Is Gunbroker a good place to buy

[tain669]

Can someone please let me know their experience from this site?

[CAP Black]

It is just another place where you deal with the general public. All kinds of buyers and sellers all over the globe. Some folks are easy to deal with; others are not. You just have to be very careful and doubtful. It is easy to get taken for a ride. I have had lots of success and some bad experiences.
Some people feel they can show a picture, say something good about the item and if you purchase and there is a flaw, they have said no refund and you are stuck. That isn't always true.
With some force you can get your money back.
My experiences.
You pay your money and you take your chances.
Jack

[Curly1]

I have won several auctions on and have not had any problems.

But it depends on the seller in the end.

Ask questions and look for a return policy. If I do not get a reply to a question I move on.

Bad pics or lack of pics I move on also.

[sheepherder]

IMHO, Gunbroker.com is an excellent place for an informed buyer to purchase what they want. I have 36 or so purchases with no problems. (I do not count problems that I am aware of).

Do your research. Ask questions, even if you know the answer. It's important to get a feel for the seller. Does he answer at all??? Is he informed on the item??? Will he provide additional pics??? Is he an arrogant know-it-all??? Will he post corrections or additions to the description??? Is he friendly??? Are his pics clear and viewable??? Will he stop what he is doing and go look in the safe and answer your questions??? (Brad Simpson & his associates will!)

There's a bunch of flakes on GB, some are mentioned on this forum. One of the most frustrating is Gander Mountain, as their individual stores advertise & sell with conflicting sales conditions.

I always pay by USPS Money Order with the accompanying FFL, as the Postal Inspectors seem to like mail fraud investigations. There are stories here on that too.

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by postino

IMHO, Gunbroker.com is an excellent place for an informed buyer to purchase what they want. ...
...Do your research. Ask questions, even if you know the answer. It's important to get a feel for the seller. Does he answer at all??? Is he informed on the item??? Will he provide additional pics??? Is he an arrogant know-it-all??? Will he post corrections or additions to the description??? Is he friendly??? Are his pics clear and viewable??? Will he stop what he is doing and go look in the safe and answer your questions??? (Brad Simpson & his associates will!)

There's a bunch of flakes on GB, some are mentioned on this forum. One of the most frustrating is Gander Mountain, as their individual stores advertise & sell with conflicting sales conditions.

I always pay by USPS Money Order with the accompanying FFL, as the Postal Inspectors seem to like mail fraud investigations. There are stories here on that too.

+1!
Do not bid on faith! Bid as though you do NOT have X-ray vision!

[singleshotman]

I have had no trouble yet on Gunbroker.I have long since given up on gun shows,not worth the price of admission plus parking and gas.The last time i bought a gun at a gun show was over ten years ago,even then things were out of all reason.All the gun dealers i saw were looking for a sucker to fleece.However,gun shows are a great place to buy books at,but nowdays i buy more books on the net.

[sheepherder]

I am a firm believer and staunch supporter of Gunbroker.com, but I mentioned Gander Mountain so I would like to relate a story about that sports chain...

A couple years ago, I found just what I was looking for in a pistol, being sold on GB by the Green Bay WI Gander Mountain store. I emailed and eventually phoned the sporting goods manager of the store, and we agreed that the BIN price was reasonable. I asked about shipping and was told that since there was a Gander Mountain store near me, they would ship it there for no charge. As I would pay the Green Bay store by CC, there would be no state or local sales tax either (Internet sale). The manager also said they would waive the FFL transfer fee since it was an inter-chain transfer. I would only have to produce my Pistol Permit, get a purchase coupon from my local PP Office, and I would be home free. He said he would take care of all the Gander Mountain associated paperwork.

All sounded great. But I am paranoid. Everybody wants to screw me. So I went to my local Gander Mountain in Tonawanda NY and showed their store manager the [printed-out auction + email] deal. This guy was very disdainful, and told me there would be a shipping charge, an FFL receiving fee, and 8% NYS sales tax on the full amount of the sale. This all would have added up to an additional $115+ on the price of the pistol.

I left. I emailed the Green Bay manager and told him what the Tonawanda manager had told me. He said that different stores had different policies, but he would take care of it. I never heard from him. The pistol was still for sale some weeks afterward (re-listed), but I had found another one by then.

I was very annoyed. I had only once before been in the Tonawanda store, to look at Buck knives. Although I was dressed very 'upwardly mobile', I was ignored for about 15 minutes, while I circled the knife counters. No problem there; I don't like sales talk. But I was annoyed to find out I knew more about the knives I was looking at than the clerk did. Like what scales the knives had, what alloy of steel the blade was, which sheath came with it (the clerk said no box/no sheath/no paperwork etc), pretty much anything associated with the 'limited edition' Buck knives on display. Really annoying. I ended up buying the ones I wanted directly from Buck via the Buck Collectors Club.

Strange but true that some stores really work hard to alienate potential customers and lose their business. In my case, I am only too glad to accommodate them and spread the word as well.

/rant

[alanint]

Like any Big Box establishment, sales personnel are not necessary trained nor even interested in what they sell.

[Karl]

So far (fingers crossed), I have had satisfactory experiences on Gunbroker and even made a few outstanding purchases. It is important to ask the right questions and make your expectations crystal clear (in addition to an understood return policy). The seller's history is important but one of my best purchases was from a rookie with no seller's history. I also use US postal money orders. I have also been disappointed with gun shows and despite all the boosted and misrepresented crap on GB it is probably about the best public source for the collector.
KFS

[kubel]

+1 on the recommendation for Gunbroker. I've had dozens of selling and buying transactions through their site and have never had a problem.

As other posters mentioned, have a good idea of what you're looking for before blindly bidding and don't impulse buy and assume everything will turn out alright without asking questions. Lastly, don't hesitate to pass up something that seems suspicious or if the seller's a jerk. There are thousands of guns on that site and other deals are usually just a click away.

[SteveM]

I have bought lots of pistols on GB and have yet to have a bad experience. I always check the sellers feedback and read the comments. As a matter of fact I just picked up a like new 1975 PPK/s 22 today that I had won on Saturday. Like some of the other folks that have commented, I don't bother with gunshows much anymore either.

[Patronen]

Originally Posted by postino

I am a firm believer and staunch supporter of Gunbroker.com, but I mentioned Gander Mountain so I would like to relate a story about that sports chain...

A couple years ago, I found just what I was looking for in a pistol, being sold on GB by the Green Bay WI Gander Mountain store. I emailed and eventually phoned the sporting goods manager of the store, and we agreed that the BIN price was reasonable. I asked about shipping and was told that since there was a Gander Mountain store near me, they would ship it there for no charge. As I would pay the Green Bay store by CC, there would be no state or local sales tax either (Internet sale). The manager also said they would waive the FFL transfer fee since it was an inter-chain transfer. I would only have to produce my Pistol Permit, get a purchase coupon from my local PP Office, and I would be home free. He said he would take care of all the Gander Mountain associated paperwork.

All sounded great. But I am paranoid. Everybody wants to screw me. So I went to my local Gander Mountain in Tonawanda NY and showed their store manager the [printed-out auction + email] deal. This guy was very disdainful, and told me there would be a shipping charge, an FFL receiving fee, and 8% NYS sales tax on the full amount of the sale. This all would have added up to an additional $115+ on the price of the pistol.

I left. I emailed the Green Bay manager and told him what the Tonawanda manager had told me. He said that different stores had different policies, but he would take care of it. I never heard from him. The pistol was still for sale some weeks afterward (re-listed), but I had found another one by then.

I was very annoyed. I had only once before been in the Tonawanda store, to look at Buck knives. Although I was dressed very 'upwardly mobile', I was ignored for about 15 minutes, while I circled the knife counters. No problem there; I don't like sales talk. But I was annoyed to find out I knew more about the knives I was looking at than the clerk did. Like what scales the knives had, what alloy of steel the blade was, which sheath came with it (the clerk said no box/no sheath/no paperwork etc), pretty much anything associated with the 'limited edition' Buck knives on display. Really annoying. I ended up buying the ones I wanted directly from Buck via the Buck Collectors Club.

Strange but true that some stores really work hard to alienate potential customers and lose their business. In my case, I am only too glad to accommodate them and spread the word as well.

/rant

I used to work with a guy that ended up quitting and went to work for GM as a Supervisor in the gun sporting goods dept. Nice guy, knew alot about hunting etc. and new guns like beretta, browning shotguns, new guns basically. Was absolutely clueless on older guns and regarded them as junk. We would converse and he would laugh at them and couldn't understand why anybody had any interest in them. We kept in touch for a while after he went to work there. I went over to his store one time and there was a discount table set up with misc. stuff that they were trying to sell that looked to appear split up from when they took something in a trade. There was stuff on that table dirt cheap and of course since I knew his attitude towards old things I respectfully did not educate him on their value.

[sheepherder]

Doug & Dave -

I understand it is a dead end job, being a GM employee, but I would expect a manager at least to have some interest in selling the displayed items. Knives that were listed at $200+, used pistols at $800+.

I've had really good transactions on GB. The only ones that were bad were the ones I didn't pursue. For example: Jack County doesn't reply to email inquiries about advertised guns; another seller of Lugers in Nanuet NY would not answer emails (and changed his username on GB at least twice); a seller of an 1888 Commission carbine would only send it to an FFL; several sellers refused to admit their descriptions were wrong; several sellers had no FFL but still wanted my FFL receiver to accept it (illegal in my state). Another pet peeve is asking several questions about a gun for sale and having only one question answered.

Another questionable practice was a seller who sold a Luger on GB for ~$1800 but still had it listed on their web site as 'available' for ~$2500. I emailed them and was assured it was still available. But GB lists it as a 'completed auction' and sold...WTF???

[Like_Old_Guns]

All good advice in the posts above. My take is that you see more in a short time on GB than you'd ever see in a lifetime without it. I've found variations that I would have never ever found otherwise. The downside is that bargains are few and far between. They do happen, usually with poor photos, vague descriptions and uneducated Sellers. That's where the advice above comes in. Educate yourself on what you are buying, make a list of questions, ask questions and ask for photos. If you don't, ignorance + impulse = big mistake = buyer's remorse = expensive lesson.

[LugerVern]

It's a good place to buy for the informed, don't be afraid to ask for clear pictures or additional pictures of areas that are not easy to see. Most flaws can be hidden by a properly placed gun during a photo , if the angle of the pictures seem strange be careful, may of been done on purpose.
If you don't get more pictures when requested just walk away
Look at previous transactions carefully, but understand we all get taken once in awhile and then for many it's just about recouping the lost, at your expense, not nice but that is reality.
I would say my transactions run about 90/10 90% very satisfied, 10% darn, I why didn't I see that!!!

Good Luck!!!!

Vern

[Olle]

Originally Posted by Like_Old_Guns

The downside is that bargains are few and far between. They do happen, usually with poor photos, vague descriptions and uneducated Sellers. That's where the advice above comes in. Educate yourself on what you are buying, make a list of questions, ask questions and ask for photos. If you don't, ignorance + impulse = big mistake = buyer's remorse = expensive lesson.

That's my experience too. Now and then you'll see a seller with no feedback selling an interesting pistol that's shown in one or two small, blurry cell phone pictures. Just a Joe Blow who wants to try Gunbroker, and it can turn out to be the deal of the century or the worst GB experience ever. You just never know. Then again, some of my best deals have been on local ads just like that, like the "French pistol, don't know the caliber" that turned out to be a nice, WaA stamped SACM 1935A.

I usually look for good feedback and good response from the seller. Sometimes I ask a few stupid questions just to feel him out, and if the response is slow, vague or no response at all, I simply won't bid.

Then you have the smart phone jerks who insist that the only way of communication is texting. You send a detailed question, and all you get back is a brief "txt me" and a cell phone number. Had one of those about an hour or so from me, and tried to hook up with him to look at the gun. Despite my best efforts, all I got was short, confusing text messages. I tried to call and I tried to make him call, but no luck. Needless to say I didn't bid, and last time I looked the gun was still unsold. Could have been a Gander Mountain employee trying a private sale.

[cirelaw]

Stick with who you know and trust!