Why Use a Gun Auction to Buy or Sell?

Good question. Let's look at each of these different perspectives separately.

From the Buyer perspective
Why you, as a firearms enthusiast, might want to consider shopping at an online gun auction:

Selection - Even the largest firearms store in existence will have trouble being able to match the huge selection of firearms and accessories that are available through online auctions today.

Price - In many cases, online auctions will offer a lower price than what you would typically pay in a retail firearms store. Why? One word: Overhead. A retail store incurs a great deal of overhead cost to run on a day to day basis. The higher operating cost are passed on to you as a consumer.

Shopping Ease - By this I am referring to the easiest method of shopping. Let's face it, which is easier: Driving to the five closest gun stores trying to find the best deal, or browsing your two favorite online gun auctions sites from your computer at home? For ease of shopping, the computer wins nearly every time. Now I understand that some folks would prefer to drive to those five shops, but more and more shooting enthusiasts are choosing online auctions over this method.

From the Seller perspective
Why you as the seller, might want to consider using online gun auctions to sell your items:

Access to potential buyers - A popular online gun auction site will almost always receive more visitors than a classified ad in a newspaper or a local gun shop who sells on consignment. A heavily trafficked site may receive over a million visitors in a month. It would be fairly difficult to locate a traditional gun store that encounters that kind of foot traffic.

Ease of Selling - Simply open an account at a gun auction site, upload pictures of your firearms item, and you are set to go. No face to face selling or haggling, and payment is typically sent electronically or delivered straight to your door. Your most difficult task will be shipping the item to an FFL dealer (if necessary).

Cost of Selling - An auction will cost you pennies on the dollar compared to the fees from more traditional forms of selling. That usually equates to more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

As you can see there is a certain upside to using online gun auctions to buy or sell.