OT - Gun Broker

[Barcelona Rick]

Has anyone had a problem getting a seller to answer your questions on Gun Broker ? I have been trying to get a reply for a couple days on an auction I was interested in to no avail. I don't even know how I could verify the seller even got my questions. Any suggestions ? Just wondering if I was alone on this issue or not.

jumbeaux

[rjohns94]

I have not had any problems but you can go into the sellers info and extract his email and send the email directly from your account. You can also select send you a copy of the email that you send him, as a verification the system is working. some people just take longer to get back to you.

[Mich Hunter]

I have tried to contact a seller on Gunbroker that makes stag grips. He says in his ad's to contact him if you don't see what you want. I have a half dozen times and have never heard back. Don't know if he is getting my emails or not.

[madman4570]

Never ever had one problem,maybe just lucky so far!

[Hagler]

jumbeaux,

I have not had a problem, per se, but some sellers are very slow & economical with their responses. So, when they do finally send me an answer, they sometimes create more questions. In which case, I need to ask them more questions, then I wait, again, for those answers.

Shawn

[Chuck 100 yd]

No communication..... NO DEAL !! Unless it`s with a dealer with a store front and off hours, you should here back promptly.

[Ysabel Kid]

No communication..... NO DEAL

+1

Sure, things come up - family emergencies and such - but basically if a person goes to the trouble to list something for sale they should be responsive to questions about the item. If not, this should give anyone pause...

[Kansas Ed]

Yep, been there done that. A few weeks ago I contacted two different sellers who specialized in new Colt SAA's. One never responded, and the other after several days responded with a non-answer to my questions. Neither got my business. I have no time to coddle someone who doesn't have the decency to either respond timely by email, or at least give a phone number for contact information so I can contact them directly. Just write down their names and refuse to do business with them ever. You will be happier that way. I have no patience for people like that. Personally I'm all for posting a sticky list here on the forum with dud sellers on Gunbroker. Since many of us do business with that format.

Ed

[Mike D.]

If they fail to respond in a reasonable time there is something definitely wrong with the auction item. Usually it is because they have difficulties with truthful answers. There are many guns placed on that site that are totally misrepresented, yet they re-appear month after month, year after year. If I see that one fool's pair of white shoes one more time...

[AEA]

Watch the wording of the ads carefully......many will say something like "will ship 5 days after payment received". These are peeps that do not actually have the item being sold. They are advertising something that they do not have and once they get a bite on it, they will order it from their supplier. Their little game grinds to a halt when their supplier cannot provide the item in time. Then they just complain that you are impatient and not willing to wait on the shipping carrier........or, that they have not received your transfer Dealer FFL copy.........even when you sent it along with the payment!

This happened to me. Since, I have dropped my membership with Gun Broker and will no longer do any business with any of them.

[Gun Smith]

I REALLY watch GB ads that say no refunds- no returns. Exept for new guns, that's a sure sign of a misrepresented gun!

[marlinman93]

If I couldn't get a reply from a seller before I bid, I wouldn't bid, no matter how much I wanted the item! Just a gut feeling, but I know it couldn't get better once I won the auction.

[Noah Zark]

In my experience, the GB sellers that provide good pics and a thorough description of the item being sold tend to answer questions.

OTOH, those sellers that list five feet of "whys and wherefores" and "the party of the first part shall hold blameless the party of the second part," have lines and lines of terms sounding like "we WON'T do this and WON'T do that", and have a one-line description of the item itself are not worth dealing with at all, let alone trying to ask a question. Seller don't respond, then I don't bid.

There's a local web-based classified board for all manner of items including firearms and ammo, and there's all kinds of posts from all kinds of people; here are some ad titles:

"Deer gun" (Could be anything, usually is.)
"Ammo" (Could be anything, usually is, from one part box to a crate.)
"Remington" (Firearm? Typewriter? Knife? Tire?)
"War Rifle" (Mannlicher? Mauser? Berthier? Mosin-Nagant? Enfield? Garand?)
"30-30" (One of two, possibly three usual choices -- Win, Marlin, Savage)
"Bullet Tips" (They are BULLETS, period. NOT "tips.")

Point is, most folks selling stuff don't have a clue what's important to the buyer, and just put down key info that they feel is important. Buyers look for descriptive detail -- don't tell me "Deer Gun", when you're selling a Remington 700 BDL in 7mm Rem Magnum, list is as "Remington 700 BDL in 7mm Rem Magnum."

Some of the same hold true for auction site sellers. You can tell the ones that have had problems because there's more legalese in the auction ad than info about the item being sold. So I watch for that, and look at feedback data before deciding on whether to deal with a particular seller or just consider discretion to be the better part of valor.

JMO,

Noah

[awp101]

look at feedback data before deciding on whether to deal with a particular

That's the key for me. I won't even ask a question if I don't like what I see in the feedback.

I also go a couple of steps further by specifically seeking out the negative feedback. I look at the comments left by the disgruntled customer and the response (if any) of the seller. Then I hit the feedback of the buyer to see if they have issues with just that seller or if they have problems with most of their transactions.

It helps me to determine if the seller has problems or if the buyer is a flake.

[Hobie]

No communication..... NO DEAL !! Unless it`s with a dealer with a store front and off hours, you should here back promptly.

Dittos. No reason/excuse for that particular item at least.