Please Help With A Long Distance Private Sale

[gunhohulk]

Hi I'm trying to buy a rifle from someone off the private sales forum. The issue is that the seller is in Ventura and I live in Sac. I have never done a transaction with shipping through the FFLs and would like some insight from someone who has. At what point do you send the cash? I obviously don't want to do that before I can verify with a dealer that the gun is shipping so I don't get screwed over. Any advice is appreciated.

[BKinzey]

I think this is pretty well covered in the CGF Wiki. I'd check there and then ask any specific questions you have.

[CHS]

He ships the gun to your FFL. You pay him. Most people want to be paid before shipping, which is perfectly normal.

If you have another idea how the sale should go through, you'll have to bring it up with him.

But all he needs to do is box up the gun and ship it to your FFL. It doesn't have to go through his FFL.

Read the wiki on this.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

...Most people want to be paid before shipping, which is perfectly normal.

Yep. With every single long distance purchase I've ever done in my life I've had to send payment before the item was shipped. That's just the way it is done. He could pay UPS the extra $11 to ship it C.O.D. But most sellers aren't going to want to deal with the extra risk and hassle of C.O.D. shipments.

With all of the complaints of flakes on the For Sale forum it seems like flakey buyers outnumber flakey sellers by at least 10 to 1. Nobody wants to pay shipping out of their own pocket just to have the firearm returned to them when the buyer doesn't show up for the transfer.