Is this a scam....

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mptrimshop

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i have perchanced a gp100 on gun broker. The person who owns the gun lives about 45 min from me and is not willing to do a private party transfer. I have e-mailed and called the seller and all i have received is an E-mail from him telling me that he lost his voice and can not speak on the phone.This makes me kind of leery......at the end of the e-mail he seems like he just wants to send him the $ with my FFL info and thats the last contact we should have. Well by the time i send him the shipping fee and i pay the FFL fees i am rather close to the purchase of a new gun from Buds. I have offered to meet him at his FFl and do the transfer there....i have not heard back from him on that. He has a 46 rating on GB... i just find it hard to think he would want to waste his rating on a scam....what do you guys think?
 
copy of the e-mail.....names and info removed

I got your message. Unfortunately, I've been sick the last few days and lost my voice due to a severe sore throat so I won't be able to call you back. I'd prefer to follow gunbroker.com protocol and ship the gun to an FFL of your choosing for transfer. I've never done a private sale without an FFL involved and so I don't know all that might be required for that. Frankly, I don't trust the anti-gun Chicago politicians who run this state and could just see them making an "example" out of a couple of good citizens who didn't "dot all the i's and cross all the t's" on a private gun sale. I haven't spent one second of my life in jail so far and don't intend to in the future so I'd rather have an FFL handle all the paperwork, etc. I know it will add a little bit of expense for you, but better safe than sorry.

Please send total payment of $445.00 to:
 
my response

I have done multiple private party transfers of fire arms in Illinois. There is no law against this all you need to to is obtain a copy of my FOID card and receipt of purchase. My FFL will charge me a $35 fee to receive a gun and if you add that to th $30 shipping fee that you require that comes to a whooping total of $65. That would bring my total purchase price to $480. Buds gun shop sells this fire arm new for $515 and $468 blued and they offer free shipping. What i'm getting at here @$!!& is that by the time i add all those fees to the sale of the gun i am very close to the perches price of a brand new one. This is the reason that i have been shopping on GB for GP100's that were less than a hour away from me. And to be perfectly honest i don't feel comfortable sending some a money order,check, or cash to someone who can not speak to me on the phone. If you can tell me what FFL you ship through i will be happy to contact them and work out a deal with them to do the transfer without having to ship. If you change your mind about a face to face deal you will find a simple Google search will show alot of information about private party gun sales in Illinois. If you would like you can call a good friend of mine who works at the Cabelas in #$@!$% ^%#!$@$ and speak with him about private transfers he works hand in hand with the ATF on a weekly basis. Just call and ask for the manager of the gun library @#Q%. If you would like to speak face to face about this i would feel alot more comfortable...feel free to call me. I will not hold it against you that your voice is gone. I am not and would never ask you or anyone to break the law.
 
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um, that might be, but explain that it is less expensive for you to drive there, and you would be happy to meet him, then refer him to the part where that is INTERSTATE transfers....
 
if you didn't get the sellers permision to do a FTF before bidding you have no right to expect to do one now.
send the guy his money or at the very least cover his auction fees if you back out.

like the seller i prefer to do all my gunbroker dealings through email instead of over the phone
 
I don't blame the seller, he covering his ***. I would trust no one on the Net.
 
It's a little late now...........

Was it impossible to ask these questions PRIOR to purchasing the gun?

If you bid or buy from an online auction you are obligated to follow through. Bailing on the deal now will probably result in negative feedback.....and it would be deserved. When you click "Buy Now" you are agreeing to the sellers offer.

What Bud's sells the gun for is immaterial......you chose to buy the one you saw on GunBroker. Why did you not do the math before buying?

It's not a scam, but it does reek of buyers remorse and a buyer looking for an excuse to crawfish.
 
i understand him wanting to cover his A$%...but if i meet him at his FFL the sale will be trough a dealer.........and it will save a ton of $ in shipping fees and one extra FFL fee.
 
why not suggest that you'll meet him at his FFL/Gunshop with a certified check for him, and he can turn the gun over to the shop and pay the transfer costs there....?

that way he has an FFL to cover his butt, and you see the gun whilst making payment...

I feel the same way about making FTF sales... you never know if you're getting set-up for a robbery, what-have you...
 
I have the $ in hand and i live less than 30 min from the seller....it's the $65 extra that is the problem. I want the gun.. i have been looking for one at the right price for almost a year now. $485 is not the right price. I sent the seller a question 3 days befor the aution was over and did not receive a responce.....i guess i though since the item was so close this would not be a problem. If it was a gun shop or pawn shop or private party... i guess i messed up then
 
why not suggest that you'll meet him at his FFL/Gunshop with a certified check for him, and he can turn the gun over to the shop and pay the transfer costs there....?

that way he has an FFL to cover his butt, and you see the gun whilst making payment...

I feel the same way about making FTF sales... you never know if you're getting set-up for a robbery, what-have you...



i am %100 willing to do that
 
gunbroker has insurance on all sales upto 500$ so even if it was a scam you would be covered. you should have asked him prior to bidding, they have a link on all auctions specifically for this purpose.
 
if you didn't get the sellers permision to do a FTF before bidding you have no right to expect to do one now.
send the guy his money or at the very least cover his auction fees if you back out.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better.

do you feel me meeting him at his FFL is out of line?
Click to expand...

If it wasn't suggested as an option by you and agreed to by the seller before you bought the pistol, yes, it's out of line.

If you wanted to do a FTF, the time to have mentioned it was at the beginning, before bidding on the gun. That way, if the seller refused, you could have gone about your business and the seller could have sold the gun to someone willing to abide by his terms. Whether it's easier for you or not isn't really his problem.
 
i've heard more than a few times that a seller has "lost their voice" on forums, and it always turns out to be a scam....
Click to expand...

True, but if the seller is asking the OP to send to an actual FFL, then it's unlikely to be a scam, since said scam would be tricky at best to arrange with a real FFL involved.
 
I've got to agree with Dogtown Tom - why were the arrangements not made and agreed to PRIOR to the sale?

The auction clearly indicates that FFL is the method for transfer, and says in several places that FFL is required. If an exception to these terms was desired, it should have been arranged prior to bidding.

Unless you communicated and gained agreement to a change in terms (which based upon your correspondence, I must assume isn't the case), by bidding, you accepted his terms.

Complete the transaction as is, or at least offer to cover listing fees.
 
Right
that would be the email he sent.... before it closed
you might want to do a search
could be he sold 'to himself' to get a rating and bait bigger fish.
 
I don't know about it being "low" to pull out now.

Point is that it is not entirely clear as to whether the FFL was required before the buyer hit the proverbial "Buy Now" button.
I'd be pretty darned peeved if I hit a button that said I'm willing to spend 350 bucks and the guy decides last second to add 65 extra bucks to the equation which he promptly assumes *I* am going to absorb.

There does seem to be a bit of ambiguity here as to what is actually planned.
 
I have purchased on gunbroker where they list the terms "Ship to 01FFL only" but only after asking for an exception for my C&R. If I don't get a reply in time or if they say no, then I simply don't bid or buy it. The seller stated their terms and didn't alter them. That is their right since it is their property. Your money is also yours alone to spend how you wish. If the two of you don't agree, then you pulled the trigger too soon. The right thing to do is send him the money and consider this a $65 lesson. FTF has risk involved as well. He may be as concerned about you as you are of him. His time and convenience may be worth more than zero. Maybe you could offer to split the savings at his FFL. If he doesn't go for it, do the right thing and follow through on the agreement you made when you hit the "confirm" button.
 
This seems awfully suspicious to me. In my humble experience only scam artists will not speak with you on the phone. Meeting at his FFL with cash to transfer seems reasonable to me.

However, I would have insisted upon this from the beginning.

If you do send him $$, make up an excuse to send him a check for some or all of the amount. Then if he rips you off, you have his bank account info on the returned check or you have his fingerprint/DL number from the check cashing place.
 
You bid on the gun and won. It's now time to pay for the gun.

I like to be able to talk with people on the phone, but I've ran into people who didn't want to talk on the phone. It's their choice.
 
Actually, ask him for the SN, then tell him you are going to check with the Illinois State Police, aren't all hand guns registered? Just to be safe, if it turns up legit, then send the money by cert. check or PO
 
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