I have bought and sold many guns and paraphernalia on the Internet, off various boards and auction sites. I never had much significant difficulties, perhaps until now. I really hope this ends up ok or I think it will sour me forever on buying guns sight unseen. Mostly I find that gun folks are extremely honest, upfont and trustworthy. The only time I have ever been straight out ripped off was from a well known storefront (unnamed so I don't violate forum rules), but so many have been ripped off by this creep I won't go into that here.
Anyway, to try to make a long story short I will not give all the details. I don't want to prematurely falsely accuse the other party involved (not sure if he is a member or not).
I have been in the market for a certain very expense firearm for quite a while. I have almost purchased it two times before but for one reason or another those other deal never worked out. Mostly it was because of my fear of the amount of $ involved. The firearm is not that rare, but is very expensive. We are talking several K here. I have posted other threads requesting advise and forum members here and other communities you all have come thru to help me.
Like I have been for the last many months I search all the forums for the one of interest and spy one on one of the broker sites. I make an inquiry to the seller asking the reserve price. I judge the seller a lot by how quickly and well they communicate as to whether or not I should proceed with the deal. The seller responded fast enough, but was brief. What raised the hair on the back of my neck was that the seller had NO RATING.
I proceeded very cautiously and asked the seller more questions. The seller was quick to respond and began to communicate better. Instead of one word answers, I was getting complete sentences! I finally got to the point where I asked his reserve price but I felt it was way too high (as these auctions usually are). So I wrote him back and told him that I thought his reserve was about $300 more than I was willing to bid and wished him good luck. There was already a bid for $500 under his reserve and so the reserve was not met.
Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the auction the day it was supposed to close and found that same bid was the top bid. However, the seller had dropped the reserve. Here is where the auction 'impulse' got the better of me. I violated my 'hair standing on end' rule. I decided to up the bid by the minimum amount on the off chance the last bidder did not have more room and was not 'watching'. I considered the bid a fair price, less than what I considered the gun was worth. So I won the auction. It was not unexpected, but I was still nervous.
The seller communicated his information. Gave me an address, cell phone number and land line number. Seemed to all check out, but it came back as a commercial address. More hair standing on end.
I asked some more questions and everything seemed to make sense. The seller seemed upset that he got less that he wanted, but hey, he lowered his reserve. I reluctantly went thru with the deal. Only way I could have been sure was to fly out there and do a personal inspection, but that did not seem to be in the cards for me. Send out the usual cashier's check via post office express mail with signature required. I like the Federal Mail Fraud laws as my fall back - so I don't use Fedex.
Seller's still responded, but not as fast and kind of terse. He Emails me that his bank put a week hold on my cashier's check and he would not mail out the gun until their hold clears. I was very outraged, and my temper began to flair. Some not too polite words were exchanged.
Was I unreasonable in expecting him to ship out the gun without a week hold on a cashier's check? This has never occurred to me before. Was I really guilty of not taking the Hight Road? Was there a better way to handle it?
Anyway, I called the bank and found their cashier's check indeed cleared. The seller says he was going to ship the gun out. I hope it all works out and my worry was for naught and I get what he promised to deliver.
Anyway, to try to make a long story short I will not give all the details. I don't want to prematurely falsely accuse the other party involved (not sure if he is a member or not).
I have been in the market for a certain very expense firearm for quite a while. I have almost purchased it two times before but for one reason or another those other deal never worked out. Mostly it was because of my fear of the amount of $ involved. The firearm is not that rare, but is very expensive. We are talking several K here. I have posted other threads requesting advise and forum members here and other communities you all have come thru to help me.
Like I have been for the last many months I search all the forums for the one of interest and spy one on one of the broker sites. I make an inquiry to the seller asking the reserve price. I judge the seller a lot by how quickly and well they communicate as to whether or not I should proceed with the deal. The seller responded fast enough, but was brief. What raised the hair on the back of my neck was that the seller had NO RATING.
I proceeded very cautiously and asked the seller more questions. The seller was quick to respond and began to communicate better. Instead of one word answers, I was getting complete sentences! I finally got to the point where I asked his reserve price but I felt it was way too high (as these auctions usually are). So I wrote him back and told him that I thought his reserve was about $300 more than I was willing to bid and wished him good luck. There was already a bid for $500 under his reserve and so the reserve was not met.
Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the auction the day it was supposed to close and found that same bid was the top bid. However, the seller had dropped the reserve. Here is where the auction 'impulse' got the better of me. I violated my 'hair standing on end' rule. I decided to up the bid by the minimum amount on the off chance the last bidder did not have more room and was not 'watching'. I considered the bid a fair price, less than what I considered the gun was worth. So I won the auction. It was not unexpected, but I was still nervous.
The seller communicated his information. Gave me an address, cell phone number and land line number. Seemed to all check out, but it came back as a commercial address. More hair standing on end.
I asked some more questions and everything seemed to make sense. The seller seemed upset that he got less that he wanted, but hey, he lowered his reserve. I reluctantly went thru with the deal. Only way I could have been sure was to fly out there and do a personal inspection, but that did not seem to be in the cards for me. Send out the usual cashier's check via post office express mail with signature required. I like the Federal Mail Fraud laws as my fall back - so I don't use Fedex.
Seller's still responded, but not as fast and kind of terse. He Emails me that his bank put a week hold on my cashier's check and he would not mail out the gun until their hold clears. I was very outraged, and my temper began to flair. Some not too polite words were exchanged.
Was I unreasonable in expecting him to ship out the gun without a week hold on a cashier's check? This has never occurred to me before. Was I really guilty of not taking the Hight Road? Was there a better way to handle it?
Anyway, I called the bank and found their cashier's check indeed cleared. The seller says he was going to ship the gun out. I hope it all works out and my worry was for naught and I get what he promised to deliver.
