So, money orders.

[Coastie6]

Long true story. Just a warning about PayPal and F&F. About six years ago, long-time buddy of mine sold a firearm on GunBroker. Foolishly, he agreed to accept PP F&F as payment. Whether you like it or not, PayPal explicitly forbids their platform from being used for payment on "weapons". Their sandbox I guess.

Fast forward several weeks. He gets a call from his wife saying, "the mortgage check bounced!". Come to find out, the buyer had developed a case of buyers remorse as the firearm buying fever frenzy caused by a political blip was winding down and these rifles were starting to show back up on the shelves of LGS. Turns out, he filed a claim for a fraudulent charge to his credit card and PayPal. So, PayPal pulled the funds from my buddy's account until they sorted things out. My buddy has to come clean with PayPal and send him info on the GunBroker transaction. After like exactly one minute, they say, "too bad so sad, you violated our policy. Go pound sand!".

Now is when it gets interesting. My buddy tries calling and emailing the buyer, radio silence for 4-days. Now, what this dumb a** buyer didn't think of is the rifle was shipped by and FFL to an FFL in his town so theres a pretty solid paper trail indicating this was NOT a fraudulent charge. We contacted his FFL and verified he'd picked up the rifle. After dozens of attempts to contact the buyer to arrange for the return of the firearm I told my buddy to pull up the buyers address on Google Maps zoom in on his house and take a screen shot. I then told him email it to the buyer telling him you just wanted to confirm it was his residence as you'd be coming with a few buddies and the local and federal authorities as he was now in possession of a stolen firearm. The buyer was only 5-hours away in a bordering state. Amazingly, he got a phone call from the buyer in minutes after sending the email! Now, it still took weeks to get his rifle back. The buyer shipped it to our local FFL without the required copy of his drivers license so our LGS had to sit on it for over a week until he finally faxed a copy. Additionally, the Jackwagon did minor damage to one of the rifle's components. Obviously on purpose.

Moral of the story, be VERY careful what you accept PayPal, especially F&F for. If you violate their "no weapons policy" you'll be swinging in the wind with no recourse and F&F has absolutely no buyer or seller protection. It's not needed if it's being used for what it's intended. This is also a good reason to setup a separate checking account to tie these online forms of payment to. As easily as they can deposit into them, they can withdraw. Hate for anyone's mortgage check to bounce.

 

[GunsAreFun]

Paypal, Ebay, etc reports to the IRS you made 600$ regardless what you bought it for.


Elections have consequences!

Where does it say that you have to pay taxes on it? I agree that it’s not a good thing, but just because it is reported to the IRS, doesn’t mean you have to pay taxes if you didn’t profit from the sale.

If I have a lawn care business and have $20,000 in revenue but I expense $20,000 to buy a new mower and trailer, I had $0 in profit and don’t pay taxes. Same thing for selling a $1000 rifle for $800 plus cost of shipping. It’s a loss, not a taxable event.

 

[fwafwow]

Long true story. Just a warning about PayPal and F&F. About six years ago, long-time buddy of mine sold a firearm on GunBroker. Foolishly, he agreed to accept PP F&F as payment. Whether you like it or not, PayPal explicitly forbids their platform from being used for payment on "weapons". Their sandbox I guess.

Fast forward several weeks. He gets a call from his wife saying, "the mortgage check bounced!". Come to find out, the buyer had developed a case of buyers remorse as the firearm buying fever frenzy caused by a political blip was winding down and these rifles were starting to show back up on the shelves of LGS. Turns out, he filed a claim for a fraudulent charge to his credit card and PayPal. So, PayPal pulled the funds from my buddy's account until they sorted things out. My buddy has to come clean with PayPal and send him info on the GunBroker transaction. After like exactly one minute, they say, "too bad so sad, you violated our policy. Go pound sand!".

Now is when it gets interesting. My buddy tries calling and emailing the buyer, radio silence for 4-days. Now, what this dumb a** buyer didn't think of is the rifle was shipped by and FFL to an FFL in his town so theres a pretty solid paper trail indicating this was NOT a fraudulent charge. We contacted his FFL and verified he'd picked up the rifle. After dozens of attempts to contact the buyer to arrange for the return of the firearm I told my buddy to pull up the buyers address on Google Maps zoom in on his house and take a screen shot. I then told him email it to the buyer telling him you just wanted to confirm it was his residence as you'd be coming with a few buddies and the local and federal authorities as he was now in possession of a stolen firearm. The buyer was only 5-hours away in a bordering state. Amazingly, he got a phone call from the buyer in minutes after sending the email! Now, it still took weeks to get his rifle back. The buyer shipped it to our local FFL without the required copy of his drivers license so our LGS had to sit on it for over a week until he finally faxed a copy. Additionally, the Jackwagon did minor damage to one of the rifle's components. Obviously on purpose.

Moral of the story, be VERY careful what you accept PayPal, especially F&F for. If you violate their "no weapons policy" you'll be swinging in the wind with no recourse and F&F has absolutely no buyer or seller protection. It's not needed if it's being used for what it's intended. This is also a good reason to setup a separate checking account to tie these online forms of payment to. As easily as they can deposit into them, they can withdraw. Hate for anyone's mortgage check to bounce.

This is what I was referencing in a post above. The same written policy includes some knives, and apparently PP is pretty indiscriminate about whether your knife is "regulated by law" or not. So it's not only buyer beware, but seller beware as well.

 

[Zappaman]

This is what I was referencing in a post above. The same written policy includes some knives, and apparently PP is pretty indiscriminate about whether your knife is "regulated by law" or not. So it's not only buyer beware, but seller beware as well.

I have never accepted Paypal for an FFL item (I've sold a few over the years). I knew about the policy and had the buyers pay with person checks in both cases. No I didn't report it, but that was several years back (before 2018) and it was a "wash" from what I read back then on reporting since I didn't make money on the firearms.

From what I've read here so far... it's checks all the way for me. No more Paypal for anything because it gets too complicated. As I mentioned in a previous post... if I decided to sell for profit as a "side biz" I'd hold records for "inventory", but it's just not worth the BS involved with reporting a few (private) sales a year.

 

[Flipperock]

Recently, there have been more and more of the most diverse crimes related specifically to transfers. This is a new niche that has been tightly occupied by scammers. That's why I hired a private intelligence agency https://corporateinvestigation.com/anti-money-laundering / , with the help of which I was able to easily deal with the fact that they tried to deceive me during the transfer of money in a special tranche through an offshore zone. That is why you should be as attentive as possible and find out more information about those who are trying to help you with translations.

 

[Kindo]

If using one, I would use a postal money order and cash it at the post office. You can call USPS to verify a money order. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Money-Orders-The-Basics#verify_postal_money_order

If mailing the item sold, just cash the money order first as the USPS will hand you cash.

Fraud can happen with any form of payment. Someone can use a stolen credit card, counterfeit bills, Etc.

I didn't read the whole thread but just a heads up that typically most POs won't have more than 500-600 of cash on hand. So if you're selling a gun or high end optic, you'll be better off cashing at a bank. Still better to go USPS MO route so you can call and verify.

I used to sell a fair number of guns on GB and that was my preferred method until the new GB Pay option became more widely used.