real dumb quick question

if i walk in and buy say 5-10 rifles, do i pay 5-10 background check fees? or just one?

cant remember ... and no im not buying for others, thinking of stocking up on a couple of things if i get some more cash from work soon

You can do 5 transfers on one 4473 form

thank you sir .. i knew there was a magical number

There is no magical number. You may purchase an infinite number of long guns at one time. There is no fee for a long gun purchase and using a 4473. Although a single 4473 may only have 5 lines, your purchases may continue onto another and another 4473, etc which are attached to the first. NICS is only called once and there is no fee for a NICS check.

You can put as many firearms as you want per 4473.

It's up to the dealer if he charges you for each form, or by the firearm.

This is true. If you plan to transfer multiple guns be sure to ask your FFL. Some places charge extra for each gun they put on the 4473.

You would create an addendum form and not use another 4473.

The fee is set by the dealer. To say there is no fee is misleading.

Kind of like places which charge more than $13 for a hand gun transfer...

It is not customary to charge a fee for a NICS check on a long gun stocked in the store. Some dealers obviously choose to do so and can charge whatever "fee" they wish for the privilege of purchasing from them. It is a way of making the long gun price appear artificially low in my book.

Yup.

The best I ever heard was a dealer trying to charge me 10% of the firearms cost.

Even though I paid the guy that owned the rifle with a MO, the dealer said his transfer "fee" was 10% of the cost.

Gander Mountain charges you for the form, the pen, the phone call, and the time. And you will like it, because we're Gander Mountain.

You forgot the ink.. They charge you for the ink!

But it is such a small price to pay for such exceptional service and such knowledgeable salespeople.

On topic though, on a non-transfer long-gun sale I won't pay a fee. Thank God there is a choice of where to buy yet.

As said above, If you go to say Fleet Farm you can buy as many long guns as you like and there is no fee for the NIICS check and you can walk out of the store with as many as you can carry.

Assuming your buying off the internet and having them transferred through a dealer then there *should* still be no background check fee of any kind, but the dealer usually charges a transfer fee and he may apply it to one or all of your long guns. My experience has been you will usually get a deal when you make multiple purchases at the same time. Some might only charge you a flat fee for one or a flat fee times the number of firearms but I would assume most will only charge a little past the first one, it is more work to receive, hold and process multiple firearms so I don't expect it for free.

You should also only have to fill out one 4473 and the extra firearms just continue onto another paper or so I'm told. The max I transferred at one time was five so far so I'm not 100% sure.

Your best bet would be to talk to your FFL first or whatever store your planning on buying from. My experience is that each brick and mortar store have there own unique and sometimes quirky way of doing things.

thanks superpimp .. and nice meeting you saturday

My ffl doesn't charge for rifle transfers. Im me for info if around Madison.

Sorry dude I must have missed the store purchase context. My bad.

I have no problem with paying a FFL a "transfer" fee, when buying online, etc. They're in business to earn a living, and not making a cent on my purchase from someone else, so I would not expect them to do this for free. But I will NEVER pay anyone a fee for doing a "free" NICS check on an "in-stock" firearm that they're earning a profit on. If they've got a bitch about "it takes time", "they can charge whatever they want", etc... don't tell me about it, tell your govt representitives. It's part of YOUR business, live with it, or quit. If the govt doesn't charge a fee for NICS, I won't pay for something that's intended to be free of charge. That's like charging me extra for the box the gun comes in, or charging me a dime for the paper the receipt is written on. It's part of the cost of doing business.

As for the WI DOJ handgun fee, I will never buy a handgun (or anything else) from any FFL who charges me more than the fee DOJ charges them. I walked away from a sale recently because of this practice. He tried charging me $17.50 for the DOJ check. He claimed the extra $4 was "for his time, and phone bill". Again... if they don't like doing the paperwork, phone call etc, neither do I. We're in this together. Doing paperwork in a business setting is a fact of life. Get over it. Don't bitch to me about the conditions of doing business in the line of work you chose.

If you buy a gun from us, we do not charge a transfer fee. We do charge if you buy and have shipped to us, or if we do the transfers for Whitetails Unlimited or a group like that.

So wait. You think that paying more than $13 for a handgun transfer from a private dealer is wrong?

Interesting... Who do you charge, the group such as W.U. when they receive the firearms, or the banquet raffle winners?

I've won 3 long-guns at W.U. banquets, and 1 long-gun at a Ducks Unlimited over the past 15 years... I never had to pay any fees. I was on a local W.U. board for a few years about 7-8 yrs ago, and the FFL we dealt with charged us a flat fee of $50 to receive the raffle guns, and come to the banquet to do the NICS checks on the winners (the $50 was for all guns combined, not per gun, and he & his wife got free dinners & drinks at the banquets too). We didn't raffle any handguns, so the issue of the DOJ fee never came up. But the local D.U. does raffle handguns on occasion, and they pay the $13 for the handgun winners to the FFL, AFAIK. My buddy won a Ruger Super Blackhawk, and wasn't charged anything (it was still $8 at that time)... I sat next to him when he did the paperwork cuz it was the same night I won a shotgun, and I did my 4473 at the same time.

As before, I am primarily talking about dealers with a store front. I am also talking about transfers done where the dealer is making a profit on the firearm itself. If a dealer is transferring someone else's sale such as where the customer purchases from an out of state dealer and you are simply transferring it to them, then it is expected that an independent transfer fee be charged.
Regarding any dealer private or not, if they are making a profit on the firearm sale itself, why would they charge an additional "transfer" fee on their own sale unless they are simply trying to make the firearm appear cheaper yet still make more profit? There is one store front locally which charges $15 instead of $13 for a handgun transfer. $2 is not going to make the dealer rich nor the customer poor but I still object to the principle of it especially since most customers likely are oblivious to this additional $2 fee.


This general concept is what I am talking about although I am not suggesting that dealers go out of business if they can not sell firearms for a few dollars cheaper. I am simply advocating transparency in total pricing.

But if they say upfront that it's going to be cost $17.50 for a background check, how is that not being transparent?

IF....

Plus, some people do not know that it is only "supposed" to be $13...

It is only truly transparent if you add another line item on the invoice such as "dealer prep fee" or "paperwork labor fee", etc... If the customer has no idea that they are being charged something extra how is it transparent?

This is our 2nd year with W.U., last year we received nothing except a free ticket in. For 22 transfers, 4 of them hand gun, driving to pick up the firearms from another FFL and working our asses off for 4 hours doing transfers. This year we charged $25 per transfer, W.U. ate the cost. Next year they said the cost will be paid by the winner. It is not our goal to do this for free, all of the paper work from the events like this we have to hold on to. If anyone here thinks it is just "easy" to do this, I welcome anyone to get there FFL and see how "easy" it just is.

Agreed.

I did one year for RMEF and ate all the costs, and made ammo for every gun the had. Lots of work for a write off. Regular transfers cost time effort and money that most never get to see.

well said. People need to expect a 'fee' of some sort if they purchase on line FFL items. Most FFLs will dislike you since you did not consider purchasing from them or placing an order through them in the first place and need to gain revenue somewhere.

I don't dislike people that buy from an online retailer instead of me, then have me do the transfer. Business is business. I can beat the price of almost every brick and mortar store around. I come close to beating online retailers. Some I cannot, some I can. I want my customers to be happy with there purchase, and get the best price they are comfortable with. I am sometimes disappointed that they would not ask me for a quote first, but that is there choice. They might have been able to save a few bucks, but I would never tell a customer they could have gotten the gun cheaper through me if they have already spent their money. I would not be angry or dislike a customer for trying to get the best deal.

If a customer orders a gun from me they don't pay for a transfer fee if it is a long gun, and if it is a handgun the $13 is factored into the purchase price. There is never a fee beyond that for a gun I am already making a profit on.

If it is for a gun purchased somewhere else then yes I charge for a long gun transfer and more than $13 for a handgun transfer. My time and effort is worth something. I am not UNISEF after all. Thinking or expecting a private dealer to do free transfers, is quite honestly an insult. If there is a dealer willing to do it for free then great, he must be up to his eyeballs in cash already.

Just my two cents.

I know of nobody who expects a private dealer to do free 3rd party transfers. Certainly none in this thread have suggested that they do. I know of none who do it for free except for close friends. The cheapest fee I have seen locally is $25 for a 3rd party transfer. Gander is the highest.

I didn't mean to imply anyone here thought that. I have heard this sentiment "out in the wild".

I'm betting there'll be some pissed off winners. I don't blame you for charging for your services, but I think W.U. should eat any costs, not the person who spends $100+ to buy chances, and then has to spend another $25 when they win a $150 .22 bolt action or single shot Rossi .410. Personally, I'd never go back to another banquet if it were me, but YMMV.

But Wow!, 22 guns.. they must have big banquets! Most we ever had at a W.U. here, up north, was about 12-15 guns. We'd typically raffle about one firearm for every 10 people attending, and the last few years we did it, it was down to about only 9 or 10 guns, as attendance was under well 100 people (last banquet I worked, had 56 people, and that included the board members and FFL & wife, and we gave away 7 guns). My area of the northwoods got "banqueted out". There are W.U., D.U., WI Waterfowl Assoc, Rocky Mountain Elk, Ruffed Grouse Society, Wild Turkey Fed., and Friends of NRA banquets. To make matters worse, it seemed like every small town was having their own "whatever org." banquet, competing with the next town over for attendees. There were no winners, everyone lost. I got disgusted and quit working them... and quit going to them too, as the low attendance due to all the "competition" meant fewer and fewer (and lower quality) raffle prizes at each banquet. 15 years ago, I used to drop a couple hundred bucks in raffle tickets per banquet... but it was worth it, as the prizes were pretty good, and I won more than a few nice prizes besides the 4 guns (like an outboard motor). The D.U. was the best, and they'd "sell out" the 350 person hall capacity. Then 2 neighboring towns started their own "chapters", and attendance got split between the 3. It dropped off to one nice gun, and nothing else but single shot NEF & Rossi shotguns, .22 bolt action Marlins, and "giveaway" knives, and people quit going. Don't blame them, it just was not worth it anymore, IMO.

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