What is a fair practice for asking a gunshop to receive a gun from say JG sales or other equivalent places when you, the customer, already knows the price? The problem with stuff like this is that I do not know if a gunshop likes to special order an advertised gun when you know what the price is since there is a markup. I had a friend who owns the local gunshop. We don't stay in touch alot anymore but last time I had him receive an internet purchase for me, a marlin 30-30 I won from an auction, he only charged me the paperwork fee. He made no money on the gun. But, knowing that he is in business to make a living, I feel awkward asking him to receive any more guns for me for this reason and am not sure how he would want to mark it up. So if he did want a small or big markup for his services, these bargain price guns become not any cheaper than any other so I defeated my purpose. Is it even worth daring to walk into a shop and ask the owner if he will receive a gun for you if you buy it? Cory

Some gunshops have a standard fee for doing transfers, others add a certain markup, often a percentage. Some are as high as 20%, so it pays to ask around! Twenty percent of a $500 gun is more than I'm willing to pay!

Papajohn

Truth is that most gunshops have a three-tier system. One price for ordering a gun for a regular customer who buys most of his gear there...and a couple for the guy who wanders in. Not fair, but true none the less...and I kind of agree with the system. The guy who beats his gums at at $10 dollar differnce and goes to K-mart to buy his gear isn't the one you want to try to please.

"Normal" is this area is a $25 book-keeping fee, you pay shipping, and a 10% mark up...the "rape and pillage" rate is 20%...and the rate for the regular repeat customer is usually just the $25 book-keeper fee.

However, whatever is in the box is your problem...anything wrong, take it up with the place that sold it, not the FFL holder.

Auction arms and Shotgun News have list of dealers who will do the paperwork for a fee.

The local gun shops where I hang out charge me $10 to $15 to tranfser a gun via a Federal Form #4473. Another shop has a flat fee schedule of $20 for the first gun and $10 for the second one in multiple gun transactions. That seems to be a fair price structure. These shops know me and I buy a lot of stuff from them during the year.

Any shop that wants a 20 percent mark-up to do a simple firearm transfer in my opinion is related to Jesse James. All the best...
Gil

An administrative fee in the $20-$$35 is totally fair and justified. But you're already paying a retail markup from the dealer that's shipping the gun to your FFL, and your FFL knows that. Adding an additional markup based on gun value makes no sense to me; it doesn't cost him any more to do the paperwork on a $140 gun than on one worth $2500.

If his administrative fee is higher for one gun than for another, he should be able to explain why, and it should be a straight fee rather than percent. Maybe there is more of his time involved in processing a full-auto weapon. That would be a good reason, IMHO.

I have a friend that owns a small sporting goods store, and he sells a few guns. When we settle on a price, I ask, "You're leaving something in there for yourself, aren't you?" I know he his, but my asking let's him know that I don't expect him to sell to me at cost as a personal favor every time.