Gunbroker problems/advice

[EaCarrr]

Holy Cow, this is the exact type of scenario that made me never even bother trying to buy something off gunbroker, or armslist, or any other online marketplace where I'd be dealing with shipping from other states. No thanks!

[pythonfan]

Exactly. We have had to do this several times when somebody in California won a handgun that is clearly labeled off roster. The total selling fees are around 13% of the sales price and we don’t want to eat them because a customer couldn’t read.

As for YOUR seller, before you bid you may have wanted to walk them through the process a little further.

It’s not that hard to sell to CA but folks don’t want to get on our great state’s radar either.



If it’s like any of the shotguns that I own, the pistol grip is integral and cannot be removed.

Agreed on first point. It is ultimately buyers responsibility to bid only on legal items. And they should be on the hook for fees. Also if sellers ad says no California then it is my responsibility to pay fees if I still bid.

Second point I will do so moving forward. But ultimately I did get the confirmation prior. I also gave option 3 that would negate too much of a burden on seller. I did my due diligence in my opinion.

Third point the stock could be removed on a Remington 870 pump. But it is 100% legal so I was not about to pay him to remove it and ship.

[pythonfan]

Buy it but find ffl that does not bend you over

I attempted to. I was happy to pay and compensate anyone involved.

[rromeo]

CFLC was mentioned because he only wanted to have his FFL ship it.

[edgerly779]

Buy it but find ffl that does not bend you over

[ugimports]

His big problem is sending his DL if he ships and his ffl doing the CFLC program. They don't want any of their info given to California. Which I understand. I didn't fault him and agreed to him backing out. I am understanding.

The problem is him reporting me as attempting illegal activity and demanding i pay his fees. I'm not sure if he legitimately thinks my option to have him mail directly to my ffl was illegal. Or if he is using this to worm his way out of paying the listing fees. Also he possibly didn't like the price I won it at so he wanted to try again and give me the blame for it.

Really I want to know that I didn't run afoul of any California or federal laws in my 3 options. I want to cover myself in case gunbroker doesn't know the law.

Option 1- he mails directly to my ffl. He includes DL and Bill of sale so I can pay my ca tax.

Option 2-he utilizes his ffl. His ffl utilizes CFLC program to obtain CFD 5 digit number and then ships to my ffl.

Option 3-he utilizes his ffl to log in gun, ship it to ffl in Nevada on my behalf, Nevada ffl logs it in, charges me a second transfer fee, obtains CFD number and mails it to my ffl.

Any California laws being broken? Any federal laws being broken? I just don't want to find out I did in fact suggest illegal activity. I don't think I did.

I'm not sure what the bolded means. The sending FFL will have their information logged into the CA FFLs bound book regardless. While that is a federal document the state can look at specific entries if needed.

Also, them shipping through another FFL is not illegal (as we all know) so it's pretty absurd that they think it is. How do they think they get firearms from anywhere? Guess what, they ship from FFL to FFL until they get to the final consumers FFL. Even if that means mfg FFL to distributor FFL to retail FFL to possibly another retail FFL if sold on gunbroker.

Folks can be strange though...

[ronlglock]

Gunbroker problems/advice

He probably reported like that so GB would not charge him a selling fee.

Tell him to remove the pistol grip and simply ship the shotgun.

[pythonfan]

Seller has the upper hand when dealing with someone in CA. He is taking every advantage as he can, truth the matter is he didn't like the sold price and he didn't want to pay the listing fee. Having said that i don't blame the seller as you have to do all this crap to sell or own a gun for CA. In the future asks the seller prior if all the hoops and every single details about shipping to CA and see if he is willing and not just "do you ship to CA" as some has no clue what that means entirely in details.

I don't blame him a bit either for backing away. But it was his decision not to play ball, so in my mind its his job to pay the fees or cordially contact me to attempt to work it out, NOT make an allegation of illegal activity. I offered extra money to compensate his ffl for his time in making this work while protecting their privacy as much as possible with option #2 or #3. It would have cost me more time/money, but oh well I'd pay it. I was in no way rude or cheaping out. I will certainly ask more questions next time. In the future I won't put myself in this predicament or drag a seller through bs. But I will not allow someone to jeopardize my account or call into question my legal intent. That is when I got bothered. At the end of the day, as long as gunbroker acknowledges that I did not attempt illegal activity and we part ways, ill be satisfied. I wanted the gun, but there will be another opportunity down the road

And to be clear he as a private seller had VERY little to do to get it here. I explained that reason for DL was only relevant if the gun was stolen. Based on our conversation I don't believe that was the case. I also explained that the bill of sale was to Guage what California sales tax id have to pay.

[sfe187]

Seller has the upper hand when dealing with someone in CA. He is taking every advantage as he can, truth the matter is he didn't like the sold price and he didn't want to pay the listing fee. Having said that i don't blame the seller as you have to do all this crap to sell or own a gun for CA. In the future asks the seller prior if all the hoops and every single details about shipping to CA and see if he is willing and not just "do you ship to CA" as some has no clue what that means entirely in details.

[pythonfan]

Thank you. I always do my darndest to make sure I understand the laws before I go into any deal. I even reached out to seller and got confirmation that he would ship PRIOR to bidding.

I did the research and my options do not appear to run afoul of west Virginia laws. Heck they don't even need background checks to sell each other firearms private party.

Apologies for being long winded. I just wanted all the information out there to be dissected.

[rromeo]

No, I can't see anything you did wrong.

[sass2924]

He probably reported like that so GB would not charge him a selling fee.

[pythonfan]

His big problem is sending his DL if he ships and his ffl doing the CFLC program. They don't want any of their info given to California. Which I understand. I didn't fault him and agreed to him backing out. I am understanding.

The problem is him reporting me as attempting illegal activity and demanding i pay his fees. I'm not sure if he legitimately thinks my option to have him mail directly to my ffl was illegal. Or if he is using this to worm his way out of paying the listing fees. Also he possibly didn't like the price I won it at so he wanted to try again and give me the blame for it.

Really I want to know that I didn't run afoul of any California or federal laws in my 3 options. I want to cover myself in case gunbroker doesn't know the law.

Option 1- he mails directly to my ffl. He includes DL and Bill of sale so I can pay my ca tax.

Option 2-he utilizes his ffl. His ffl utilizes CFLC program to obtain CFD 5 digit number and then ships to my ffl.

Option 3-he utilizes his ffl to log in gun, ship it to ffl in Nevada on my behalf, Nevada ffl logs it in, charges me a second transfer fee, obtains CFD number and mails it to my ffl.

Any California laws being broken? Any federal laws being broken? I just don't want to find out I did in fact suggest illegal activity. I don't think I did.

[rromeo]

It's most likely he doesn't know the law. He probably even thinks he can drive over here to Virginia and buy a 22 without an FFL. Ignorance around here is huge

[Oceanbob]

Tell him to remove the pistol grip and simply ship the shotgun.