How to protect my purchase

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chhodge69

chhodge69

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I'm shopping for a hand gun and I find that I seriously limit my options by sticking to a FTF transaction. But I'm also reluctant to send any individual I don't know hundreds of dollars on the promise that a) the gun is what they say it is and b) they'll ship the gun to my FFL. What have you all done to protect yourself from scams?

Thanks!
 
deal only with reliable parties. If you are buying from one of the sites, look at the feedback - if they have a bazillion feedbacks and they are all or almost all positive, I wouldn't be worried
 
I honestly prefer to buy new if the price is right, but I have found some great deals on Gunbroker.com and Gunsamerica.com. From my understanding, there is some buyer protection on those sites similar to the protections offered on eBay.

I would not hesitate to purchase from either of those two sites again provided the seller has at least some feedback and isn't brand new to the site.
 
...the promise that .. the gun is what they say it is...
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You can always request more pictures. Better pictures and more pictures. I bought a gun from this guy on GunBroker once. Check out the extent he goes to, to give buyers a good look at his guns! He's a terrific dealer and posts wonderful pictures, but the gun I bought still had one little spec that stood out :(, but none of his pictures ever actually picked it up. Buying used like this, still and always will have some level of risk in this regard.

I have gone as far as to tell a seller to send me good quality pictures, and I'll send them a link to an auction from that GunBroker dealer. I've told them, "Send me a dozen or so pictures like this guy is posting", before I move forward with them.
 
Gunbroker sounds like a good idea - I was thinking more of how to safely use the BST forums here and elsewhere.
 
If a seller is okay for being paid via postal money order, odds are he's okay. Not all that many people want to have to explain to the Postal folks. They have no sense of humor whatsoever.
 
I agree with Art. I've bought a number of guns on auction sites and on forums like this one. Generally everything has gone very well but there's always the chance you will find that crook out there. Check the feedback and the number of auctions the seller has completed, and use a POMO for payment. Most sellers want a MO anyway.

There are a lot of really good dealers out there. I have done business with one so often that the last gun I bought was shipped to my FFL before I even sent payment out.
 
That's an interesting idea. Do you mean that if I mail someone a POMO for a purchase the USPS would somehow back me up if I were ripped off? They didn't have any info about purchase protection readily available on their website.

Thanks for all the help!
 
Online deals, especially if paid by Postal MO, are easily tracked. You can even mail the letter limited to a specific individual with picture ID required. If the seller doesn't ship the merchandise that's Internet Mail Fraud (Felony). Your FFL will be an excellent witness as to the make/model/condition of the firearm. Also, keep all correspondence.
 
I limit all of my online transactions to this forum, TheFiringLine, and the M&P Pistol forum. There are other forums I wouldn't trust to buy on. Also, only deal with people with a lot of posts, I read a lot of their posts to get a feel for who they are, I also want contact information I can verify before any money changes hands. I keep the contact info, emails, etc.....I've had pretty good luck.
 
22-rimfire said:
What do you have against buying from a regular brick and mortar store FFL?
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Cost.

At least in my experience, I've paid considerably more from local dealers and I've never been offered any service or guarranty. I don't see any point in paying more for something only to be told to deal with the manufacturer with any issues.
 
Yeah basically that and the fact that I've never seen the particular gun I want in a gun store. I've purchased several guns new at my local LGS's only to see them at 1/2 the cost via private sale in a BST forum. I've never taken the risk and made a purchase that way but I'm leaning toward it.
 
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