Why do FFLs charge fees for Transfers?

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Have you ever looked at your mortage papers for all the FEES on that document. How about the lawyers bill for all the fees down to every piece of paper copied. I just wish as a physician I could get 3 cents for every piece of insurance paper,Medicare forms I fill out for free. You know the guy sitting on the mule talking about getting your diabetic supplies supplied by Medicare sent to your home free and NO PAPER WORK. Guess who does the paper work ME. Yup just like the paper work on those overpriced nice red automated wheelchairs, diabetic shoes, those forms for your Family and Medical Leave so you get your 3 days off for a runny nose. Yep I do all of those. I keep wanting to get my rifle and shoot the mule out from under him.:D
 
Kim kind of beat me to it.

Go ask a lawyer how much it would cost for them to fill out a few pieces of paper work along with 15 minutes of their time. That $30 fee doesn't sound so bad after all.
 
My dealer charges $30.00. Out of simple respect for him, I never ask for him to do a transfer on an item he stocks or can order for me. I either buy such from him or obtain it elsewhere. I would never ask a businessman to order and sell an item for me from a wholesaler. That is trying to do two things that are not right: 1) Take advantage of his FFL. It's not mine. 2) Take away his profit on the item. Basically, I'm saying to him that he and his family has no right to make a living.

I refuse to do so. If I want to pay wholesale for my gun purchases then I need to obtain an FFL and enter the business.
 
Also, it's more than just "writing it down". AFAIK, the dealer is liable to provide the information as long the ATF wants it. At the local store, one copy is filed by manufacturer, one copy by buyer's name, and it's also entered into the computer

If you can't provide the info for just one gun, it's big time problems. Keeping track of all the guns that come in for sale, trade, consignment, and repair is a bigger job than I ever realized
 
Byron Quick said:
My dealer charges $30.00. Out of simple respect for him, I never ask for him to do a transfer on an item he stocks or can order for me. I either buy such from him or obtain it elsewhere. I would never ask a businessman to order and sell an item for me from a wholesaler. That is trying to do two things that are not right: 1) Take advantage of his FFL. It's not mine. 2) Take away his profit on the item. Basically, I'm saying to him that he and his family has no right to make a living.

I refuse to do so. If I want to pay wholesale for my gun purchases then I need to obtain an FFL and enter the business.
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Or just find a kitchen table dealer and pay him. The guy I use doesn't stock guns all he does is transfers. 10 bucks a pop it works out fine.
 
OnDuty said:
A silly question...

Is there any reason why dealers charge fees for tranfers? Seems like it is just to make some extra money? I have seen fees ranging from $30 to $10 per transfer.
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It was one thing when the FFL cost 30 bucks, and Clinton lead a purge of all the kitchen table FFL holders. So, the requirements, costs, and general hassle makes it worth something!
 
because they are for profit business. also, they risk getting stuck with a gun if you get denied.
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Actually I keep hoping this will happen. Someone pays for a gun, has it delivered to me, get denied on NICS, and then refuses to pay me the shipping cost to ship it back to the seller so they can get a refund? I've yet to run into anyone like this, but I keep hoping there is a free gun in my future :D
 
Seems like it is just to make some extra money?
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And the problem with this would be?

Back when I was in high school, taking Econ 101, my teacher, Mr. McLaren, said that economics should be a reqired subject. I see more and more every day that he was right.
 
There's no such thing as a free lunch..........

I use a couple of stocking dealers fairly often. Each charges me 10.00 I consider this to be a bargain. If it's a gun they stock or have access to I ask them for a quote. If it's reasonable I'll pay fifty bucks to keep them in business. I was a stockin dealer in the 70's and 80's.....Sometimes it pays not to be too cheap...........Essex
 
I had a local ffl once....

who wanted to charge 20% for ffl transfers. :what:

Did he really mean $20? That would have been fine. Nope. He meant 20% of the cost of the firearm.

It would be different if this guy had a ton of business, and just didn't want to be bothered with transfers. But in a small town, he needed every source of income he could get. As a result, I never went to him for anything, and he subsequently lost a great deal of money through a potentially loyal customer.

So, when I purchased my Anschutz's and other target rifles, he lost out. When I purchased my target ammo and accessories, he lost even more.

His competitor, however, made out like a good dealer should. He was happy. I was happy. Oh the joys of a free market economy.

I have no problem paying a reasonable fee. I usually wind up buying more in his shop than I otherwise would have.
 
maybe OnDuty isn't up to speed with the whole process and was wondering if there was more behind the scenes that might explain the fee. I like how a lot of you take the opportunity to get up on your soapbox and belittle him. If the answer is simply because they can or they are in the business to make money then so be it but don't insult the man's intelligence.
 
lol*

i saw the title and said to myself, "what a stupid question..."

and i'm a teacher who's trained never to call a question stupid...

FFLs are folks to need to earn a living, too.

That said -

I really get peeved at FFLs who charge $75 + DROS + TAX for a damn $150 bulgarian makarov that they refuse to sell themselves becuase "it's a junk gun".

I would be honored to pay up to about $40 - $75 is just really kinda rough.

Personally, if I was in business, I would charge 15% or $50, whichever is less.
 
I find myself glad that my dealer only charges $20, though he does do 10% on top end guns. And to be honest, if you're dropping 2k on a shotgun and not buying anything from the dealer, then 10% for the transfer is reasonable. Especially because most small gunshops can order most anything for you and make a profit themselves instead of facilitating another company's profit.
 
Here in Maryland we not only have to take the gun in, we have to hold it for 8 days, verify production date (internal Lock law), send the fired shell caseing to the MSP (finger printing), fill out 2 extra forms those in the free states don't have to, and then 8 days later we can release the gun if MSP has "Not Disapproved" you.

We charge range members $35 + 10 for the MSP Fee (hey, we gotta pay it, so do you) and non members get charged $55 + $10 MSP Fee.

If you want to support a store front, you gotta charge. And considering the BS we have to go through in this state, we don't charge that much.
 
Dasmi nailed it: they charge it because the market will support it.

Don't like it? Go into competition with them. And when you start doing free transfers, give me a call, eh?
 
CajunBass said:
$100.00? Sounds like someone who really doesn't want to fool with it in the first place.
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I think $25 of it is the DROS (state background check fee), so it's actually $75, but I know they do a lot of transfers when they go to the Nevada gun shows. I've never checked around, but I have a feeling it's the going rate around here. And by the way, they don't have to fool with all that jazz the people in Maryland do, as far as I know. They just use the same yellow form the feds use (or did it change color).

People often don't understand how much everything costs in Northern California. A nice middle-class house in a nice middle-class neighborhood (but nothing ritzy) will go for about $850,000 or so. Gas is normally well above the national average. After Katrina, people who were able to survive with McJobs in NOLA couldn't survive with the same McJobs in the Bay Area. It was a great place to move to and start a life 30 years ago, but not any more.
 
I was very lucky, I had an FFL who would charge me a very high price. He charged me a cup of coffee and being able to hold the weapon.
These were very expensive pistols/rifles and he got a charge out of seeing them. He didn't see firearms of this quality too often.
 
Naturally, because they can.

It's their time that's being wasted on this stupid, stupid bucket of regulatory hoohah designed to reduce firearm availability to the average person.
Personally, if I won the lottery tomorrow and opened a gunshop, I'd do transfers for free, all day long.
Not just because I'm cool like that, but because I believe it's an outrage to not only have to jump through the hoops like a trained cat for the amusement of beaurocrats, but have to pay off people who should know better than to play into the anti-gunners' filthy hands.

Also, I can't believe the prices being listed for transfers. $30 is sky high for a bit of paperwork, no matter how much of that is supposed to 'make up' for a 'lost sale'. Like someone would pay $200 for a Mosin M44 (not in any way worth that much- just a regular M44), you morons.
 
why does a FFL charge 20% or $100 for a xfer...because he can

why does a FFL charge a small, resonable fee...too keep the ATF happy

FFL is a dealers liscense, if you dont show that you are in business, you run the risk of not getting your liscense renewed.

btw, I am a kitchen-table dealer :)
 
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