Buying Handgun online experience

Ordered from Grabagun.com

Hi Guys,
thanks again for all the input.
I ordered a Walther PPQ M2 from Grabagun ($529) on Monday 7.6.15.
It was shipped the same day and arrived at my FFL today, Tuesday 7.7.15 at 10 am.
Just got a call that it is ready for pickup 4 pm .
Will pick it up tomorrow morning since I have range time scheduled anyway.
You can't ask for a better,faster transaction,assuming there is nothing wrong with a new gun out of the box.
Gun was ,as expected,flawless and a 2015 (BF marking) built.
 
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Depends on expectations, terms, and reputation.


If you are buying a generic Glock and Wesson Plastic 9mm, there is virtually zero risk in buying online. But you may not even save much money.


Usually when buying guns, once you own it, it's between you and the manufacturer, so the dealer has little to do with support anyways unless he chooses to offer the value for buying his guns if you need it.


Buying oddball, rare, or poorly described guns with difficult to deal with manufactureres opens the buyer up to all sorts of headaches.



Read reputations of dealers and sellers. You'll be surprised at the lengths some online sellers will go through to keep their customers happy.



I buy online mainly for C&R items and police trade-ins. The dealers have solid reputations, and if you are honest and realistic about your expectations, the seller will be in line with yours. The process is a piece of cake. I still like buying in gun stores though, but when a batch of police trade in pistols come up for sale, or C&R tha I'm after comes up, I'm notified and in on the first orders.


Difficulties in buying online go up as item value, complexity, rarity, and possibility of being cloned goes up. It all comes down to reputation, reputation, reputation, even more so than local gun stores IMO.
 
Hi Maverick,
I also am 2 for 2 using Buds. I carefully researched my two purchases and then went online looking for the best deal with the best company. I too found Buds in KY.
On one of my purchases it was a straight deal. on the other, it involver a trade in and they not only gave me the best trade in $$$, but honored their evaluation 100%. Sent to my FLL and pd. $35 .00 It was worth it. The GS's here in Nashville are like dealing with Pawn shops which I do not like. Some PS's are okay, but not here. Got 2 x's trade in from Buds over the best at any GS here.
Hope this helped. Cheapshooter"s very knowledgeable and I'd trust his recommendations 100%.
Doc
 
I buy the majority of my guns online; many off of Gunbroker. However, I recently passed up a Smith 627 that I really wanted for about $800 because the seller had no feedback. Also, the description was too professional for an individual seller. It looked like he copied it from somewhere. Too many red flags - so I passed and don't regret passing on this one one bit.
 
I just bought a gun from Davidson's "Gallery of Guns" and it was a ruger super blackhawk. It looks great, feels great, I love it. I'm going to shoot it this weekend and I'll post again if something goes wrong.

At this point I'd recommend buying new online through a reputable source like davidsons.
 
I've had no problems with Buds.

I've decided that if it's in the ballpark of 50-$70 of the store, I'd rather get it from the store. FFL fees are at least $25 for me so far and there's waiting. Plus, I'd get to inspect and try the trigger. If there are several I'd get to choose the "best" of the bunch, or at least feel like I did. I'd surely pay for that.

I got lucky with Buds, bought 1 used, bought 1 new. Even bought an old SKS elsewhere online but couldn't tell what it looked like before I got the cosmoline off. I didn't appreciate the pitting in the receiver cover given "hand picked" but I learned my lesson.
 
I decided against Bud's only because of the Credit Card up-charge.
I think in this day and age, if you want to do business on the Internet,you have to treat a Credit Card the same as Cash or Check.

FFL fee is only $15 for me and $7 for the background check.Nobody local came within $120 of the deal I got.

I only buy new and I buy to shoot not to collect.
Based on the experience I had with grabagun in Texas I will buy there in the future.
 
You do know that you are still responsible to pay those sales taxes.
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You're assuming all states / municipalities operate the same and have sales taxes. They don't so your comment is not applicable to all sales in every state.
 
You have to pay for your own background check?:confused:

Is that in some liberal state? I'm in CT and we don't have that. id rather pay a cc surcharge than a background check fee, that's for sure.
 
I decided against Bud's only because of the Credit Card up-charge.
I think in this day and age, if you want to do business on the Internet,you have to treat a Credit Card the same as Cash or Check
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They typically have the best prices meaning that their profit margins are slimmer. Credit card companies charge a fee to sellers. You would prefer that they raise the price for non credit card customers too?
 
I decided against Bud's only because of the Credit Card up-charge.
I think in this day and age, if you want to do business on the Internet,you have to treat a Credit Card the same as Cash or Check.
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It's a choice of whether you want to pay for using a credit card or make EVERYONE pay more to assist credit card users. Many companies choose to increase the cost for everyone because many people do like you do. You should base your decision on the out the door cost.
 
You should base your decision on the out the door cost.
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I agree, out the door cost is the bottom line, thanks for clearing that up osbornk
The Credit card up-charge made Bud's more expensive than the other retailers, and because of the up-charge the out the door cost was higher .
Same reason I buy my bulk ammo from targetsports or ammoman , shipping cost on other sites hurts their bottom line.
 
Sorry everyone,
You are not a business owner have have no comprehension that the credit
card companies charge the retailer anywhere from 2.75% up to 7% depending on if they offer you triple miles/triplecashback/triplethis/triplethat. Who do you think pays for their largess? Plus there are 10-15 hidden tiny charges that they weave into your end of the month statement. LOOK AT YOUR PHONE BILL SOMETIME.THERE ARE SO MANY TINY EXTRA FEES IT'S ALMOST IM[POSSIBLE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR TRUE BILL IS.
So,the retailer pays. They then have to charge you to cover that extra charge to them or they just fold it into the price of the product.
That's why different companies charge different prices for the same product.
You buy something for $1500.00 and the seller gets hit with a $90 credit card fee plus all the mickey mouse hidden fees that the business owner gets hit with, it's not worth it to to the company. If a company says same as cash using a credit card, you better believe that the credit card fees are folded into the selling price.
No matter what you think, you pay for the costs one way or another. I am sorry if what I am writing is insulting or sounds rude to you, but I hope everyone understands what I am talking about
Doc
 
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You are not a business owner have have no comprehension that the credit
card companies charge the retailer anywhere from 2.75% up to 7%
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Funny that you assume I am not a business owner for starters.
We run a business for 16 years,brick and mortar plus online sales.
I accept all credit cards and know what they charge, that doesn't mean I charge more for credit card users or give rebates for cash purchases.

No matter what you think, you pay for the costs one way or another.
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That's how it works and here we are at the "bottom line" again.
Just as osbornk stated,the out the door cost is what matters to me or my customers but how we get there doesn't really matter.
 
Well, if you don't give a cash discount for someone saving you money on your profit margin, I wouldn't want to shop at your place. Seems rather unfair.:)
 
I bought a NIB XD mod 2 9mm off Gunbroker. I mailed them a money order and got the 3% discount, and am just waiting for the FFL to get the background check done. I saved about $50 out the door, give or take, and used the savings to buy an extra mag (actually 2).

Took a little long to wait for the mail back and forth, and now for the background check, but I'm not in a rush so no big deal.

I'd be more hesitant to buy a used handgun online, and would be looking for 1000+ positive ratings. For the dealer I bought from I checked the one negative rating I could find and found it to be a one-off that didn't really bother me.

Overall a great experience with only drawback being the length of the process. Probably won't be as bad once I get my CPL (applying for it tomorrow).
 
I recently made a purchase from Kentucky Guns. I have not heard anyone say much about their site,but for my experience it was really great.
Customer service was responsive (I was excited for my new 686 pro +) and status updates could be easily seen online.
The price was significantly better than anywhere else except maybe gunbroker and their transfer policy seemed also excellent.

I promise I don't work for them :-) but this was my first online experience and everything really went well.

I was called by my LGS, I went and inspected it (Kentucky Guns lets you inspect it and not accept it no charge) and I'm currently just waiting the 7 day check.
 
Welcome to the Dark Side, Vaso.

A computer, a credit card, a "great deal", and a few moments of weakness can make you the owner of yet another fine firearm. :)
 
Well, if you don't give a cash discount for someone saving you money on your profit margin, I wouldn't want to shop at your place. Seems rather unfair.
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If there is an upcharge for using a credit card, the price you see would be the cash discount price.
 
What's with this "upcharge" stuff? The seller is being nice and giving you a discount if they don't have to pay the CC fees. Sheesh some people just want it all! Many retailers just figure the CC charge as a cost o doing business and come up with their pricing with that already included.
 
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