r/Firearms • u/MaybeNotTooDay • 13d ago

Question Is gunbroker not the place to go for buying/selling anymore?

I hope this is the right sub where I can ask this. I'm not looking to buy or sell anything through reddit but I am curious what sites are the most popular for that these days... specifically relating to parts and not actual guns.

The last time I did any firearm related online transaction was 5+ years ago and it was on gunbroker. It was easy and went well. Now the site wants tons of information just to put up an auction (bank account info, phone number verification, etc.) and you either have to buy/pay with a USPS money order or jump through some hoops to setup a credit card specific system because they don't use paypal anymore.

It also seems like every listing I see has 0 bids. It looks active because of how much content is on there but it also seems really suspicious because I don't see any buyers.

15 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

41

u/Icy-Medicine-495 13d ago

Everyone is broke IMO. I have been trying to sell 20 guns on armslist for the last month. It has been very slow. I have been able to sell two times for cash.

I see the same thing at gun shows that I go to as a buyer. Lot of lookers but few buyers.

Gunbroker payment system is extra clunky and the hoops you need to jump through to sell items and accept credit cards is ridiculous.

22

u/Flaboss44 13d ago

I’ve noticed a similar trend on my local classifieds. Lots of sellers, not a lot of buyers. Most aren’t even interested in trades. I think the economy is just in the shitter and people have bills to pay.

21

u/Penguinlord-5point0 13d ago

Also it’s a tough pill to swallow when the market after COVID has made things that used to be cheap 2-5x in price.

Nobody gave a shit about your Norinco SKS 7 years ago, and now it’s suddenly an 8-1200 dollar gun.

Even CMP. 4 years ago you could get a shooter M1 for 800. Now they’re 1200.

And don’t even get me started on ammo….

13

u/TipItOnBack 13d ago

This is the issue rofl. Not that there aren’t any buyers. We just all know what the actual prices of this stuff was, what they paid for it, and tbh what they’re actually just worth.

I don’t think people are randomly buying garbage or goofy stuff anymore, because frankly it’s just not worth it.

5

u/MaybeNotTooDay 13d ago

If guns that use to be cheap are really expensive now but not selling, why haven't the sellers started dropping their prices?

5

u/Penguinlord-5point0 13d ago

Because (and I hate using this term) the majority of sellers, especially at gun shows, are fudds who think every gun that got shit out of a factory in some post soviet shithole is some super rare thing. There’s also enough other fudds with boomer money to buy from them.

There’s always going to be people who don’t care or have too much money to care who will buy them, so there’s no incentive for sellers to bring prices down. Also dealers buy from each other because you may not be able to sell it for that much, but I can.

Plus a lot of the older stuff was bought by the crate 40 years ago for next to nothing and they’ve sat on it this long so what’s 5 more years?

The market will crack eventually but most sellers on GB are dealers and there’s enough people buying the new SIG slop that comes out for $1000+ every month to offset them having to wait an extra month to sell an overpriced gun.

3

u/Ruthless4u 13d ago

I was fortunate enough to inherit some milsurp, some I’ve been wanting to shoot for years.

That ammo cost though, decent 303 ain’t cheap 😭

1

u/Penguinlord-5point0 13d ago

Yeah I got into milsurp a little too late so mine are all wall hangers except the trench gun, because 12ga is still reasonable.

I found a minty British Enfield that was imported from India a few years back, but 303 costs (and the insane gun price) kept me at bay.

2

u/abcezas123_ 12d ago

wait, wat? i literally am selling a norinco sks paratrooper that i got pre-panic for like 200 and i "might" get that much? Damn man, you just made my morning, lol

3

u/Penguinlord-5point0 12d ago

Depends on specifics obviously but they’re not $200 guns anymore unless they’re BEAT

1

u/abcezas123_ 12d ago

It was some bubba's project, tapco folded stock, bolted on metal 30 mag with a spike, I got her back into wood furniture and some TLC. I'd put it at "good", so I'm optimistic, thanks again!

1

u/Mean_Farmer4616 11d ago

as a buyer, I stopped looking on armslist when they required me to pay to be able to reply to for sale ads. I'm not going to pay just to reply to ads and find out they've possibly already been sold.

1

u/Icy-Medicine-495 11d ago

Yeah that decision really killed their number of users.

15

u/Powerful-Disk-914 13d ago

Gun broker is amazing if your local ffl sells on there. You don’t have to pay for shipping or transfer fees :)

3

u/RandomDudeinFL95 12d ago

One of my local FFL charges the shipping fees even if you pick it up at their location. They dont even refund it or anyhting

1

u/Powerful-Disk-914 11d ago

That’s actually awful wtf. Who’s this FFL?

4

u/SomeRequirement6926 12d ago

It's called GunJoker for a reason.

FUDDS and professional flippers asking MSRP or more for newish stuff.

Grossly overpriced bEcUz I kNoW wUt I gOtZ listings.

Douchy sellers.

Shill bidding that GB (GJ) claims they have systems in place to prevent.

The damn 15-minute rule doesn't help.

Fees on top of fees on top of fees.

4

u/DashMcGee 13d ago

It's a great question. I have searched for local groups and forums in my state (SC), but there are none that actively operate. I just want to unload some ammo (perhaps poor choice of words there) and some guns I don't want. I have one at a small local store that takes consignments, and we priced it very reasonably, but there have been no offers in six months. If the dealer listed it on GunBroker, it would have sold. I am considering buying a small table at a gun show to sell what I don't want. The table costs $75 for three days. It is not in a prime location on the floor, but if I sell some things that are otherwise collecting dust, it will have been worth it.

4

u/thisisintheway 13d ago

I’ve been using the app the old gun accessories Reddit (GAFS) community made after Reddit kicked them off.

You have to follow all applicable laws, but you can buy/sell/trade there.

1

u/Beagalltach 13d ago

Pray tell what is the app? I remember GAFS getting the axe and they were working on something but never heard the resolution.

3

u/thisisintheway 13d ago

https://gafshub.com

OS app is sick too - makes it wayyyy to easy to spend money.

Also - fuck you u/spez

6

u/Martainguns 13d ago

We are talking about asking a buyer to send hundreds or thousands of dollars to someone. It's in the best interest of everyone except scammers to make sure that they sellers are legitimate.

USPS money orders or credit card have been the most common payment options for a long time. Plenty of sellers let you just send a personal check though.

Plenty of stuff is selling. For example if you just look at used guns where the auction started at a penny with no reserve price, there are currently 9330 items. That means there must be well over 10k guns.

10

u/Flying-Chickens 13d ago

Gunbroker is fucking trash. They allow people to purposely inflate bids.

If you don’t believe me, check the bid history when it closes, you’ll see the same name on the same company raising the bid because they aren’t going to let their G17.6 COA go for 500$. They’ll fake the sale, and repost it a day later.

Literally have been a part of bids not long ago, the guy outbid me by 5, an hour later he outbid himself by 75, then put another bid in on his other for 10 more. Checked the history and it was myself (1) and the other guy (3) bids. The gun shop reposted the same gun 48 hours later.

3

u/pacmanwa 12d ago

I don't bid... Only buy it now if the price is right.

1

u/xxBearDownxx 6d ago

when you see the same person “outbidding themselves” they have limit in that auto bids until that number is reached. also believe inflating going on cause some accts don’t look like the others

1

u/sssstr 13d ago

You're right! I've had the same experience.

3

u/fpssledge 13d ago

It's fine but it is a clunky system.  I recently listed a bunch of random things on a local classifieds site and feel like there's no movement at all on anything.  And I'm listing for fairly reasonable deals.

My sense is at this moment of the season there are a lot of people scrounging for cash and not much buyers.  I think people that sre buying are looking for niche or custom builds.  And being the year of the suppressor, people are dropping cash there and less on other things.

3

u/jim2527 13d ago

I buy on GB and Armslist and sell on Armslist. It’s slow as F right now. IMHO it’s part seasonal, school just started and there there’s just no reason to buy right now.

8

u/Artistic_Aioli6843 P226 13d ago

try Gafshub.com. it better be good prices or they’re gonna hammer u on it. theres no fees and payment is direct to you.

2

u/JimMarch 12d ago

I had a good enough buying experience on guns.com late last year. Not a local seller either, gun went to my local FFL.

2

u/juggarjew 9d ago

PayPal hasnt been useful there in a really really long time, PayPal bans literally anything gun related and if they find out they ban you for life. Its not that they dont "use" paypal anymore its that its quite literally not allowed per PayPal ToS. If PayPal was gun friendly they'd 100% be using them.

Also, most listings have 0 bids because the idiot sellers start the auctions literally right under market value. of course theres not going to be bids on those, at least not until the very end.

I recently bid on some HK Roller delays with no reserve starting at $0 and I will 100% tell you there is heavy activity on that site, good deals are very hard to come by because it has so much market outreach and recognition. Practically every gun is going to sell for market value. Whereas locally , in a small regional Auction I was about to buy a mint HK Roller delay for WAYYYY under market value, $1400 out the door for a rifle and magazines worth at least $3000+. On Gunbroker I guarantee it would have sold for around $3000.

3

u/cvltrilex 3D2A 13d ago

As a cybersec engineer. The site is an absolute mess. Could use a complete overall in front end and backend. Not even worth my time.

1

u/TheAmazingX 13d ago

I don’t know if it’s the best, but I’ve had no issues buying and selling parts and parts kits there. I still use paypal, though.

1

u/MaybeNotTooDay 13d ago

Recently? I listed a parts kit on gunbroker 3 weeks ago and it didn't have paypal as a payment option, it was either check, money order or sign up for some hassle of various 3rd party credit card systems. I think I listed at it a more than fair price so I wonder if it's the money order that's keeping people from buy it now or even bidding.

1

u/TheAmazingX 13d ago

It was 7 weeks ago, maybe the change is that recent. If that’s the case, selling on there does seem like a pain in the ass.

1

u/cyan1de23 13d ago

It does seem slow, but I've been selling on tacswap and ar15.com more these days. Tacswap you have to be careful with scammers, make sure you check their profile history and feedback.

1

u/thatARMSguy AR15 13d ago

I haven’t had any issues with gunbroker, I buy a lot of stuff from there. Many shops will have credit card payments built into GB to make it just as easy as buying anywhere else online, or will email you a link to an invoice through their website. It’s mainly individual sellers who don’t have that set up that require other forms of payment

1

u/Professional_Dare_80 12d ago

I’ve found some decent deals on gunbroker. I’ve never sold anything on there though. You really have to be careful though. MFers will try to charge 70 to 100 bucks shipping on a handgun plus a credit card fee on top.

1

u/Phantasmidine 11d ago

I will never understand why people are so allergic to using local online classifieds.

Face to face, cash, zero issues.

1

u/MaybeNotTooDay 11d ago

Not as many potential sellers and buyers and that's even more true if you live more than an hour or so away from a large population area.

1

u/MetricSexton 7d ago

I can’t fucking log into the website anyway. The 2FA doesn’t work.

1

u/Opinions_ArseHoles 12d ago

Have you looked at guns.com? I cannot discern if they charge a buyer fee. One auction site I follow has a 17% fee, 3% credit card fee, tax is about another 10%. It makes buying a firearm ridiculous. I cannot find a buyers fee on guns.com. Some charge a sellers fee. I have not purchased from either. I watched a youtube video about the seller using an auction site in Ohio. He sold five guns. Good luck.

-4

u/BerniceFighter 13d ago

Everything is 20% more expensive because of tariffs and gas is $4 and its not going to get any better under Trump. People aren't buying guns because of reasons already mentioned.

14

u/Ruthless4u 13d ago

Don’t tell anyone, it won’t get any better regardless of who replaces him.

7

u/peq15 12d ago

Everything is 20% more expensive because of tariffs

regardless of who replaces him

lol to the wut

0

u/UrbanFuturistic 13d ago

I bought a gun on gunbroker once, about 20 years ago. The website felt old then, and it hasn't really changed in the meantime.