I'm a nooby at gun auctions

[Zaydok Allen]

Or it could be a new person, like the OP, who really wants that firearm.

The thing with shill bidding is if they win the seller still has to pay the fees.

For a $500 item that fee is $23.75, for a $1500 item it's $58.75. If that happens a couple of times it starts to cost real money.

Of course many people when they see things selling for more than they would pay imminently start to scream shill bid, but almost every time it's just someone willing to pay more.

Agree. If I see something sell for higher than I'm willing to pay, I do the same search a day later or so. If the same listing pops up with the same pictures, THEN I think it's safe to say it's real shill bidding. I've seen it many times. I will not bid on it again unless I see it sit for awhile, and then I typically low ball the bid. If I get outbid by a real bidder, ok. If the vendor keeps shill bidding and costing themselves money, then the hell with them.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Absolutely do not bid on guns without good pics. Some sellers are excellent about angles that hide flaws as well. Ask questions, ask for a pic of an area if you are concerned, most long time sellers with good feedback and good pics are more than anxious for you to be happy with the purchase. How sellers answer questions can be very telling.

I experienced this with an antique bulldog revolver. I got it relatively cheap, but when it showed up the condition was not what I'd expected. The original finish was beat up, but it was a nickel gun. So with the right lighting, and the right angle, the shine of the remaining finish sort of disguised the condition in the pictures. I pulled up the pics to see if it was the same gun. When I zoomed way in, I could see it was, but I bid too quickly, and the seller was obviously trying to unload a turd.

Think I took about a $150 hit on that one by the time I got rid of it.

 

[fpgt72]

Gun Auctions...places like gunbroker get a pass by me, I just do not trust them.

I have bought from people on forums, that is a little more easy to track.....you can check out their post history, and kinda get a feeling on how they roll. Then you can decide if you want to buy from them.

As far as real auctions, I will only deal with real auction houses, yes you to pay for that service but in my experience that service is well worth it. I have bought from both Rock Island and Morphy and can't talk highly enough about them. Everything I have got from them has been packed well, and looked better in hand then in photos, they will also take more photos if you want and give you more info. I jsut feel better with "real" companies.

 

[Poper]

Well, when a noobie gets on GB, IMHO, he will do himself a great service to spend the time to read their terms of service completely and understand the services provided, the parties' responsibilities, etc. If you have a problem on GB, you can be sure GB has no responsibility to make it better and has no financial responsibility in regards to any auction or any of the services they provide. GB provides a service that provides an on-line auction that has the fairness of an in-person auction with the sole exception that a person cannot physically see the item and inspect it in person.

If you are looking for something at a fair price, sometimes you will find it with a "buy-it-now" price. My advice: If the BIN price is within your budget, accept the BIN and be done with it. If you don't, someone else just might. I have used the BIN several times without regret.

Sometimes there is an individual that just HAS to have that item at whatever the price. Well, so be it. There will be another one come along. Just keep watching.

And then there may be the time that you decide to sell an item. You take lots good photos of every aspect and conceivable angle. You post it with a "buy it now" price and low and behold if it doesn't blow right past your BIN! (I had this happen one time. It about blew me away!)

Gunbroker is about as close to an in-person auction as you can get on-line. Love it or hate it, it's up to you. Nobody is going to snipe an auction like happens regularly on ebay and similar sites. An item is going to sell on GB for whatever that particular item's value is on that particular day. Nothing more, nothing less. - I bought a 1979 Colt Python, 6" barrel, blued, LNIB a week or so before Christmas a few years ago for a $1,300 opening bid. I think someone needed Christmas money and this was during the last economic downturn. When I received it, I placed the value in the $1,700+ neighborhood at the time. Sometimes, timing is everything.

 

[indy1919a4]

Sometimes there is an individual that just HAS to have that item at whatever the price. Well, so be it. There will be another one come along. Just keep watching.....


....... Sometimes, timing is everything.

It does depend on the item, Some things take years on gun broker for another to come along.. And you are so right about timing.

 

[berettaprofessor]

When I quit going to Gunbroker regularly, I saved a lot of money.

 

[Poper]

It does depend on the item, Some things take years on gun broker for another to come along.. And you are so right about timing.

Patience, Grasshopper....

 

[indy1919a4]

Patience, Grasshopper....

Thank... you... my Master .. I want to try to snatch the pebble now.

 

[hemiram]

Make sure what you are bidding on. Some dealers, totally legit as far as I can tell, sometimes put a pic up of a different (new) gun than what the description says it is. It's just a screw up, but taking the model number in the description and doing a search on it will show what it really should be. Contact the seller and ask him/her what's going on. Once a few years back, I put a bid in on a pistol that was pictured as a full sized CZ clone, but it was actually a compact. I caught it before the end of the auction, and the seller just said, "If you win it, I will just send you the full sized one!". And he did.

And just control yourself.

 

[kmw1954]

if you bid early then your bid gives others more time to bid against you, to test the upper limits.. .

It also allows you to put the first bid pricing on an item that may already be marginally high. I will still place a max bid and forget it. if it goes beyond that so what. There have been items that my max bid may only be $2.00 more than my opening bid. This practice also at times eliminated the bargain hunters, like myself that already has a very good idea of the value of an item and will not enter into a bidding war. By doing this I have won as many auctions as the only bidder as I have lost.

Then at other times I will place an opening bid with a low max bid for the sole purpose of watching an auction and at the end nears I will decide if I want to continue to increase my bid or wait until the next one as there is always a next one. My whole reloading bench is stocked with used equipment from ebay.

 

[URIT]

I've used GB to buy more than 20 handguns. First, you need to fix a value on the item you plan to bid on. My value is bid+shipping+FFL fee which I refer to as "in the safe" value that allows you to figure your max bid.

Once I find an item I want to bid on, I click the "WATCH" button so I'll get a reminder to bid if the auction ends days away.

Bidding requires a bit of strategy. My preference is to wait until 10 minutes before the auction's end before bidding so I can evaluate the other bidders for staying in the game. Some bidders are tire kickers, trolls jacking the price for kicks, resellers looking for a bargain, and serious bidders looking to own the prize.

For example, last week I saw an S&W Model 3913 listed for auction that afternoon. There were only 2 photos and neither were high quality but passable. I could see that the gun was actually a Model 3913NL and this variation usually sells for more than $500. I hit the "watch" button and noted the auction end time. I return to the auction 45 minutes remaining and note that the Big Gun that started the bidding 4 days earlier hasn't answered the latest bid and a frequent reseller has dropped out. The latest bid is below $395 for a model with a fair value of over $500.

I wait until 10 minutes before the auction close giving the new bidder some "second thoughts" time or "OH, damn I might have to actually pay for this gun!" time to consider how to proceed. I fix the "In the safe" price at $500. Shipping is $30 and FFL is $25, so I bid $444.44.

The bidder is in the game and starts to ladder his bids rather than make a MAX BID. The bid to me is $443 so I up my bid to $455 just in case he has set a limit a $450. That takes me $10 over my "In the safe" price but it's still a good value at that price. My added bid to $455 may have caused the bidder to drop or he simply had reached his value limit or psychological limit. I got my gun for $443.

GB sends email messages telling you what you need to do next. If you win, go to the auction page and click on "Proceed to Checkout". There you check to make sure all your billing information name, address, email, and telephone number is correct. Also, select the type of payment. I usually use a USPS money order. Once you've completed this task, click on "Submit the Order to Seller".

Copy down all the Seller's information. Then send a message through the GB message to the seller giving the seller your FFL name, address, phone number, and inform them when to expect your FFL to forward his info via email or fax or with payment. My FFL likes to fax, then email, and lastly hard copy with payment. NOTE: It is best to locate, select, and talk with an FFL near you before bidding.

I've used the GB payment system but mostly call the seller with CC info or go with the USPS money order. I like the USPS Money Order because using the mail to commit a fraud is a no-no and could cause additional agencies to get involved in investigating the crime. Maybe this is true and maybe not, but I find some comfort with this method.

I hope this helps relieve some "first-timer" angst. Good luck!

 

[tws3b2]

I've tried buying on gun broker but have never been able to win a good deal. On every gun I'm interested in the price gets up to what the gun is worth or more. Then you add on $25 - $45 shipping plus $25 -$35 FFL. I guess if it was a particular make model and I couldn't find it anywhere else. But I'm not going to overpay just to get it on broker.

 

[Jessesky]

I usually place a low bid to keep the auction on my radar, and don’t bid for real until the 16th minute.

Remember Gunbroker has a filtered section of auctions that are just about to end. So for those waning minutes of the auction, it’s being viewed by many more people because it gets highlighted in the auctions about to end. The less time it has, the higher it appears in the search. The longer it stays in that 15 minute range, potentially double or triple of the people could be seeing it than the whole week the auction ran.

 

[Texas10mm]

I just picked up my latest Gun Broker win yesterday. A Western Field 22 single shot. I'll get some pics soon.

I was the only bidder. I've been wanting a Remington 510 but those prices are crazy right now.

My last buy was a Remington R1 Limited double stack 9mm. Those things are HARD to find at any price. I paid $860 to get it in my hands. It came with a total of six mags.

The pictures didn't even come close to showing how good of shape the pistol was in.

The ones I like to find are the Old, New in Box. Some shop bought too many of something and finally decides to clear them out. My XD(M) Competition 45 was like that. I paid $585 in my hands for a new in the box pistol. The next best price I could find was much higher than that. This shop had a dozen of them. Sold them all for the same price.

 

[kmw1954]

I have 4 total that I have purchased on GB. Two I was the only bidder and the other two was with a Buy it Now. Amazingly the one bid on was a brand new S&W 380EZ that had a starting bid of $300.00 with free shipping and it ended with only my bid. Locally these things were selling for $400.00+

 

[Jim NE]

To the OP NorthBorder, I've bought dozens of guns on Gunbroker, and have never had a scam yet. Sometimes, however, a gun may not be quite what you expected, but the fault usually lies with the buyer in that case, as he either had unrealistic expectations for a given price (if its a vintage gun, for example) or he ignored, misread or misinterpreted the description somehow.

The only really underhanded thing I've run into on GB was a $25 "handling fee" hidden in the small print of the description somewhere, so you'll want to read every part of the ad/auction thoroughly. Pay special attention to the shipping cost, because some sellers will try to lure buyers with very low prices on new guns, only to add a $75 or $90 shipping fee. It's been a while since I've bought a lot of online guns, but I bought one a few months ago, and the typical shipping fee for a handgun on gunbroker is $20-$40. Sometimes a little less (or maybe free)...sometimes a little more, but around that range is reasonable. It'll be a little more for a rifle. Also, some sellers will add a fee for credit card sales.

Having said all that, my general impression is that most people on GB are very conscientious sellers who generally tend towards being conservative in the assessment of the condition of their used guns. They don't want to get a lot of negative feedback from unrealistic buyers. For your first purchase, however, I would maybe consider buying from a seller who accepts returns and maybe stay away from the "no returns, all sales final" sellers. But generally you can buy with confidence. The only really negative thing about Gunbroker is...it's addictive.

 

[Edcnh]

I only bid on a gun from seller who is an FFL and has good reviews. The only guns I have bought online are guns I have not been able to find locally.