Selling your firearms

[StPaulG33]

Hey Everyone, last year I decided to migrate my hand gun calibers to the same manufacturer (for good or bad I decided on glocks) and now I have some guns i no longer carry or bring to the range and are collecting dust.

I looked at gunbroker and arms list but neither really appeal to me, shipping (out of state laws) and concerns about scams were my big two. I am curious if anyone has sold any of their firearms to one of our many LGS and were happy with the price they were offered. I was shopping at a LGS and a guy was asking about selling his gun and the salesman said they typically offer 60% of what they would sell the gun for when buying used.

I understand prices change daily but what I was looking for is your opinion on a LGS that offers a fair price on buying used.

Thank you for any advice.

[Kelor]

Why not just post in here?

[Erud]

60% is about as good as you are likely to get. You would be much better off selling them on your own. It's no different than trading in a car at a dealer vs. selling it yourself. Private sale will always work out better for you.

[JJ]

I seldom will sell to a LGS. I've done a couple trade when I was light on cash and needed to make something happen quick, otherwise I always do private party sales. I've sold some on this forum, and other local forums, as well as on Armslist.

My SOP is to ask for a DL and PTP/PTC, and a bill of sale in the ad itself. This seems to weed out sketchy buyers. I can only think of one that has ever been an issue, and the spidey senses were tingling, so i just backed out of the sale. Otherwise i meet in a public location usually at the back of the parking lot of a mall/big box retailer. Just enough visibility that it's public. Many police stations now have "safe sale" zones established, and most will allow you to transfer a firearm in that space. Beyond that i never actually complete a bill of sale, unless the buyer wants a copy for themselves. I do a quick glance at the DL and PTP/PTC to make sure the information matches, and i have fulfilled the legal obligations to make a sale.

As much as i like shopping at local brick and mortar, i just am not willing to take the 40% hit they offer. I understand they need to make money too, but that is an awful lot, to complete a 4473. :2cents:

[Bearcatrp]

I have sold 2 firearms on AR15.com without any issues. I always went through a FFL though to cover my arse though. Did sell one pistol on this site too.

[Squib Joe]

Speaking as somebody who buys guns for a LGS, it all comes down to convenience. The more effort you put into selling the gun, the higher your return.

Selling to a LGS will be the quickest and easiest but you will get the lowest price. Consigning at a LGS will take more time (you will need to wait for it to sell), but you will know that the buyer is passing a background check and your cut will be much higher. Finding a private party and selling to them directly will most likely take the most time and effort, and there are some small security concerns, but you should be able to get full "street value" for your firearm.

[StPaulG33]

I did see there is a for sale section for firearms here and I may check that out, on a side note which LGS have consignment? i think Arnzens does but I am not sure of any others.

[Squib Joe]

All Bill's Gun Shop locations and I believe Joe's Sporting Goods offer consignments. Maybe Gunstop as well?

[nhluke]

Gun stop also sells (or at least used to) firearms on consignment. I've made offers on a few and they either knew wiggle room or they would call the owner and relay offer.

Added- I would agree selling yourself is typically "the best". Between this site and others it can be fairly painless. Especially if you sell for a little under what you could get if you wait for the right buyer who pays 550 for a used stocked m&p etc. It's amazing how fast people will jump on a firearm that is slightly under the everyday price...or how long a gun will stay posted trying to squeak out every 10 dollars.

[karlobag]

I have sold and purchased on/from this site with ZERO problems. Reasonably priced items seem to sell quickly and painlessly.

I do something like this:

My SOP is to ask for a DL and PTP/PTC, and a bill of sale in the ad itself. This seems to weed out sketchy buyers. I can only think of one that has ever been an issue, and the spidey senses were tingling, so i just backed out of the sale. Otherwise i meet in a public location usually at the back of the parking lot of a mall/big box retailer. Just enough visibility that it's public. Many police stations now have "safe sale" zones established, and most will allow you to transfer a firearm in that space. Beyond that i never actually complete a bill of sale, unless the buyer wants a copy for themselves. I do a quick glance at the DL and PTP/PTC to make sure the information matches, and i have fulfilled the legal obligations to make a sale.

[Meta-Prometheus]

I've sold some of my lower end firearms to local gun stores before, and I agree with whoever said 60% of the original cost of the gun. That's pretty much exactly what I've gotten back out of those low end firearms I've sold directly to gun stores. The reason for this is typically that many used guns will sit on the shelf for quite a while before somebody buys it. And for some guns, they never sell. I can give one example. At Coyote Creek Gun & Archery in Rochester, there was an Accuracy International 308 rifle that was part of a guy's collection he put on consignment sitting on the wall for the better part of 5 years. The last time I was there about 6 months ago, it was still on the wall. I just checked the website and I no longer see it listed. The guy either withdrew it or it actually finally sold. The cost was somewhere around $6,000. Not too many folks lining up to drop that kind of cash, especially on a bolt action. This is why you only get 60% if you're lucky. Most of the time the gun store has to deal with it for quite a while.

It's not something you should do if you don't have to. The best option by far is to sell privately as people have stated. If you want to stick with using a gun store, many places do consignment or will list on gunbroker on your behalf. There is typically a withholding fee for consignment or auction listing, usually around 10-20% is what I've seen. Basically they take 10-20% of what the gun sells for as payment for displaying it in their store or listing it on an auction site. You would have to determine the fees involved if you wanted to do it that way. However those options typically net you more money than selling outright to the store. Hope this helps.

[LarryFlew]

I use here, armslist and Gunbroker. Since your shipment has to go to an FFL in the buyers state that part is covered. Requiring payment via postal order helps the other end. Bad part is either unregistered on Armslist or no feedback on Gunbroker might make the sale a little tough. Shipping in many cases is cheaper going through your FFL for handguns as they can mail via USPS flat rate priority and you can't. Any questions I can help with feel free to give a shout.

[StPaulG33]

Thank you everyone for your replies, I'm not in a big rush to sell them right now and I did have some friends who wanted to purchase a couple of them but with MN laws and the possible sellers liability (from my understanding) I requested they apply for a permit to purchase before I would sell to them.

Thanks again and I may try to list a couple here to see if they sell in the for sale section.

[ttousi]

there are bill of sale forms in the reference section here