Buying off Gunbroker - am I missing Something?

[Dorrin79]

So, I was perusing Gunbroker the other day, trying to get a feel for what Kahr K9s are going for, and I see that there are several listings with no reserve price and no starting bid.

If I'm not mistaken, that means I could theoretically bid $10 for one of them, and if no one else got involved, the vendor would then have to sell me the pistol at that price?



I'm just wondering what the catch is - do vendors in that situation pull the guns off the auction, or what?

Confused but also greedy...

Dorrin

 

[yayarx7]

If one believes in the good nature of man one would have to say that Yes this is the case and that the vendor is betting that there will be sufficient bids to make their money.

I, however, believe that a number of these types have buddies or other identities to prevent a sell at a loss.

Not speaking of gunbroker specifically but of all auction sites.

That being said I just bought a revolver I had no intention to win at that low a bid. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[J Jones]

Psychology is that people are attracted to low starting bids. I know it worked for me on eBay and almost doubled my money on an item I sold.

 

[Rockrivr1]

I frequently bid and win auctions on both GunBroker and AuctionArms. There are a few vendors out there that place ads with no minimum bid and no reserve. These guys always have numerous bids for their items and I'm sure they very rarely, if ever lose money.

I agree with yayarx7 in that if the price stays low during the end, I wouldn't put it past them to bid on their own items under an alius.

For the most part though, I've won some pretty nice firearms at a reasonable price. I've also been in a bidding war a few times. You have to know when to walk away from those.

 

[Eskimo Jim]

I can't speak for gunbroker or other gun auction sites but I can speak about ebay.

I've had some success bidding on ebay. I have heard that one person was selling an item then used a different ebay ID to up the bid. Eventually another person 'won' the bid. The seller got caught because they used the email address for the 'competing bidder' to tell the winner of the auction where to send the payment etc. Now the seller is kicked off of ebay for a while.

If you're concerned that the auction isn't on the up and up, put a bid in that you'd want to pay for the item and see what happens. Either you get the item for the price you want, or the item gets priced beyond the price that you believe is fair. You probably wouldn't have wasted that much time if you ended up 'losing' the bid.

Good luck with your auction.

-Jim

 

[Il Duce]

I've been looking at some firearms on Gunbroker as well. How do they compare to other auction sites like usagunsales and auctionarms?

Is there a favorite auction site that you have? ...other than THR's classifieds, of course.

Il Duce

 

[Bacchus]

I try to use Eskimo Jim's approach: I decide how much I'm willing to pay and enter that as my final amount. If I get it, great. If not, then at least I've avoided a last minute bidding war. Bidding wars are so much fun when you're the seller...

 

[marklbucla]

Actually, you wouldn't even have to bid $10. I remember someone on this board bidding only the bare minimum, .02 and won the auction! Of course the dealer just said that he would rather take the negative feedback for not selling than take the ~$400 loss.

 

[sturmruger]

Don't forget to look and see where the bidding starts at. Allot of the gunbroker auctions start the first bid at $289 or something like that. My guess is the dealer starts the bidding at his actual cost and lets it go from there.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I have purchased guns from auctionarms and gunbroker. Both are pretty easy to deal with.

 

[roscoe]

You can bet that the dealer's shill will bid it up at the end of the auction.

 

[ken w.]

auctions

I bid and win bids on gun broker.If I want it I don't a dollar at a time like a lot of people who bid against me.If I think it's worth $100.00 I'll bid $25.00 at a time untill I think it's too high.I think the shipping is a rip off on a lot of auctions.I can ship a gun accross the country for $12.00.If you insure it,it's about $6.00 for up to around$500.00.$25.00&$30.00 to ship a .22 is a rip off and I won't bid on it.Most people who sell on the auctions are honest folks,just a few are not .

 

[jsalcedo]

If you have a decent internet connection you can try to snipe the auction with 3 seconds left. This will catch any shills by surprise.

I have seen sellers not abide by their no reserve auctions.

They say: It was meant to be a reserve auction but someone screwed it up
so I can't sell the gun for $10.

 

[Brass Balls]

I've bought a couple of gun parts on the gun auctions. Most of the time I find that I can get a better price on new guns by purchasing from www.sportingarms.com without taking the risk of dealing with an unknown seller.

 

[clubsoda22]

I, however, believe that a number of these types have buddies or other identities to prevent a sell at a loss.

I have to admit that myself and countless others are guilty of having friends bump up an aucton on ebay. Gunbroker is certainly no different.

 

[raz-0]

I have to admit that myself and countless others are guilty of having friends bump up an aucton on ebay. Gunbroker is certainly no different.

What you are doing is shilling. It's illegal most places.

Personally, on gun broker, I haven't run into too much shilling. The most common loophole is some text explaining they reserve the right to sell the item elsewhere in a physical store, or on other auction sites. They list it multiple places, and sell to the highest bidder of three auctions. If none of them are high enough, they claim they sold it face to face or at a gunshow.

 

[JPM63US]

Expect to see the price jump up dramatically in the last 2 hours . . . but once in a while something inexpensive slips through.

Best advice given, was to decide the max (shipping and FFL charges) you are willing to pay and place a bid. You might get lucky.

JPM

 

[jsalcedo]

If none of them are high enough, they claim they sold it face to face or at a gunshow.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

I also read that in certain instances if you leave bad feedback for a seller and raise a stink about their business practices gunbroker will cancel your account and erase the bad feedback about the seller.

 

[Rickstir]

I believe Gunbroker has the "15 minute" rule. If there is a bid in the last 15 minutes, another 15 minutes is added. Kind of like the going once, going twice, going three times.....sold.

 

[Il Duce]

Brass Balls...

Thanks for the link...they have some good deals there.

Il Duce