How Much Would You Pay For A Gun Transfer?

[Mike.357]

Gunslingers has a real nice Milsurp room, and they are not shy about letting you fondle whatever is in their cases.

I also like Crowders, they have tons of stuff to look at and feel up.

[Guest crotalus01]

One shop here in Memphis charges $100 per transfer. I buy from them, but will never use them for a transfer...

[doughnut]

My last transfer was from Gunslingers for a handgun and the transfer, plus tax, and TBI included was $31.90.

[Guest bkelm18]

I usually use Coal Creek Armory in Knoxville for transfers, they charge $25+$10. But they have a caveat, if its something they have in stock, the transfer fee is $50.

[Guest 2HOW]

I pay tax + tics thats all, no fee.

[Guest gcrookston]

To me $25.00 seems fair for 10 minutes work.

[DaveTN]

One shop here in Memphis charges $100 per transfer. I buy from them, but will never use them for a transfer...

I can’t for the life of me understand this.

Why not just say that you don’t do transfers on guns that you don’t sell; why piss off a gun buyer?

If I was a dealer I would do transfers for free (or for what they actually cost me). Time? Dealers waste hours everyday talking with people that have no ability or no intention of buying. Why not waste some of that time on people that are buying guns, and might buy from you if you have or can get what they want?

But…. Maybe that’s a stupid idea and I would go broke as a gun dealer.

[The Rabbi]

To me $25.00 seems fair for 10 minutes work.

And I think 4 1/2 % is a fair rate on a truck loan.

[The Rabbi]

I can’t for the life of me understand this.

Why not just say that you don’t do transfers on guns that you don’t sell; why piss off a gun buyer?

If I was a dealer I would do transfers for free (or for what they actually cost me). Time? Dealers waste hours everyday talking with people that have no ability or no intention of buying. Why not waste some of that time on people that are buying guns, and might buy from you if you have or can get what they want?

But…. Maybe that’s a stupid idea and I would go broke as a gun dealer.

No, I think you need to get the FFL, get some commercial space, internet connection, phone connection, etc and open up doing transfers for free.

Heck, I think you ought to sell guns and ammo at cost too. After all, dealers often discount guns to their cost just to move an item. Why should this be any different?

You ought to be on the hook for loss or theft or damage of a gun in your possession before the customer picks it up. You ought to be responsible for sending the gun back to the seller in case the buyer flunks the background check.

You need to explain to the customer what happens when the gun he bought comes up on the stolen list and why it isn't your responsibility to reimburse him even though you're the one who has taken the gun.

Yeah, DaveTN, open it up: Dave's Free Gun Emporium, We Will Never Be Undersold.

[Smith]

For a bunch of free capitalist (I assume from other tendencies here....) it seems we don't like it very much for gun stores.

As a person involved in a growing downtown business, I routinely run off the bums who come through the door wanting a handout (mainly those are homeless panhandlers). I wouldn't blame dealers for doing the same.

Give the dealers their due and complain more about the US Gestapo (IRS) :popcorn:who take, illegally I might add, all your money anyway. Then you wouldn't mind paying the minimal fee.

[Guest HogMan]

20.00 +TICS

[Guest gcrookston]

I usually use Coal Creek Armory in Knoxville for transfers, they charge $25+$10. But they have a caveat, if its something they have in stock, the transfer fee is $50.

My loyalty lies with my locally owned/operated dealers. If they have in stock what I need/want, I'm willing to pay a premium to see they stay in business. If they are willing to transfer/order in a gun I want, I'm willing to pay 10%-15% more to them in order to keep them in business. But, if they don't have what I need/want, then they should honor me with the courtesy of a reasonable transfer.

I try to buy all my ammo and accessories locally, but it's hard to justify when 7.62x51 168 gr. match is $18.00/20 on the internet and $36.00/20 locally.

I've applied for my C&R so I won't feel so guilty about shipping in the rare and bizarre weaponry my local store(s) would be foolish to stock on a regular basis...

[Guest 2HOW]

Why should gun stores be any different? people want vehicles at cost with 0% financing and no DOC fee! We want everything for as little as we can get it, until it comes to "our" business and "our " pocket.

[Guest gcrookston]

Why should gun stores be any different? people want vehicles at cost with 0% financing and no DOC fee! We want everything for as little as we can get it, until it comes to "our" business and "our " pocket.

I work for a factory owned finance company in vehicle financing. "Sundry" income I will not support, such as a "doc" fee, when I know they are getting 1 or 2 pts on the back end of the financing, plus the profit of the vehicle, plus a SPIFF (Subsequent Price Incent From Factory) at the end of the year. "Dealer Invoice", for all you folks out there looking for a vehicle, is not even close to "Dealer Cost".

Sure, some gun mfg, have similiar SPIFFs, but since I almost never purchase new, this doesn't figure into my logic.

If a dealer has what I want when I walk in their store, I'll pay the premium for it. I usually know what I will pay, and if they are over priced, I'll give them an opportunity to match what I think is fair (but as I negotiate for a living, I hate to do it on my free time so they get one shot per visit). If they don't have what I want, I'll try my darndest to buy at least something off their shelf (hell, you should see how many bore snakes, cleaning rods, brushes and bottles of solvent I have in my workshop still in their original packaging!).

I will support a dealer making $25.00 + the state's $10.00 for a transfer. I will not support someone ordering something in for $75.00 less than it would cost them to buy it from the dealer. Many times the dealer and the end user are looking at the same gun for X dollars. If that dealers mark-up is X+25% and the ship-in is X+say, 15% (inclusive), I'll pay the dealer's cost of doing business. Just my 2 cents.

[The Rabbi]

I would be curious to see what people think the percentage of the dealer's shelf tag on a new gun (e.g. a Glock) represents gross profit.

[Guest Jonny Ringo]

As a former FFL'er I charged $10 ..... and I felf bad about it ... so if they bought something with the transfer I'd absorb that effort ...... I transfer stuff now and it just pisses me off the fee I get charged .... I feel the logbook entry and the computer check is part of the job .... minimum effort gets minimum charges ... but then I'm still living in the 70's about 1/3 of the day.

Greg Knox HGR Firearms

[DaveTN]

I would be curious to see what people think the percentage of the dealer's shelf tag on a new gun (e.g. a Glock) represents gross profit.

No one is beating up on you about what you charge for guns, that isn’t what this thread is about; this thread is about doing stupid stuff. No one (that I see) is complaining about your price on a new Glock. But if an established customer that has bought new guns from you wants something that you don’t have are you going to bend them over on a transfer?

[Guest gcrookston]

I would be curious to see what people think the percentage of the dealer's shelf tag on a new gun (e.g. a Glock) represents gross profit.

Rabbi, Rule of thumb is 25% to 45% mark up new, 100% on used. Some dealers, such as Dave's in Denver are police discounters. They get about 5,000 LE from a 100 mile radius into their store with factory "discounts". So a Glock on the shelf at $550, costs LE $400, with a SPIFF on X units sold at the end of the year gets them an extra $100 per unit to apply to next year's purchases. Plus the trade-ins at 50% of retail.

Rule of thumb on used guns is 50% of book, so a store that can stock, say 9000 guns, such as Collector's Arms in Houston may carry $25,000,000 in used inventory can actually realize $50,000,000 in used sales alone, not to mention the 35-45% they see on new gun sales.

It is very hard for a small store to mark up a SARCO, SOG or anyother Import more than $20 or $30 and still be competitive.

Takes money to make money. When I was in your store, we talked about the ability to go broke selling guns. I mentioned if I was going to do it, I would need $7,000,000.00 seed money. That would be $250,000 for the store front, $4,750,000 in inventory and $2,000,000 to live on while I squandered my investment with just enough to escape to the hills when I stopped paying bills. I guess being a gun store today is one of the most difficult businesses there is. That's why I'll consider buying local first.

[Guest Boomhower]

I would be curious to see what people think the percentage of the dealer's shelf tag on a new gun (e.g. a Glock) represents gross profit.

I can tell you that Gander Mtn. mark up is somewhere between 20% to 25% above one of the other local dealers here in Knoxville, and you know that this local dealer has a little of a mark up, so I'd say that puts GM's markup closer to 30% or a little higher......But then again, you said "dealer's", and were not specific on which one.

[The Rabbi]

GCrookston,

I must be doing something wrong because I am lucky to get 15%. And it isn't just me. I know the average mark up on Beretta's is about 5-7%.\

FWIW, on the base model Glock, dealer cost is $440. That is Glock's policy and I havent found anyone selling them for less. So take the $515 sales price (and that's more than I charge btw), subtract 440 and divide by 440 leaves you about 17%

Of course the way to figure mark up is as a percentage of sales price. So 75/515 is about 14.5%.

If someone is getting 25-40% on his new Glocks I want to meet that person and shake his hand.

[Guest gcrookston]

Rabbi, as I said, it's a difficult business even if you are doing volume. Dave's has a niche in Denver (convicted felon, btw, ffl is in his wife's name), and he's churning probably 200 Glocks a month, with 75% of those going to LE. If you figure SPIFFS on even only 50% of those sales (I was once told net/net was a tad over $375 per unit), that's more of a margin than you or I could hope to get in the Nashville market.

And you get someone like Dick's or Bass Pro or Cabella's in your neighborhood that can purchase 500+ units at a time... that's why I'm willing to pay a premium to keep a store like yours in business, won't balk for a reasonable transfer fee, and will keep coming back. Because once stores like yours are gone, no one will be able to come into the market, and I want my dollars spent locally and earned locally.

[Guest olretiredgunney]

I pay $20 a few times a year but ?

[Guest bkelm18]

My loyalty lies with my locally owned/operated dealers. If they have in stock what I need/want, I'm willing to pay a premium to see they stay in business. If they are willing to transfer/order in a gun I want, I'm willing to pay 10%-15% more to them in order to keep them in business. But, if they don't have what I need/want, then they should honor me with the courtesy of a reasonable transfer.

I try to buy all my ammo and accessories locally, but it's hard to justify when 7.62x51 168 gr. match is $18.00/20 on the internet and $36.00/20 locally.

I've applied for my C&R so I won't feel so guilty about shipping in the rare and bizarre weaponry my local store(s) would be foolish to stock on a regular basis...

I agree with supporting local business, but I'm a penny pincher. I usually set myself a margin to go by when shopping online. Such as if I can find it X dollars cheaper online then I'll buy online, if not, I'll just buy it at the shop.

[Guest Spuds]

I am planning on writing to Tn Dept of Revenue for a ruling on this.

I'm six months late, but can offer some insight.

A letter ruling from TDR will cost $200. I'm thinking TDR looks at transfers as sales because of the 4473. If you purchase a rifle from SOG for example, and it comes to your local dealer to legally book out to you, has a sale been made before a TICS check is done? You don't get the rifle if you are declined, so they think a sale is made at the point the 4473 is completed and TICS gives the OK. Those two things happen at your local FFL dealer, so they view him as making the sale and tax should be collected. (I'm not necessarily agreeing with this, just offering it as a possible viewpoint of TDR.)

As stated elsewhere in this or another thread, use tax would be due in any case, if sales tax is not due. Use tax is a companion tax to sales tax to offset the advantage out of state dealers have over in-state dealers who are required to collect sales tax. TDR has a discovery unit that seeks out transactions where use tax is due and assesses that tax.

If you are more confused than ever with this subject, my work here is done.

[The Rabbi]

I did email them. It did not cost me $200. They look at the sale as having taken place between the out of state dealer and the purchaser, who is then on the hook for the use tax. The in-state dealer is merely effecting transfer so no tax due.

But other than being wrong on all points your post was helpful.