Is Gunbroker a good place to buy

[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