Advice on selling guns / scopes

[jaredg]

Guys, what would you suggest would be the best way to start selling some rifles and scopes? Rokslide classifieds, Gunbroker or Ebay (scopes)? Am I better off to separate scopes and rifles, or leave them together? Auction or fixed price? If it was one gun it would be one thing, but looking at 50-75 sell off. It's a little intimidating, buying them was easy. Any ideas..... Asking for a friend

 

[LeftyWilbury]

remove scopes. they're not adding value. ebay. or armslist. or creatively marketed on FB or craigslist

consigning guns at your LGS means you're not dealing with shipping and/or meeting "customers" and when one gets stolen 15 years from now the ATF's last trace request goes to your LGS and not the gun store YOU bought it from. your LGS gets to do all the work. talk with customers. negotiate price if needed. and collect payment. run a background check. cross T's and dot I's. you get a check.

you could make more money on gunbroker. and that's a definite "COULD" but you're also going to have to ship items and that can be annoying or very difficult. and if you're not already hooked up as a seller on GB with banking and CC processing you're losing customers who don't want to mail you a check and want things done ASAP. plus some FFLs won't accept a shipped gun from someone who doesn't have an FFL. and you better take good pictures because the firearms are used and 50-75 items is a big pool for people to piss in because you only said there was a scratch on the grip but oh no the magazine has a scratch too and i want it free now because you lied about the condition.... use gunbroker to get an idea of what those guns are selling for.

armslist can help you reach local customers if you're doing face to face sales.

or if you're not terribly concerned with squeezing every last dime out of it, see if there's a local pawn shop or gun store who will just buy the entire batch outright and be done with it.

 

[andersoner14]

Guys, what would you suggest would be the best way to start selling some rifles and scopes? Rokslide classifieds, Gunbroker or Ebay (scopes)? Am I better off to separate scopes and rifles, or leave them together? Auction or fixed price? If it was one gun it would be one thing, but looking at 50-75 sell off. It's a little intimidating, buying them was easy. Any ideas..... Asking for a friend

Any luck figuring out selling scopes? I have one on ebay but would like to figure out a better place to sell it. I may have to be more creative on Facebook.

 

[Adam Gibbs]

Things are just slow to move right now. Guns, scopes doesn't seem to matter. Unless something is really desirable it's probably a tough sell unless you make it a screaming deal.

 

[andersoner14]

Things are just slow to move right now. Guns, scopes doesn't seem to matter. Unless something is really desirable it's probably a tough sell unless you make it a screaming deal.

I agree. Seems like lots of scopes and guns are flooding the market each year and everyone expects to resell stuff for the same price or even more then purchased for

 

[sidetoss20]

Definitely a tough time moving used stuff right now. I would first check if your state or area has an active gun forum, that way you can avoid shipping if you list them there. Otherwise, other national sites get decent enough traffic to make it worthwhile in my opinion. If you don’t want the headache of selling the stuff piecemeal, there is likely a gun store in your area that will specialize in estate sale-type transactions for collections.

 

[iamthenick]

What u got???

 

[ColPenguin]

I think best way is to sell scopes and guns separately. Somebody may be looking for a donor part from a gun, or looking for a specific scope. You'll have better luck selling those separately. You'll make more money in the process selling to people looking for a specific gun or accessory.

I don't like eBay policies. For example, one cannot use the word "AR-15" in the description of accessories specifically designed for that platform.

As much as I don't like eBay policies, it really seems like eBay gets a lot more traffic/views for scopes than Gunbroker. An optic listing on Gunbroker may never get traction, but scopes will sell effortlessly on eBay.

 

[andersoner14]

What u got???

 

[BrBa]

Oof 50-75? I hate selling anything. Have a short fuse when it comes to lowballers, which is dang near every buyer these days.

I might consider an auction house if you have a lot of mid to high end items. Get a big pile of nice stuff scheduled on the same day, and believe me the sharks will circle. Nothing seems to go for cheap, but you still have to pay auction fees. Otherwise, the easy button is consignment at a local shop.

 

[waspocrew]

Classifieds are probably your best way. Biggest thing is to price it right. If it's used, it's a used rifle... doesn't matter if it has 1000 rounds or 100 rounds down the barrel, it's still not going to fetch near new prices.

 

[waspocrew]

Also, generally, I would separate scope from rifle as well. Very rarely will you find a buyer that wants the combo exactly as is.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Split everything up and sell separately. I'd post em up on the forums if you have the time for that

 

[416safari]

I leave the cheap scopes on the rifle. You aren't going to get anything for them any way. Let somebody else worry about selling the cheap stuff.

 

[416safari]

I leave the cheap scopes on the rifle. You aren't going to get anything for them any way. Let somebody else worry about selling the cheap stuff.