Mislabeled gunbroker auction

J

johnwilliamson062

Moderator
One of the firearms near the top of my list is on gunbroker for a good price, but there are some issues with the listing. In the official categorization this gun is listed as a rifle when it is not a rifle, and with a rifle caliber chambering when it is a 12ga. The manufacturer is also incorrect. Everything else; title, description, pictures, etc matches the firearm I want. The seller has 300+ reviews with A+ rating.
Honest mistake or a scam? I am thinking it could be a scam as the rifle it is listed as is not worth as much as the firearm described. They send me the rifle and say that is what the auction was for and I can't dispute. Like the ebay auctions for playstations and such where they put in the description that the auction is for the box only and someone pays big money for a box on release day. Maybe the dealer listed the other rifle first and copied and pasted some things into the new auction?

Yes, I could message the seller, but I assume the price on this firearm is running below market because it is incorrectly labeled in the search fields. I doubt I will be able to bid around the auction end times anyways.
I should probably message the seller.
 
If someone can't accurately list an item for auction I'm not going to waste my time with it. It sounds shady or incompetent to me. I would leave it alone.
 
I once found myself the only bidder for a biathlon rifle that was posted as a "biathalon" rifle....
Spelling skills: they WILL save you money in the long run, I promise.
 
I'm not understanding the exact problem. Gunbroker dealers frequently put their firearms in the wrong category. The real issue should be whether or not the description of the firearm matches the pictures and if they both match the title. If those all match, then ignore the category they put it in. If one of those 3 don't match, then the likelihood is that the seller has multiple items for sale and mixed up his stuff. In that case, an email to him is definitely called for if you are indeed interested in purchasing.
 
I should probably message the seller.
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If he's got a good rep, it sounds like a simple mistake. He may have cut-and-pasted something incorrectly, or he might have an employee doing the listings who's internet savvy but confused about the gun.

He may appreciate being notified. It'll save him and potential buyers the confusion.
 
I saw one similar recently. Was a double barrel sxs muzzle loader 12 gauge, listed as a rifle. Description even said "smoothbore". Same one? Pretty sure it's a mistake. I'd still ask before bidding.
 
johnwilliamson062 said:
The seller has 300+ reviews with A+ rating......I am thinking it could be a scam
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Building up over 300 reviews with an A+ rating seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to scam somebody. The letters I get from the president and princes of Nigeria don't go to anywhere near that much trouble.
 
Gunbroker auctions with misstatements are not unusual. Firearms being described as 90% when they visibly have large areas of bare metal, parts guns described as "rare variant" (in fact almost every gun is "rare" according to the sellers), guns being described as something they are not, etc. Too many issues to list. Many of the sellers know little or nothing about firearms and it is obvious in their descriptions. In spite of that, most are not trying to be dishonest, they are simply uninformed or misinformed.
 
Nlight1 said:
If someone can't accurately list an item for auction I'm not going to waste my time with it. It sounds shady or incompetent to me. I would leave it alone.
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I'm sure glad that's not my personal rule. I would have missed out on several great deals on some pretty rare guns by this point.
 
scorch said:
Firearms being described as 90% when they visibly have large areas of bare metal
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It would appear that you do not understand the rating system.

PERCENTAGE OF ORIGINAL FINISH SYSTEM - This system is widely used by collectors and dealers, and has been popularized by Fjestad's excellent price guide, Blue Book of Gun Values. It's important to note that this system usually refers to the PERCENTAGE OF ORIGINAL FINISH REMAINING ON THE METAL SURFACES.
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Per the definition, a 90% firearm has 10% bare metal (90% original finish remaining).

A rifle like a Winchester 1894 has over 60 square inches of finish on the barrel and magazine tube alone, not even counting the receiver. Figure the receiver is more than 3" x 4" on each side and that means that the gun easily has over 85 square inches of finish on it. An 1894 with a patch of bare metal 2" x 4" (almost the whole side of the receiver) would rate well above 90%, yet would visibly have almost one entire side of the receiver bare metal.
 
If you have a good seller you have nothing to worry about. A few months ago I won a no reserve auction on gunbroker for a FNX 45. I noticed in the info they said it was a 9mm, but the title, SKU, etc. all matched up as an FNX 45 so I went ahead and bid on it since it didn't have too much time left. After I won it I contacted the shop and they said that it had been entered in wrong and that it was an FNX 9. I explained that the auction was too close to ending for me to have contacted them to verify the caliber and they let me out of the auction and said they would pay the seller fees for it. They even offered me free shipping on my next purchase through them for the inconvenience. I doubt my experience is anywhere near typical on issues like this though.
 
A friend says he has a list of common misspellings of his favorite gun to search on and gets bargains on guns auctioned by illiterates and ignored by most buyers.
 
John, I don't see anything on that listing that appears misleading. Maybe you saw something that I didn't notice but it looked OK to me.
 
Actually, you are right. That is probably why it sold. Was on 24 hour auctions for $675 expiring with no bids. The 24 hours expired while I was at work each day this week, so this was my first chance to bid since I posted.
The "Characteristics for item" section was wrong. It was listed as a 308 Ruger rifle previously. As such, if you searched "benelli m2" then sorted for 12ga or semi-auto shotgun to clear out the junk it disappeared.
I found one more my style though.
 
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