How hard should FFL transfer be?

[JHC]

I was wondering what the procedure for buying off gunbroker should be. This is the first time I've tried to buy from gunbroker and cant believe what a hassle it's been, please tell me this isn't the way it always is.

I see an item I want and I want to do a buy it now, the auction says call first to check stock. I call and the guy gives me his fax # for my FFL to send his info to and tells me to call Mon morning to pay, I call my FFL on Saturday and give them the FAX # and phone # as well. I call the seller this morning to pay and he says no-go until he receives the FFLs fax, I call my FFL and am told by his assistant that she has talked to the seller and then sets me up an appointment for later today to start the paperwork. I call the seller again to pay and he says he still has no info from my FFL.

I called the seller again to see if he got the FFLs fax yet but he left his shop early so I wont know til tommorow . Is it always this difficult to use an FFL that isn't at a gun store or am I doing something all wrong?

[Jicko]

Your FFL sucks.

[Turbinator]

I think it's normal for a seller to wait until the receiving FFL's information makes it across their desk. This has been my experience in the past. This could delay an order for up to a month while both parties sort out the paperwork, but it's only being done to comply with Federal laws, as far as I know.

Turby

[delloro]

agreed, but my FFL is fast about sending and receiving.

[Pablo]

I was wondering what the procedure for buying off gunbroker should be. This is the first time I've tried to buy from gunbroker and cant believe what a hassle it's been, please tell me this isn't the way it always is.

I see an item I want and I want to do a buy it now, the auction says call first to check stock. I call and the guy gives me his fax # for my FFL to send his info to and tells me to call Mon morning to pay, I call my FFL on Saturday and give them the FAX # and phone # as well. I call the seller this morning to pay and he says no-go until he receives the FFLs fax, I call my FFL and am told by his assistant that she has talked to the seller and then sets me up an appointment for later today to start the paperwork. I call the seller again to pay and he says he still has no info from my FFL. I call my FFL again to see whats up and the FFL tells me they probably havn't got to it yet (his assistant led me to believe differently), so I give them the FAX # again.

I'll call the seller again in a bit to see if he got the FFLs fax yet but I doubt if it will be sent going by how this has worked out so far. Is it always this difficult to use an FFL that isn't at a gun store or am I doing something all wrong?

My experience went very smoothly.
I bought and SA1911 from Tanner Sports. When I won the auction, I contacted them for further instructions via e-mail. They give me their address and fax number. The same day I went to the post office to send the MO an I also e-mail my FFL with Tanner Sports info.
Pretty much that's it. I just have to wait for the handgun to arrive at my FFL address and of course to do the DROS.

[ghostrider4evr]

Should be fairly painless from my prior experience. Sounds like you need to hunt down a new FFL.

[JHC]

It's a special transfer and this is the only FFL I've found that will do it ( the rest said no, hung-up, didn't return my calls, and I even had two call me names).

[461]

Which FFL are you using in Sacramento? Each auction site has a listing of FFL's that have agreed to do transfers and lists the prices they charge. Lots of Dealers over the internet will deal with you directly on payment prior to receiving anything from your local ffl as I've done it several times. Soem dealers just make it a point to screw you around if you're from California as they don't agree with the laws here and many won't send anything (legal or not) to California.

Sorry you're having trouble, hope it works out for you.

[JHC]

I went and did the transfer and it looks like the seller is the problem. The FFL has been swamped with buisness and I can understand how things slowed down, but the seller which is on the other coast is very short on the phone and was reluctant to give all the information my FFL needed. It seems as though everything is straightened out now so I guess I was upset over nothing.

[Charliegone]

Yeah your ffl is bit slow. I have bought from gb and I received my stuff fast.

Although I did do somethings maybe different:

Had my ffl send his info to the seller. He did this the same day i asked.
Bought the item or bid or whatever. Paid for it the same day with credit card.

Received item (usually within 3 to 5 days if normal shipping) overnight since I paid extra. Went to ffl and did dros and waited 10 days and blamo. Got my stag lower.

If your ffl is too damn slow, you are never getting your gun on time.

[zefflyn]

Both your FFL and the seller are giving you a bit of a hard time. I've bought a number of guns via auctionarms.com, and do it like this:

Win the auction, call the seller, get the info.
Go to my FFL, get a signed note from him. Put the note with my money order, and mail both via registered mail.
Seller gets the check and FFL, mails the gun.
Check UPS website every couple hours to see if it arrived yet.
A couple days later, I go to my FFL, do DROS and paperwork.
Return 10 days later to pick up the gun.

Only had trouble with one seller, who didn't know about the safety exemption for Olympic class handguns, but straightened that out right quick.

[Yute]

My situation:
Bought a rifle off Auction Arms - great seller, good comms, very responsive. Asks for my FFL's signed copy of his license. I go to the FFL, ask for the info, but they insist that the seller goes through a ffl too. Ok no biggy, I pay for the seller's ffl costs, tell my ffl to fax his info to the seller's ffl. I wait a week. Nothing from my FFL. I then call the seller's FFL to ask if they recieved my FFL's faxed info. They say the seller's rifle is still there and are waiting for my FFL info AND their fax is also broken so they think that the FFL license might not have gotten through. And the guy who is doing the transfer is going on holiday. Ok, not a problem. So I go to my FFL, get a hard copy, send it overnight, but the seller's FFL is now on holiday. I wait another week. He comes back tonight. I'm waiting to see if the rifle comes this week. I hope the FFL info I sent isn't on the bottom of the letter pile.

Do i mind? Not particularly, stuff does fall through... 10 day waiting period? HA! It's been like 3 weeks :P

[ldivinag]

remind me to avoid you guy's FFLs... lol....

2nd ever purchase of a handgun. i decided to do the internet thing (first was at traders... ).

from the site, i found a local FFL.

dude operated out of a friends shop. in and out in 10 days. did another transfer through him. again painless...

FF 4 years now. i needed long guns. past FFL no longer answers phone or email. guess he got out of the biz.

so i find another FFL. again, this is his side biz that he runs from his day to day biz.

nice thing to see NRA (and others) stickers on his primary biz.

again, everything is painless. in and out in 10 days...

that was around aug/sept of 2005. now come dec 2005 and the lower land rush. i call him, but doesnt return calls. guess he doesnt want to deal with that.

eventually found FFL who will. again, painless. only issue was vendor kinda short changed me on the lower. but FFL jumps in and gets things resolved...

all 3 FFLs never try to get to me to have sender go through their FFL, nor charge me stuff like TAX (!!!!). all have given me top notch service and good advice regarding firearm laws...

[ohsmily]

I have done about 25 "online" gun transactions that required the firearm to be shipped. It isn't complicated but it can be frustrating when one side can't be reached by phone or is slow on the email.

Now that Faxed FFL's are acceptable, things are much faster. Previously (before July 2005) the FFL copy had to be mailed via snail mail to the seller. This added alot of time to the transaction (if you were paying by credit card, or other means).

Anyway, another key to the online transaction is finding an FFL with reasonable fees. You can score some really good deals if you spend enough time on the internet.

[rips31]

agreed. there seems to be a large variation of ffl prices and knowledge. one ffl i went to just gave me as many copies of his license as i wanted. another asked for the first-3/last-5 of the seller's ffl info and wouldn't release a copy of his license. thought that non-ffl's having a copy of his license or even emailing a copy is against the law.

but, things can go smoothly if you work with them enough.