Buying guns online

[Keelebilly]

I’ve found a rifle on guns international that I’d like to buy. I’ve never bought a gun that way before. Any advice? Any red flags to watch out for?

 

[jruby]

I buy quite a few firearms on gun broker. My recomendation is to talk to the individual selling the firearm over the phone. You can tell a lot by talking to someone. I also pay with a USPS money order. No guarantees when dealing remotely. I have been lucky so far.

 

[BJH65]

I’ve purchased 4 rifles from them over past several years, two from Cabelas stores and the rest from verified sellers. All sellers were businesses and took credit card payment. I think if it’s a private seller, make sure they are verified, talk to them and do your due diligence

Avoid unusual payment like Zelle, Venmo, Bitcoin or wire transfers.

Use protected payments like cc if able.

Request photos of the gun with a handwritten note with current date.

Check for duplicate adds, do a reverse image search on the listing photos to see if they appear elsewhere which may indicate a stolen image. I know many legitimately list on GB too as well as guns international.

Check guns international frequently asked questions, they have a list of things to check to help protect you from scammers.

If it feels wrong, walk away.

 

[thriller]

Talk to the guy on the phone it will be very clear if it’s bs real quick

 

[BJH65]

Guns international does not have any form of automatic checkout. You have to talk to the seller by telephone in order to buy. Of course that would be the time to vet the seller.

 

[Andrew62]

Earlier this week I saw a gun online that I was interested in. I messaged the seller, asked for a picture with my name and date, I also put pictures in ChatGPT to verify the gun store, and I reached out to another member on this site for his opinion. I purchased the gun Monday, it arrived to my FFL on Wednesday. As others have said, due diligence is critical.