80 940C on them.

And yes with the 80% build craze over the last 2-3 years, dealers can make more money buy selling a Glock slide and frame separately.

@gunsrfun1 I have seen way too many times where people have had issues with building their own with 80% or 100% serialized frames when they use the cheap aftermarket parts kits that a lot of vendors sell. That goes for both frame and slide parts kits. I was pretty active on the Marine Gun Builder forum until it shut down. When ever people had problems, it was generally caused by cheap out of spec aftermarket parts.

 

[Riomouse911]

I have put together three Gen 3 Glocks using oem frames bought off GB and transferred through my ffl and parts kits from other sources. All of them were either right at, or above, the cost of a plain-Jane Glock of the same model before I did the Cerakote.

I did them because I wanted something different, and in Ca it was (and still is) illegal to build an unseralized Polymer 80 lower into a handgun.

The first one was a G-17 on a FDE frame. The slide is desert camo, barrel a Brownells match, trigger is an Apex, sights are Tru Glo, internals are oem with Wolff springs.



The second was a G-19 in Bottomland camo. I used a TiN barrel, the rest as above.



My third (and last) is a M-34. I had this sprayed in a 5-color camo that I told my ffl to do with what they wanted. The slide is Lone Wolf, the barrel a Brownells match and the rest is the same as the others.



It wasn’t quite the same as “building” a P-80, since I didn’t drill or remove the material to make it, but it was as close as I could get and comply with the laws where I live. And even though Glock still makes and sells Gen 3 guns here, having something a bit different than the millions of other Glocks is kind of cool.

Stay safe.

 

[Riomouse911]

Here is the G-17 with the Apex trigger, the above photos were when I first put it together with the oem setup.






Stay safe.