What You Need to Know About Online Gun Auctions
The beginner's guide to online firearm auctions
If you are looking for a new gun or firearm, your first idea is probably to head on over to your nearest gun shop, Dick’s sporting goods, or Cabela’s. While these stores are stocked with everything that you need for your new gun, your selection will be limited to the most recently released firearms. If you are looking for a wider selection you might want to consider buying a gun online. Online gun auction sites (such as SSL Firearms) specialize in selling everything from modern handguns to collectible, antique rifles – often at a lower price than you would find at a sporting goods store. The internet gives you access to a wide range of sellers – including police departments – and thus a wide variety of firearms that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else.
If you are new to online gun auctions, you will probably have a few questions regarding safety and the process as a whole. We hope that you do have questions! We take our gun and firearm sales very seriously and want to make sure that you are comfortable with our auction process before bidding. We came up with a list of things that we think are important for you to know before heading into any online firearm auction and hopefully it will help familiarize you with our system.
What You Should Know Going into One of Our Online Gun Auctions:
We are a FFL Dealer
Concerned about the safety of selling guns online? It makes sense that you might be concerned, after all, selling over the internet takes out the face to face transaction between the buyer and the seller that one generally has in a sales transaction, but you don’t need to be worried. We have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This license gives us the ability to legally deal firearms. There are many steps to take when applying for the license with the government, so you can be sure that we take our security and privilege to have our FFL seriously.
We Still Follow Local, State and Federal Laws
Just because we are selling online doesn’t mean that the rules no longer apply. Like we said, we take firearm safety very seriously, including the sales process. The general requirements to purchase a firearm from one of our online gun auctions are as follows:
- Handgun buyers must be at least 21 years of age or older
- Long gun buyers must be at least 18 years of age or older
- A buyer must comply with all state and federal requirements
- Per Michigan law, possession of a valid receipt of application for a CPL does not exempt the holder from the requirement to obtain a license to purchase a pistol or exempt a firearms dealer from running a background check prior to the sale of a pistol.
Speaking of transfers, it is required that all guns and firearms go through a FFL gun transfer in order for there to be legal ownership of a gun. After you have won a firearm in one of our online gun auctions, you will have to come to our facilities to pick up the item and complete the transfer. Only the person whose name is on the invoice can come and retrieve the gun. If someone tries to have a friend or family member come instead it would be considered a federal crime that could result in a felony conviction sentence of 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000. If a buyer lives out of state, we are more than happy to work with them to find another FFL dealer in their area who would be able to conduct the transfer on our behalf.
Our Sellers are Just Like You
Wondering who you’re buying from? Typically, people just like you! While occasionally we may get a firearm that belonged to someone famous, for the most part the firearms are put up for auction by normal people like you. We have conducted estate sales, selling off large quantities of guns and firearms, as well as single handguns and rifles for individuals. The one exception to this is that we work with police departments to sell police seized guns to bring revenue back to the departments. So, unless you are also part of a police department, the seller might not be just like you – but we can vouch for them.
You Can See the Guns in Person
Many people sometimes have issues with online shopping because they can’t physically touch and inspect what they are purchasing. The same thing can happen with online gun auctions! We know that sometimes you just need to feel it in your hand before you can commit to bidding. If you would like to, please feel free to schedule an appointment to come inspect the firearms that you are interested in. A huge advantage to online auctions is that the listings are up early, providing you with plenty of time to do your own research about the specific firearm that you are looking at. We try to provide as much information as possible surrounding the condition of the firearm up for auction so that you can be as informed as possible going into your firearm purchase.
If you have any further questions about the process or the advantages of buying a gun or firearm through an online auction, please contact us today! While we have covered some of the big points, we don’t want you to feel uncertain about anything – no question is too small! If you are interested in selling with us, please feel free to contact us here so that we can set up a time to talk about your collection or individual gun.