Auction Idiocy ...

[Normandy]

Strangest auction I've seen lately on GB was a German Luger that was in ~75&% condition. It has been running for nearly TWO YEARS, with asking price of $1100 + shipping. I sent an offer of $1,000 + shipping, in light of the almost two years it had been on the auction block. Not even a reply!

It seems that, on either auction site, if the price is fairly reasonable, the shipping charge is outrageous, so that the total price is just too high. I've seen shipping charges of $100 or so, from an FFL. I assume it must be a consignment gun, and the dealer fee is wrapped into the shipping charge.

I've known of a couple of FFL dealers who have recently switched from AA to GB, and it appears to be the same reason that Swing switched.

 

[roadchoad]

I bet a lot of the insane prices are residuals from post SH panic buying. A lot of folks paid way too much and now they are trying to recoup their cost.

 

[hamp sandwich]

I start my auctions low, typically a penny, and no reserve. Occasionally I'll use the "buy it now", but I prefer to just let it go to whatever.
I load it down with decent pics, and I rarely get people trying to convince me to stop the auction for them, and they can't haggle me because it started at a penny. They have to compete with the market. I figure it's about as simple market value as it gets. Sometimes, stuff sells worth the money, and other times it goes nuts.
Of course, I watch the market before trying to sell anything, and I have to " let my attachment go " before I can post it.

Oh and yes, post SH auctions went insane! I had some stuff sell for 4x what it should have. Still though.... Penny to start, no reserve. It was the market.

 

[jhb]

This Craigslist attitude was born before Craigslist was around. It came from the big box corporate stores allowing customers to be horrible in every way and putting up with it. It's now filtered throughout American society and I see it everywhere.

Sadly this is nothing new.

 

[CajunBass]

I've sold a lot of my guns on a local board and I've gotten the same thing. Will you take (blank)...wanna trade (blank)... and so on. Big deal. It cost me nothing to reply politely, "Thanks but no thanks." Better than the add being totally ignored. (These are straight sales...not auctions. I won't buy or sell at auction.)

On the other hand when I'm buying, I might make a low offer. Who knows. You might take it. I got nothing to lose really. If you're insulted, sorry, but I can't help what insults you. The offer I made is what it's worth to me, right now. If it's worth more to you, feel free to keep it. It's ok with me.

 

[45_auto]

I start my auctions low, typically a penny, and no reserve.

You know anyone that's ever had any buddies come in to bid up a gun if it's coming in low?

Since the Gunbroker fee will run about $3 per $100 (final cost) on a gun whose final price is less than $1,000, it seems that if a gun is going for several hundred dollars less than you want for it you'd be better off having somebody bid it up to where you want it. If your shill bidder ends up wining, it'll cost you $20 or $30, but you can put a reserve or "buy it now" on it when you relist it to make sure you get your money back.

 

[Kaeto]

The last gun I bought off GB the seller said in his description that "it was fully functional" and when I got it the trigger return spring was broken and the firing pin was sticky. When I tried complaining to him about it I got zero reply.

 

[rbernie]

I abandoned Auction Arms about 4/5 years ago, because the buyers were not really serious buyers any more and the buying inventory for other sellers was mostly overpriced items from retail shops. I had well over 100 AA transactions, but I've been much happier on GB in recent years....

 

[mgkdrgn]

Has anyone else experienced this in recent memory? Is it time to move on from Auction Arms or are these random quirks?

I "moved on" from Auction Arms (now GunAuctions) about a year ago. Just had much too high a ratio of "deadbeat" bidders there, and then sales from that site literally dropped off the edge of a table.

I try them again every now and then ... but get little or no results. Most recent example (this month). M1895 Nagant revolvers. Same ad, same pictures, same text, same price.

I sold 10 on Gunbroker to =0= on GunAuction in the same time period.

Buyer traffic on GunBroker is higher than GunAuction by like a factor of 100.

 

[vito]

Forgive my ignorance, but I've never bought or sold a gun online. I'm thinking of selling on Gunbroker and wondered how it works. Does the buyer usually pay the shipping to his designated FFL? Does the seller wait until payment clears before shipping, and how is payment normally made? I know I am an honest seller, what should I be concerned about the buyer? Any other general advice?

 

[jakk280rem]

Yes the buyer pays whatever the seller sets as the shipping cost. Yes the seller typically waits for funds to clear before shipping. And the seller can get paid however he wants to be paid. Brick and mortar sellers may have the infastructure to accept credit cards while individuals may stipulate payment be by postal money order only.

Gunbroker does a pretty good job of answering these questions on their website in the tools for sellers area and faq.

 

[Swing]

I abandoned Auction Arms about 4/5 years ago, because the buyers were not really serious buyers

I "moved on" from Auction Arms (now GunAuctions) about a year ago. Just had much too high a ratio of "deadbeat" bidders there, and then sales from that site literally dropped off the edge of a table.

Thanks for the notes. The rifle I have for sale I dropped from AA, relisted on GB, and now have six watchers and 2 bids since last night. Not bad compared to the parade of tire-kicking game players and zero bids I've had with AA. Assuming this sale goes fine, I'm sticking with GB and not looking back. Thanks all.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I wonder how much "Back Page" has cut in.

I don't really use any of the listed auctions - nor "back page" but they would seem to be in relatively direct competition with one another.

Todd.

 

[Captcurt]

Thanks for the notes. The rifle I have for sale I dropped from AA, relisted on GB, and now have six watchers and 2 bids since last night. Not bad compared to the parade of tire-kicking game players and zero bids I've had with AA. Assuming this sale goes fine, I'm sticking with GB and not looking back. Thanks all.

Swing,

You will still get tire kickers, but I don't believe that it is as bad as AA. Online sales have changed gun shows too. I have buyers look at my gun and compare price online with GB or Bud's. One of the reasons that I am quitting gun shows. I don't kill 2 days of my retirement time and I can put the same guns online 24/7.

 

[HammsBeer]

I've bought several guns and accessories on GB with smooth transactions.

But what ticks me off is when I promptly email my information to the seller after I win, send the money the next day with another email notice, and when I get the gun I thank them and leave A+ feedback, and they NEVER leave any feedback for me the buyer. So each time I buy a gun now it looks like I'm a total newbie buyer and sellers hate newbies. LEAVE THE BUYER FEEDBACK PLEASE!

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

The last gun I bought on AA was listed and had pictures of a breaktop H&R .38S&W hammer revolver. What I received was a breaktop H&R .38S&W shrouded hammer revolver. It was in good shape, ok for smokeless loads and for the $76.00 plus $10.00 shipping it really wasn't worth it to complain about it. Shoots good but I really wish I had received what was advertised.

 

[mgkdrgn]

The last gun I bought on AA was listed and had pictures of a breaktop H&R .38S&W hammer revolver. What I received was a breaktop H&R .38S&W shrouded hammer revolver. It was in good shape, ok for smokeless loads and for the $76.00 plus $10.00 shipping it really wasn't worth it to complain about it. Shoots good but I really wish I had received what was advertised.

If you didn't get the right gun ... then you should have it sent back at the SELLERS expense, and get the RIGHT gun shipped to you. Manny at AA will back you up on this and drop the seller if they don't make it right.

 

[mgkdrgn]

Thanks for the notes. The rifle I have for sale I dropped from AA, relisted on GB, and now have six watchers and 2 bids since last night. Not bad compared to the parade of tire-kicking game players and zero bids I've had with AA. Assuming this sale goes fine, I'm sticking with GB and not looking back. Thanks all.

Glad to hear it ... and also to validate that I'm not the only one!

 

[Cee Zee]

There's never going to be an end to people who are looking to make an easy buck from "leveraged buys". They look for people who are desperate to sell and don't bother with anything else. But the sellers are just as bad. They are all looking for rank idiots who don't have a clue what the value of a gun is. I stopped looking at auction listings about 5 minutes after I started. Maybe there are some decent deals to be found but it isn't worth the time and effort to sift through the garbage. And if I can't see a gun before I buy it I am not likely to buy it. It would have to be from someone with a provable reputation. A person on a board like this might be a good example. If they are here and have been posting for years chances are they aren't in it for the money. And there are records of previous transactions here too. Those things are hard to be. The auction sites go out of their way to cover up abusers because any gun sold is still money in their pocket. Here there is no benefit to the board operators when guns are sold. So there's no reason to cover up bad actors. Heck on eBay they sometimes threaten to file slander lawsuits against people who give sellers a bad review. The gun boards don't operate much different.

There's just no way there won't be a load of bull to deal with on an auction site. I know there are honest people there but I also know that every single time I've looked for a gun there the price has been ridiculous. I'll do a test right now. I'm did search for a S&W 629-2. I own one and I have a pretty good idea what it's worth. I found one on Gun Broker. They want $1500 for it. That's about double what it's actually worth and they have photos. The gun has some rust on it. It doesn't have much but a little can become a lot pretty quick. I see some decent deals there at times when I've looked but mostly it's crazy stuff like this. If someone wants a good 629-2 for $1500 I'll sell mine right now. Heck I'll go as low as $1490.

 

[silicosys4]

AA, now gunauction.com, is my go to for online firearms. I will never do business through gunbroker again, after being royally screwed by a shady seller while the GB staff did absolutely nothing.
Gunauction.com does have less traffic and less auctions, but the buyer protection is MUCH better and has helped me on a few occasions.
I have gotten some screaming deals through gunauction.com. There are a lot of sellers asking stupid-high prices that get ignored, but if it's a desirable gun at a competitive price it will get bids.

Gunauction.com went through a hard time recently with deadbeat bidders but about a year ago changed their requirements so that bidders have to verify their ID via card.
One of the bigger reasons for this was the behavior of some of the sellers in the gunauction forum. There was no real moderation of the forums and a lot of negativity, racism, personal attacks, and harsh opinions being tossed around to the point that people were registering fake ID's so they could deadbeat bid on the sellers that were particularly antagonistic. The staff at Gunauction finally had to shut the entire forum down.



They unfortunately lost a lot of traffic during that time but less bidders means less bid wars

 

[oneounceload]

Amazing how things change from which of the table you are on. When you're selling, everyone offers ridiculous low ball offers, but when you're buying, everyone is gouging you..........

Anything is worth EXACTLY what someone is willing to pay, no more, no less.

 

[Twiki357]

ApacheCoTodd: I wonder how much "Back Page" has cut in.
________________________________________
I don't really use any of the listed auctions - nor "back page" but they would seem to be in relatively direct competition with one another.

BackBage is mostly a listing site for local FTF sales. Although there are some non-local listings. I’ve never come across a “Bidding” type of listing. I’ve bought 7 or 8 guns from BP listings over that last couple of years. Unfortunately, just like a lot of GunBroker listings, it seems that most sellers are trying to recoup the exorbitant prices they paid at the peak of the panic.

Never bought anything on GunBroker. I always get outbid by someone willing to pay well over what it’s worth (At least to me).

 

[Cee Zee]

Amazing how things change from which of the table you are on. When you're selling, everyone offers ridiculous low ball offers, but when you're buying, everyone is gouging you....

Are you saying $1500 for a 629-2 with rust on it "isn't" a ridiculous price??? I don't doubt there are some decent deals on those boards but there are far too many ridiculous gougers to sift through for me. And if they act that way over price I suspect they will do far worse on condition which can't be checked over the net. I've seen people advertise cars for sale that were supposed to be primo condition and people drive 500 miles to find out they are rust buckets. If you don't know that people will take advantage of you then you are looking through rose colored glasses my friend. You know they will. That price for that S&W revolver is completely insane and I don't doubt for a second that people make completely insane offers on guns too. I really don't get your point. Are you saying they don't do things like that?

Yes guns are worth exactly what people will pay. No one will pay $1500 for a 629-2 in rough condition IMO. The fact that some ask such a price says a lot about the auction sites.

 

[Beveaux]

I've bought guns from both GunBroker and GunAuction. I always do a lot of pricing research on the item and have been happy with my purchases. Never sold anything on either one.

I trade and sell guns with TexasGunTrader and ArmsList. Tire kickers get a polite, but brief no thanks.

The worst thing about the local FTF is people not showing up. On Saturday I drove an hour to sell a gun and the guy didn't show, didn't answer his email, didn't answer his phone. That's happened to me several times. I always post a "Look out for this guy" on the board, but it's easy for him to just register a new name.

 

[DHJenkins]

First thing, if you consider an offer "a slap in the face", you need to put your purse down and realize that it's nothing personal. Getting the most from your money is common sense.

Second, Nobody would make low-ball offers if they didn't work. Almost a quarter of my collection is crap I didn't really want but had to buy because I offered a ridiculously small amount of money.

Third, if the site doesn't hold people accountable, move on or sell your items on whatever specific forum they're likely to get the most money on.

Basically, if you want someone to blame for low ball offers, it's all the people who take them - not the people who gave them. Grow up.

Edit - The best advice I ever got from a boss was "If you don't ask, you won't get". I asked him for a 20% raise right there and then and I got it.