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BUYING GUNS ONLINE
Red Flags
to watch
out for:
• Little or no sales history in a vendor
• Low or no customer feedback
ratings.
• Sellers demanding cash only
• Sellers who don’t want to answer
your questions or don’t answer
them to your satisfaction
• Sellers who offer shortcuts on the
transfer process or paperwork
(HUGE red flag!)
• Sellers who don’t provide contact
information
• Sellers who don’t accept returns
reserve price, a minimum price below
which the seller is not obliged to sell the
gun, automatic bidding will attempt to
meet the reserve price. Pay attention to
the reserve price: You can be the high
bidder on an auction and still not win it
because the reserve price has not been
met.
Many gun auctions have a “buy now”
price, meaning if you have a burning
desire for a particular piece and
don’t want to trust to your luck in the
auction, you can “buy it now” for that
price. For example, my wife likes 1911s
and has a birthday coming up. I found
a Colt Series 70 Combat Commander
on GunBroker.com. Bidding on it will
continue for four days and three hours
and the current bid is $630. The buy
now price is $1,200. If I’m satisfied that
my wife will really like this particular
Commander, I can skip the bidding and
pay the seller’s buy now price to buy the
item without having to bid on it.
As the end of bidding approaches, the
prices bid will likely go up. If I want to
bid on the Commander in our example,
I can either use the automated bidding
process mentioned earlier, or use the
“Watch” feature to follow the bidding,
and raise my bids as long as it isn’t more
than I want to pay. If the bidding goes
beyond what I want to pay, well, there’s
always another auction!
How does an auction end? It’s sort of
like a live auction, but not quite. There’s
no live auctioneer shouting “Going,
Going, Gone!” but most auction internet
sites have something similar.
GunBroker.com, for example, has a “15
Minute Rule” which just means that an
auction doesn’t close until there has
been no bidding activity for 15 minutes.
This allows everyone a fair chance to
bid on the item.
Having successfully bid on a weapon,
what’s next? Contact the seller to arrange
payment (including shipping and
transfer fees) and transfer of the item.
Payment is usually via PayPal, a credit
card or a money order, although some
vendors accept personal checks and wait
for the check to clear before shipping
the item. By federal law, all interstate
transfers of firearms must be through
Federal Firearms Licensees. Contact an
FFL near you and arrange their receipt
of the gun for you. A signed copy of your
FFL’s current federal firearms license
will be sent to the shipping FFL, who
will then ship the weapon to your FFL
in strict accordance with all applicable
federal and local laws and regulations.
Pay special attention to the gun
laws in your state. In the early days of
online gun sales, I lusted after a North
American Arms Guardian in .32 ACP.
I was living in Maryland at the time,
which banned the sale of the NAA
Guardian for reasons known only to
the Maryland Handgun Roster Board.
It wasn’t until after I had won the
auction that I discovered it was illegal
to own an NAA Guardian in Maryland!
Fortunately, the seller let me back out
of the sale, but most gun sales sites now
have prominent language reminding
bidders it is their responsibility to
check the laws of their states for the
legality of owning a particular firearm
or accessory.
If you don’t know of an FFL to receive
your newly-purchased firearm, don’t despair.
Most sales sites have lists of FFLs
in every state willing to receive firearms
transfers for you. If you plan on buying
a lot of guns online, I suggest shopping
for an FFL to receive your purchases
in the same way that you shop for firearms—which
is very carefully. Fees for
sending and receiving guns are set by
the individual FFL and they will vary.
In my hometown, Las Vegas, Nevada, I
have seen quotes for a firearms transfer
range from a low of $25 to a high of
$100, with something between $25 - $50
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USCONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n MAY/JUNE 2011