Sellers: Ever Have This Happen?
nunn
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Potential bidder uses the "Ask Seller A Question" link to contact me. He asks for more pictures, better pictures, pictures of gun disassembled, measurement of this part or that part, my estimate of original finish percentage, and so on, and so on.
So, I do what the person asks, and reply to him with an answer, and/or edit the auction and auction pictures to reflect the answer.
And then...nearly every time...crickets. No response, no "Thank you," and certainly no bids placed. Not every time, but nearly so.
I include a lot of pictures with my auctions, and the quality is OK. I will not provide an estimate of the percentage of remaining finish. That's what the pictures are for. If I estimate the finish at 70% and the buyer gets it and he estimates it at 50%, then he can claim that I misrepresented the piece.
Very often, I'll get a question that could have been answered if the questioner had only looked at the pictures and/or read the Item Description and/or Additional Terms Of Sale/Item Characteristics.
BTW, I plainly state the payment methods I accept, in more than one place, in every auction. Even so, I get emails and phone calls from buyers who think those terms apply to everyone else and not them.
I am not a gunsmith, and some of the guns I sell don't belong to me, so I am loath to take some guns apart just to satisfy someone's curiosity.
BTW, satisfaction of curiosity seems to be the driving factor of all these questions.
Not complaining, mind you, but does this ever happen to you?
Comments
isnt that what car salesmen call "tire kickers". they are just part of the deal when you are selling something.
YES, and I don't sell all the time but about one of eight when I do the exact same thing happens. "Tirekickers" is my best answer, wanna be's or mommy basement dwellers, idiots, and NEVER have I had one bid, ever! Sometimes they will ask AGAIN something else that has already been covered and I ignore it. Lots of deadbeats out in the world. 🤐
Beat me that thattttt much.
Maybe they want pics and measurements to make a ghost gun.
I think they are in the same league as NPBs, and hired by Soros types just to waste our time.😒
(I'm only paranoid 'cuz they're all after me)
I was set up at a gun show and some idiot wanted to disassemble a 1911 I had there. I told him "NO", and he got huffy about it, wanted to argue. I picked it up, marked the price up by $100, and told him he was welcome to buy it, then he could do whatever he wanted with it. Go figure--he left. 🙄
As luck would have it, whenever I would get requests for additional pictures I was away traveling on business and not returning until after auction close.
All of our items are boxed up after the pictures are done. I tell everyone that what you see is all I can provide, but we don't take anything apart other than the items that require you see some of the internal parts for confirmation on value. I don't take anything apart just to check out internal parts for some reason. If you went to a gun store you wouldn't dissasemble something there in the store, just a good "go over" is enough to check something out....pictures do the same thing pretty much.
Depends. There are those firearms for which internals are of some significance when determining value/originality. Even a pre-ban M1A with all GI parts can command some premium over one with commercial parts.
We take the Garands, war era 1911s and most 30 carbines down enough to show the markings on their internal parts....some S&W revolvers we take the grips off to check their markings, but beyond that we do not put any tools to any guns that come through here.
I have on occasion asked for extra pictures or info. There is one listing currently that has an item that's been on my watch list for a while. I have every other caliber in this particular line so I know it well. This one was listed as NIB, but it has a beat up, non-matching stock that didn't even fit right, and a completely stripped (no finish) 2nd stock. There were too many red flags at first so after a couple of questions to the seller (who is selling on consignment for individual), I decided not to. But, later I was thinking about that the metal itself looked fine. So, I asked for pics of the bolt, lugs, and especially bolt face to see if it looked like it showed the wear the stock did. It looked like it was at least a likely low round gun so I went ahead and bid thinking that I can get the right stock later.
On very low feedback sellers, especially expensive ones, I will occasionally ask for some obscure picture. My reasoning? Often just to settle my mind that they do in fact at least have the item and it isn't a picture downloaded from the internet. I've had many great transactions with new or very low feedback sellers, but I am extra careful. That has been even more true during the COVID era with the surge in demand and selling price on some firearms.
On the other side of the coin, I have contacted dozens of sellers with very basic questions and never received a reply.
One of which is a well known “seller” here on the forums. Can’t bother acknowledging fundamental questions.
I offer this, because, I think my solution should be the same as yours- “no sale” and move on.
In the mid-1960's I worked a summer job at a paint/glass/auto upholstery shop.
The owner was a good man, and had an interesting philosophy.
It was......"The customer may NOT always be right.........but he is ALWAYS the customer. "
Keeping this in mind....over the years......has always served me well.
Just a thought.......from long ago.
If its me....sorry....sometimes the emails get overloaded with nonsense and your message might be one of 100 we got that day....mostly being stupid mess that is answered if they just READ THE LISTING or LOOK AT THE PICTURES. We stopped answering emails if this is the case. I figure if they are too stupid to look at the listing, if they actually win the potential for them to continue to be stupid is too great to chance selling an item to them.
Yes.