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Private seller?
mark christian
Member Posts: 24,443 ✭✭✭✭
I was looking for Bernardelli handguns and came across an auction from a fellow who mentions quite a few times in his ad that he is not an FFL dealer and is just a private seller. Out of curiosity (and dreaming of the always elusive good deal), I checked what other firearms he might have up for sale and ended up with a total of 125 modern firearms listed by him! All have reserves and ridiculously low starting bids and I wonder exactly what this guy considers an actual DEALER to be if he thinks of himself as just a private seller trying to move 125 firearms?
Mark T. Christian
Mark T. Christian
Comments
Mateomasfeo
"I am what I am!" - Popeye
KC
"If they won't give us good terms, come back and we'll fight it out."
-- Gen. James Longstreet
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
"It is hard to soar with Eagles when your surrounded by Turkeys"
"I dont care how thin you make a pancake, it still has two sides"
"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows.
Mark T. Christian
Is this the "sailer" seller?
If it is, his collection--while made up of many modern firearms--does look like something which has been accumulated over the years. To be accused of being in the "business" of retail firearm sales would require more recent purchases with a mark-up and quicker turn-around for sale at a profit.
He still might be making a "profit," but from the looks of what he's selling--and if he's doing it all legally--he'll be treating any "profit" as a long-term capital gain and be paying taxes as such (22%, if I remember correctly, on firearms) rather than filing "profit or loss from a business" forms with the IRS--as a retail business would.
It also looks like his stress on "private seller" is to let the bidder know since there are many FFL's who don't want to handle a transfer coming from a non-FFL. He does state all firearms must be shipped to an licensed dealer--so I don't think he's trying to conduct illegal sales.
A person could never be accused of being an "illegal dealer" if all his sales end up being done through an FFL--this would apply even if a person was buying and reselling (through an FFL) on a very short term basis. (Although I don't see how a person could do that and actually make money!)
Most of his auctions do state his "reserve price" in the first few sentences--which is not an unreasonable way to use the reserve. (I'm annoyed by sellers who have a reserve and don't say what it is in their listings--same as you are.)
I don't see any problem--unless you're looking at a different seller.
The 10mm - either you've got it, or you don't get it...
By the way competentone, after reading your critique of my postings on private sellers and the Street Sweeper, I was shocked to learn that you have only minimal understanding of some aspect of firearms regulations (like the National Firearms Act)...I thought that you were an expert in the entire field!
Mark,
The quote is from another thread, but please correct any errors I've made in my above comments, here!
I am not an "expert"--ie. someone who deals in firearms/law in a professional/money-making fashion. I maintain an amateur/hobbiest position. I like to be accurate in what I say and spend a good deal of time double checking my understandings of things. If I am in error about something, I welcome a correction.
This could be, I suppose, just a guy who has learned the auction routine selling other types of items -- and is now divesting himself of part of a gun collection. But that is giving him several levels of benefit of the doubt, and is probably a naive interpretation of this set-up. My guess is that in a case like this the feds will look for a sustained pattern of behavior in trade in guns. I don't see how anyone without an FFL can expect to start up an online auction business selling guns for long -- even if they're buying low and selling high via FFLs. If this is proven okay, I may engage in it myself... go find bargains at gun shows or in the classifieds, stick 'em up for auction with a slightly higher reserve. No doubt I could make some money too. [8D]
So the red flags are up for all the right reasons. He does look disturbingly professional and he has an awful lot of inventory for a guy just dumping one personal gun collection. My guess is the longer he stays in business with an unlimited supply, the more he will attract the wrong kind of attention. If holders of C&Rs may not engage in any firearms business -- other than to improve their own collection -- people with no license at all are probably even less qualified -- in the eyes of the BATFE, and that's what counts. Their job would be to make a case and let a judge sort it out -- which means legal fees and trips to the courthouse for the seller, at a minimum, even if you're eventually let off. Ouch.
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
This guy can sell all the guns he wants to and the ATF won't care unless pieces start turning up as having been stolen, used in a crime, or whatever.
Now if he starts doing this on the Gun Show circuit as "off-paper" sales ... he's destined to make some "new friends".
Now the way he posts may not be to people's liking but that don't break the law. Did anyone bother to go back and look at his past sales, or is this person just starting out? Past sales and feedback can give some hints about who you are dealing with.
Lastly, by his being a pvt. individual the shipping costs should be higher because he can't use the lower cost USPS route that is available FFL to FFL.
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!
Seller full ID is "Sailer222"
Been on GB since 8/8/02
F'bak Rating is A+(31) and he has one negative for refusing to complete a sale where he purportedly found the slide to have a crack. All other transactions show very happy buyers.
This person is in St. Pete and I belive he is most likely one of two things. First he is a "lister" and for a fee handles the sale of others firearms through legal FFL transfers. Or, second thought is that he goes around and buys up stuff from estates either in private transactions or auction lots, then he sells them through legal FFL transfers.
Florida has a huge population of retired folks and it would not suprise me to find he is working this community, may very well be a member of same, and providing he is breaking no local laws, he's golden ... doing everything by the book. Also, while I didn't look through all of his listings, in the dozen or so that I scanned there was no mention of how much shipping was, but he did state what the reserve was ...
If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!