Transfers insult to FFLs?

[Barr]

Well today I talked to one of the local shop owners and asked him his rate for transferring a pistol from out of state.

When I asked the rate he asked if it was a current production pistol or if it was an out of production pistol. He told me he has two different rates for each. He informed me it was an insult to him as an FFL if a customer ordered from someone else and had him transfer it.

I guess I can see his point if someone is just doing it to save 10-15 dollars, but if I am buying from an individual from another state or if another shop has a used pistol vs. a new one in this FFLs shop I see it as free enterprise.

What do you think?

 

[hexidismal]

Well.. My local guy has told me he won't transfer something in that he could get for me in his shop. It's somewhat annoying because his prices are definitely bordering closely on outright gouging. I think it's a bad practice on his part, because it just encourages me to go to a chain store like Gander Mountain for my purchases. If I can't get it transferred, I'll be buying it at the lower price. If he did do the transfers I wanted, then I'd be more apt to go to him for everything out of customer loyalty.

 

[RNB65]

I'd say, "Here's a quarter. Call someone who cares." Then go find another FFL. I'm paying him to perform a service and could care less if he's insulted.

My FFL charges $20 to do a transfer and readily admits it will be the easiest 20 bucks he'll make all day. Service with a smile.

 

[dbracin]

One LGS charges $50 to do a transfer. I suppose that is to discourage someone for wanting them to do it. But, there is a pawn shop close by that will do it for $20. They get my business.

 

[LubeckTech]

More often than not if the dealer recieving for you had the gun you want at a decent price you would buy it from him. Usually we are buying something the local shop does not have or can't get. If a dealer told me he was "insulted" by doing a transfer then why should he consider doing it? I think you are being insulted by the dealer's comment just for wanting something he can't supply. If possible I would find someone who WANTS my money and business. I do transfers with Cains Outdoors here in Parkersburg, WV for $15.00 per transfer. They are great people and when I go there I usually see something I just can't live without (sometimes guns) so they get more business out of me than if they were nasty to me. You catch more flies with honey than with viniger and it seems to me this guy is chasing away his business. Check out GunBroker and GunsAmerica who will help you find someone near you who wants your business!!

 

[Barr]

The gentleman I talked said $35 for non-current production and $50 for current production.

I see a transfer as basically being straight profit for half an hours work. Just have to log the gun and run a background check. I could be wrong, but the last I heard an FFL license costs 200 dollars a year. If you did eight transfers a year and made $25 dollars straight profit for labor which is the impression I get, the transfers paid for your license alone.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I can see where a gunshop would want to discourage transfers in order to boost his sales. But he's probably not the only game in town. Get a list of local FFLs from GunBroker or AuctionArms, and compare prices. If they're listed on those places, then they're willing to do transfers.

 

[earplug]

Saving money

Local shop had the firearm I wanted for $739 plus 6% tax = $783.00

I bought one online shipped to A FFL dealer for $660. FFL dealer charged me $20.00.

Its called profit or savings.

 

[Barr]

The big factor in TN is that the state sales tax is 9.5%. On an $800 dollar gun that can be roughly $80. On a $2-300 dollar gun that is not a big deal, but $80 can make or break that gun purchase for most people.

 

[logical]

My regular FFL for transfers is an older lady who handles them for her husband who has the FFl. They are into skeet/trap or whatever and I think just keep the FFL to do transfers and special order guns for the skeet/trap crowd at the sprortsmans club they hang out in. They have no store. Before I moved 20 miles away, I could walk to her house (not that I ever did) and she happily did the transfers for $15 and didn't feel it was her business to levy the state sales tax. Unfortunately they "winter" out of state.

My back-up FFL charges $25, sticks his nose into everything about the transaction and collects 6% state sales tax. (yes, in MI he can and is expected to do this assuming he reports it and passes it on to the state coffers....many small time FFLs don't. In MI and other states, technically you are supposed to report any out of state purchase and voluntarily pay the sales tax....yeah right)

The FFL at a local shop I've used (once) charges even more and is so cranky I wouldn't use him even if he did it free.

Apparently there are plenty of people who walk into the store and pay whatever the guy charges...they are people who are understandibly are uncomfortable with online buying. If the owner wants to charge a high price thinking it will sway the online savvy among us to buy at retail...that's his right....but I think it is short-sighted.

 

[ceetee]

The gun store nearest my house honestly seems to not want my business.

Everytime I've been there with cash in hand, the owner insults my knowledge and insults whatever gun I'm asking about. If he does carry the gun (even though his choice is much, much better) it's invariable priced at 150% of MSRP. You have to shoot his ammunition at his range, at his prices (double what you find at a place like Wally World). Most of the time, he's never even heard of the accessories I ask for. (For instance, we were once standing in front of a wall of Fobus holsters, when I asked if he carried kydex belt clips for a kydex holster. He said he didn't even know what kydex was.) He'll only do a transfer for you if there's no way he can get you the gun you want to buy.

Was it El Tejon, or Corriea that said most gun store workers are in the business of saying "No"?

 

[prolanman]

Most of the gun dealers/ranges on Long Island in NY will bend you over if you buy from out of state. Most charge $50 for a used gun and 25% of the cost of the gun for a new one. The cheapest I've been able to find an FFL to do a transfer for me on Long Island has been $50 new or used. I guess I'll be using him in the future.

If the price difference was only $50-$75 I'd give the local guy the business. Unfortunately the difference is usually $100 or more and then I have to pay 8.65% sales tax on top of that.

So if an FFL ever said to me he was insulted that I bought from out of state, I'd tell him that if he sold at a more reasonable price I'd buy from him. I know places are in business to make money, but I'm not going to have a gun retailer rape me and say thank you on the way out.

 

[RobG5538]

Wow. You guys are getting a bargain. Cheapest I found in N. Cal. is 75.00 transfer fee, plus 25.00 for the state check, plus tax at 7.75%. :banghead:

 

[browningguy]

I see a transfer as basically being straight profit for half an hours work. Just have to log the gun and run a background check. I could be wrong, but the last I heard an FFL license costs 200 dollars a year. If you did eight transfers a year and made $25 dollars straight profit for labor which is the impression I get, the transfers paid for your license alone.

It would require pretty good accounting to get to that result. He's paying insurance, rent, taxes, utilities etc. which creates an hourly cost, and hopefully they make something to feed the family. Not to mention things like depreciation. So for 30 minutes, maybe less, he's tied up doing your stuff. If they charge $25 (seems about average around here) that's $50/hour gross, subtract out the cost per hour previously identified and you get the amount left to buy groceries for the kids (after income tax of course).

They are lucky to be making $15 an hour after all that. Now if you can get it down to 5 minutes, and do 100 transfers a day it might make business sense.

 

[Barr]

I am sure that an FFL does much more than 8 transfers a year. In some of the shops in a good sized town I would think it could be as high as 8-10 transfers a month. Depending on the wholesaler, retailer, and the price of the gun, most dealers probably only make 20-40 dollars of profit on a gun. That figure could be higher or lower, but I would bet that would be the average. The two transfers that I have had done did not take more than 10 minutes to actually fill out the forms and transmit the data. I still had to wait 5-10 minutes for the response.

 

[Desk Jockey]

The guy that I use runs a pawn shop, charges $15 for a transfer, and probably does 6 to 10 a week.

The first time I was there, he had 3 of us running at the same time. After that, it's been a solo deal when I'm there, but he keeps a list of incoming guns that he's expecting. Judging from that list, he does a pretty good business in transfers. If he charged $25 like everyone else around here, he'd probably do 2 a week.

 

[Soybomb]

I say this in every one of these threads, find a local pawn shop that deals in firearms. I have yet to find one that isn't thrilled to have me come in for $20.

I haven't found any of the local gun stores to be friendly or helpful and I see no reason to pay a premium for their lack of service.

 

[Flatfender]

The local shop that does my transfers charges $20 and doesn't say a thing about any new or used gun I've ever transfered in.

They sell on gunbroker themselves, so they don't have a cow about transfers.

 

[Justin]

What do you think?

He sure seems overly touchy about taking money.

That said, for some stores, the time it takes to do a transfer like that may not make good business sense.

 

[Correia]

I love doing transfers. Even if they didn't buy the gun from me, it gets them in my shop.

The absolute best is when one of our regular transfer users gets a gun off of an auction or something, and brings it in to the shop, and then while we're doing the paperwork we find out he could have got it cheaper from us.

 

[The Rifleman]

The gun shop I use charges $10 for the call in fee and $10 for the paper work

I was told that they have to keep records of all gun sales and has to report all gun sales to the Federal Government once a month.

At 6% PA sales tax, on a $100 sale that is $6 Simple math.

I bought a Heritage Arms 22 / 22 mag pistol off my neighbor for $99.. It was a little beat up from being under the front seat of his truck and not in a holster.
While I was getting the paper work done. I bought a box of shells and also a holster. I felt cheated when in the sale paper a month later they had a Heritage Arms pistol just like the one I bought for $129.00 with a holster.

Now they are over $160 and I don't feel so bad....

That $10 you gave the dealer insures you that it is not a stolen gun and also a good dealer keeps his records for 10 years and if your weapon is stolen - he can provide the serial numbers for you to the State Police to help recover your firearm....

I believe that he told me that it costs him $5 to call in the purchase... That's all it cost's any gun dealer.. Unless you want to become anal and include gas, water, electric, telephone, tax, his social security, his pension, and his health insurance..

At $50, you ought to ask him for his social security number and claim him on your income tax as a dependant....

 

[Zundfolge]

I use two FFLs.

One has a shop where he works on rifles ... he could care less if I don't go through him but he has told me on a couple of occasions that he could have saved me a few bucks.

The other is in, (I kid you not) an Apple dealership ... so this guy sells Macintoshes and does FFL transfers (no gun inventory).

If I went to a regular gun shop to do my transfers, I would probably bring any "new in box" gun deals to his attention and ask if he wants to try to match or beat it, but for used stuff I would just order it and that would be that.

Wow. You guys are getting a bargain. Cheapest I found in N. Cal. is 75.00 transfer fee, plus 25.00 for the state check, plus tax at 7.75%.

Yikes! Thats rape!

Thats almost enough to make it worth getting your own Type 01 FFL and doing transfers yourself.

Seriously though, you should be able to do better. Go here and do a search http://www.gunbroker.com/User/DealerNetwork.asp

I didn't see any that high.

 

[battlehatch]

I just paid $25 for a long gun transfer today here in Petaluma...

 

[Alex45ACP]

So if an FFL ever said to me he was insulted that I bought from out of state, I'd tell him that if he sold at a more reasonable price I'd buy from him. I know places are in business to make money, but I'm not going to have a gun retailer rape me and say thank you on the way out.

+1

There are stores around here that have ridiculously high prices, and want $75 to do a transfer. Ridiculous.

 

[ken grant]

Better to make $20.00 doing a transfer and a favor for a customer than setting behind the counter wondering where customers are and making nothing.