I can understand a tiered structure for gun transfers, based on weapon type, retail cost, new vs used, or that anyone can charge whatever they want.
I can also understand that a dealer would be irritated by a customer ordering something online that they could have bought locally, and that he feels he needs to recoup the money lost on the sale, or think they're giving the customer incentive to just buy from them, but it doesn't always work this way.
I hope dealers see some other sides of this story. If I look online, if I look at other stores, and do research to learn how much a particular firearm is *worth* on the open market, and calculate the cost of shipping, transfer, sometimes w/out sales tax, compared to buying locally, I would like to think that the local dealer can offer some concessions on his retail price, or throw in some value added services to warrant working with them locally, to bring the overall value closer in line to what one could get same elsewhere.
If they could get within $20-$30 on say a $500 purchase OTD, then I think most people would buy locally, or if they're $50 or more higher, if it's a range/dealer, maybe they could throw in free range time, or some ammo, or an accessory (magazine, holster, or something).
But when the OTD cost of getting elsewhere is $50-$100 less than getting from the local dealer, after shipping, after FFL, etc., (which seems to be the case in my area), then don't you think a lot of customers would have to consider that? Then, if you bump your transfer to $50+ (like some have here), you might get the less knowledegable guy and/or the impulse buy guy, but here's a couple other things that can happen:
1) The sale you did make, if they later think you steered them slightly wrong w/ the higher prices and higher FFL fees, and they learn they could have saved a lot of money on the gun or fees, they may not want to do business with you again, so you lost a repeat customer for future guns, accessories, ammo, etc.
2) The smart shopper never buys the first gun from you, thinks you're trying to screw him, doesn't want to give you the business, doesn't want to let you do the FFL, doesn't buy future stuff from you.
It's SO EASY (I own a business) to look at the tangible losses when faced with them, it's much harder to calculate the intangible losses that may be caused by our decisions.
IMO, if a dealer can't get a particular weapon at a reasonable cost, he should reevaluate his buying power, or cost of overhead to see if there's a better way to be competitive. Aside from that, if he's still not competitive in the customer's eyes on a particular deal, and can't offer other value added services mentioned above, you should still work to gain the customer's trust, tell em straight, and offer competitive transfer fees. Again, IMO, I think this would either A) lead him to buy from you anyway, because you were fair with him, B) go ahead and get that one deal from another dealer or online, but let you do the FFL, allowing you to further build a relationship with the customer, C) in either case, you get him in the store more, make a slim $ off the transfer, or the sale, likely get him at POS (Point of Sale) to buy additional accessories, training classes, range time (whatever is applicable), as well as potentially gain a customer for a long time.
Please someone tell me they see the logic in that. Otherwise, you might be shooting yourself in the foot, people become less trustful of the dealer, and go out of their way to buy online, or in my case a neighboring state, and use whatever pawn shop that offers the lowest FFL, it all becomes a commodity to them at that point, you know what happens to people who sell commodities, right? The margins only get slimmmer.
I offered a local dealer a deal where I would buy a handgun and a shotgun, one deal was $900+tax, one deal (more expensive HG) was $1,000, which would have been close to what I could have done the deal online, or out of state, but still more buying from the more convenient local dealer, they couldn't get within $100-$150 on that two gun deal, and they want to charge $60 for a transfer. Why would I ever have a reason to go back there?
My .02
Karz
