Gun show hypothetical.

[browningguy]

It's apparantly a sad world we live in. I wonder whatever happened to American exceptionalism.

Yes, under the circumastances described I would probably have taken the check.

 

[Arp32]

Haha, I'm pretty sure Americans invented the idea of floating and bouncing checks!

 

[rcmodel]

Thats a hard one??

I took a $250 check for a pick-up dog box from the director of my county's social welfare department once.
And a fine upstanding citizen she was, according to all the local newspaper story's over the years.

Then the check bounced, and I found out later the lady had already been fired before I got the check.

Turns out, she apparently needed a dog box to leave the state in a hurry!!

I never seen the lady, the dog box, or the money again!!

Seems to me in this day and age, there is a ATM on every corner, and real close to almost every place they have decent gun shows.

It behooves the buyer to come prepared to buy stuff that costs that much!

I believe I would take the $500 as a refundable deposit to hold the gun, while he went to an ATM and got the rest of the money he should have had in the first place.

rc

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I always check the local pertinent County Attorney's bad check policy before doing a show. Often times their sites will have a downloadable: "?*****? County Attorney ?****? bad check policy includes the following penalties..." or something along those lines. Further, I let each check writer know that regardless of the amount, a check for a firearm not honored goes felony very quickly.

Now, all that said, I was cool with your long list of qualifiers till the lawyer wife. In all the years of my wife and I doing business with firearms and antiques, it is honestly only a single digit percentage of bad checks in our experience that were NOT doctors, cops or lawyers.

 

[CTPistol]

A professor and a lawyer don't have access to $1000 in cash?......I wouldn't have wasted another second on that deal.

I would have taken $100 and agreed to hold the gun until they could get to the bank.

 

[AlexanderA]

From a buyer's perspective, I've found that hardly any sellers (none?) at the shows I frequent would take a $1,000 check under the circumstances you describe. Regular dealers will usually take credit cards, but individuals selling part of a personal collection won't.

This is one reason why I like 3-day shows. I can go on Friday afternoon, taking a modest amount of money, and then if I find something I can't live without, I can leave a deposit, go to the bank the next morning, and then come back to the show to pick up the item.

 

[SaxonPig]

CTPistol- Professors and lawyers are not always rich, and don't always carry large amounts of cash. I hope I haven't wasted your time.

orionengnr- I am a professor of art history and wife is an attorney. I have a carry permit and a C&R FFL. Nothing imaginary about the scenario except that I have never tried to pay for a gun at a show with a check except for the one incident I described.

I would certainly hope that at this point in my life I am beyond naive. As far as someone faking all the documentation I listed, certainly such a thing would not be impossible. But I suspect that faking government issued credentials (DL, CCP, FFL) would not be exactly easy and would require criminal expertise beyond the capabilities of a crook trying to score a $1,000 haul.

I posed this question because as I headed for a show this morning I wondered to myself if a seller would take a check from me. From the responses on this thread, the odds are... no. I suppose this is the world in which we now live. Children no longer walk to school because parents fear criminal attack. We assume the worst from strangers. We trust nobody. We are constantly suspicious.

I can't call it advancing the human condition.

 

[marv]

Keep some cash in Wood Forest Bank in WalMart. They're open when other banks aren't. If you need cash you can go to any WalMart that has a WF bank and get it.

 

[hso]

He produces a valid drivers license

Nope

and state issued concealed carry permit

.

Not yet

He also has a copy of his C&R FFL

Now I'm beginning to be more comfortable with the idea, BUT he's able to leave the show and come back in after hitting the ATM to make up most of the rest of the cash.

Then I'd take a check for the remainder.

 

[TennJed]

I think the most importatn thing for me would be gut feel. I am the one selling and the one that stand to make $ or lose $. I know gut feels are 100% and judging a book by its cover is not politically correct, but my decision would hinge primarly on the way I felt about the idividual

 

[Warp]

I would not take the check. My personal guideline is to only accept a check for an amount I am willing to lose.

That sums up my feelings as well.

 

[mnrivrat]

Take the check !

Gee - How did we ever survive in the past without ATM's, debit cards, and the like .

I'm told writing a bad check to purchase a gun these days is a federal offense. Not a good way to try to steal a thousand dollars .

 

[garymc]

I would have trouble leaving $500 cash to hold a gun with some Guy who wouldn't accept my check under those circumstances. $20 or maybe $50 if he had plenty of ID. If he won't trust you, you can't trust him.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

If there is money in his bank account to cover a check, he can just as well get cash. Larger shows even have ATMs in them. One could, however, accept a down payment to hold the gun while he goes to get the rest of the cash. It is highly unlikely he would not return. For that matter, our hypothetical friend seems to have forgotten a cardinal rule of going to gun shows: if you're going there to buy something, have cash (if you have it) on you. It gives you more flexibility in negotiations.

 

[Sav .250]

That`s not a risk I`m would be willing to take.

 

[bshepherd]

I would take your check Prof. Pig. The documents SP presented are good enough to ID him to any dealer and walk out with any number of firearms without a background check in many places. People just aren't going to go about forging documents to make such a small score. I have also found that people in the firearms community are some of the most honest I know. I have bought firearms from other C&R holders who sent the gun before the check or money order got there.

 

[Bubbles]

Giving a non-C&R FFL a bad check for a gun could, in theory, be construed by the ATF as a theft of a firearm from an FFL. Between individuals and C&R's I've been told it's a civil matter.

In the OP's case, if I were a private seller in that situation I would accept a 10% nonrefundable deposit to take the gun off the table, and we could meet up over the next week or so to finish the deal.

 

[JoeMal]

No...if you have $1000 in the bank account, go to the ATM and get me cash

I'll take the $500 as a deposit and hold the gun for you while you get the cash.

 

[kkayser]

at the bank

With large checks I always meet the buyer at his bank. He gives me the check which I exchange for cash at the window. Then we finish the deal. Same way with selling, but we meet at my bank. Tell the buyer to call you after the show and you will tell him if the gun is still available. If the buyer is not willing to do that, I pass.

 

[michaelbsc]

No...if you have $1000 in the bank account, go to the ATM and get me cash

I'll take the $500 as a deposit and hold the gun for you while you get the cash.

You can't get $1,000 in a single day out of ATMs from most banks as a protection against loss of the card.

 

[22-rimfire]

A potential solution is to accept debit/credit cards and charge an additional fee. Things aren't like they used to be in terms of "who" can take plastic.

But in the scenario you pesented, I would accept a check and I have personally written checks for guns at shows a couple of times. But I was not a complete stranger or I was local to the seller. In which case, you can hold the gun for them with a deposit as well.

 

[BrotherFrankie]

i would take the check..

 

[JoeMal]

You can't get $1,000 in a single day out of ATMs from most banks as a protection against loss of the card.

Usually a phone call to the bank stating you want an increase for the day will resolve this. But you're right, this may be a problem depending on where you bank as some smaller banks don't have people available on the weekends to make this happen.

 

[Frank Ettin]

...I understand a bad check is a concern, but do you really fret over somebody THIS upstanding?...

I've known plenty of upstanding people who didn't have two nickles to rub together.

Given the collection of documents offered, it's probably a reasonable assumption that they are legitimate. It's not guaranteed, but it's probably a good deal more likely than not.

But all that tells you is who he is and where to find him. All that means is that if the check bounces you'll be able to go after him. You still don't know if there's $1,000 in his bank account.

 

[TennJed]

You can't get $1,000 in a single day out of ATMs from most banks as a protection against loss of the card.

actually with most banks all you have to do is call their customer service line an dask for a 24hr increase. the ATM machine may also have a per transaction limit so be aware that you might have to make multiple withdrawals (and pay a seperate wd fee for each one)

But with the vast majority of the banks you can get the cash out of the atm as long as you are able to speak to a customer service rep that day