First off, over night FEDEX / UPS costs more then 25 bucks. Next, off many shops will not transfer a gun that they have in stock, and if they do the transfer price might go up my local FFL will up the fee from 25 to 50 bucks if the gun is in stock.
Buying a new gun is an adventure for sure. But, Cash is King!
SGN and GL are not wholesale prices. Most true wholesalers do not advertise prices, ie Jerry's or RSR or Bill Hicks, etc. in those rags.
I am offering him a formula as to how to come up with an offer on a gun. Just telling someone "make an offer" is incomplete advice. People don't do that because they don't know what to offer. They're afraid of being too high, and being a "chump", or being too low, and looking like a jerk.
If FedEx/UPS insured overnight on a handgun is more than $25, fine, just plug that into the formula.
I never suggested he build in that particular shop's FFL transfer price. Just whatever one he can get. (Use Gun List or Shotgun News's websites, they have a FFL Finder by zip-code, most list thier FFL fee too...)
And I said outright that quantity one from the rags is not what the shop pays, but it's the
best he can do if he dosen't go through the shop.
So my formula for making an offer, cuts to the chase, it's generaly the best price a buyer going through wholesale/mail-order/Internet can get, and it still has acceptable profit to the gun store.
You can certainly low-ball as far as you think you can get away with, but with the advent of mass merchandising, the problem is Americans outside of flea-markets and foregin vacations won't haggle, and a low opener, and a high-low bargaining strategy is going to make both parties uncomfortable, if not insulted.
Using that formula, and politely spelling it out for the shop is win-win. It shows you understand thier expenses, and it also shows you've got a reasonable expecation of being able to actualy get that price elsewhere if they don't bite, so they know it's a lost sale.
This has worked for me in the overpriced Milwaukee area shops several times.