Any FFLs here do NOT do transfers?

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ishida said:
Whoopity-freakin-doo, you're complaining about making $25 for an hour of paperwork?

I get $6.55 an hour for dealing with a$$holes and the messes they make.

Find another job that pays $25 an hour.
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Then get an education, learn a trade, straighten out your attitude and find a job making decent money. Or open your own business and find out first hand how much of $25 an hour you actually get after paying your rent, utilities, insurance, inventory costs, and the rest of your overhead.
 
Or open your own business and find out first hand how much of $25 an hour you actually get after paying your rent, utilities, insurance, inventory costs, and the rest of your overhead.
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After paying your rent and other expenses, you get to take home the whole $25.

Maybe the transfer operations are fading fast and no one will have to concern themselves with internet sales of firearms in the not too distant future.
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Internet sales aren't going to go away. Call around to your local pawnshops. They will do your transfers cheaper, and without the bitching.
 
There is actually a stiff competetion for them in my area. Assuming you have at least one employee, other than yourself, you can make quite a bit doing them. If you can do 3 or 4 an hour and charge $25 per transfer you can assign an employee to do them. Assuming the employee makes $10-$15 an hour you could make a decent profit from it by just having an FFL. Like anything in retail it is all about volume.

Not to mention it generates much needed income when times are slow. Right now you may be really busy due to all the new interest in firearms but I am sure that won't last forever.
 
:confused:

If its too much of a hassle for $25 then raise it to $50 or whatever you want to make it "worth your time".

Or decide where you want to make your money. Every business owner has small and large margin goods. Go to a grocery store. They are making 50%-60% profit on that shredded cheese you just bought. And they losing money on that ground beef that is $1.50 a pound. It evens out.

I know that I often buy ammo, cleaning products, etc. when I do transfers with a local dealer. A low cost transfer fee is an easy way to attract customers. Even if they aren't the precious "good" customers that pay MSRP and throw an extra $100 bill on the table just cause your such a nice buddy that allows them to enter your sacred gun shop and you grant them the esteemed privilege of buying a gun from you.

Otherwise have a high transfer fee and those that don't mind will continue to use you as a transfer dealer and maybe the high cost will convince them to just buy from you instead of doing a transfer.

If the cost isn't worth your time...than MAKE it worth your time. Right?
 
And how the heck do you figure that? Are you consulting with Madoff's accountant?
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After you hit your break even point, even a meager $25 transfer fee flows straight to the owner's pocketbook. You have make a certain amount of money each month to pay expenses. These expenses are relatively fixed. After you pay expenses, the money is all profit.

If you turn down enough $25 transfers, you will never get to the break even point, and will therefore never get to the point that you make a profit.

This is basically the basis of my business success. When my competitors felt a case was too small, caused to many headaches, or was generally beneath them, I would do it. It pays off in the end. This model will ONLY work though if you work very hard. If you mainly want to just do large cases, you do a lot of sitting around doing nothing in between. I don't like to sit and do nothing. I will generally work 12 to 15 hrs a day.
 
An hour for a transfer? You get it out of the box and check the serial number. You write it in the bound book and the add the FFL info. That should take no more than 10 minutes tops.

When the customer comes in, he does the form while yu go about your business. Calling it in and then logging it out of the bound book should take maybe 15 minutes unless you end up on hold with the BCI. So we are talking 25-30 minutes for the whole thing. At $25 a transfer you are making $50 and hour.

Maybe I am seeing things, even with us writing it in before we had the computer system that is 30 minutes well spent on the customer service end to keep them in front of you. If they are in front of you they will buy something eventually from you.

Maybe I a missing it, but how does it take an hour to do a transfer entry in and out?

As for taking away from paying customers, do the transfers before or after hours. When the customer comes to get the gun he had transfered he IS a paying customer, and he is paying you $25 for 15 minutes of your time. Pretty good rate where ever you go. And there are lots of jobs you can go to jail for bad paperwork. But this is the job you chose, so learn the paperwork and do it right every time and your compliance inspections will be easy on that end. But if you dont do it, someone else in your area will and the customer will get used to spending time standing in front of that guy. This is more than a money making thing, it is also a marketing issue. You HAVE to be the guy that provides good customer service and the guy they think of first. If it is even a break even issue, it is worth it in the long run. By following this model we have grown our store from 3,000 sqft to an existing 10,000sqft building that we are adding an additional 12,500 sqft to for a 22 lane range. We have grown our employee base from 3 guys to 12 with the openings for another 8 when the range opens.

Like it or not, if you dont do it someone else will and they will grow their business. Customer service and going what is percieved to be the extra mile is what seperates the kitchen table dealers from the guys who have a growing business. It's up to you man, but I love it when the other guys wont go the extra mile for a customer. I will, and I will take that money.
 
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LOL what a lame excuse. Geez, are FFL dealers friggin that lazy? You sound like it's breaking rocks at a quarry. Give me a break!!! Go work a real job where you break your back all day, not filing papers or writing down serial numbers and complain about unwrapping a gun.
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He wasn't complaining about the physical effort it takes to unwrap a gun. He was talking about the time involved.

For the OP, I've found that doing transfers brings in customers I wouldn't normally have gotten. I get an email or a phone call that says "My friend told me you do transfers, can you also order guns?" Also, guys that originally came in for transfers often shoot me and email to see what I can get a new gun for. I'm usually competitive, even after taxes, so a lot of business comes in from that. I might raise the transfer price someday, but I doubt I'll ever stop doing them.

I'd say on average it takes 12-20 minutes total to do a transfer. Sometimes it takes much, much longer if something goes wrong, but I try and deal with these issues during down time when I would have been twiddling my thumbs anyway.
 
One thing to consider here is the law of averages of time invested. While one transfer may take 20 minutes, another may take over an hour. You may want to look at times of the day that are less busy than other and only do these transfers at that time of day.

Randy
 
Well, if you don't have time to do them not sure? I would consider part time or temp help or anything you can do to accomidate customers. I used to make lots of purchases of guns and ammo in a local store. I thought their $25 transfer fee was HIGH but I paid it until recently when they wouldn't do a transfer from an individual (I do some trading). Have not visited the store since then. All my purchases in store will be from the dealer that does the transfers for me. The rest will be from gun shows or internet. It has a way of ticking off customers. I found someone local that charges $10 and I use them now. They used to do it for free, then went up to $5, then $10. Since I've done this several times this month, I know it takes 2minutes for them to take a phone call from me with my name and the fax and order number it goes out too, probably 1 min to send fax, when I get there the phone call can filling out their log takes about 3-5 minutes. I had one where they were on hold for for a minute or so and maybe took 5-6 minutes. If I was a FFL I would offering and advertising my transfer services as much as possible, brings customers in the door, typically customers that are gratefull to them already, and typically customers that are frequest buyers of arms, ammo, and etc. Sounds like the type of customers I would want.
 
I ran into the resistance of FFL's to do transfers, my suggestion, become an FFL yourself. It's just not that hard.

If say your Transfer fee is $25, you transfer eight weapons that year, Bam, it's paid for the next three years.

Problem solved.
 
At $25 a transfer you are making $50 and hour.
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You seem to be forgetting the actual cost per year of obtaining and keeping an FFL and the associated insurance costs with keeping one. Factor that into the cost per unit. Even my busy dealer up here doesn't do more than one or two a day. I doubt many shops do a few an hour. If they do they aren't staying in business because that mean they aren't selling their expensive stocked items that actually pay the bills.
 
CoRoMo said:
In the beginning I did them cheap. But now the business has grown.
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There might be connection between doing a service at an inexpensive rate and then seeing your business grow.
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ding ding ding. we have a winna!

you can have the box of cigars, or the cupie doll
 
Jvandenhaus said:
I ran into the resistance of FFL's to do transfers, my suggestion, become an FFL yourself. It's just not that hard.

If say your Transfer fee is $25, you transfer eight weapons that year, Bam, it's paid for the next three years.

Problem solved.
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Ya, nothing to it! Get (and pay for) the business license, zoning variance permit for a home based business in a residential area, gun safe, security system, $10K surety bond for the state, the BATF premises inspection, the state police premises inspection, your bound book and a place to store it forever ... and you too can save $25 on a transfer!
 
You seem to be forgetting the actual cost per year of obtaining and keeping an FFL and the associated insurance costs with keeping one. Factor that into the cost per unit. Even my busy dealer up here doesn't do more than one or two a day. I doubt many shops do a few an hour. If they do they aren't staying in business because that mean they aren't selling their expensive stocked items that actually pay the bills.
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Hardly. Not only do I have to pay the licensing fees (which when broken out over three years comes out to less than a dozen transfers to pay for your license) but there are dealers like ourselves that have to pay several hundred dollars a year on our SOT fees and a few grand for our State Department fees. But the $50 an hour fee was figuring a half hour to do the transfer. That is $25 every thirty minutes or $50 an hour average. And when you look at the overhead compaired to your investment, after the first dozen it's mostly profit. You only cover your man hours with that. And if you are paying more than 3K a year in insurance as a small dealer you need to get new insurance. As a range and NFA manufacturer ours is just over that, so insurance is not that bad.

As for doing transfers against what you stock, we have transfered items that we have in inventory. Should I begrudge the customer for finding a deal? I encourage other dealers to flip the customer crap for it. I NEVER would. And most people (other than the cost is the only consideration customers) understand your time and store has costs that go with it and understand a decent mark-up on items. But if you are constantly getting items transfered in that you stock because your customers found it for less, maybe it is time to review your overhead and pricing structure. I dont know many dealers that actually go thru the effort to find out how much each square foot of their facility costs them to maintain and how much ROI that area has to produce for them. For that matter I dont know how many keep track of what their daily numbers are in order to know how much wheeling and dealing they need to do at the end of the day. And I know maybe one in 500 dealers here know how much percent of each item goes to what expense. How many actually advertise? Do you know how many of X brand product (your biggest seller) you need to sell in order to cover the expense? Do you know how much of product A which has a 12% markup and how much of product B which has a 30% markup you need to sell each day to make your overhead and put X amount in the bank for growth of the business and inventory? I would bet you dont track it. By not staying on top of those numbers you let money leak out of the company and very often I have seen companies get eaten alive by their own expenses. Maybe your prices are too high because you can not afford your space.

It sounds like you really need to evaluate what it really costs you and what the ROI is to do transfers. If it works, do it. If not someone else will.
 
Granted, the particular state you live in may have some specific requirements, but let's just use say, Colorado for the sake of simplicity.
Business license, free for application.
Zoning variance permit, free for application
Gun Safe, not required.
Security system, not required.
Surety bond, not required.
BATF inspection, no such thing
Statie inspection, no such thing
Bound book, downloadable free.
Storage for bound book, closet.

So yes, there is indeed nothing to it. I spent just about the same money getting my 01FFL as I did getting my CHL. I suspect that you either are one of the predatory FFLs, live in a very controlled state, or don't know what you are talking about.

Ta.
 
There is a local gunshop that I have bought 3 guns from. I have bought several thousand rounds of ammo from him over the years. I asked what he could get a CZ rami for. He quoted me a price that was about $100 higher than several online dealers. I asked what he would charge for a FFL transfer. He told me $80. I haven't been back and will never go back in his store.
 
Jvandenhaus said:
I suspect that you either are one of the predatory FFLs, live in a very controlled state, or don't know what you are talking about.

Ta.
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Actually, I'm in the process of getting my 01 FFL now.

I live in South Carolina, which I don't think anyone would call a "very controlled" state, but it sounds like CO is even less so. Good for you!! :)

As I live in a suburban residential neighborhood, I had to apply for the zoning variance and the business lic. Neither were free.

I will have to post a $10,000 bond with the state (as long as I'm in business), and the state police (otherwise known as SLED) will inspect my premises. The BATF will too. They also reserve the right to return, any time, un-announced, during my listed "business hours".

I will need "secure storage", which here means a safe.

Only an "extreme optimist" would operate any business, much less a firearms business, with out some kind of security system.

Do I intend to charge for transfers? Sure do.

Will I charge $50, $75, $100. Hell no.

Will I offer discounts to members of my gun club? Yep.

Will I offer discounts to LEO's? Yep.

Will I offer discounts to regular/good customers? Yep.

Will I get all bent out of shape and apologetic when somebody I've never seen before (and likely won't see again) gets all cranky because 10 years ago out in East Bum**** he was able to get a transfer for $5 less?

No. Have a good day and enjoy your drive to East Bum****.

But bottom line is, this isn't meant to be a "hobby", I mean to grow it into a going concern that will by my primary source of income. I intend to deliver quality goods and services, at a reasonable cost. However, I will offer no apologies for charging enough to make a living, at this or any other business.
 
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