I don't get GB !

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Ha! Go look at used T posts at an auction sale sometime.

Generally more than new. Some people like paying 5 dollars and some like paying 10 dollars.
 
Back in '08-'09 I bought three rifles via GB.

But recently I discovered Armslist (TN), and made five deals, all within a 2 and 1/2 hour drive of home.

No more GB, unless buying a component.
 
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I think things like this are a bounce back from the panics we had--I have seen such before at gun shows.
We get a panic, everyone buys, the price goes sky high. Then when the panic abates, there are a lot of folks left with things that they paid way too much for, so they try to sell them to re-coop their money. They want to get as close to what they paid as they can.
 
Sellers are under no obligation to offer you the best price in the market.

Keep in mind too that not all dealers get the same pricing structure from the distributors.

Just cause you can get a new gun at a low price from a high volume place like Buds, CDNN, GrabAGun, etc. Doesn't necessarily mean your local FFL can even buy one cheaper. Which kinda sucks for the local FFL/small dealer on GB.
 
Thank you all for the lecture in economics.

The basic economics tells me, however, that listing a used gun that is easily obtainable BNIB for a mere fraction more makes bad business sense.

That G17 was just one example. I'd say the majority of listings I looked at were either overpriced or plain ridiculous.

I spend lots of time on Craigslist due to another hobby. While there's plenty of both sellers and buyers with absolutely unrealistic expectations there as well, it seems that it's easier to find a decently (if a bit high) priced item there. And CL doesn't charge any type of commission, so they don't care.

Even on the eBay, while it has it's own share of people asking $600 for a $150 item, the majority of listings seem reasonable.

I just don't get GB's model.. seems it's in their best interest to discourage such behavior since they make money on volume and a large number of grossly overpriced items serves to distress sales volume. People would be much more likely to buy something on GB if a reasonable deal - not even a steal - was easier to find.

I also don't get it why so many people who seem to be in need to sell a gun they own price it so high as to guarantee it won't be sold. Never figured there were so many people with so much greed and so little brain..
 
Yeah Gubroker is ridiculous. It seems like a lot of people buy guns and then flip them at inflated prices. I think Gunbroker is useful for people looking for rare or collectible guns that they might not be able to find in your average gun shop. I've bid on a few items, but they have sold for well more than I would ever pay for them. I suspect that some people get into the whole "I must win this auction" mindset and then pay more than what they should.
 
Unfortunately, leaving the seller to pay off GB only after the sale is made, along with allowing unlimited re-listings of the same item, results in a lot of over-priced items that just sit and keep getting re-listed. Now if they would charge a $5 fee for each listing, then there would only be serious sellers with realistic prices on the website.
This was my thought exactly, only I was thinking more like $20 flat fee for each firearm listing.

The idea of the seller is the audience is huge so in that big pool of potential buyers there simply must be one or two suckers that will buy before doing any research. In a few cases it's true, but for most of us the site is a little more than a picture show.

I kept hearing about the 'great deals' but I have never found even one I would consider reasonable. I seldom even check there any more. My FFL charges less on new guns and if there's some other gun I feel like I 'must have' I'll look for it through networking.
 
I haven't gotten any stellar deals on GB, but I have found some cool guns that I wouldn't have found locally. Prices are a bit high at times.
 
The basic economics tells me, however, that listing a used gun that is easily obtainable BNIB for a mere fraction more makes bad business sense.

Depends on location too... If that plain jane used G17 meets some states laws, its worth a heck of a lot more to a resident there that cannot just go buy a new one i.e. rosters, bans, etc.

That said, I only use GB for hard to find or out of production guns. I can get a glock on darn near any street corner.
 
The thing about Gunbroker is that it really only makes sense for something you can't commonly find locally. By the time you add $25 for shipping and another $25 for an FFL transfer then chances are pretty good you can find the same thing for the same end price locally.

I generally limit my Gunbroker searches to Kentucky so I can just pick it up in person if I win---but I've only actually bought one gun because I won't bid full price for a gun that I have to commit to buy before seeing it. In the case of the one gun I did buy it was listed with three magazines but only came with one so the seller knocked off $50 before I completed the purchase. Not sure things would have been so easy if it had been shipped cross county to an FFL.

What Gunbroker does make sense for are things you just can't find elsewhere. As an example I have a hankering to convert a 40 caliber Mauser M2 to 10mm. Good luck finding one of those at the LGS.
 
It seems the prices are crazy on nearly everything I've looked at.

Example

G17 Gen 3 police trade in with what looks like regular Glock sights

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=554419583

$459+$12 shipping = $471

The same G17 Gen 3 brand new in box $499 on Buds, free shipping.

So they expect to give you a whopping $12 discount on a used gun sold as is vs a BNIB exact same one ?

This is just one example...
Wow, lotsa jerks chiming in here with useless comments about how the OP doesn't have to buy it if he doesn't like the price. Well, as true as that point admitedly is, it's also SO painfully obvious that it's totally useless and pointlessly argumentative.
The OP is merely commenting on this frequently seen practice of sellers asking absurd prices, on a very popular gun auction site, which I would think was perfectly fair game here on a gun-related discussion board.
If some of y'all don't like the subject, you're just as free to not read or comment in the thread, eh? :rolleyes:
Back on topic: I've only purchased from GB once, maybe twice, and never sold there. I find that it's especially usefull for guaging where the market currently is on certain things ( only completed sales, obviously). It generally seems like anything cool, that's reasonably priced, already has been getting loads of attention,which generally will end up pushing the price beyond what I'm willing to pay, and I don;t bother.
I do sometimes put the ad in 'favorites', so i can come back later and see what it finally went for.
But, I've been having such good experiences with Armslist and Theoutdoorstrader, that I don't regularly check GB these days.
There are plenty of deals to be had on gunbroker if you put a little effort into your search. Not only can you often find better prices than other sites, you can find guns for sale that you might never locate elsewhere, especially if you're only shopping your local gun stores.

Everyone is right, the OP doesn't have to buy off gunbroker if the prices are too high for him, but, in my experience if you'll put a little time into watching and searching gunbroker, just like ebay, you'll eventually find a good buy on whatever it is that you're looking for. I have found deals on brand new guns that couldn't be matched locally or on other sites, deals on used guns that are hard to find, and I've bought custom guns that I might never have found otherwise. So, you guys can piss and moan about gunbroker and how business is done there all you want but it serves a purpose and it does it well. And, yeah, if you don't like the price, don't bitch about it, just don't bid or buy, just like choosing any other store or gas station or repair shop over another.
 
I have been snagging up really good deals on GB for the last year. My strategy is to take advantage of all the surplus 40 cal police trade ins coming into the market. My price limit has to be less than $400 shipped. I just got a sig 229 da/sa for 330 shipped. One of my better deals was a Beretta 92FS for 315 shipped. Just have to save a few searches and be persistent. Deals are out there.

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The deals are there. I sold 25 items on GB about two years ago. 23 of them sold for prices I was very happy with, with some bringing double what I had estimated. But two items - a beautiful 1948 vintage K-38 Masterpiece and a Model 10 no-dash sold for about 60% of the going values. Two people got GREAT deals.
 
You pay for your ignorance. There are a lot of good deals on GunBroker if you're patient and have a good idea what the item is worth.
 
It seems the prices are crazy on nearly everything I've looked at.

Example

G17 Gen 3 police trade in with what looks like regular Glock sights

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=554419583

$459+$12 shipping = $471

The same G17 Gen 3 brand new in box $499 on Buds, free shipping.

So they expect to give you a whopping $12 discount on a used gun sold as is vs a BNIB exact same one ?

This is just one example...
Many auctions are institutional sellers that list their entire stock, or even items that normally get purchased that they acquire from their wholeseller when a bid is won. A certain percentage, just like in a store, will get purchased at the advertised price. That happens often enough to make it worth while for them to list them. Since I will use my LGS for those purchases, I don't see much reason to buy new, commonly available weapons on GB.

What I do find valuable is the ability to find rare items that would never show at my LGS. Some of my favorite firearms are rare items I could only find on GB. availability, not money, was my reason for using them.
 
I 'get' GunBroker.

I spend a significant time each week looking for firearms that are 'out of stock' from my distributors, and often have been for months. On numerous occasions I have purchased firearms to resell in my business, often paying 10-20% less than my normal dealer cost.

Yes, many of the items on GunBroker could be considered 'overpriced', but so what - just move on. That is what I do when buying gasoline for my car, a twelve pack of beer, or anything I am looking to purchase. Since no one forces a potential buyer to look at a given listing, what is there to whine about? There are unquestionably good deals out there, both on new and used firearms - you just have to take the time and effort to look. Very few will just fall into your lap.
 
It seems the prices are crazy on nearly everything I've looked at.

Example

G17 Gen 3 police trade in with what looks like regular Glock sights

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=554419583

$459+$12 shipping = $471

The same G17 Gen 3 brand new in box $499 on Buds, free shipping.

So they expect to give you a whopping $12 discount on a used gun sold as is vs a BNIB exact same one ?

This is just one example...
Why are you shopping for a used Glock on gunbroker?
Most local gun shops I've wandered into have them used in all the older models for $350-$425

I look on Gunbroker for the stuff that you don't see everyday.
 
There are a lot of good buys available on Gunbroker. You just have to be patient and keep looking. I’m only interested in S&W revolvers that are at least 25 years old. So I filter to only S&W revolvers and start with the $0.01 starting auctions. Determine what I’m willing to pay and submit a bid for that maximum amount. If I’m out bid, fine. It just means that someone else wanted it more than I did and I go on to the next. I also consider the shipping and transfer fees into what I’m willing to pay. I won’t bid $500 for a gun I can get locally for $550 and also pay an extra $70 in shipping and transfer on top.

I do agree that the fixed prices some sellers are asking border on ridiculous. And that the prices that some buyers are willing to pay are also just as ridiculous. I sometimes wonder if some sellers see the premium price that was paid for a pristine like new gun and think that they can get the same amount for their beater.
 
I am one of the "Jerks" who uses GB quite often while looking for Star DK, HK and other rarely encountered pistols at your local gunshop. Also there are the releases of weapons from other countries being sold by sellers such as Cope's at reasonable prices and normally a Buy it Now feature. I recently purchased several Browning (FN) Hi Powers that were C&R eligible for what I thought were reasonable prices, descriptions by many sellers are detailed and I now possess many pistols that would have been out of my reach at local shops.
In one case a retailer had a seemingly common pistol listed, it had many photos and a detailed description. I bid the listed price and won a pistol that has documented history and is valued far higher (not a real concern as I do not sell my firearms) than what I paid but beyond that it is a really neat part of the history of arms making and use during the last century.
So I guess I am a "Jerk" for reporting on this forum and defending GB and suggesting a person look for desired items, decide what they will pay and bid accordingly without getting caught in the last minute wars that do break out.
 
It is called 'Gunbroker'. It is not called 'bargain basement discount guns'.

There is a very simple solution for anyone not liking the prices....don't look at Gunbroker.

Personally, I've gotten quite a number of good buys off that site.
 
Just like anything else, buyer beware. You can get good deals if you look around. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy over priced guns.
 
Some sellers have unreasonable expectations of what their items are worth. They typically learn pretty quickly after they waste a few weeks of their lives.
 
The last several guns that I've purchased, I found cheaper NIB on GB than at Bud's

Google foo search skills come in very handy... brush up on you Boolean logic :neener:
 
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