Most around here seem to dislike transfers. The going rate is $50.There's a few kitchen table FFL's left around the Milwaukee metro if you can find them that are cheaper, but like kitchen table FFL's everywhere, they're a dying breed.
I enquired about multiple transfers from the shop closest to my home for recieving 12 inherited firearms from an estate, and the quoted rate was $50 for the first, and the "group discount" (Ha!) was $35 thereafter, which put the total at $435.
Now it gets better, I was already running out of cash just trying to ship the stuff home, and the handguns next-day-air, per UPS regs, and couldn't afford to part out the shipments into different boxes according to thier status. I explained what I wanted to send:
- One was a black powder Remington new Model cap and ball revolver. Not even a firearm by GCA '68 definitions or sec. 922.
- One was a Civil War era French pinfire revolver, again, not even a "firearm" because it was over 100 years old .
- Two "modern" cartrdige pieces, an Iver Jhonson .22 short revolver, and a Springfield Armory (the real one, run by Uncle Sam) 1875 trapdoor .45-70 rifle that were both well over 100 years old.
- A P-17 Enfield, M1 Carbine, and one non-functional .32 european cheap "bycicle/dog revolver" that would fall under my C&R license.
Four modern pieces that would normally require an 01 FFL to transfer, two Smith & Wesson revolvers from the 1970's, a Springfield Armory (the company) 1911, and a Browning .22 automatic rifle from the 1970s.
No dice. The price was still $435 to read seral numbers, and fill in seven freaking lines in thier bound book for the C&R and "modern" pieces. The manager insisted he had to enter even the black powder and the 100+ y.o. stuff. (It's strange that Sportsman's Guide and CIA can send +100 y.o. Mausers straight to my door, even without my C&R 03 FFL, when they have them.) And it wasn't even as though I was "undercutting" them because all the items were inheritance. He wasn't rude, but definitely not friendly either.
I have trouble buying the entire "Stocking distributor overhead" argument either.
If you aren't making money by charging $20-30 for the labor of an employee to: 1. Grab a box from the incoming UPS pile. 2. Cut the box open to verify the serial number. 3. Log it in the bound book. 4. Have the customer fill out a 4473. 5. Call NICS. And finally, 6. Log it out in the bound book; you've got some serious problems. Either that, or the FFL's dedication to the "Americans With Disabilities Act" is certainly commendable, but probably not necessary since few gun stores have enough employees to fall under that portion of the law...
Now I suppose if it's at your stereotypical "Roll your eyes and sigh heavily because you have to stop telling your best bud the Navy SEEL stories about how you were unofficially attached to the Selous Scouts in Rodesia, and go help a paying customer" pace of gunstore work, then perhaps you really are losing money at only $20-30 per transfer.
As a capitalist, and someone who floats somewhere on the Libertarian/Right end of the political and personal philosophy map, I'm not "mad" about it, or insulted per-se. I was lucky to figure out how I was within the law to not use an FFL in my particular circumstance, Antiques and inheritance.
I re-read the GCA '68 portions of sec. 922 and decided that between the blackpowder and 100+ yo items, the C&R items I could ship on my 03 FFL, and the clear exception made for interstate inheritance in sec. 922, and that I took posession, i.e. was "transfered ownership" entirely within Nevada, I was legal to self-ship. So screw them. I have my inheritance home with me, safe and sound.
I guess my point is: The Internet is a reality. It's not going away. Gun List and Shotgun News is a reality, they're not going away either. One of the primary rules of business is "Adapt or Die". Unfortunately, when the gunstore dies, and there's no FFL's to perform transfers left, RKBA will die a de-facto death as well.
