How many guns can you sell?

[DHJenkins]

Is there a federal limit on the number of guns you can sell as a private citizen?

I'm not looking to go into business, I just figured since I have a few extra lowers lying around I might get a kit from Model 1 & cash in on the hysteria.

TIA

 

[Duke of Doubt]

There's no numerical limit, but if you sell AS A DEALER, one is too many. Meaning, if you sell guns as a business proposition, you need a license. You need not even make an initial profit to be considered "doing business" (just ask General Motors). Disposing of a collection, in whole or in part, generally is not "doing business." But buying and selling guns, parts and kits to make money? Sounds like a business to me.

 

[DHJenkins]

Let me clarify - I'm talking about maybe selling 2-3 whole rifles in the next 6 months, not setting up a booth with a table full of "guns, parts and kits".

I've got all the complete AR's I need, but I'd like to build some 'special' ones. I'd like to build a pistol, for example, even though I have absolutely no use for one. Now, normally when you build something 'special' and go to sell it, you lose money. It seems to me that I could have some fun, get some great hands-on experience, and then (icing on the cake) NOT have to lose money on the deal.

I like building stuff, but the "owning" part I can do without. For example, as an ASE cert. auto tech (not my full-time profession anymore) I do plenty of "go fast" work for friends & clients, but I drive a stock pick-up because building things is far more fun to me than owning them.

Am I really not allowed to use my own collection to trade up?

 

[Duke of Doubt]

DHJenkins: "Am I really not allowed to use my own collection to trade up?"

Believe it or not, nobody really knows for sure. Enforcement has been lax for well over a decade, which saw the rise and decline of the milsurp hobby. C&R licensees would order a dozen or two dozen rifles, cherry pick the good one, and sell the rest into their local market (or online) for profit. That was abuse, in my view.

I've been trading "down and up" lately, disposing of quite a few guns to local dealers, generally in exchange for fewer, nicer guns. See, I realized that some of my autoloaders had tripled in value for no good reason, and meanwhile some beautiful vintage Colt revolvers hadn't budged. So I made some trades, sales and buys. Normally I didn't pull net cash out of the deal, or if I did, it sure isn't much. I don't consider that "dealing." Yet there's decent transaction volume there, and "gains" to my collection.

It's a tough call because it requires analysis of intent, which may be inferred, and with lax enforcement there hasn't been a lot of recent precedent relevent to today's situations. A lot of people here will tell you that you have nothing to worry about. I'm more cautious.

 

[ServiceSoon]

18 USC 921
(11) The term “dealer” means
(A) any person engaged in the business of selling firearms at wholesale or retail,
(B) any person engaged in the business of repairing firearms or of making or fitting special barrels, stocks, or trigger mechanisms to firearms, or

(21) The term “engaged in the business” means—
(C) as applied to a dealer in firearms, as defined in section 921 (a)(11)(A), a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms;
(D) as applied to a dealer in firearms, as defined in section 921 (a)(11)(B), a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to engaging in such activity as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional repairs of firearms, or who occasionally fits special barrels, stocks, or trigger mechanisms to firearms;
SOURCE

 

[sernv99]

if you have hundreds of guns and began to sell them off, you wouldn't get hasseled and be labeled a "dealer". Are you bringing in fresh supplies (in quantity) like a dealer would? That's the key. I buy guns all the time and sell them if I end up losing interest in that particular model. Granted most of my collection are sporting shotguns for trap and skeet but still, for every 2 or 3 guns I sell, I put the cash towards one new gun. I don't see how they could classify me as a "dealer".