Is Gunbroker.com reliable??

D

dc88

New member
Hey guys, I was searchin around on gunbroker.com last night and found some pretty good deals that I might be interested in.
Iv never had any experience with em, or know anyone that has so I have no one to really turn to for first hand experience.

My question to yall pretty much is what yalls experiences have been with them, both bad and good, especially the bad if they are out there.
Im very skeptical about posting info online so I wont unless I can completely trust the site 100%.

I know Im dealin with individual sellers/stores and not the site itself, but does gunbroker help the buyer
out if somethin goes wrong during the transaction or am I gonna be hung out to dry on my own?

Thanks in advance to yall for any help
 
I've bought and sold quite a few things via gunbroker.com and have generally been pretty pleased with it... the only frustration was a time when a seller said he'd ship within 48 hours of receiving payment+FFL info but actually took 7 days. I haven't really ever relied on gunbroker to try and rectify things, but their policy makes it sound like both the buyer and seller enter a legally binding contract, and that will certainly do what they can to make sure both parties follow through with their respective ends of the bargain. Of course, like I said, I can't personally attest to how strictly they enforce their strong wording. Ultimately, the best way to mitigate your risk is through buying from reputable users.
 
So then, for the most part its just makin sure the seller has a good reputation or not, other than that, i wont be gettin my identity stolen or anything like that...
 
Correct. And Gunbroker is simply a medium for the deal. They have nothing to do with it.

Reminds of me back when people asked if eBay xxxx product was good...
 
GunBroker.com has been hacked at least twice in the past year, most recently about a month ago. The people doing the hacking are after personal information for the users. This is fairly common for high-volume sites with a financial aspect (ebay has the same problem). The two points I want to make are:
1. Once you create a GB account, be wary of any emails that are looking for personal information. If you get an email that asks you to use the embedded link to sign in, don't use it. Go into your account from your browser, that way you know you're not being re-directed to the hacker's site.

and

2. GunBroker is a huge pain in the arse when it comes to recovering your account after you've been hacked.
 
Thanks for that post "mes227." With that, il make sure that I never sign in to any email link with not only gunbroker, but with any site.
Guess I'll just dig in and pay that one dollar for registration and make an account and just be sure to be suspicious of everything.
 
GunBroker (GB) is a first rate site for finding great deals and hard to find items. However, like any other auction site, I too highly recommend checking feedback of the seller. Many reputable dealers use GB to list and sell items. Another good site is armslist.com; however, they are not as well known as GB.
Avoid the GB forums. One visit to the GB forums will make you appreciate the dicipline and moderators of TFL.
 
Gunbroker is good in that they have a feedback system. So you know deals have gone through. The negative is that over 50% of the auctions are priced not to sell. So actually finding a good deal is a bit hard. I just witnessed a Norinco 1911 sell for $425 + $25 for insured shipping, no returns....really???

So, I would definately check Bud's first.

Auction Arms is also out there and seems more geared to actually selling guns.


YMMV
 
I've successfully bought three guns through Gunbroker. No problems. Above advice about sellers/buyers feedback is highly important. I even bought one from a brand new seller (who had no feedback) but I exchanged a couple of messages/emails with him and could tell from the quality and tone of his generous written responses that he was trustworthy. As with any business transaction, discretion is advised... and patience too. If I don't quite feel right about a seller... I won't bid on that item. Another opportunity will eventually come up. There's a lot of volume there.

Same basic cautions apply to Armslist too. It has worked out for me but I pay a LOT of attention to my communications with the other party. If it doesn't feel quite right, I'll pass and wait.
 
There is all was a risk buying online. The only thing I know that is 100% is death.

My personal info was hacked on buds. It is a good place to start checking prices along with your LGS to see if you are getting a deal. Their CS can be bad.

I havn't had any problems at gunbroker yet.
 
dc,

Another tip when asking the initial or follow up questions is to use the 'ask the seller a question'.
You will often receive the seller's email on his follow up, but I always use the GB connection again rather than a 're' because GB also gets a copy in case of a grossly misrepresented gun.
Figure it can't hurt if a dispute arises.

CW brings up a good point. If I get vague - or no- answers to my questions, I steer clear. Same with blurry photos ( no excuse for this in 2011 with 20 dollar clear cameras) and auctions that do not show trouble areas that are mentioned in the text.
The really good sellers will always show the bad as well as the good.

60 or so in the past 7 years. Have never been taken, but I have a few that had minor issues that were not brought up.
After getting those guns, I went back and looked the photos and there were the issues in the pics. MY fault for not seeing them. REALLY study those photos!

There are good deals to be found occasionally.
Overall I look at GB as a place to get what I want tomorrow, even if I have to buck up to the going rate.

JT
 
OK it seems that many people are unaware that if you buy things online and want to use a charge card that many of the credit card companys have a card for buying online. I have one of these cards they say on them "for online purchases only". They have no raised numbers nor do they have a magnetic strip on the back. But they work fine. The credit card companies know when you use them to collect some additional information to better protect your purchase. If you buy a lot on line you should look into getting one of these cards.

As far as using gunbroker they are fine as long as you know the other party that you are dealing with during the transaction. You can always ask them to identify their local store name and location BEFORE you buy. They should have no objection to giving you that information. At that point you should be able to check BBB and the other sites to see if they have any registered problems. If they are a individual and not a store then you're stuck to the feedback. Make sure that you see feedback for selling and not buying.
 
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