New GB Compliance Fee
clays
Member Posts: 1,928 ✭✭✭✭
Just curious if anyone else received this message from GB. It states effective today there will be a "compliance Fee" accessed on all sales. I checked under the seller fees and do not see any information listed about it.
Dear - Bob,
On 7/26/2021 GunBroker.com will be assessing a compliance fee. The fee will be assessed on the purchase price of the item only and will be added to the order total paid by the buyer. The compliance fee will be collected by the seller and remitted to GunBroker.com through the seller fee ledger. The fee will appear as a separate line item on the seller statement.
What is the Compliance Fee?
The Compliance Fee is a fee assessed by GunBroker.com and added to the price of the Item at the time of purchase. The U.S. states have been very active in passing new laws applicable to GunBroker.com, including in the areas of taxation, privacy and firearms. These laws have increased the compliance costs of GunBroker.com substantially.
Thank you,
The Team at GunBroker.com
Comments
How much is it?
How much?
I received the same email and included in the email was some kind of a "ledger" that showed the final value fee on a number of items and then a compliance fee but it was confusing and difficult to correlate the two fees and there was no statement as to what percentage of the final value fee that the compliance fee was based upon.
Got it
...The best and safest thing to do is contact GB Customer Support..Support is usually VERY busy, so keep trying...better safe than sorry, especially with money, your money...
...GB auction side is separate from the forums BTW, so contact GB Support directly...
Reckon one will know the cost when they buy something
The Compliance Fee is a fee assessed by GunBroker.com and added to the price of the Item at the time of purchase. The U.S. states have been very active in passing new laws applicable to GunBroker.com, including in the areas of taxation, privacy and firearms. These laws have increased the compliance costs of GunBroker.com substantially.
Thank you,
The Team at GunBroker.com
This will no doubt really help sellers! Another cost the buyer will have to add to the selling amount. Really don't see how state laws cost GB money.
I came here for this. If you look at the picture they showed the "pricing" it looks like it is between 5-10% of the final value sales? I dont know why they wont just say what the fee price is but instead they give a snapshot of a ledeger that's hard to determine that.
Sounds to me that they, ( the new owners ) are trying to recover what they paid for GB by charging extra fees. By charging both the buyer and seller they now get to double dip on the fees for items sold. Bob
I think you meant to say "assessed" and not "accessed".......................lol.
This kind of rig-a-ramole is why I now look for and buy things locally and FTF. The auction side : the forum side, a slowly changing platform. Now a corporate interest instead of a meeting place for enthusiasts. I am still here though.
Great. I plan on selling most of a 30 year collection this fall.
😣
No different than a live auctioneers buyer and seller fees. Factor it all in to the final price when you bid.
Funny...
Bidding/Buying
“We charge no recurring membership fees. We charge no fees to bidders/buyers. Persons whose registration information is flagged as suspicious by our fraud prevention systems may be charged a $2.00 fee to go through a detailed security check.”
https://www.gunbroker.com/c/user/fees/
Can't see it helping anybody's bottom line except, -Gunshops will welcome this and I think if it's like 5% sales will be hurt, by a lot, imo....only
I've bought one item this year, there's are reasons. Businesses can make it without me, but there are businesses that can't make it without people like me. Contrary to some's idea, sellers do not drive these businesses, buyers do. I'm a buyer.
i do not see anything in the new notes dated 7/26/21 about this
I got it too. I wondered if it was a scam or phishing attempt at first but email headers looked legit. I took it to mean due to the rising costs of litigation. But, why a separate fee? Just add a portion to final sale cost and explicitly show it when one is bidding so they can see the auction price, the shipping cost, and anything else which gives you a total cost "out the door" so to speak.
Do the new owners realize they have competition for online sales, sadly I think not. Buyers are losing most of the all the incentives to buy here, Mom and Pop down on Main Street is beginning to look pretty competitive now.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Still no listing fees..
Selling price +ship/handling +tax +transfer fee and now a "Compliance Fee." I have purchased a lot of firearms on GB recently and past years. They always thank me. That is nice but a "Compliance Fee". Sorry GB, no way.--------------------------------Ray
I feel left out. I get six or seven e-mails a day from Gunbroker didn't get that one.
Killing the goose who lays the golden eggs............ Junkballer nailed it
bottom line, if fees go up, selling price will go down to reflect said fees, will take a while for folks to get used to the new fee, then the bids will go down accordingly...........
Why not just call it a 5-10% buyers premium the way other auction sites do, and be done with it?
In the end, this is going to hurt GB just as much as it does the sellers.
I understand Final Value Fee and Compliance Fee are two different things. I am strictly a buyer and not a seller. May be two different items/fees but i still consider it double dipping. Worse still double dipping for sellers and buyers.--------------------------Ray
It is a buyers fee, there are no two ways about it no matter what they call it. Using the chart in the picture which isn't exactly meant to show how much the fee is, just how it will be presented on the sellers statement, I figure it will be around 1/4 of the sellers fee by looking at the same item number in the chart presented. That should put in the 1-1.5% range roughly depending on how much the item sold for or about $5.00-7.50 on a $500 gun. Not insignificant but not overly expensive like some auction houses that charge a much higher buyer premium.
This is all of course just my guess based on the picture in the email, that example picture didn't claim to list the actual fees.
And, yet again it is up to the seller to collect it from the buyer as GunBroker.com will be collecting it from Seller.
Maybe they will use the revenue raised to hire a few extra employees to work in customer support.🤣🤣🤣
😀..................👍️
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
GB has new owners, yes? As of last month, I believe. What a way to start out. Pile on as many fees as possible. What in the world are they doing? Wow
Change was implemented effective yesterday 7/26, I would be interested to hear from any sellers how it is incorporated into the final billing and if there is a percentage rate stated.
We have two ending tonight, around 8pm Central, I will give an update to see how it goes.
I found online sales at GB to be convenient, that is why I signed up. I have been able to get what I need for five decades without online sales platforms. These platforms are not a necessary service to obtain guns, ammo and accessories, they are just convenient. Increasingly more and more online sellers and services are displaying the same attitudes and customer service concerns that, in part, drove people away from the local gun stores. Not very smart for a non vital segment of the industry. Local shops are going to recognize this and take advantage. Of course pendulums swing as this was one will too, local shops attitude will follow prosperity.
Prices are high beyond maintainability. Some used guns are selling at above MSRP for new models. There are several factors involved one of which is new people not understanding or being tapped into their local network. This will change and like all things these people will start looking for sources with better prices. There are rarely bargain or even reasonably priced guns on the online sites. A single shot .22 rifle that sells for about $125-150 is selling for more than that online then shipping, tax etc. is added. This can not maintain itself, adding extra fees will only quickens this market segments decline.
Oh well, it's not my concern. I am just a buyer and like all buyers I'll take care of myself. When online buying is good for me I'll use it, when it's not I won't
Just got the e-mail. My biggest concern right now, as others have noted, is exactly HOW MUCH is this? I like to be very upfront in my listings so bidders know exactly what their final cost will be; I also like to know how much I'm paying when bidding. I'm completely in the dark about how much this will add -- it seems a bit ridiculous to roll this out without giving clear information about how much it will be -- nor giving sellers any time to add information about this to their listings; I only have a few listings to update, but how will the sellers with a lot of listings update them to alert their bidders/buyers of the added cost? Is there a minimum or maximum, or is it just a straight percentage no matter how low or high the selling price is?
The Compliance fee appears to be Exactly 1% of the selling price. We had two items end last night, they sold for $500 and $655, when I check the statement it took $5.00 and $6.55. I'll share a screenshot of what it looks like on the statement.
Thanks for sharing the information.
I am guessing this is how Gun Broker is going to offset the added manpower they are having to provide just to deal with taxes. I understand this is a large ordeal for them and I cannot imagine what they've paid out to get this handled.
I was wondering if it was "compliance" with collecting sales taxes too -- they didn't explain exactly what the "compliance" issue was, but I know the sales tax issue is crazy. While it does cost them, all established online "facilitators" now have a moat they didn't have before. No small business trying to sell nationally can reasonably comply with the new sales tax laws, so they have no choice but to use a "facilitator" to handle the transaction and pay the taxes.
The more practical solution (governments don't like the practical) would be to treat the BUYER as the person traveling virtually to the seller's online store; the seller would collect sales tax on every transaction based on his local sales tax rate, and would be sending collected taxes ONLY to his state. Treat an online sale the same as if a person drove their car and physically purchased from the retailer.
The convoluted system, trying to treat every seller as "traveling virtually to the buyers' location" is a nightmare for all but the largest companies to comply with when it comes to collecting sales taxes. If this "logic" continues, I'm sure states will start requiring sellers outside their state to be buying business licenses for the "privilege" of selling products in their state. Everyone in government is thinking how they can "collect taxes from outside their jurisdiction" without understanding how it kills any small business trying to grow larger with national sales -- and rewards the established big businesses.
A big problem as well is that GB is using the sellers credit card processors to charge for a lot of these new charges, which passes on the costs to the sellers. Taxes and now new fees, are being charged to the customer, but the processing fees of these are being paid by the seller. It may not sound like a lot, but if you're selling several items the processing fees in total from the taxes and now new fees, add up and will hit your bottom line. Seems to me that GB should be doing something to make up for these extra processing fees thats being passed onto the sellers.
may end up banned for this but if I am going to have to pay a compliance fees in addition to:
Shipping costs, TAXES, and Credit Card Fees every time I win something or BIN, I will buy elsewhere.