Adventures with Gunbroker.com

[earlmck]

Last month the eagle shat upon a bunch of us retired federal workers of a certain era. I was vaguely aware of some Biden boondoggle which would allow retired feds who had also qualified for social security to get more of that social security (which had previously been reduced by something called a "Windfall Reduction Act". I had kinda' thought maybe another $25 a month or something. Whoops! apparently it kicked in the beginning of 2024, is a whole lot more than $25/month, and a "makeup" check for that 2024 increase was issued in March which garnered the kid here a wholly undeserved 8 grand. Which I thought I'd spend some portion on guns so that more of the grandkids can join me at the monthly Buffalo Shoot.

So I get on good ole "Gunbroker" and bid on a couple 22's and a couple trapdoors and a lever or two and as is my custom I start with a lowball bid just to kinda' declare my interest and get the gun onto my radar screen. And as we're getting close to the bid ending time I go to check on where I stand and get the message that "You are BLOCKED!!". Some entity called "Cloudflare" that Gunbroker uses to filter out bad actors has identified me as one such "bad actor". Which I might well be but I have "good intentions".

I'm blocked long enough to prevent me upgrading my bids, which I had intended doing. A couple of guns went for more than I would have ever bid but a couple more went for low enough that my refreshed bid would have at least increased the selling price and I might have been the buyer. And then this "Cloudflare" lets me back on Gunbroker. I assume it is a temporary glitch and bid on a couple more likely guns but this time starting off with more competitive bids (just in case of further blockades). And again Cloudflare blocks me out at the critical moment but I ended up winning the bid on a Savage single-shot which will qualify for our 22 shoot.

Bid on a couple more goodies -- again blocked out by Cloudflare at the critical moment but still ended up with one 6.5X55 Swede that'll do for our "military bolt" competition. Another Swede went cheap enough I'd have bid a bit more if I'd been able to see what was happening...

I've been emailing Gunbroker about the problem. Nice lady there name of Sally has been responding and offering some suggestions "clear the cache", "remove your extensions" that have not helped. I asked her if it was possible that the liberals running this "Cloudflare" might be trying to damage the gun business. She assures me that if that were the case there would be a bunch of folks having problems and it seems I am the only one having such problems. Seems logical -- if I'm the only one getting blocked by Cloudflare then it isn't a general attack on the gun business but a specific attack on a specific nuisance.

Put in a bid on another single-shot 22 (Martini). Then blocked out all day yesterday but am back on this morning, which is where I saw that I would have upped a couple bids on some things that sold while I was blocked out.

Anybody else have any such problems over at "Gunbroker"?

[Bill in Oregon]

Earl, I have used Gunbroker without a hitch for years, the last time about three months ago. I don’t understand why you are being blocked. Hope you can get the issue resolved.

[GunnyMack]

I've only ever used gun broker once. I won the bid for my CZ 410... I was the only bid!

I wonder if it's your IP address being from a antigun state?

I much prefer the non auction Guns International- not that I buy much online.

Congrats on your windfall!!

[TedH]

I bid a lot looking for good deals, but only occasionally buy or sell on Gunbroker. My most recent being a purchase last Friday. I have never encountered what you ate describing.

[Pat C]

Same thing happened to me , just cleared history and logged out and back in all is well. Switch browsers to Duck Duck Go is also good choice.

[Ray]

Nothing to do with g.b. , but I am having issues that the so-called experts I've consulted are blaming so-called artificial intelligence and "its" growing pains. My problem is that several online payment processors (shop, shopify, etc.) no longer acknowledge or recognize my home address......the address that I have used for 45 years !

Since this address changed from a route and box number to a 911 appropriate designation, the proper name is longer than most street/highway names due to having not one but two longish city names. Entering the address in online form fields often exceeds the field capacity and some customer service reps. suspect that at some point my use of abbreviations has turned the "machines" against that address.

So far, the post office and parcel services still deliver and most places I order things are fine, it is just three or four (including paypal) credit card processors that have a problem. The actual vendors have been kind and helpful scenting the loss of sales but none can actually rectify from their end of the transaction.

Look for more and more of the "machines" turning against more and innocent individuals like you and I......