Transfer Fee Increase

[hotpig]

I have only been in the business for ten years. I will admit that I suck as a businessman. If I did not have a full time job and a part time job my family would be living on welfare.

I have learned some valuable lessons on this forum.

I have to sale everything at wholesale prices.

I have to be available to answer questions and accept orders 24/7. I have a web store with a secure check out and real time inventory.I also have a toll free number and toll free fax.

Customers call me at all hours of the day and night. I just love being called at 3am for a shipping quote on a box of 9mm ammo.

I have to take credit card payments. I can not pass any of the costs (2.7-4.35% plus fees depending on the type of card)on to the customer.

I have to charge 2.7-4.35% plus fees less than the actual cost of shipping.

I have to offer interest free layaway for 90 days.

I have to match my competitors advertised discounted cash price. In other wards if the competitor charges 3.5% for credit cards I have to beat his price by 6.2-7.85% plus fees.

The only thing that I'm not getting from this forum is how do I pay for this stuff?

 

[45Badger]

1994 there were 245,628 Type 1 FFLs doing business in the USA.

2005 there were 54,902 Type 1 FFLs.

Think about that. Roughly 190,000 less FFLs.

Reasonable (to the customer) cost transfers never put anyone out of business. Gun stores make money the same way every other retail location does. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Provide quality goods and distinctive services. Price your items appropriately to have a balanced inventory turnover and return on invested cash. Maybe that means selling common items like Glocks for a low margin, but high turnover, and less common items with a higher margin and lower turnover. Again, not the consumer's problem.

I am not against transfers. I am against gun owners doing every thing they can to run more gun stores out of business with their penny pinching and out of state purchases.

Many gun store owners see this through a VERY narrow lens, and can get quite myopic when it comes to understanding and managing costs. A consumer should not be a victim to a retailer's inability to get a lower cost of goods. Improve your cost structure (and value proposition) to compete or die.

If you have a store who is doing you the favor of handling your transfers the least you can do is buy a box of ammo or a holster every so often.

Absolute common sense! First lesson my gunfreak friend taught me about gun stores when I was a noob. ALWAYS buy something.

I think the high transfer fee folks are gonna kill the goose. You'll end up with a few high end customers, who have high discretionary income. The "gun market" is not in place because you have an FFL and a shop. It is driven by demand, not supply. I do not see demand supporting $50 transfers. It just makes fieams ownership/collection more expensive and burdensome to the "average Joe", and in the long run will contibute to driving some folks out of the gun buying market. Won't the antis love that!

Like I posted earlier, I take my compulsive spending habits to places that don't rape me.

 

[45Badger]

I have only been in the business for ten years. I will admit that I suck as a businessman. If I did not have a full time job and a part time job my family would be living on welfare.

I have learned some valuable lessons on this forum.

I have to sale everything at wholesale prices.

I have to be available to answer questions and accept orders 24/7. I have a web store with a secure check out and real time inventory.I also have a toll free number and toll free fax.

Customers call me at all hours of the day and night. I just love being called at 3am for a shipping quote on a box of 9mm ammo.

I have to take credit card payments. I can not pass any of the costs (2.7-4.35% plus fees depending on the type of card)on to the customer.

I have to charge 2.7-4.35% plus fees less than the actual cost of shipping.

I have to offer interest free layaway for 90 days.

I have to match my competitors advertised discounted cash price. In other wards if the competitor charges 3.5% for credit cards I have to beat his price by 6.2-7.85% plus fees.

The only thing that I'm not getting from this forum is how do I pay for this stuff?

Again, not the consumer's problem. Free advice-

For starters, buy better. Negotiate better terms with your suppliers, negotiate better terms with your credit card processers, negotiate better terms with your bank. Are you a good valued/customer to these places? If you think so, see if someone else values your business even more.

I work as a sales manager for am obscenely large (@75B in sales) company, we are pretty efficient and frugal in out operations. Customers routinely (@ every three years) send out RFPs (requests for proposals) to all the major and minor players in my business. They are continously looking to lower their cost of goods and increase the service level and expertise that they get for the cost. I hate it, but it's the way of the world. To be fair to our customer base, the pressure they exert on our industry has resulted in taking millions out of the supply chain.

Nobody ever said it was gonna be easy.

 

[hotpig]

I have been working on the credit card issue. The direct companies offer better rates. Since I have a high risk business referred as MOTO because I never see customers and their credit cards I pay a higher percentage.

I thought that I had made a lot of headway this last week. My business looked good on paper. I look good on paper. I had never had a charge back, disputed charge, or fraudulent purchase. I was a shoe in according to the rep.Then they checked my web site.

Oh well back to square one.

 

[Rotty]

GreenFurniture....since you decided to direct something to me, I shall respond.
Are you in fact a FFL?
Have you ever heard of paying a reasonable fee for a service?
I am a FFL my business turned a profit after my second year, as both a gunsmith and FFL dealer.
I charge $10 for the average customer for a transfer, $5 for my repeat customers.
As a ffl doing the transfer I have the customer send the FFL to the dealer (they pay for sending the FFL) when they send there payment. (BTW I KNOW every one of my customers too)
when there firearm arrives I log it in, file the other FFL's info, (gee that took about 30 seconds)
customer arrives, as he/she is filling out the 4473, I am online doing the NICS check, I am usually done before he/she is. IF they need it I then help them complete any forms or answer any questions, if they don't need help I log the firearm out to them, they then pay me my fee and are on there way.
Like i said give or take 5 minutes for doing hardly anything, my pay and covering my expenses comes from my sales (which almost every one of my customers ends up buying from me more than once because i provide products and services at a reasonable price) and from gunsmithing, which again is appropriately priced.
I am not union, personally don't believe in them except when they are needed, which isn't very often any more here in the US, I am against them because they WOULD charge $50 for a F#@$*ng transfer then they would bitch about how hard it was to do.
So unless you know.........KMA
my customers are happy and keep coming back, and I'm making a profit.
can you say the same?

 

[CDignition]

this is what the free market is all about..if ya don't like the price, go somewhere that has a better one..they are free to charge anything they want, but when they see a sales decrease on the books, they will likely switch back. If they don't, it is their loss, not anyone else's.

 

[Cliff47]

I had a local pawn emporium with a gun store in the back that used to charge a flat $20 on transfers, then it got raised, incrementally to $35. I went out and found another pawn shop that, little to my knowing, was still transferring for $20, and now advertises that fact.

I have transferred three pistols thru the latest shop, and even found a nice 12-GA pump for a song (even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket), just before the last transfer. The next step is for them to start carrying new firearms, rather than just pawned items.

I still go back to the first shop, because they carry accessories at a very reasonable price, and they can custom-order for me. It's all a matter of keeping the best deal in sight.

If both were to raise the transfer fee to $50, like in the first post, I would find another transfer dealer, PRONTO!

 

[420Stainless]

In the long, or perhaps even short run, if the price of transfer fees reaches a point where it is lucrative for individuals to make a good living off of doing nothing but transfers - the market may shift to a few large internet dealers with very high volumes shipping through individual transfer agents. I think the lgs is safe for now with a large portion of customers not sure of the specific model they want, and many older folks who aren't used to the notion of buying sight unseen. But as demographics shift ever more to people who are used to shopping online, that will probably change. As it is now, the closest dealer to me sells a good percentage of his stock on gunsamerica and through online auctions. He is happy to process transfers at a reasonable fee since he uses the system as a sales tool as well.

 

[Koobuh]

"I am not against transfers. I am against gun owners doing every thing they can to run more gun stores out of business with their penny pinching and out of state purchases."

No small business can afford to carry every item that every person could possibly ever want. It is not physicially possible. That is why ordering from catalogs was popular, and now, ordering through the internet is popular.

As a (former) business owner myself, I would have been absulutely tickled pink that the government had MANDATED that any out of state mail order business had to pass through the doors of a licensed proprietorship, such as I owned.

FFL transfers are FREE MONEY. Get that? FREE. You do a little paperwork, and you get $10, $25, whatever. Thats huge.

THAT'S YOUR PROFIT MARGIN ON A THREE FIGURE SALE, NUMBSKULLS!!!

For what? Receiving a piece of mail, and doing some paperwork.

You didn't have to order it, carry it as inventory, depreciate it, enter it into your accounting logs, dust it weekly, nothing; just store it in the back until your customer comes to pick it up, and possibly some other things as well while they were there.

What is wrong with you numbskull 'business owners'? FFL transfers are FREE MONEY! On a sale you most likely wouldn't have gotten anyway, because you can't afford to meet the discounts catalog sellers manage because of their volume! If you could get the item at all!
The government is effectively subsidising your business massively by fiat, and you have the unmitigated GALL to complain about it, and sometimes even charge unreasonably high fees if you 'deign' to deal in such?!

$50 is absolutely out of this world. I pay $20 for long-guns, and it's too high (C&R here I come). My average purchase is around $200, typically for military surplus rifles. I don't buy lazzeronis or engraved remchester commemoritives, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to buy them locally, if even inside my state.

I'll tell you God's honest truth right now, my area SUCKS for finding military surplus or even used, current production firearms. There either just isn't a market for them, or there are a whooole lot of wealthy, stealthy collectors up here.

Which means, that if I want a particular piece, and a local shop either doesn't have it or is selling it at a gold-plated price, I'm buying it elsewhere and transferring it in. The gov says I must do it through an FFL, so I must- and give them some FREE MONEY for a few minutes of their time.

Anyone that wants to complain about getting FREEE MONEEEY -should- go out of business, because they ARE MORONS!



EDIT:
Greenfurniture, how do you justify your absolutely ridiculous statement, re: 'everything eventually comes through the store anyway', when that can't possibly be true for your store, however large and excellently established and lavishly financed; let alone for a small mom'n'pop in the Fourth Corner of Washington, which has trouble getting anything more esoteric than Mosin Nagant rifles?
Buying local is a good sentiment and one I follow if possible, but sometimes your needs simply cannot be met locally- in that case, if a local business can benefit from government regulation via a transfer fee, is it really such a big deal to have something shipped in?

Additionally, on new production firearms (for example, I'm looking at a varmint rifle), the price difference is often hundreds of dollars. It's nice to pay more to support local businesses, but for a lot of people, a couple hun represents -days- of work thrown away for sentimentality, or perhaps the utility of having it 'today'. In that case, a retailer could see the FFL fee, or nothing. Is nothing better than a little something? Clearly not.

 

[GreenFurniture]

GreenFurniture....since you decided to direct something to me, I shall respond.
Are you in fact a FFL?

Yes, yes I am. Type 07. What's yours?

Have you ever heard of paying a reasonable fee for a service?

Why yes I have. It's not that advanced of a concept.

I am a FFL my business turned a profit after my second year, as both a gunsmith and FFL dealer.

Well congratulations! In the current climate it tough for any type of stand alone business to make it more than one year. You really must have an uncanny ability to manage your time and your business. What gunsmithing school did you attend? Maybe you and I know some of the same people.

I charge $10 for the average customer for a transfer, $5 for my repeat customers.

That's great. I'm glad you have a loyal customer base. We charge a flat $35 for transfers. But we also pay for all background checks for our members.

As a ffl doing the transfer I have the customer send the FFL to the dealer (they pay for sending the FFL) when they send there payment. (BTW I KNOW every one of my customers too)

Yes, the customer sometimes will pay for postage, but we generally take care of that ourselves to save them the trouble as well as to keep our signed FFL out of the hands of someone who might have the best of intentions.

You know every one of your customers? How many are we talking about? I try my best to remember most of our regular customers and do my best to make first time customers feel welcome and at home in my shop.

when there firearm arrives I log it in, file the other FFL's info, (gee that took about 30 seconds)

Yep, it takes about a minute or so to track down the shippers information and another minute or so to log it in. The problem is that we are logging in about twenty or more guns a day so that makes the whole process a little more complicated than that of a one man gunsmithing shop.

customer arrives, as he/she is filling out the 4473, I am online doing the NICS check, I am usually done before he/she is. IF they need it I then help them complete any forms or answer any questions, if they don't need help I log the firearm out to them, they then pay me my fee and are on there way.

The online check really has saved some time for a lot of us. I'm just glad that we have a dedicated person to do all of our online background checks.

Like i said give or take 5 minutes for doing hardly anything, my pay and covering my expenses comes from my sales (which almost every one of my customers ends up buying from me more than once because i provide products and services at a reasonable price) and from gunsmithing, which again is appropriately priced.

Sounds like you've got one hell of a system there. Hey, do you have a price list of services you offer? I might be interested in some of your work.

I am not union, personally don't believe in them except when they are needed, which isn't very often any more here in the US, I am against them because they WOULD charge $50 for a F#@$*ng transfer then they would bitch about how hard it was to do.

You're right, and it would take thirty people to do it!

So unless you know.........KMA

Well it looks as if you're cross with me. For that I am sorry.

my customers are happy and keep coming back, and I'm making a profit

We do a good business. Our retail software just had to be upgraded for the fourth time since we have once again maxed out our customer data allotment.

can you say the same?

Well, I sure hope so since we're moving into two more markets.

 

[JohnBT]

"FFL transfers are FREE MONEY."

Maybe it's free if the store has an employee standing around doing nothing, but if that employee can sell a gun instead of fooling with a transfer the store stands to make more money. One local shop has 3 registers and the guys stay busy selling guns and ammo and stuff. They have 4000+ guns in stock and they move guns out the door day after day, year after year - seven days a week.

The last time I asked about a transfer it was $40 and they really weren't enthused by the prospect of making a whole $40. OTOH, they'll show you guns until you get tired of looking, scroll through the computerized inventory to identify specific models/variants still in the warehouse and then make the long walk to the back to drag them out for a look-see.

John

 

[sixgunsblazing]

I'm just glad I have several gunshops willing to do my transfers for 25 or less, and they get a lot of my business. New guns mean new ammo, holsters, slings, cleaning kits, ect. None of which I would buy from a shop like yours, but stuff I do buy from my local, low cost guy.

 

[razorburn]

Since he's posted the stores address...

He has a right to charge whatever they wish, it is their store. Customers also have a right to choose where they want to spend their money. Here's a listing of other dealers in his area who charge a fraction of what he does.

7.0 miles
Mark Hughes
Mark's Cop Shop
Hoover, AL 35226
email: Click here to email me
cellular: 205-365-3791

Hours: Mon-Tue. 9:00am-5:00pm
Transfer fee: $15.00 Click here to visit us on the Web

I am a private dealer. Please call during business hours (Mon.-Tues. 9am-5pm) for an appointment. Visit our website for some great deals on law enforcement equipment!

Approximate distance: 8.5 miles
The Gun Cellar
1777 Montgomery Highway Suite 105
Hoover, AL 35244
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-987-9777

Hours: 10:00a.m.-7:00p.m. Mon-Fri, 10:00a.m.-6:00p.m. Sat
Click here to visit us on the Web



Approximate distance: 13.1 miles
Bill Dollar, Aaron Rheams
JoJo's Gun and Pawn
4612 5th Ave South
Birmingham, AL 35222
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-591-7296
fax: 205-591-7297

Hours: 10:00am-6:00pm Mon-Sat
We only sell guns if we have them below wholesale. Best prices garanteed.

Approximate distance: 13.1 miles
Alabama Training Institute
Birmingham, AL 35222
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-592-3004
fax: 205-592-3034

Hours: 10:00am-8:00pm Mon-Sat, 1:00pm-8:00pm Sun
Transfer fee: $25.00 Transfer Fee 9% sales tax Click here to visit us on the Web

Indoor Shooting Range, Training Classes, Accessories, Firearms, and much more.

Approximate distance: 14.5 miles
Scott's Jewelry & Pawn
873 1st Street North
Alabaster, AL 35007
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-664-4032
fax: 205-664-4134

Hours: 9:00am-6:00pm Mon-Fri; 9:00am-5:00pm Sat
Transfer fee: $20.00 long guns, $20.00 handguns, plus $5.00 NICS and 8% sales tax

Approximate distance: 14.7 miles
Chris Street
Chris Street Guns
5051 Lee Street drive
Cahaba Valley, 119 area
Birmingham, AL 35242
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-991-7025

Hours: Call for appointment.
Transfer fee: $15.00 I am a private dealer and do not have a shop. I sell from my home by appointment. Call for available guns and prices.

Approximate distance: 14.7 miles
Robert F. Smith
Original Magazines
4128 Sicard Hollow Rd.
Birmingham, AL 35242-5602
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-967-1530
cellular: 205-903-7883

Transfer fee: $30.00 per item Magazines for pistols and rifles, specialty gun parts, Lugar restoration, rust blueing, quality shotguns.

Approximate distance: 21.7 miles
James Nicholas
XD-HS2000
2650 Sweeny Hollow Rd.
Birmingham, AL 35215
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-681-2001

Hours: 10:00am-8:00pm Mon-Fri Central Time
Transfer fee: $10.00

Jerry L. Bell
The Gun Room
804 Northcrest Drive
Birmingham, AL 35235
email: Click here to email me
phone: 205-833-3677
fax: 205-661-6051
cellular: 205-919-1456

Hours: 4:30pm-10:00pm Mon.-Fri., (9:00am-9:00pm Sat.
Transfer fee: $20.00 (01 Transfers) $75.00 (Class III Transfers)


If I lived around his area, I may post these listings on the public street outside his shop.

 

[Pa. Patriot]

I charge $15
I don't have a gun store (gunsmith) but if I did I would charge $15... I would want as many people as possible to FIND my establishment (IE: get them in the door).
Charging $50 for a transfer is the wrong way to ATTRACT customers that might need ammo, accessories, other guns etc. etc.

 

[45Badger]

I charge $15
I don't have a gun store (gunsmith) but if I did I would charge $15... I would want as many people as possible to FIND my establishment (IE: get them in the door).
Charging $50 for a transfer is the wrong way to ATTRACT customers that might need ammo, accessories, other guns etc. etc.

BINGO!

One local shop has 3 registers and the guys stay busy selling guns and ammo and stuff. They have 4000+ guns in stock and they move guns out the door day after day, year after year - seven days a week.

JohnBT- What is shop name? I get to Richmond pretty often for work and would love to check it out. Thanks!

 

[JohnBT]

Green Top - U.S. 1 north of Richmond & south of Ashland

www.greentophuntfish.com/index.asp

They're so busy they don't even do internet sales.

John

 

[solareclipse]

Well my new dealer (old one moved) charges 30, which is way up there. But 50$ is just pushing it.

I can understand on "stamped" weapons and "special" steel but on non restricted items it's a robbery...

 

[Lupinus]

Happy customers are repeat customers, any succesful retailer knows that.

Ticked off customers who feel they are being analy violated aren't going to do their transfer there, aren't gonna buy the gun there, and wont buy anything else there. You can either take a slight per sale loss and make more money in the long run through repeat loyal buisness, or make more per sale loose sales and never see the customer agian.

I will take option A thanks. Rotty has the right idea.

 

[Monkeybear]

Some people like to bar hop on the weekends but I think most people just want to find that one good one to go to whenever they want a drink.

I think that what alot of us want is that one GOOD gunshop.

For the customer that one shop that has a good selection, fair prices, friendly service and friendly policies. Friendly policies are policies that don't make the customer have to look for another place to shop. Friendly service means not making me have to put up with crap because of some jerk you had to deal with eairler today, or last week or whenever; its not my fault. Fair prices are more difficult because fair is a two way street. Basically fair tries to make it easy for you to stay in business while trying to make it easy for me to buy from you. It's not wholesale and its not MSRP on a used gun and MSRP + 10% on a new one. A good selection means try to carry something other than Glock and Charter Arms. At least offer to try to order something if you don't have it.

For the gun shop that requires regular customer, customers that actually want to buy a gun, that have money, are friendly and don't have excessive expectations or demands. Excessive demands mean expecting everything to be sold at cost with a free box of premium ammo and some cash to cover gas for the trip. People always get mad when someone else makes a profit. Don't. Being friendly means let the guy at the counter know when you are just looking and when you are buying. Don't dirty up the glass on every single display. Don't ask to see 40 guns just for the hell of it: a gunstore isn't the Children's Museum. Be a regular customer, you don't have to have the absoulte best price on every single gun every time. If a store treats you right go back, bring money and buy what you want there.


In the end the problem is that alot of gunstore suck but then so do alot of customers. We can bash the guy all we want for his $50 transfer fee but without knowing what kind of outfit he is running we really don't know if its fair or not. If everyone else in the area is charging $50 why shouldn't he. I think some of us have had enough bad expierences with bad stores that we may be taking some of that out on this guy. I figure that if he is a High Roader I'll give him the benifit of the doubt and assume that he is likely running or working for a well run, fair and friendly outfit.

If we want better service and prices what we all need to do is try to be better customers that support our local stores; the good ones that is. Keep in mind that most private gunstores can't give you the best prices everytime and if you take business away from them just because they can't give everything away for a song dosn't mean they are doing something wrong. Everytime you snub a store for offering a fair price you just make it harder for him sell something at a good price.

Sorry if this turned in to a rant. I need some sleep.

 

[Zundfolge]

$50 would be too high for the area I live in and would be considered a "go away" price (in other words, go away, we don't want your FFL transfer business).

As for transfers being "free money" thats a little ridiculous. The dealer has to expend time and effort (and a little liability...these are BATFE forums after all). However too many brick and mortar gun shops see mail order as stealing their business.

Some states also charge for the background check (they're trying to pass that crap here in CO) so I dunno where Ala Dan is, maybe they have a charge like that there.

It would seem to me that charging too much for transfers would ultimately be counter productive.

So what is the competition charging?

 

[GreenFurniture]

Koobah stated:

EDIT:
Greenfurniture, how do you justify your absolutely ridiculous statement, re: 'everything eventually comes through the store anyway', when that can't possibly be true for your store, however large and excellently established and lavishly financed; let alone for a small mom'n'pop in the Fourth Corner of Washington, which has trouble getting anything more esoteric than Mosin Nagant rifles?
Buying local is a good sentiment and one I follow if possible, but sometimes your needs simply cannot be met locally- in that case, if a local business can benefit from government regulation via a transfer fee, is it really such a big deal to have something shipped in?

Like Tamara said to me a couple of years ago, "A gun store is the spider in the middle of the web. No matter what you want, if you give it some time it will come in." I too thought this was nuts, but she was right. I've watched very closely and if someone is looking for something it will eventually come in. If the shop keeper doesn't know you're looking for a specific item chances are they'll pass on it and you'll still be sitting in Nowheresville Washington lamenting your situation. Take some initiative, make yourself happy.


I'm not against transfers. I love them to be honest. But as a long time business owner it amazes me how stupid people can be about certain things.

How much is your time worth? How much is it really costing you to transfer in a gun you might be able to find locally and *gasp* even save a buck or two after you really sit down and add up your true cost associated with the purchase.

 

[swingset]

Horrible business sense charging $50 for a transfer. There's no justification for it that compensates for what you LOSE.

A small minded businessman sees this interaction as work on your part, or a missed sale because you're transferring instead of selling.

A good businessman sees this exchange as a chance to sell your shop to a customer. You've got him in your store, you've got his attention for a few minutes, and you've got the chance to make a connection with him and find out what he's interested in, how you can sell to him (even if it's ammo for his new gun), and what accessories he may need. You can even tempt him with a sale instead of going the transfer route the next time around. You have what all advertising seeks to achieve - feet through the door. And, I'll bet you think transfers aren't good for you??

If you make this small transaction $50 when a small shop will charge $20 (or less), you have not only lost $50, but the customer's face in your shop.

Business 101, and you flunked.

(my FFL charges $15, and loves doing them)

 

[Flyboy73]

I would like to throw my 2 cents to this thread, since i was thinking of starting one anyways.

I went to my FFL who had charged me $25 and this year went to $35. Since i went into the store for my first transfer i have bought a gun and ammo.

I also had a gun i bought off Auction arms and need a FFL.

I found one local who will do it for $15.

Guess who got the business. If they had not raised there price, i would not have went elsewhere. And may not come back to there shop at all.

Has the workload of a transfer increased? what the reason for the increase?

Are you trying to get rid of doing them?

Brion

 

[dogtown tom]

My dad (eighty in June) was in the grocery business with Safeway for 40+ years. Retired in 1984 having only had two employers- US Army and Safeway.

His position involved merchandising & grocery supply for a 100+ store division.

Did you know that grocery stores LOSE $$$ EVERY time they sell a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk? Why in the world would they intentionally price two of the most commonly used staples in any household below their cost?

In the grocery business it's called a "loss leader". Cheap bread and cheap milk will get you into the store. They are well aware that once in for only a loaf of bread you stand a better than 90% chance of buying one other item. An item that they do make a profit on.

Look at the newspaper grocery ads. Notice how the SAME items appear on special week after week?

Notice how they arrange the stores now? Produce, bakery, meat departments first and dairy is a winding walk to the back of the store? It ain't an accident, it's merchandising.

I don't have a lot of love for Wal Mart. But I give them credit for being masters of merchandising. If it doesn't sell they discount it below cost just to get rid of it and clear shelf space for something new.

I went to the gunshow this weekend in Mesquite. Lot of tables. Lots of guns. The dealer selling the most (as always) Jeff Schramm. From what I can tell he doesn't have an actual store. Must have a dozen people working the show- most are paper pushers handling the 4473's. His prices are fair, and his selection at each show is in the hundreds. Twenty feet away is another "dealer" with one table and a NIB .40 FN Hi Power marked at $600. He's been trying to sell it for about a year. I bought mine from Schramm's for $400. One satisfied with a small profit per gun via many sales. The other looking to make one great sale. Who's the better businessman?

 

[Professor K]

50 is too much, for NFA transfers, it's OK, but I wouldnt do over 30 for a FFL transfer. My gun shop rext next to my house charges 25, which is good for CT.

I dont know about your particular shop, but the 50 dollar FFL fee would put me off going there.

You're getting people in your store. You have a chance to make them buy stuff. "But all people who buy guns online buy everything else online", that's kinda BS first off, and second, you can change that! People still buy stuff from brick and mortar stores, where do you get most of your food and clothing from? And second, you can change that they buy everything online.

Here's how, by talking to people! Now, while you do the transfer, you can ask questions like, "you want any ammo for this? We have X special on X ammo." Or, you can just ask him about guns and products he's interested in and then direct him to stuff you have. It's called social skills, and it seems a lot of gunstores lack it, and just stare blankly or not talk instead of striking up a conversation with their customers.

You could ask them where they buy ammo, ect. They'll prolly say online if they buy online, they dont really got any reason to lie. Then, what you can do is ask how much they pay, surprise, you might have some good deals for him! I've heard stories of people doing transfers on guns, then telling the person that he had one cheaper.

For accessories, like say you sell Wolf 7.62x39 for....180 dollars a case of 1000. The online store he goes to sells it for 160 a case, but wait, there's shipping, 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 is some heavy stuff, so add 20+ dollars on for that. All he has to pay for you is sales tax which is like 7-10 dollars, and he can walk out the door with it that day. Just emphasize the fact that he gets it the same day and stuff.

Hell, if you need to, you could artificially extend the time it takes to get stuff transferred so you could talk to your customers. I mean, unless your customer is a true gangsta n1gg4 souljah who needs his gat to cap some foos, you prolly wont have much to worry about if you take a little longer to give him some time to look at stuff in your shop or talk to him.

Also, you too can use the series of tubes to your advantage! Gunbroker, GunsAmerica, you could put all your stuff on there for free. You could make a website, it costs 100 dollars a year for a Dreamhost server with 200 gigs of webspace and 2 terabyes of bandwith, you could even make money renting out your FTP space to other sites. What do you think the big bad horrible sites online are? Guess what, they're brick and mortar FFLs, too! I dont think too many of them are entirely online.

As for "oh, if you want it it'll come to the gun shop eventually, just have patience." Wow..... What if the guy sees like a 1911 GI bringback with a cool story behind it, or an NFA item or whatever? What if a guy sees an old rifle a relative sold 30 years ago end up on gunbroker, will all this stuff just kind of eventually float into the gun shop? There's a chance it might, but it's relatively small. Why should he just wait for it eventually show up at a later date when he can get it now?

The other issue with that, is that different guns, even though they are the same model, are different. Some guns may have trigger work done to them, some guns may have different springs, ect. I think most of it, though, is someone takes a picture of that particular gun, and you like his particular gun, and you buy his particular gun. Maybe there's nothing different or remarkable about the gun at all, but you want that gun.

I guess that's all. Sorry for the long rant, I guess just keep FFL transfer fees low, as there's no reason to keep them high, unless you are a bad salesman, or have bad prices and selection on your stuff.