Checking out the Gun Auction Seller

Okay, you've decided to take a look at some gun auctions sites, and found a great deal. How do you know if the seller is legitimate?

Feedback - First, we strongly recommend using a gun auction site that allows for buyer feedback. Buyer feedback first started on the larger auction sites like Ebay™, and allows for the buyer to leave specific feedback rating his or her transaction with the seller. The feedback can be good, bad, or neutral. The feedback is stored online at the auction site, and is available for the public to see. By viewing a seller's feedback, you can get a good feel if they are a reputable seller or not. Beware of sellers with a low feedback rating or with a number of bad feedbacks as this can be a problem indicator. Here's an example of feedback for a gun auction seller.

Forum reputation - A number of gun related forum community's are now thriving online. These forums tend to be made up of close knit members who typically frequent a number of forums. By visiting these forums and searching on the seller's name, you can sometimes see posts about the seller and any transactions. Many of the forums are now indexed by search engines like Google, so search the seller's name through Google. You might be surprised at what you can find. Forums tend to be grouped by a specific topic (i.e.; Glock, 1911, AR-15, etc.) so you might want to also use Google to search for a specific forum. For example, if you were buying a Glock handgun from a seller, it might not be a bad idea to search his seller name through Glocktalk.com.

Payment Methods - Although this one isn't as precise as feedback it can be useful. Be wary of any seller who only wants payment via methods that don't leave you any recourse such as cash or money order. Also be careful of sellers who don't want to or refuse to utilize an escrow service at your request. (We'll talk more about payment and escrow services later).

Communication - Send the seller an e-mail asking a valid question about the item for sale. We emphasize "valid" because an irrelevant or frivolous question may not receive a response at all due to the very nature of the e-mail.  A valid or pertinent question should receive an e-mail response.  Consider the following when evaluating the response:

• Response time - Did the seller respond quickly or take a week to get back to you? Be wary of sellers who are unusually slow to respond or don't respond at all. 

• Depth and breadth of the response - Depending on the specific nature of the question, take a look at the response itself.  Was the question fully answered or was the response incomplete?  Did the response indicate some knowledge of the product for sale?  In some cases, the seller may not have all that much familiarity with the item for sale.  See if the seller will share some basis for the lack of knowledge (just inherited the items, selling for a friend, etc.) Be wary of a seller that provides incomplete answers in response to specific questions like item condition, functionality, performance, etc.