Wow I am amazed how much FFL's charge

[Wykyd]

I am looking for a decent priced FFL near 94505 and it seems with all the fees its over $65 for private FFL's and usually $75-100+ for local gun shops to do it. When the license is $10 a year and the other fees are minimal I have a hard time understanding these fees. Am i missing something here? I will be the first to admit i am a pompous arse but OMG! Are these fees in the range everyone else is paying?

Anyone know a "Reasonable" FFL near 94505?

I am thinking that $40 everything included to transfer a stripped lower would be reasonable!

[SoulStealer]

My FFL charges $25 transfer + $25 DROS, but that is So. Cal.

Transfer fees are ridiculous.

[bigred1]

holy crap!

for ptp it's $35 around here, I have had to shop around sometimes for an out of state trans but I have always found someone that charges a flat $60 to order stuff in.

[HPBrowningMK3]

My ffl charges 25 no fuss.

[Wykyd]

Thats amazing!!! I wonder why such the drastic $$$ difference. I am sure there are some FFL's up around here that are reasonable but i haven't found one. I have called probably 15+ places off of random ffl searches too.

If anyone knows of any around brentwood/oakley/tracey that are sub $40 please let me know!

[North Bay Guy]

I've never had an FFL charge more then $35. for a PPT. That's $25. for the DROS and a $10. fee.

[Wykyd]

Ya this wouldn't be a PPT. I want to order a lower YHM receiver and have it shipped to the FFL.

[Quiet]

PPT fees are regulated by CA laws. Which is why they can not charge more than $35 ($25 DROS fee + $10 dealer fee).

All other types of transfers are not regulated by CA laws. Which is why a FFL can legally charge any amount of money to facilitate a transfer.

Last time I had something shipped it cost me $75 ($25 DROS fee + $50 dealer fee).

[Wykyd]

PPT fees are regulated by CA laws. Which is why they can not charge more than $35 ($25 DROS fee + $10 dealer fee).

All other types of transfers are not regulated by CA laws. Which is why a FFL can legally charge any amount of money to facilitate a transfer.

Last time I had something shipped it cost me $75 ($25 DROS fee + $50 dealer fee).

Yes this is exactly what i am finding out. hopefully someone will know of a decent priced FFL near me.

[kemasa]

I am looking for a decent priced FFL near 94505 and it seems with all the fees its over $65 for private FFL's and usually $75-100+ for local gun shops to do it. When the license is $10 a year and the other fees are minimal I have a hard time understanding these fees. Am i missing something here? I will be the first to admit i am a pompous arse but OMG! Are these fees in the range everyone else is paying?

Yes, you are missing something, many things.

The license is not $10/year, it is $30/year, but that is the least of the costs. There is the local business license/permit, the centralized list, insurance, etc., all of which amounts to hundreds of dollars, actually over $1k easily. For businesses, there is rent, which is not minimal. There is the time to get all the licenses/permits, as well as renewal. Time to do all the paperwork too, including sales tax returns. If the FFL wants to sell handguns, they need to also become a HSC instructor and perhaps buy the HSC certificates in advance if they want to issue them.

Then consider the time it takes to deal with a transfer. The FFL does not get sent by magic. When the firearm comes in, it has to get logged and it has to be logged out when it leaves. Customers don't see all the paperwork that has to be done, both before and after.

What do you think is a reasonable hourly rate (after expenses) in order to do a transfer? I would LOVE to charge an hourly rate since it would mean that I would get a lot more money.

Anyone know a "Reasonable" FFL near 94505?

Reasonable is a matter of opinion.

I am thinking that $40 everything included to transfer a stripped lower would be reasonable!

Well, I would not consider that to be reasonable. The DROS is $25, which the state gets. Then there is the sales tax, but you are saying that the FFL should only get $15 less sales tax, which at the lowest rate for a lower costing $100 would be $7.50, so the FFL would only get $7.50 and the state gets $32.50.

It is typical that the states get more money in terms of sales tax than I do when I do a transfer. So, how about the FFL getting the same amount of money that the state does?

In the cases of lowers, often you are better off to buy on from a FFL who has one in stock since then you typically don't have to pay transfer fees.

[MrMonkeeMan]

My FFL dealer in Murrieta only charges $25 for long gun and $35 for hand gun. This is not including the $25 DROS. Not too bad I guess...

[Boogaloo]

And what Kemasa did not mention was that the FFL has to retain paperwork on your lower receiver transfer for 20 years, and be subjected to audits from both the DOJ and ATF which can take hours or even a day or more depending on the size of the business and quantity of firearms he transfers/sells over the course of a year.

One of the other things I find completely time consuming is dealing with the waste when receiving firearms from in/out of state sellers.

The amount of trash and boxes that I have to cut up every week to fit in the recycle bin is ridiculous. I am not going to do that for free.

To the OP, presumably you are paying for convenience when you use a smaller FFL/dealer. Choose one that is close to you, that may open his doors @ 8PM when you get off work, or one who will open his doors on Sunday evening for you, like I do if that is when your 10 days are up.

I charge $65.00 for a handgun transfer and I still feel like I am losing money on the deal after all the work involved is tallied up.

Insurance, rent, license fees, trash, dealing with a customer roughly 5 times throughout the course of a transaction (phone calls, emails, dros start, delivery, safe handling demonstration, etc.) I figure I am making about $10.00/hour by the time it is all said and done. If I actually make $10.00 profit on the whole deal, do you still think that is "reasonable" ?

[kemasa]

And what Kemasa did not mention was that the FFL has to retain paperwork on your lower receiver transfer for 20 years, and be subjected to audits from both the DOJ and ATF which can take hours or even a day or more depending on the size of the business and quantity of firearms he transfers/sells over the course of a year.

There is a lot I did not mention, in part because I try not to think about it :-). Thanks for mentioning it.

....
Insurance, rent, license fees, trash, dealing with a customer roughly 5 times throughout the course of a transaction (phone calls, emails, dros start, delivery, safe handling demonstration, etc.) I figure I am making about $10.00/hour by the time it is all said and done. If I actually make $10.00 profit on the whole deal, do you still think that is "reasonable" ?

Are you sure about that? I suspect it is lower when you consider ALL of your time. Don't forget all the time spent on trying to figure out what the State, Federal and Sales Tax laws are, doing the sales tax return, etc. Don't forget the taxes on the money as well, especially the self-employment tax. I try to ignore such things as it gets depressing.

To break even, you have to do a lot of transfers and the more transfers that you do, the more time it takes to deal with everything it seems.

[audiophil2]

I charge $25 for a transfer. It is not THAT difficult, though CA does have a lot more paperwork.

I charge $150 for class III transfers. This is more than my competitors but I have had many customers tell me other dealers have "lost" parts from their machine guns.
I have a safe dedicated to suppressors.
I have a safe dedicated to machine guns.
I have a safe dedicated to other CIII guns.
All this stuff takes up space and sits for 4-12 months. I have to babysit this stuff for not 10 short days but months and sometimes over a year. That is why I charge $150. I cellophane wrap every item individually and then it sits for months.

I see no reason to charge more than $25 for a CA dealer to receive an out of state transfer. Any more and it is just to prevent the transfer.
For example, a customer tried buying a gun from me for $1068. His FFL had the same gun for $1249. His FFL refused to accept my gun simply because he wanted to sell his at an inflated price.

Audits are part of the business. Try dealing with class 3 audits.
Trash is part of doing business. I use as much of the clean trash as possible. Saves me a lot of money.

[kemasa]

I charge $25 for a transfer. It is not THAT difficult, though CA does have a lot more paperwork.
...
I see no reason to charge more than $25 for a CA dealer to receive an out of state transfer. Any more and it is just to prevent the transfer.

Really? So what do you think is a fair hourly rate? What about all of the overhead costs? Some places are more expensive than others, so do you think that all should charge the same? Do you think that all give the same service?

You might think that your time is worth little, but others might think that their time is worth more than you do.