Purchasing from Gunbroker
 

What has everyone’s experience been with gunbroker auctions? I put in a bid on a Parker on there and oddly it took me to the email about a similar gun that I saw on Gunsinternational. The auction seems like something odd went on and another account was just jacking up the price. If the gun description is legit then it’s a fair price. Just don’t have experience on that site.

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Be careful, there have been scammers on GB in the past and certainly there will be in the future. This is both from a buyers and sellers side. Was it the same gun listed in both places?

Some sellers may cross post and market their guns in both locations. But not very often.

A commonly seen scam is where someone will hijack photos from a guns international listing and crop off the GI watermark and then put up a gunbroker listing for the gun using those photos. Usually the descriptions are minimal. And the price will always be half what the gun is “worth” making it very attractive to bidders.
These scam sellers will usually be NR (no review) sellers on Gunbroker meaning they have no feedback rating. OR the ratings will be very low. Like 1 or 2. And usually those ratings are from other scam accounts. They work together to try and pad up feedback ratings to make their accounts look more legit.

Maybe if you share examples of the listings you mention, we can advise.


One company that is posting a lot of GI is Guns.com. And they have their own website and run their own auctions on there as well as fixed price sales. They are just using GI to try and boost their exposure. Which will just end up biting GI in the ass in the future as Guns.com is their competitor. And, They are BAD NEWS based on recent experiences I had with them.

Check the seller's 'other listings'. If it's their only listing, send them a message, and ask that they reply to your email address. If they don't, they may not want you to be able to better identify them.
I don't look at GB too often, and have very limited buying experience off that site. My most recent experience was with a seller in upstate NY. The gun was a 30" DHE20, and turned out to be very much nicer than his good pictures suggested. I was the only bidder, and felt it was a very good deal.

All good advice/practices mentioned here. I'll also add that once gun is over around $2k or more, I usually want to talk to the seller on the phone(just to ask questions about the gun and get a feel for who I am dealing with).

That doesn't always happen, but if something doesn't feel right or if I need a few more details before I bid. I usually enjoy the phone call as good sellers don't mind talking about what they have listed. Good sxs relationships can start this way.

One last thing if something feels off, "cut and paste" the description(or parts of it) and see what Google will come up with. If it is double listed or something fishy is going on you'll usually find it, as scammers don't take the time to alter the description.

Some of you may remember. I bought a 28g VH that Brian restocked wonderfully that was initially listed on Guns International, but listed on GunBroker a few times as well.

I look for lots of positive feedbacks on GB sellers. I have only purchased a few great items off GB but I watch it daily. If the seller is using the GB instant check out system that makes me comfotable since a credit card is required and some of the sellers on the check out system waive the CC fee.

Never have, doubt I ever will. There is simply too much that is subjective, too much stretching the limits of honesty for me to feel comfortable. I bought my first few guns at shows where I could at least handle the thing in person; all my later purchases have been from someone I know or at least is well known on the boards. My buying days are likely over anyway :).

FWIW, I’ve bought many guns on GB. Very few vintage guns, however. If I’m interested I send the seller an email. If they don’t reply I move on. If they do I usually ask for additional pics and/or a phone call. I haven’t had a problem yet.

The info that Brian shared is critical, IMO…

I always look to see their other listings. If they have several photos with different backgrounds that is a red flag. Most legitimate sellers use the same background for all their photos. When they are mixed,they have been lifted from different sites.

We sell on GB a good bit as a matter of fact we’re over $300k in sales for the year so far . And while there were or are some folks on there who might rob you blind , for the last year or two there’s been rampant run of deadbeat buyers and by that I mean folks that bid win and then don’t wanna pay after the fact with a good many never replying to emails etc . I particularly hate it when a person with no feedback bids on one of our items because they seem to harbor a good many of the deadbeat types . A couple years back there was a guy/group that were stealing pics from Gunsinternational or somewhere of higher grade very visible guns mostly Winchester levers and Colt single actions of my memory is correct . Anyway they had a location of IN or IL if memory serves and it turned out they were actually in the UK running their scam thru some fictitious address in the US .

The "seller" often says he's out of the country, but his buddy can make the deal. A long while back, there was wonderful 1894 rifle, with NINE special order features, Deluxe .25WCF Takedown. He strung me along for the longest while. I was wandering down an aisle at the Baltimore show, and there was the gun. The real owner had no idea someone had stolen his pictures. I did the deal on the spot, and a week later sent the phony seller pictures and told him I found a better one. Crickets.

Whenever I see a gunbroker listing that I know is a scam, I like to hit the buy it now button to end the listing. Then I promptly leave negative feedback stating that the listing is a scam. Then I report the transaction to gunbroker and they will cancel the transaction within a few days. I am on the hook for nothing.

Wow, I always assumed guns.com was somehow in someway a scam. Either that or my money was being used to fund some nefarious organization.

Such a “seriously?” name for a website. But I suppose that domain probably gets a ton of searches…

I'm too old to think about buying more guns. I should be downsizing. My 2 grandsons won't shoot clays. They only want to shoot live birds. So I take them to Markover.

I've always been very cautious when it comes to gun broker or any online site for that matter.

My main issue with buying on GB is the taxation issue. There's just something that rubs me wrong when GB automatically tacks on your tax states sales tax to the final price of the item when they aren't the seller & only an intermediary of the transaction. With Colorado's newly enacted 6.5% excise tax for gun purchases on top of the regular tax this now puts just under 10% taxation on a gun purchased off GB. Then when you add in shipping & FFL transfer fee's, this can get expensive pretty quick.

Due to this state having universal background checks the FFL transfers fees can now be as high as $150.00. I just bought a gun off of GB & when all the dust settled, I ended up with just shy of a grand added to the purchase price of the gun from a private seller. Buyer be Ware!!

We have noticed the exact same thing on Gunbroker and have moved more items to GunsInternational because of it. I'm not sure which I dislike more, the auction winners that completely ghost you after the auction ends or the ones that flat out lie that a payment has been sent, never provide tracking and then weeks later decide they "don't want the item". The Gunbroker checkout process is cumbersome for new buyers, but from a sellers perspective I wish they would just force buyers to link a payment method like eBay so we don't have to chase buyers to complete the "buyer review" or finish the checkout process. Some try to skip checkout to avoid the Gunbroker fees and taxes, but because Gunbroker is collecting those fees from us as the seller we have to include them. Sorry for the rant, I guess it could always be worse and Gunbroker could start charging a 22% buyers premium like the bigger auction houses!