Selling a Firearm on NES

alan226

NES Member
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Looking for an opinion from the NES braintrust. I've bought, sold and traded a few things on NES over the years, nothing tremendous. I recently posted a few firearms for sale. The first sale was a breeze. Priced it right and it sold it to the first guy in about 2 hours.

The second one is the one I'm having a little bit of a conundrum. I've had 4 responses (in order of being received) as follows:

Buyer A is a Green member, has been an NES member for less than 4 months, has no feedback and no posts.
Buyer B not a green member, , has been an NES member for 2 months, has no feedback and no posts
Buyer C not a green member, has been a NES member for ONE day, no feedback and no posts
Buyer D not a green member, but has been a member for a few years , no feedback and a few dozen posts

Who would you sell to? Or more importantly, who would you NOT sell to?. Do you dismiss new members out of hand or give them a chance (we were all new at one time)?

I was going to make the sale to buyer A, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

WWYD???
 
I’ve sold to people who signed up just to buy what I was selling.

for the most part, I sell to the first person who says I’ll take it and has the cash

/thread

First person who definitively commits, gets it. That's the only way it ever ought to go, regardless of green status or cool-guy cred.

Be honest in your comms. "Yeah, thanks for your interest; you're second in line. I'll let you know if the first guy backs out."
 
That's how I found NES. New member not green (I actually didn't even know what a green member was). Purchased an AR from A fellow member. Really nice guy. Think I became green a week later. Everyone has to start somewhere.
 
if they have no feedback, talk to them on the phone before you meet if its not at a public venue like a club or gun store. Newbies have to start somewhere. I've sold to people with no posts before who just lurk or join to buy something. But I always talk to them first to get a comfort level.
 
First in line gets it.
Not being in MA any longer (and since NES sellers don't seem to want to ship) I've bought a ton of stuff on the S&W forum where the first "I'll take it" gets it.
 
Looking for an opinion from the NES braintrust. I've bought, sold and traded a few things on NES over the years, nothing tremendous. I recently posted a few firearms for sale. The first sale was a breeze. Priced it right and it sold it to the first guy in about 2 hours.

The second one is the one I'm having a little bit of a conundrum. I've had 4 responses (in order of being received) as follows:

Buyer A is a Green member, has been an NES member for less than 4 months, has no feedback and no posts.
Buyer B not a green member, , has been an NES member for 2 months, has no feedback and no posts
Buyer C not a green member, has been a NES member for ONE day, no feedback and no posts
Buyer D not a green member, but has been a member for a few years , no feedback and a few dozen posts

Who would you sell to? Or more importantly, who would you NOT sell to?. Do you dismiss new members out of hand or give them a chance (we were all new at one time)?

I was going to make the sale to buyer A, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

WWYD???

If Buyer A is no go, then I would go with Buyer D. You have to FTF with them to sell a gun. Who knows if the new members are flakes and any negative feedback is meaningless to them. At least Buyer D has some history. If it were an accessory item, then I wouldn't hesitate to sell to Buyer B or C.
 
When I'm selling I go chronologically by first message, all things being equal. If that fails, first to commit to actually show up with cash. I'd hate to have been a new member and not been able to buy a gun I wanted because I wasn't part of the good ol' boys club. I think most of the things I've sold over the last year have gone to relatively new members. I see some posting up a storm now.

That said, I will put people on the back burner when they seem sketchy or just fooling around.
 
I’ve sold like 5 guns from people with 0 feedback as well as a “Im asking for a friend” these guys had literally zero posts too yet the transactions were flawless. The way I do business is straight up, I don’t care if your a guy who has as a ton of posts and feedback or a guy who has zero posts, I answer questions and unless you say “I will take it” the conversations don’t mean a thing to me. Money talks bullshit walks
 
The only times I've had headaches selling on NES were non-green, zero activity/feedback buyers.

Sounds like there a lots of people with different experience than me...but I've learned my lesson.
 
I’ve sold to people who signed up just to buy what I was selling.
yeah, me too. guy was in texas. i posted about it when it happened. gotta admit, i thought it was a ag sting, lol. i was selling ammo though, not a firearm. hell, cash rules in my world.
 
You should sell with “GOOSE RULES”


The Goose's Disclaimer:
First and foremost if you want something I am selling then say “I will take it”. I do not consider questions or inquiries as a commitment of any sort. Terms like “I am interested” mean nothing. The fact that we may be having a dialogue does not mean that I am waiting for you to make a decision. The person who steps up and says “I will take it, when do we meet” closes the deal.
• I expect you to read the ad. Every single time I sell anything I get at least one and usually multiple questions about something that is already stated in the ad. Yes it has a 5” barrel AS STATED IN THE FREAKIN” AD!
• I expect YOU to know that you want the item. I am not a store. Do your own research and visit a gun shop if you just want to handle a particular gun. And no I will not meet you at your club so you can try it out to see if you like it. Of course you get to inspect the gun before you buy it, but barring a mechanical or condition issue I expect you to buy it. If you are not sure then do not waste my time. I once met a prospective buyer at the range so that he could try out a revolver I was selling. After trying it out and BSing for more then an hour he simply said that it just did not fit his hand right. WTF!
• If you want to negotiate that is fine, but do not start out by telling me that my price is too high. This is not a good way to make friends and influence people. I have never made a dime on any private sale ever. In fact I routinely lose money and have often cut deals for a friend. I may be asking more then you want to pay, but the price is never too high. Also as stated in the first item above I do not consider negotiating a form of commitment. If you are in the process of offering less then I am asking and someone else says “I will take it” then you lose. Don’t bitch at me.
• I reserve the right to sell to whoever the hell I want. Having said that I scrupulously sell to the first person who makes a firm commitment. Provided that person does not piss me off. Such as demanding that the transaction take place that day, when it does not work for me. Also do not assume that just because you are the first person to post a reply on the forum that you are also the first person to contact me directly. Not everyone posts a reply, some folks just PM an “I will take it”. I am not obligated to justify anything to some guy I have never met who demands to know why he did not get the deal when he believes he was the first in line. You may also rest assured that if you take that tack that you will also not be first in line if the initial deal falls through.
• Do not ask me if it is MA compliant. Actually, feel free to ask me, but if you are depending upon my answer without doing your own research then you should not even be participating in a private transaction. Do your own damn research.
• Do not agree to a deal on line and then offer me less when we meet. If that happens the deal is over, no matter what. A deal is a deal. The time to negotiate is during the initial transaction, once the deal is made that’s it.
 
I don't sell/buy a ton here, but have had a few transactions this year.
All have been first come/first serve to start communication through email - hasn't always worked with the first person (can't agree on price etc) but usually people are pretty reasonable to work something out.
Have had three transactions in the past month or so - two of those did not have any feedback and the buyers were really great people overall and the FTF transactions went well. Cant recall ever having a really bad FTF transaction from people on NES
 
I have bought and sold a fair number of items on NES and experienced a little of what the OP has described. As I grow older and more experienced I have developed my preferred set of guidelines for how I advertise something and the ways I will set up a meeting.

If you are someone I know and/or had dealings with in the past I am more flexible in meeting locations/transfer methods/payment. If I do not know you or you have no history here I will be more stringent. My post will describe how, where, what type of transfer, how I expect to be paid, and anything else necessary. If you can't/don't want to meet these guidelines I will graciously decline your "offers" and move on to someone else without looking back.

We are all different in our own ways and have different methods of interacting with others and making such transactions. I will respect your decisions and I fully expect you to respect mine in return.

Now, let's all go out there and stimulate the economy!
 
Massive influx of brand new members asking sketchy questions and trying to buy crap recently. I'm talking pre-SARS-freakout.

"ZOMG what if my ammo from an online seller was stolen off my porch"

"LOL what kind of AR is Mass legal and where do I buy it?

I haven't a clue whether these are legit or not, but Mad Maura WOULD spend our resources doing this nonsense rather than her job...
 
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I think with the CoVid19 thing and store inventories slim, buyers are coming out of the woodwork. Fear No Sale!
 
I'll usually list as first to show with cash gets it. I'll do my best to work things out with the first person who replies 'I'll take it', but in case it's someone with no feedback and the communication drops after 'I'll take it', I keep the option to sell to a more serious buyer who will actually show up within a reasonable period. Thankfully all of my FTF transactions via NES have gone smoothly and I've enjoyed meeting the buyers or sellers.
 
Only three experiences here buying no selling:

1. Before I was green a guy had a shotgun for sale almost two years ago I messaged him regarding it and he never responded. I bought a similar gun from a shop about two weeks later. He still has the FUDD gun for sale, keeps bumping it up LOL. Thing was he is in the same town as me and I told him so. Maybe the gun had something wrong with it and he didn't want to see me again LOL?

2. Bought a decent Preban Colt CASH from a guy in Metro West after I was Green. Decent transaction. Guy was a bit scatter brained, we were meeting at his club in (Maynard) he forgot his ID to the club so he had to look around til he found someone he knew to let us shoot the gun. Fortunately it was a Saturday so there were a lot of people there otherwise I would have wasted an hour's drive. We did the transfer at an FFL, but he never left me any feedback. Could have used the feed back.


3. Bought some nice dated preban mags from a guy here. Great transaction but no feed back from him either.

Maybe people just leave feedback here for sellers?
 
Only three experiences here buying no selling:

1. Before I was green a guy had a shotgun for sale almost two years ago I messaged him regarding it and he never responded. I bought a similar gun from a shop about two weeks later. He still has the FUDD gun for sale, keeps bumping it up LOL. Thing was he is in the same town as me and I told him so. Maybe the gun had something wrong with it and he didn't want to see me again LOL?

2. Bought a decent Preban Colt CASH from a guy in Metro West after I was Green. Decent transaction. Guy was a bit scatter brained, we were meeting at his club in (Maynard) he forgot his ID to the club so he had to look around til he found someone he knew to let us shoot the gun. Fortunately it was a Saturday so there were a lot of people there otherwise I would have wasted an hour's drive. We did the transfer at an FFL, but he never left me any feedback. Could have used the feed back.


3. Bought some nice dated preban mags from a guy here. Great transaction but no feed back from him either.

Maybe people just leave feedback here for sellers?

A lot of people are flaky about feedback. Sometimes, depending on which site software iteration we were on when the transaction occurred, it's been hard to leave feedback on certain devices. I never read TOO much into the amount of feedback a guy has: I've got at least as many un-feedbacked transactions as I do feedbacked.
 
This has happened to me a lot lately. You post a sale, and get very fast replies from people who literally just joined and have no feedback. Personally I am wary of this situation and one person I dealt with was clearly trying to mess with me.
 
Looking for an opinion from the NES braintrust. I've bought, sold and traded a few things on NES over the years, nothing tremendous. I recently posted a few firearms for sale. The first sale was a breeze. Priced it right and it sold it to the first guy in about 2 hours.

The second one is the one I'm having a little bit of a conundrum. I've had 4 responses (in order of being received) as follows:

Buyer A is a Green member, has been an NES member for less than 4 months, has no feedback and no posts.
Buyer B not a green member, , has been an NES member for 2 months, has no feedback and no posts
Buyer C not a green member, has been a NES member for ONE day, no feedback and no posts
Buyer D not a green member, but has been a member for a few years , no feedback and a few dozen posts

Who would you sell to? Or more importantly, who would you NOT sell to?. Do you dismiss new members out of hand or give them a chance (we were all new at one time)?

I was going to make the sale to buyer A, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

WWYD???
If you have concerns about a new non green member take it to an ffl for the transfer.
 
This has happened to me a lot lately. You post a sale, and get very fast replies from people who literally just joined and have no feedback. Personally I am wary of this situation and one person I dealt with was clearly trying to mess with me.
If you respond to the buyer with an ffl to meet you at for the sale the bullshitters and "questionables" will run.
 
I've sold a few firearms all with the same process

1)Get the message that they want it from the classified, then exchange real email and txt numbers, confirm by send each other txt's
2) Set time and date to meet at my club, confirm meeting the morning of the transaction date by txt
3) Person txt's me "I'm on my way, arriving in a blue truck" or the like
4) I bring my laptop and set up, maybe some haggling but not much
5) Do the eFA10, email receipt and wait for email confirmation
6) Try to complete both sides of the feedback process before leaving.

I did have one person ghost me, but the rest of the transactions went smoothly. Sold to members and non members. I prefer to meet at my club which always has people mulling around.
 
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