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

[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???