Today made the second consecutive Friday I have arranged my work schedule and taken vacation to meet face to face with a buyer to sell them a gun or guns.
Today makes the second consecutive Friday that would-be buyers, after days of communication confirming price and condition, said "We have a deal, I'll take it!" The meeting time and place was set to accommodate the buyer so we could have a face to face transaction. In the most recent case, I scheduled a meeting with an FFL in another town so the guns could be shipped to the buyer.
On both occasions, the would-be buyers contacted me the night before via email. One said they forgot it was Veteran's Day and they had to schedule another appointment with someone. Another said he had been thinking about asking himself if he was being too compulsive about this gun hobby and was going to pass on the opportunity and reconsider his own collection.
The large majority of my very few gun dealings have involved buyers and sellers doing exactly what they say they will and we have parted friends and mutually happy with the transaction. I understand things can change and life can happen, but this flaking-out scenario seems to have become a more common occurrence in the past year from my limited experience and speaking to other sellers. I have only experienced one such incident on this forum, but on other occasions this summer and fall I have had experiences with would-be buyers being flaky.
This ranges from the examples noted above to many exchanges of emails leading to "Let me call you in the morning to set a meeting time to buy that gun" and never hearing back to agreeing to meet someone halfway at a location and never having them show. I have even had a person contact me using different email accounts asking about a gun and asking for my best price from each account and trying to get lower prices on each account until they screwed up and used their same name on both accounts...oops!
One time I got a contact from another would-be seller who saw I had closed an ad after the guy said he would take it. He said the same guy who had flaked out on me had met him, but wanted to get the price dropped after agreeing on a sale price before they met. Wasn't a gun condition issue as the gun was new in box. Flaky would-be buyer finally told the seller that he has done that many times and gotten better deals by negotiating after agreeing on a price and meeting face to face because the sellers don't want to walk away with nothing. That would-be seller told the guy something rather emphatically, then told him he had no integrity and after speaking with me posted the story on the site.
I try to be flexible with any buyer and have gotten to the point now of adding this language to any listing:
"Before you go any further, please verify that you meet the following conditions and are willing and able to provide verifiable contact information in your initial correspondence.
I have received many inquiries, some offers, and a couple of "I'll take it" emails from folks who did not meet or were not able to verify the following criteria or weren't able to buy right now. This has prevented sales to legitimate would-be purchasers.
Able to complete at this time a local face-to-face cash sale. Buyer must be at least 21, Oklahoma resident able to legally buy a firearm in Oklahoma, and must have a current valid Oklahoma issued picture ID. No exceptions."
Not sure it helps, as both FS postings referenced in the intro included that language.
Okay, I feel better now! Not having a bad transaction is much better than getting ripped off, so it could be worse, but please when you say "We have a deal, I'll take it!" be certain that you are absolute in your statement.
Today makes the second consecutive Friday that would-be buyers, after days of communication confirming price and condition, said "We have a deal, I'll take it!" The meeting time and place was set to accommodate the buyer so we could have a face to face transaction. In the most recent case, I scheduled a meeting with an FFL in another town so the guns could be shipped to the buyer.
On both occasions, the would-be buyers contacted me the night before via email. One said they forgot it was Veteran's Day and they had to schedule another appointment with someone. Another said he had been thinking about asking himself if he was being too compulsive about this gun hobby and was going to pass on the opportunity and reconsider his own collection.
The large majority of my very few gun dealings have involved buyers and sellers doing exactly what they say they will and we have parted friends and mutually happy with the transaction. I understand things can change and life can happen, but this flaking-out scenario seems to have become a more common occurrence in the past year from my limited experience and speaking to other sellers. I have only experienced one such incident on this forum, but on other occasions this summer and fall I have had experiences with would-be buyers being flaky.
This ranges from the examples noted above to many exchanges of emails leading to "Let me call you in the morning to set a meeting time to buy that gun" and never hearing back to agreeing to meet someone halfway at a location and never having them show. I have even had a person contact me using different email accounts asking about a gun and asking for my best price from each account and trying to get lower prices on each account until they screwed up and used their same name on both accounts...oops!
One time I got a contact from another would-be seller who saw I had closed an ad after the guy said he would take it. He said the same guy who had flaked out on me had met him, but wanted to get the price dropped after agreeing on a sale price before they met. Wasn't a gun condition issue as the gun was new in box. Flaky would-be buyer finally told the seller that he has done that many times and gotten better deals by negotiating after agreeing on a price and meeting face to face because the sellers don't want to walk away with nothing. That would-be seller told the guy something rather emphatically, then told him he had no integrity and after speaking with me posted the story on the site.
I try to be flexible with any buyer and have gotten to the point now of adding this language to any listing:
"Before you go any further, please verify that you meet the following conditions and are willing and able to provide verifiable contact information in your initial correspondence.
I have received many inquiries, some offers, and a couple of "I'll take it" emails from folks who did not meet or were not able to verify the following criteria or weren't able to buy right now. This has prevented sales to legitimate would-be purchasers.
Able to complete at this time a local face-to-face cash sale. Buyer must be at least 21, Oklahoma resident able to legally buy a firearm in Oklahoma, and must have a current valid Oklahoma issued picture ID. No exceptions."
Not sure it helps, as both FS postings referenced in the intro included that language.
Okay, I feel better now! Not having a bad transaction is much better than getting ripped off, so it could be worse, but please when you say "We have a deal, I'll take it!" be certain that you are absolute in your statement.
