Ordering guns?

[davidd]

I have had a couple of folks send me links on ordering guns that are perhaps much cheaper than in my area, but i don't know how it works. Let's say a gun is $300 here but can be purchased through Bud's Gun Shop or Gunsamerica, etc. for $235. How does it work?

I suppose I pay for the gun via credit, plus shipping to a local gun dealer/retailer. The retailer then processes the paperwork and charges a fee, as well as bills me for the tax? Is that right?

How would the local $300 price compare to the out the door price of ordering?

I am not looking to do this as my gun is on the way, but wondered how it worked for future reference. Also, do many of you order guns or just pay more to buy local?

 

[razorburn]

No tax. You buy the gun online, get your dealer to send the ffl, they ship it to your dealer, you pay the dealer his transfer fee, you get your gun. If the FFL charges $20, shipping is another $20, you get the gun for 275. If you purchased in person, you get hit with the tax, and that depends on state. Around here, it's about 9 percent, so the cost from the local place would be around 325 otd. So you save about 50 bucks doing it online. As the guns get more expensive, the offset gets bigger and it gets more and more economical to purchase online.

 

[DaltonSpringfield]

Cost of ordering

Local price for gun X=$300+Tax
Out of state price for gun X=$235+shipping+FFL transfer fee

If you purchase a gun from outside of your home state, you don't pay sales tax on it.
You do pay shipping and a transfer fee. The FFL sets his own transfer fee but it has always been $20 for me. Sometimes you can get the seller to include shipping in the price of the gun, in that case your $300 gun should cost you $255 (assuming your ffl charges $20 for the transfer) to order, a savings of $45.

razorburn is right, the higher the price, the more savings can be had this way.

Here is an example from when I bought my AR15
Local price for Colt AR15 $1499.99 + Sales Tax = Out the door @ $1627.48
Online price for Colt AR15 $1000 + transfer + shipping = Total $1040
I saved $587.48 by buying online and got the same gun I wanted (with enough left over to buy another XD). Only downside was it took longer to get it in my hands.

 

[gunfire876]

My dad owns buds

So I am biased however In some cases buying local is better. For instance if you are a picky person(you have the right) about wood and stuff. If you are not very patient seems like alot of stuff happens in the gun shipping buisness that you hate like holidays,weekends and your local dealer's hours or how fast he wants to do the transfer. But for the most part a good deal is a good deal. The AR deal mentioned above is a good example of this. Finally about the sales tax deal YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PAY SALES TAX on any deal, online you just don't get charged sales tax, you are supposed to pay them on the honor system.