What would make you happy?

[TforTexas]

Hopefully this isn't the sort of first post I have seen the old timers scoff at over the years but I will take my chances!

With the popularity of online gun sites like gunbroker and gunsamerica on the rise what are somethings you would like to see changed on the websites end that would benefit you as the buyer? I personally dislike that it can be tough to trust a seller without high ratings but everyone does have to start somewhere!

What pricing structure would you prefer? Keeping in mind it is a business and someone has to make a living off of it. Do you believe paying any sort of fees as a buyer (minus purchase price) is acceptable or it should fall upon the seller?

How would you deal with sellers who do not fulfill their end of an agreement as well as buyers who do the same?

I am asking this for personal gain in case it may seem that way, however, I believe it is a great topic of discussion!

Glad to be here,
TforTexas

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Upcharges for using a credit card make me mad, because that's how the world works nowadays.

Also, I wish the minimum bid was set at the reserve all the time. I have self control and if I am bidding on a gun and trying to get a good deal, and never reach the reserve, it turns me off and don't want to buy from that seller. I don't just keep bidding to hit the reserve if I think the gun is overpriced, so it just wastes my time.

I understand why it's done that way, as you can get higher bids on a product, but I just prefer upfront pricing. When do I lose my head and bid too much? I do when I've met the reserve and am going after a gun I feel will be hard to find somewhere else, and someone else is doing the same. I HAVE gotten into a few bidding wars in the last 15 minutes of an auction.

When I see a reasonable minimum bid and no reserve, or where the reserve IS the minimum bid, and no credit card fee, I start bidding, and if successful, I keep that seller in my list of folks I'd do business with again.

 

[TforTexas]

I agree 100% about the reserve. Its also frustrating when it is almost exactly what the buy it now price is.

 

[barnbwt]

But how else can you 'prove' to the wife you're trying to sell your guns, without actually selling them?

TCB

 

[yugorpk]

For online sales I'd like to see it more common that a dealer will allow buyers to use their services as an escrow of sorts. Say I see something I want to buy from a private seller. I do not want to send the seller cash or MO's directly because there is a possibility it is a scam. I contact a dealer in the sellers area and send the dealer say $50 for his efforts and a MO made out to the seller for the gun sales amount. The seller goes to the dealer and hands the dealer the firearm and the dealer does a cursory inspection to ensure the gun is as described. If the dealer says its OK the dealer hands the seller the MO and processes the gun through his books and sends my dealer the gun. End of story. Sounds easy enough and Ive had some dealers and sellers agree to those terms over the years but many dealers are to put it nicely because I have to on the High Road... a little difficult to deal with. One dealer even said send the seller over to him and he would offer the seller low blue book and then he would sell it to me at high blue book and charge me $100 to process the sale and ship. Ive also had a seller with a NIB 4 3/4" .45 Colt for $1100 a few weeks ago absolutely refuse to go along with that even though I had a dealer in his area ready to process the deal. Its because it was an Armslist scam.

 

[TforTexas]

Scams and misleading sales seem to be the two of the most difficult things when buying online. I have seen the same two shotgun combo for sale here on a local Texas site for over three years. Always the same pictures and different sellers!

 

[Swing]

In over a decade and a half of buying/selling on auction sites, I've had a generally very good experience. Some things that are annoying:

• Deadbeats. Fortunately, the few I encountered were banned pretty quickly.
• Those that try to weasel out of paying shipping when it is right there in the auction.
• I prefer AuctionArm's (AA) pricing structure to GunBroker's (GB).
• I prefer Gunbroker's selection and (generally) site mechanics better than AuctionArm's.
• The endless parade of tire-kickers and trollers finally resulted in me stop selling on AA, though I still buy there on the rare occasion.
• Sellers who list something as C&R, but refuse to ship to a C&R licensee.
• Reserve auctions, imho, are generally stupid. But it is simple enough to not bother with them.

I grant some of those would be difficult to handle from the auction site's perspective.

 

[TforTexas]

Thanks Swing for that great response!

 

[HammsBeer]

I prefer websites with flat shipping rates ($5-$10 is ok) instead of a gradually increasing shipping cost as you add even small items. Or advertise free shipping and roll the costs into the product! I would accept an exception for ammo reasonably being charged by weight.

Have the shipping costs up front instead of having to go through the order process only to empty the cart at the last minute because the shipping is outrageous.

I've had good dealings on gunbroker, but it pisses me off the sellers never leave me any feedback rating. I've always had payment in the mail the next day, and keep in contact by email.

I think the listing costs on auctions should be payed by the seller.

If someone has an overpriced item I see relisted month after month, it would be nice if there was a way to make them a more reasonable private offer without bidding if there are no current auction bids.

 

[bikemutt]

The only time I got upset on a gunbroker.com deal was when the buyer insisted I disassemble the high capacity magazines and ship them as "parts" in order to skirt his state's laws. He eventually agreed to complete the transaction without the magazines (at a lower price), but not before he laid me out for wanting to follow the letter of the law.

I've learned to add the "I will not modify...to circumvent any State's gun laws" to my listings.

For the most part though, I've have very good selling and buying experiences with gunbroker.com, gunsinternational.com and gunsamerica.com.

 

[bikemutt]

If someone has an overpriced item I see relisted month after month, it would be nice if there was a way to make them a more reasonable private offer without bidding if there are no current auction bids.

I've done this on items I especially would like to have. I use "Ask seller a question" and simply ask them to consider contacting me if a price adjustment is in the cards. At no time do I suggest the transaction be handled off-auction as that's against most auction site rules.

 

[Swing]

Thanks Swing for that great response!

Glad to help.

 

[spazzymcgee]

Cheaper shipping! Every FFL on Gunbroker seems to charge $50 for shipping much of anything, when I know FFL's can use USPS Priority Mail and ship most any handgun for under $20. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[TforTexas]

Cheaper shipping! Every FFL on Gunbroker seems to charge $50 for shipping much of anything, when I know FFL's can use USPS Priority Mail and ship most any handgun for under $20. Maybe I'm missing something.

The problem is that's pretty much 100% on the sellers end and nothing to do with the website. A possibility would be to require sellers to roll shipping charges into their reserve/buy it now price but that may not go over well.

 

[The Alaskan]

[*]Sellers who list something as C&R, but refuse to ship to a C&R licensee

This right here. This ticks me off. I let my C&R expire because I couldn't use it. I couldn't use it because no one online will accept a C&R for a C&R firearm. The websites should simply rule that any seller selling a C&R firearm must accept a a C&R license or they can't sell it on that site. Done.

But overall, I generally dislike online transactions with private parties and will avoid them whenever possible. I rarely have positive experiences with online auction sites. Actually, I've never bought a firearm via gunbroker, et al (see above for why), but I hate and despise eBay, and I don't see a lot of difference between the two.

Although, I like gunbroker's "going once going twice" policy of adding time after ever bid, rather than eBay's policy of an auction ending at a set time, which just means you don't bid anything at all until the last second, to keep the price down, and then you just try to be the last one to bid before the auction ends.

I've also had really really bad experiences selling on eBay, so I can't imagine I would ever sell a gun on gunbroker. Don't even get me started about PayPal.

 

[oneounceload]

Do you believe paying any sort of fees as a buyer (minus purchase price) is acceptable or it should fall upon the seller?

Really? All the seller will do is roll it into the purchase price; same for shipping, although selling the gun with shipping included seems to move things more quickly - at least on Ebay and other similar sites.

 

[The Alaskan]

Really? All the seller will do is roll it into the purchase price; same for shipping, although selling the gun with shipping included seems to move things more quickly - at least on Ebay and other similar sites.

Yup. The buyer pays ALL costs, some way, some how.

 

[TforTexas]

Yup. The buyer pays ALL costs, some way, some how.

And that is one of the MAJOR problems I have come across in my construction of this site. Trying to make it as advantageous for the buyer without causing sellers to gouge to make up for it. I have so many personal complaints about the current market options but once you are on the other side of things you do see things a bit differently.

 

[The Alaskan]

And that is one of the MAJOR problems I have come across in my construction of this site. Trying to make it as advantageous for the buyer without causing sellers to gouge to make up for it. I have so many personal complaints about the current market options but once you are on the other side of things you do see things a bit differently.

That's the free market capitalist system. You can't avoid that. Wal-Mart can't even avoid that. (Actually they can, but that's off topic.)

No matter what happens, a seller will figure out his total expenses and wrap it into his price. I've done it selling flea bay, and I do it with my rental property. (My tenants pay my property tax and insurance, even though they don't own the property, and can't get a tax benefit from it.)

 

[WestKentucky]

I just wish that dealers would cooperate in general. I have a good one on my end, but I haven't gotten to use him for anything other than face to face sales because others dealers or sellers are a pain in the rear.
Also... If I want to buy a gun I find in Tn, and there is another store owned by the same group then there shouldn't be a bunch of expense and frustration with gun being transferred from store A to store B so I can buy it legally.

 

[P5 Guy]

What would make you happy?

While not what the OP has asked, what would make me happy is all the silly anti-gun stuff go away and all the federal gun acts repealed.
I'm a dreamer I know.

 

[oneounceload]

And that is one of the MAJOR problems I have come across in my construction of this site. Trying to make it as advantageous for the buyer without causing sellers to gouge to make up for it. I have so many personal complaints about the current market options but once you are on the other side of things you do see things a bit differently.

Just remember this: TANSTAAFL

Most folks just don't get it; whether it is "soaking the insurance company" in a lawsuit (rates get raised), a "buy one get one free" from your grocery store to "free shipping"; the consumer ALWAYS pays.

 

[TforTexas]

While not what the OP has asked, what would make me happy is all the silly anti-gun stuff go away and all the federal gun acts repealed.
I'm a dreamer I know.

I didn't ask what would make us all jump for joy!

 

[Twiki357]

My pet peeve is the reserve auctions. I won’t even look at them anymore. If the seller has a minimum that he/she will accept then use that as the starting bid.

I’m also not very fond of Gunbrokers 15 minute rule. I understand that it is frequently a benefit to the seller, but from the buyers standpoint it’s a royal pain in the butt.

I expect to pay the shipping, but I don’t understand why there should be such a large difference in the amount from one seller charging $20 to the next one at $50. Most seem to be $30 or $35 so I top out at $35 and won’t even bid if shipping is more than that. I figure it’s just a rip-off seller.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

I just wish that dealers would cooperate in general. I have a good one on my end, but I haven't gotten to use him for anything other than face to face sales because others dealers or sellers are a pain in the rear.
Also... If I want to buy a gun I find in Tn, and there is another store owned by the same group then there shouldn't be a bunch of expense and frustration with gun being transferred from store A to store B so I can buy it legally.

I once asked a Cabela's why they'd have to charge me a transfer fee for having a gun shipped from one of their other stores. The guy in charge of the firearms department explained that each store has it's own FFL license and since any gun coming into that particular store has to be recorded in that store's books, they charge a transfer fee. He also said that the way their system works store A has to buy the gun from store B to keep track internally of where the profits are coming from and to which government taxes should be paid to. And he wouldn't say it out-right, but he hinted that on a large enough purchase they would drop the transfer fee. How much of that is true??? I don't know, but that's how it was explained to me. If that's all true, maybe the dealer you're talking about has similar policies.