Have you ever bought a gun online?

Have you ever bought a gun online?

  • Yes

    Votes: 314 83.5%

  • No

    Votes: 62 16.5%
  • Total voters
    376
  • Poll closed .
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S

Sgt.Murtaugh

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
245
I recently purchased my first gun online - a Ruger GP100 Stainless, 4 inch barrel. I found the process rather easy, as the dealer listing the gun happened to be within 20 mins. of my house.

Since doing this (I bought this gun on GunsAmerica, by the way) I have been constantly scouring Gun Broker, GunsAmerica, and Bud's Gun Shop for deals on guns that are on my wish list. It's becoming somewhat of an obsession!

Do any of you guys buy guns online? If so, where do you typically shop? I'm always looking for new places to deal hunt!
 
I've given it a little thought, but I enjoy gunshows and gunshops, so for the time being thats where I'll do my dealing. I guess, one of these days I'm going to have to get one of those new fangled cell phones, just learned that you don't have to live in a cell to have one.
 
Just one. It was one I had wanted for a bit, and I got it off Gallery of Guns. If it hadn't been brand new, I wouldn't have bought it. I'm not up on getting a used gun that needs to be inspected off the computer. I'd rather check it out before my money parts from my wallet.
 
I cannot count the number of guns I've bought online. Well... I suppose I could, but just telling you that, yes I have, should suffice.

GunBroker.com
BudsGunShop.com
AbleAmmo.com
AuctionArms.com
ImpactGuns.com
 
I haven't yet. If I came across something I had to have just couldn't find locally then I might. If its a used item really prefer to see things in person first.
 
I have purchased three guns online, and that's how many guns I own. Two of those were used guns, one was new. The two used I found on www.gunsamerica.com, the new one was on www.gunbroker.com.

Great experiences with all three sellers. I did call the stores selling the used guns to ask if the item was still available and what their best price is, and both came down a bit from the price listed online. FFL transfer on my end is the least enjoyable part; I go through a big-box store that is across the street from where I work. Very convenient but not the best customer service.

I usually have a very specific thing in mind when I'm shopping, and online buying allows me to find things I would never come across otherwise. Of course, sometimes I see something that I didn't know existed and then decide I MUST have it. I suspect any money I save by finding great values is balanced out by the money I hadn't planned on spending on "must have" finds.
 
Yes.

It was a Glock. I figured a Glock is a Glock, so why not? If I had manufacturer's issues post delivery, their excellent warranty would would take care of it.
 
Rifles, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, you name it.

I ALWAYS seem to have at least one active bid going on GunBroker. Rarely get the gun for what I bid. But sometimes... :D
 
As far as pistols I mostly shoot Glocks, and those are easy to find locally, so that is how I buy most of them (I don't have a large number). I've yet to ever buy a rifle straight off a gunstore shelf as far as I can remember. I think I might have had my dealer order two from a distributor a while back, but since then I've bought directly from an online dealer and just had the local dealer do the transfer.
 
I have bought 5 or 6 guns from Budsgunshops and 1 from another one I forget. Sometimes, online deals are better then the ones in the LGS. I just have to pay a $25 transfer fee, and it still comes out cheaper than the LGS guns. What's nice about Buds is that you have the option to pay it in 3-12 months interest fee from their website.
 
From what I've found, if I look hard enough for a gun online, I can find it approximately 25% cheaper than I can get it at a gun shop. When I decide I want to buy a gun, the gun shop is the last place i look. Gunbroker.com is the first
 
I've purchased several guns online. The best deal I've ever gotten on a new gun, online, was through jetguns.com.
 
Bought a k31 from Classic Arms and paid the extra for a hand select and got a really nice one. Looks good and shoots the same.
 
I've had good & bad experiences with this. When I bought my first handgun, I did so through Gunbroker. It is a fine gun, nothing wrong with it, but I found out later that I didn't really get a great deal. I could have bought the same gun at a shop for the same money, and had less hassle. Of course, most of that hassle was due to the FFL I used, but that's another story. I haven't really seen that many good deals on GB or GA for the guns I want. My local dealer can usually do better.

However, I recently bought a new Ruger .22 pistol, and Buds had it $50 cheaper than my dealer could get it for, including the transfer fee. Buds is also a great resource for checking to make sure a price is reasonable before making a purchase.
 
Never bought one online, but I did buy a couple by mailorder from ads in Guns & Ammo or American Rifleman, back before the GCA68 put an end to the practice.
 
Yep ~ quite a few. Most were great transactions. Got burned on one and it was a learning process.

Several years back, I bought a vintage S&W from a guy named Ricky Biagi, that had been engraved, silver plated by a well known vendor, and had a set of beautiful engraved elephant ivory grips. The gun was listed as new condition. When I got it, the gun was broken. The jerk I bought it from accused me of breaking it. To fix the problem was very extensive, required a new cylinder, hard to find, contacting the engraver to have the work re-done, and then back to the original vendor to be replated. The engraver told me that the gun was broken when he did the original engraving and he was told by the guy I bought it from, that it would never be fired, it was to be part of a collection.

Yep, I had a good case, but to pursue it in court would have meant taking off from work, traveling about a thousand miles to another state, hiring an attorney, court cost, ... In the end I would have spent more trying to take it to court than I would have gained.

The jerk even pulled the listing off of Guns America as not being sold through them. He cheated them out of their commission. GA does not seem to care and don't get involved in disputes. Shame, I would liked to have given him the appropriate feed back.

Lesson Learned.

1. Check feedback and make sure the seller has been on the site for awhile with positive feedbacks.

2. For high end items ~ use a reliable 3rd party to inspect it. If the seller is not willing to do that, you got a red flag.

I have bought other guns off the internet since and will again. I think the feedback is the key.
 
Last edited:
The best place to find gun deals online is www.armslist.com.

It is a free classified website like craigslist, except not ran by anti-liberty pansies. It is great because you can hook up with other individual sellers and not worry about paperwork or FFLs or any of that police state garbage... straight cash deals, like it's supposed to be.
 
I bought a few from Buds, one other advantage is if its not in store stock, it will ship direct from the distrubuter. Most of the guns at Buds are not in stock at the store. That means nobody has dry fired it, or even touched it.
One word of caution though, match the mfg item number with the mfg number of the mfg web site. Sometimes those pictures are not right.
 
I've never bought one online, but I plan to in the future. Just need to find an FFL that's both near my house and doesn't charge a crazy amount of money! Anyone know a good one in the Pittsburgh, PA area?

Thanks!
 
Yep several - a couple from Bud's, two from CZcustom.com (everything CZ) and one from Classic Arms. All have been great transactions. The rest, gun shows mostly and one from an actual shop. I just find that online the prices are tough to beat, and since I have a long list of wants, I have to save where I can. Plus the range I shoot at offers a 10 dollar transfer fee if you're a club member, so it's not a bad deal.
 
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