FFL Holders are rip-off's ????

P

PLASTIC SIG

New member
Ok im confused.

Ive asked this question in earlier posts and got a great response. Now i dig deeper for further knowledge.

Im going to lay out my reasons for using an FFL and you guys can tell me what im able to do and not to do.

The only reason I get involved in a transfer if to buy guns from out of state dealers. Even though Ive recently changed my way of thinking and only buy locally (to support the little man) I still get involved in online auctions and whatnot.

OK, on to my questions.

Say I want to buy a gun from a fellow TFL'er that lives in california and i live in maryland. In order for him to legally ship the gun to me it has to go through a FFL dealer. My local FFL guy charges $50 each. His motto is, I make $50 on every gun I sell and i make $50 on transfers, so I get my money either way. This may not sound honest to you but I really like this dealer. they offer the best prices in my town and I understand they have bills to pay.

OK, my question is...

1)does my FFL Holder have to be local? I understand MD has to have the paperwork go through them before a gun can be sold in MD. Otherwise I beleive the transfer is illegal. (not totally sure though)

2)If you were an FFL holder and you wanted to sell me a gun, could i just mail my paperwork to you and buy a gun from you?

3)How much do FFL holders actually get charged for transfers? I would think once you have a FFL its open to you. So why do dealers charge so much? for the hassle of getting you a gun that isnt one of theirs?

Ok thats it for the offical questions although I think FFL holders in my area are too high and THEY simply feel they have the right to charge a high price since you arent buying from them. and i totally understand that, but what if its a gun they cant get or dont stock? what if its a rare piece that they cant obtain? should we have to pay such high prices simply because they cant sell us the gun we want?


I think ive rambled on long enuff, I am just clueless as to how the whole process works. Thanks for the input !


Tim :)

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Why dont you get rid of that nickel plated sissy pistol and get yourself a glock. :::Tommy Lee Jones. U.S. Marshals:::
 
The dealer has to record the transaction in his/her bound book, and keep your 4473 on file.

How much is that worth?

I don't go through my favorite local dealer because he charges too much to do (what I consider) simple paperwork. I use a rather clueless (but friendly and cheap) pawn shop for transfers.

After I am King and Ruler for Life, it will be a flat $10 across the board. No, wait, it will be back to pre-'68 style and you can just ship whatever the hell you want. Sigh.


A
 
Plastic Sig

I dont' see how making $50 per gun isn't honest. As Wakal said, I don't think tranfers cost anything, but it is a service and you have to pay for services.

The FFL has to be in your state. I like in the San Jose area, and was almost gonna go to an FFL is Sacramento because he charged like $15 per transfer. That would have involved a 1 1/2 drive each way twice in like 10 days. the transfer fell through.

You can't just mail stuff because they need to check the info off your ID. And you need to pick up the piece in person.

In Ca, you need a DL or a State ID. passport don't cut it. How do I know this, my DL got stolen 3 days before I was supposed to pick up an Oly Arms PCR-4 called to check if I could pick up with a Passport or something they said no, must be DL or Sate issued ID.

thats my understanding of the process.

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It ain't mah fault. did I do dat?
http://yellowman.virtualave.net/
 
I think most FFL dealers are ripping people off with transfer fees. They are charging 50 dollars for 5 minutes of paperwork. They are simply jacking the prices up so high that it doesn't pay to buy from out of state. You can figure 30 to 50 dollars for FFLs at each end, then add shipping.
 
chink,

Where in Sac did you find that FFL who charged 15 bucks for transfer? Is that for receiving?

thanks,

~bamf
 
CHINK,

I never said it wasnt honest, but how can some charge $10 and others charge $110 ????


In the original post i stated that i was clueless. Please dont get me wrong, I have no problem paying $50 for a transfer, Im just trying to find out whats involved in the whole deal. I understand the dealers dont want to bother with me when im trying to make a deal with you in sacremento, but why not charge $30 and get my $30 rather than charge $50 and not get my money?

Like i said, im just trying to understand the whole deal. I never implied that FFL holders were ripping me off. or anyone else. I mean, i used to be in the computer business, and i understand there are some things you just dont want to bother with, so you charge an outragious price to avoid it. Im just trying to find out why people do what they do.

Tim :)

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Why dont you get rid of that nickel plated sissy pistol and get yourself a glock. :::Tommy Lee Jones. U.S. Marshals:::
 
Money is a simple answer. People are greedy. If they can get $50 from most people for tansfers, they are going to charge $50.

The other side though is that person might need to charge that much because being an FFL is their only means of income. I deal through a very low key local dealer here in Central PRK and he has a fulltime job in addition to his FFL. I get really good deals from him compared to the gun shops in the area. As a result of his lower prices, I will most surely go through him every single time I need a gun. 1) because he is cheaper, 2) I know the man personally and I like to feed his family.

It is all about business. In the big cities, you can get the sheeple to line up and walk into your slaughter house, aka there are enough people that pay your high prices you can stay in business and business is good. Then there are dealers who make sacrifice that higher profit for very regular customers that will displace their loss of profit.

Again, it is all business.
 
I have three local dealers who will (and have) taken delivery of handguns for me at no charge. The only stipulation is that the gun is something they do not have in stock and is not available for immediate delivery. Of course, they know I will pay them retail for the leather, powder, bullets, dies, etc.
 
My local dealer (only gun shop in a small town) does not charge me for transfers. But, I am a regular customer who buys firearms he stocks (or can easily get), ammo...etc, know him and his family well.

I also understand the high costs of running a firearms business today. I don't think $50 for a transfer is to high, more than $50 is another story.

Look at it from the FFL's point of view- if I can't make a reasonable sum for transferring a pistol for you, why should I even bother?
 
Gee, thanks for tipping me off guys. We've been so dumb at my shop that we've only been charging $20 for a transfer. (See, we're a business. Those lights cost money to run...)

When all your local gun shops have gone tango uniform from people being too cheap to buy anything locally, do you think Wally World'll do your transfers for you?

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tamara:
Gee, thanks for tipping me off guys. We've been so dumb at my shop that we've only been charging $20 for a transfer.

[/quote]

Tamara,

$25 per transfer is what my shop charges, and that seems a reasonable figure.

Xfer guns do not normally incurr the same overhead expense, as stocked items.

On the other hand, I don't think it makes good sense to offer this service for items you normally have in stock. Those items should be handled like any other special order.

Bill
 
A transfer fee of $25. is the norm in my area. When they pass the law to "close the gunshow loophole" you will see that price increase because that law is actually about ending private gun sales. That means you will have to go thru a FFL even to sell a gun within your state.
 
Tamara's right.

I didn't know the FFL receiving and record keeping charge varied so much nationally though. I guess I won't gripe so much about $15 for the first and $10 for any add'l at my local gun shop.
 
I think it runs $30 to $50 in my area. I think $50 is a lot. Consider if you are buying a $200 gun?

Part of the problem with FFL's is that it is a government mandated monopoly which drives the prices up.

I will probably get a FFL for myself sooner or later because it will save me at least hundreds of $'s per year.

Not to mention I often can't get a gunshop to ORDER stuff that is availible. It took me 3 months to get my Steyr Scout rifle...if I had my own FFL it would have taken less than 48 hours.

I often have to supply the gunshops with phone numbers and fax numbers and addresses, of the distributer, to get what I want and they still charge me for their "service" ( I put more work into it than they do)? I have at least one gunshop now that comes to me for information on some stuff.

I also find it interesting that I could get better prices direct without any volume discounts (if I had that FFL) than the gun shop can? Or they are flat lieing to me.
 
None of my local "gun shops" will even do transfers. They simply do not want to be bothered for a mere $20 - $30. For some reason, I continue to do business with them.

I do have a transfer friendly pawn shop in town who charges $20.

Just for the record, to show that I support my local folks, in the past 6 months, I've purchased 4 new guns from 3 different local gun shops. I've also bought a used gun from the pawn shop.



[This message has been edited by DMSC (edited May 18, 2000).]
 
Here is question related to this subject. When I sell a handgun over this or other boards (specifically Guns America), I ask for an inked signed copy of the FFL with the statement "File copy to MY NAME for transfer of COOL HANDGUN to NAME OF PERSON recieving the gun". When funds and said FFL is recieved, I ship the gun to the FFL and ask for notification that it has been recieved. The question is....what assurances do I have that the gun was actually transfered to the buyer via the FFL? Should I ask for confirmation paperwork (4473). All this just ocurred to me after executing several tranfers in this manner. Tree Rat.
 
You can easily find a FFL willing to transfer for $10-15 in Southern MN, but I am still going to travel over an hour to the FFL I want to use because I trust the shop and want to support them. (they still only charge $15) I know I will buy a cleaning kit, ammo, and other stuff when I pick up the gun, and I want to take my business to a decent place. There isn't any local dealers worth working through that I'm aware of.

Before checking elsewhere, I checked with them to see if they could find a Sig 229 for me, but they couldn't (after calling seven distributors); they were then very open about doing the transfer. Had I just asked for the transfer I doubt they would have been so open.

Kiffster
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kiffster:
You can easily find a FFL willing to transfer for $10-15 in Southern MN, but I am still going to travel over an hour to the FFL I want to use because I trust the shop and want to support them. (they still only charge $15) I know I will buy a cleaning kit, ammo, and other stuff when I pick up the gun, and I want to take my business to a decent place. There isn't any local dealers worth working through that I'm aware of.

Before checking elsewhere, I checked with them to see if they could find a Sig 229 for me, but they couldn't (after calling seven distributors); they were then very open about doing the transfer. Had I just asked for the transfer I doubt they would have been so open.

Kiffster[/quote]

Where in southern MN are you? I am very close to Rochester. Maybe we should swap notes?
 
If you can find a good FFL(reasonable price) then use them. I use a pawn shop($15 plus 15DROS fee=$30). Went to a shop to try to give them some business but met up with RUDE salesperson. Second time this month at two different shops. I for one would like to patronize the local shops but I have found their services lacking. If they're going to treat me like that then I might as well skip them and go to my FFL.
 
If a FFL charges more than about $30, he's telling me he doesn't want to do it. I think between $20 and $30 is about right for the transfer service.
 
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