Question for Gunbroker Experts

[DesertRat]

Hi all, it's been quite a while since I've posted out here, but have a policy question regarding listing a sale on Gunbroker (a site I've used many years ago for both buying and selling) for which I don't readily find the answer within their detailed and voluminous legalese.

Specifically, does anyone know if the seller of an item may restrict their sale to prospective "in-state only" purchasers? Perhaps someone can provide a citation on this matter? Thank you in advance.

~DR

 

[wiscoaster]

If it's not in their mouse print then there probably is no policy one way or the other, and you can do it, but it's not going to prevent out-of-state bidders from bidding because there's no mechanism for doing that, so it's going to be up to you to handle that yourself manually. I've used GB quite a bit as a buyer and I've never ever seen that restriction stipulated by a seller, so if you get a firm answer, or if you try it and find out, let us know.

 

[Poper]

JMHO, but being the seller, you should be able to put whatever restrictions on the sale of your property that you see fit. It is VERY common for sellers to state in their auction description that they will not sell (or ship) to California or Massachusetts.

It is up to you to set the conditions of the sale. If you want to do an instate only sale, be sure to specify in the auction that it is a condition of the sale that the buyer must be a resident of your state, period. No exceptions. Exactly why you would want to restrict yourself to so few potential buyers, I have no idea.

Again, JMHO.

 

[Howland937]

I've never sold on GB, but is there an option in the shipping info part that you can select "shipping not available"? You could also state in the item's description that it's only available for local pickup with in-state ID.
Not sure if that would violate any policy for selling.

 

[.455_Hunter]

The key benefit of GB is getting your product exposed to an interested and mostly nationwide audience. It's a great supplement to the gun sitting on the consignment self at the LGS.

 

[George P]

The key benefit of GB is getting your product exposed to an interested and mostly nationwide audience. It's a great supplement to the gun sitting on the consignment self at the LGS.

Agree; if you only want in-state, list it on ArmsList

 

[Legionnaire]

I don't know if there is a policy statement on this, but if you work through the process of listing a firearm, it asks you to identify where you are located, and where you are willing to ship. The options for the latter are "seller's country only" or "international." I do know that a lot of people (self-included) include in the text of the listing "No sales to (list states you won't ship to)." I doubt it would be a violation of policy to include "Face-to-face only; will not ship," but that kind of defeats the purpose of the platform. If that's what you want, probably better to list it in the classifieds here and on other gun boards.

 

[HankC]

The real trouble begins when someone out of state bid on it and win, Gunbroker charges you the fee and you get into who pays the fee if you don't want to sell! I got into that situation once when I listed a Yugo SKS which has a grenade launcher and illegal in CA. I said no sell to CA in my listing but a CA guy bid on it and won, I would not sell, he checked with his FFL and withdrew, I don't know if Gunbroker let him withdraw or he had to pay the Gunbroker fee.

 

[wiscoaster]

.... I said no sell to CA in my listing but a CA guy bid on it and won, I would not sell, he checked with his FFL and withdrew, I don't know if Gunbroker let him withdraw...

As an experienced GB buyer, I know there's no way provided by Gunbroker for a buyer to unilaterally withdraw a winning bid. I suspect if the winning bidder cannot fulfill his obligation to buy, that's something that can be negotiated between seller and buyer. But I don't know how the seller is compensated for having to relist. If the withdrawal isn't with the agreement of the seller, then the defaulting buyer gets flagged as a non-payer, and in future auctions I think sellers can delete his or her bids. Or that's what they say in their listings they'll do, anyway. But what seller wants to monitor his auctions all hours of the day to screen for renegade bidders?