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Posted: 3/27/2003 10:49:25 AM EDT
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Tell me if I'm thinking about this wrong. Nobody in the area sells stripped AR lowers. I'd like to buy 5 from Quantico Arms, $90 each. Every local FFL I talked to wants to charge me $25 per receiver. I'm not going to pay 25% of the price in transfer fees! I don't mind paying $25 on top of $450 (the price of a decent pistol, less than that of a decent rifle), but $125 on a $450 purchase? That seems like total BS to me. This includes 2 shops where they know me by name and I've dropped several hundred dollars in the past year. Screw them, the won't get any money; I'll buy some receivers at the gun show Saturday. |
| I'm fairly confident that the vast majority of shops have the same policy. The transfer fee is supposed to make up for the administration involved in the transfer. Five receivers means five times the paperwork. It's not fair, but I've never heard of a more liberal policy. |
I would understand their position if they sold a competing product. If they did, I would buy from them. It's a matter of either making a quick $25 or $50, or not making $125 because I won't pay that much. It is certainly something I'll remember unfavorably when I think about buying from them in the future. |
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Fizassist, First off, figure out where your going to buy the receivers, then ask them for a few names of FFL's that are in you location. There are a lot more private FFL's than just the shops around you. Many are guys that just buy rifles for themselves and friends to keep their FFL active. Call a few up and state your name, where you got their mane, and if they would be interested in doing the transfer on the receivers for you since you will be directly paying for the receivers from the Supplier, and only need them to do the transfer/paperwork. Also state that you have no problem with them coming over and doing the paper work at your house, and you can send/deliver them the form filled out to insure there safety, well before the receivers arrive. In Denver, I had to so this and lucked out big time. One of the names that was given to me was Greg @ Denver bullet, and I have been using him ever since. Now when I get a wild hair and want a weapon, I just call up Greg to ask/let him know what is coming, and he gives me a call when it arrives. I don’t know which is better, picking up my weapon or sitting around BS’ing while he calls it in, plus there is always something at his shop to drool over, or learn of new deals on MG’s that he may be receiving. |
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My guess is you will be paying $135 and up for the same receivers at gun shows. Plus if your a NICS state and you get delay or NICS is down your dealers leaving with your receivers and you gotta some how catch up with them later. I think you just burned your last bridge. No more $25 transfers for you. You just stepped up to the big time. |
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And you have dropped several hundred dollars in the last year. Ok several would mean like 7 hundred to me. Since you are talking $450 pistols your not buying total junk, but your at most talking 2 guns, with thier $25 fee they made a whopping $50 off you last year. Na I don't think they will even notice you don't come around anymore. |
I said I dropped several hundred in those shops. (Call it $1700 a Walther P-22, an Olympic PCR-02, and a S&W 629. Maybe that's not much to you, but it's more than my monthly gross income.) I didn't say that I bought them over the internet and then gave the dealer $25 for a transfer. That means that I paid them for guns in their inventory. I did this instead of saving a few hundred dollars online because I thought it was the right thing to do, buying from local dealers. I also buy all my reloading equipment from them, even though I could have saved a few hundred (by now) buying it online. This is the first transfer I've ever asked them to do for me, and I had hoped for a little accomodation in return for my loyalty to them as a customer. |
Ok, $65, that's a lot closer to what I would be willing to pay (I think $45 or 10% would be my limit). May I ask a naive question? How much work do you do for each transfer? Is the work really 5 times as much for 5 guns in the same order? I'm not questioning why you charge people; I think that's fine. I just have no idea how much work a dealer does with record keeping, etc., on a transfer and how that multiplies with the number of separate weapons involved. |
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Try checking out www.gunbroker.com or www.auctionarms.com or www.gunsamerica.com to see if there are some other transfer dealers in your area. You might be able to find one that has more reasonable deals. I would bet that the brick and mortar gun dealers have less favorable terms than the kitchen table dealers simply because they would rather you buy stuff through them. Good luck with your search. I live near Quantico Arms and bought a couple of lowers from them and they are good people. At least you won't have to worry about getting hassled by them. |
As a matter of fact, I just got off the phone with a fellow I found on gunbroker. He said he'd do the transfer for $30! You can bet he's going to be getting my business from now on! |
Sweet! Glad everything worked out! |
| Full priced?? Some, maybe even many.. want to bang you $50 bucks a transfer or 10% of the price of the gun if they can get it themselves. I say screw them, find someone who is reasonable for the less then 5 mins worth of work it takes. They, the overpriced dealers cause this themselves. Why in the world would I need to support them with my hard earned cash? They need to be competitive and have a semi-decent attitude to get the little money I have in my pocket. And this is not just limited to the 'firearms' business, just about anything can be purchased via mail order or the internet today. Everyone has to competitive! |
That's true, but with firearms, I think a little morderation is in order. The last thing we want is for all the local stocking dealers to go out of business. That would make it very easy for the ATF to severely restrict all gun sales by squeezing the kitchen table guys. That's why I've always tried to support my local shops. Other than one CavArms receiver (which the local shops wouldn't order), this is my first internet buy. If this is the reward I get for my loyalty, though, I'll be rethinking things. Like you say, the storefront FFLs have to make some effort to be accomodating. |
| I'm not talking about not buying firearms from local dealers. I've only had a few firearms purchased via a transfer, rather then the bulk of what I own via a 'stocking' dealer. But, if and when I wanted to get something transferred, the 'stocking' dealer wanted to do nothing but rip me off after spending many, many thousands of dollars there on guns/ammo/accessories. I say screw them if they want nothing but to rip you off with a transfer after spending loads of dollars there. If I had something sent up from a relative in fl, that same dealer would want to bang me just as much. Many have this attitude, it sucks.. |
| I was a bit upset about the ffl xfer charge too. I'm just getting the one receiver, but most places charge the $20-25 fee. One well know popular shop was asking $50 or 10% (whichever was more!!!). I got to talking to one guy at a big retailer, and he was saying the transfer fee is about as absurd as charging for a background check. He said he would waive the fee for me, and I had only talked to him for 5-10 mins. |
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Evidently I must clarify plain english here for those of us who wear our emotions on our shoulders. Good job. Using us Kitchen Table type dealers for cheap transfers makes sure the full priced dealers who actually have inventory and stock can't make enough money to keep anything and you will end up mail ordering everything. Good Job, well this means good job in finding a FFL transfer agent who will do so for a reasonable price. This is what the FFL system was supposed to be all about when it was set up in 68, it was never supposes to be a profit making venture but a way of record keeping for the ATF to track out of state firearms transfers. It means nothing else. No conjecture needed. Using us Kitchen Table type dealers for cheap transfers makes sure the full priced dealers who actually have inventory and stock can't make enough money to keep anything and you will end up mail ordering everything. Anyone who has seen me and Steyr Aug debate at nauseum would understand this is me playing devil's advocate and taking the profiteering dealer's point of view how kitchen table dealers like myself will be the ruin of the industry. To anyone who thinks I have nothing better to do that follow them around doing personal attack well you are mistaken stalking is not worth my time. When someone asks an opinion I assume possibly wrongly that they actually want opinions not just clones agreeing with them. It's called point/counter point. It's called discussion, it's called debat of the topics, somehow it gets turned into personal attack when you don't just nod your head up and down in agreement with the person who ask for opinions. |
| Funny thing around here, many of the brick and mortar places started by being a kitchen table dealer. The one place where I have spent more then what most people make in a year started that way, and he's the most vocal against 'kitchen table' dealers now. He like many other big time shops would like to see kitchen table dealers outlawed, so that his profit margin can be increased. |
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I just checked two places in the milwaukee area, 1. shooter shop on 84th st $50 to trasfer a rifle for me 2. Gander mountain in brookfield $25 dollars ... but "our store policy says we won't transfer 'military style' weapons" ... the asshead says this as he stands of a case of glocks, usps, 1911s, next to a display case of benchmade folders and surefire flashlights, with min-14s on the rack behind him. what a bunch of bs. |
I wonder if that is a policy of all Gander Mts., or just that particular store, because I was going to check with one about arand other "assault weapon" transfers. |
I believe you can transfer up to 3 firearms on one 4473 form to the same person. This would mean two forms instead of 5. So if we are charging for the paperwork, the fee should be less than $25.00 per receiver. |
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Don't get me wrong: I'm not supporting the fact that some dealers charge so much for doing transfers. Nor can I talk about any other state, except for mine. But...in CT it is five times the work. Each item requires a different transfer number which is given by the Department of Public Safety. This transfer number is the only way to a) avoid a 14 day wait on long guns or b) transfer any handgun. I recently had picked up a couple of the stripped lowers from Quantico and I'm not kidding when I say that I had to sign 4 state transfer forms (for a total of eight) on top of the Federal paperwork. Thankfully, my shop only charges me $20 for each transfer. I guess my bottom line is that I wish I didn't have to pay the $20 but don't take it as too much of a "burn" since it does take about 10-20 minutes. Additionally, CT's assault weapon bans prevents me from going too gun crazy as everything I want seems to be a no-no. |
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