Method Of Payment

[USMA84DAB]

Just had a 38 day experience from Midway in Columbia, MO, to north side of Kansas City, MO - it sat in St Louis sorting center for 3 weeks - then was sent to Illinois, then back to St Louis, then to KC, Kansas sorting center for 4 days, then finally delivered after 38 days. Midway's re-shipment of the order arrived the same day, and that one took 10 days to get here from Columbia, MO.

Absolutely pathetic "service" from USPS.

 

[elkocountygun]

I use Zelle and Apple Pay as Venmo and Paypal have locked my accounts for selling scopes....which I was able to sell on Ebay(owns Paypal) with no issues and of course they make you use PayPal for payment.

As mentioned, there is no buyer protection with Zelle but to be honest, Paypal would not have paid on a claim involving firearm-related items anyways. On top of that, when using Paypal, there is no seller protection. I won't go into details but there are 2 very easy ways for someone to shaft the seller in a transaction when using Paypal.

USPS MO are generally a good idea, you can easily see if they are fake or real, depending on the amount and your post office you can cash them at the post office.


In the end, due diligence is your friend. If a deal is too good to be true, scrutinize it a bit more.
Red flags:
-New members with low post count
-New members with normal or high post counts in a short amount of time
-Seller wants to switch to email communications vs PM
-Messages with odd or incorrect use of the English language(its sometimes subtle)
-Seller refers to the item in question as "the item" instead of scope, rifle, binos etc
-A PM when you have an active "WTB" thread where someone directs you to his "friend" that has what youre looking for and provides an email address

What you can do
-Ask for pictures with your screenname written on a piece paper in the same phots as the item in question
-Pm other members who have possibly made a deal with the seller and an inquire as to how the transaction went
-Possibly ask to speak over the phone
-Use Google to check email and names to see if they show up anywhere in a negative manner


Those aren't foolproof, but they paint a picture to work with. I recently busted a scammer here that was the best scam play Ive seen yet. It was well done including some fancy photo manipulation to try and pass my screenname picture test....almost worked.

In the end, go with your gut unless you can afford to risk the money in question.

this is good info, even close to 4 years later. thx

 

[elkocountygun]

I don’t really care if a company is anti gun, it’s impossibly to avoid at this point. I’m simply saying saying Zelle hasn’t locked my account.

good point and zelle has not locked me out but i stopped using paypal many years back - 9 or 10

 

[elkocountygun]

Just had a 38 day experience from Midway in Columbia, MO, to north side of Kansas City, MO - it sat in St Louis sorting center for 3 weeks - then was sent to Illinois, then back to St Louis, then to KC, Kansas sorting center for 4 days, then finally delivered after 38 days. Midway's re-shipment of the order arrived the same day, and that one took 10 days to get here from Columbia, MO.

Absolutely

Just had a 38 day experience from Midway in Columbia, MO, to north side of Kansas City, MO - it sat in St Louis sorting center for 3 weeks - then was sent to Illinois, then back to St Louis, then to KC, Kansas sorting center for 4 days, then finally delivered after 38 days. Midway's re-shipment of the order arrived the same day, and that one took 10 days to get here from Columbia, MO.

Absolutely pathetic "service" from USPS.

correct, and we are stuck with US post office as main way to ship if you live outside big city

 

[rookhawk]

What I find odd is that the older gentleman on this forum are very, very right wing, yet they love the post office. Choose one guys.

Either you like small government, free and efficient markets, and meritocracy, OR you like bloated, insolvent government programs that cannot function without unfair protections.

Feel free to love on the USPS, but you sure as hell better have equal enthusiasm for FDR and all related government interventions.

A few reasons why the USPS sucks:

1.) They cannot ship any package via air without having Fedex haul their packages for them. Even when USPS attempts to deliver a service, they have to piggy back on a competent private sector corporation.

2.) Their propaganda around USPS priority is BS. 2-3 day delivery means "87% of packages arrive in 2-3 days" which is misleading and also very old data. When you peel back the terms of service USPS has a TEN BUSINESS DAY service level objective for priority mail. Meaning? You cannot even trace your package or escalate for ten business days which in fact might be closer to three weeks with holidays and weekends.

3.) The USPS is so F'd they sell forever stamps as a ponzi scheme. They are willing to deliver future services at a loss in order to stay alive another day for immediate revenue.

4.) They are government slobs that lose packages, argue with you, and just hold the package at the post office if they don't want to deliver that day. Recently I had a first class letter take 14 days to go 300 miles. (destination Chicago...not the sticks)

5.) They have lobbied to prevent any private competition from having the right to deliver to a mailbox. Naturally, if that day ever comes, USPS will be out of business immediately.

6.) They are the government, they suck at everything. Do you think they are experts on fraud? No. The USPS money order is the easiest instrument to counterfeit and the USPS makes little effort to prevent counterfeiting because they are an agency, not a business. Who cares anyway, its just somebody else's money.

7.) They cannot deliver a package on a Sunday, but they are so defective and insolvent they are delivering Amazon packages on a Sunday at a loss.

I've made my feelings crystal clear on the USPS. I put that prohibition in all my classifieds. About every 2-3 years someone disregards that and either sends me a PO money order or sends me a package USPS signature required. In case of the former, I throw the money order away. Sorry. I don't take funny money and I told you I wouldn't. In the case of the latter, I refuse to go to my USPS on a Saturday for the 4 hours they are opened begging for a package. I charge a $1000 inconvenience fee for going to the post office, therefore anything sent signature required USPS or anything they fail to deliver goes back to the post office where I will never, ever collect it.

It's a free country, don't engage with me in commerce if you wish, but do not try to get me to participate in supporting a worthless government agency. There is nothing I need the USPS for and my life would not be impacted whatsoever if they ceased to exist tomorrow.

 

[Safari Dave]

The good ole' USPS...

My wife mailed out post cards on October 1, 2024 for an event at our church which was to occur on October 26, 2014 .


A lady just informed me that she received hers last week...


PRIVITISE!

 

[Safari Dave]

What I find odd is that the older gentleman on this forum are very, very right wing, yet they love the post office. Choose one guys.

Either you like small government, free and efficient markets, and meritocracy, OR you like bloated, insolvent government programs that cannot function without unfair protections.

Feel free to love on the USPS, but you sure as hell better have equal enthusiasm for FDR and all related government interventions.

A few reasons why the USPS sucks:

1.) They cannot ship any package via air without having Fedex haul their packages for them. Even when USPS attempts to deliver a service, they have to piggy back on a competent private sector corporation.

2.) Their propaganda around USPS priority is BS. 2-3 day delivery means "87% of packages arrive in 2-3 days" which is misleading and also very old data. When you peel back the terms of service USPS has a TEN BUSINESS DAY service level objective for priority mail. Meaning? You cannot even trace your package or escalate for ten business days which in fact might be closer to three weeks with holidays and weekends.

3.) The USPS is so F'd they sell forever stamps as a ponzi scheme. They are willing to deliver future services at a loss in order to stay alive another day for immediate revenue.

4.) They are government slobs that lose packages, argue with you, and just hold the package at the post office if they don't want to deliver that day. Recently I had a first class letter take 14 days to go 300 miles. (destination Chicago...not the sticks)

5.) They have lobbied to prevent any private competition from having the right to deliver to a mailbox. Naturally, if that day ever comes, USPS will be out of business immediately.

6.) They are the government, they suck at everything. Do you think they are experts on fraud? No. The USPS money order is the easiest instrument to counterfeit and the USPS makes little effort to prevent counterfeiting because they are an agency, not a business. Who cares anyway, its just somebody else's money.

7.) They cannot deliver a package on a Sunday, but they are so defective and insolvent they are delivering Amazon packages on a Sunday at a loss.

I've made my feelings crystal clear on the USPS. I put that prohibition in all my classifieds. About every 2-3 years someone disregards that and either sends me a PO money order or sends me a package USPS signature required. In case of the former, I throw the money order away. Sorry. I don't take funny money and I told you I wouldn't. In the case of the latter, I refuse to go to my USPS on a Saturday for the 4 hours they are opened begging for a package. I charge a $1000 inconvenience fee for going to the post office, therefore anything sent signature required USPS or anything they fail to deliver goes back to the post office where I will never, ever collect it.

It's a free country, don't engage with me in commerce if you wish, but do not try to get me to participate in supporting a worthless government agency. There is nothing I need the USPS for and my life would not be impacted whatsoever if they ceased to exist tomorrow.

This 60-year old, Gen-X, geezer agrees 100%!!!

 

[RR 314]

The good ole' USPS...

My wife mailed out post cards on October 1, 2024 for an event at our church which was to occur on October 26, 2014 .


A lady just informed me that she received hers last week...


PRIVITISE!

Well, looks like your wife was a decade late to start. .

 

[elkocountygun]

The good ole' USPS...

My wife mailed out post cards on October 1, 2024 for an event at our church which was to occur on October 26, 2014 .


A lady just informed me that she received hers last week...


PRIVITISE!

agree. but then we are preachin to the choir

 

[Safari Dave]

opp

Well, looks like your wife was a decade late to start. .

oops..

2024


I guess I'm officially, "OLD."

 

[Safari Dave]

If, I can now get a "senior pass" on every stupid thing that I might post, you might get some CRAZY content!

But, you must take it, with the understanding that I may have "early onset" of something...

 

[RR 314]

If, I can now get a "senior pass" on every stupid thing that I might post, you might get some CRAZY content!

But, you must take it, with the understanding that I may have "early onset" of something...

Haaaa. Likely just fat fingered it. Although, I have started blaming things on CTE. Hope I’m wrong. .

 

[Safari Dave]

CTE may be my problem, as well.

If I would have known I would have lived this long, perhaps, I would have taken better care of myself...

 

[Inkgardener]

What I find odd is that the older gentleman on this forum are very, very right wing, yet they love the post office. Choose one guys.

Either you like small government, free and efficient markets, and meritocracy, OR you like bloated, insolvent government programs that cannot function without unfair protections.

Feel free to love on the USPS, but you sure as hell better have equal enthusiasm for FDR and all related government interventions.

A few reasons why the USPS sucks:

1.) They cannot ship any package via air without having Fedex haul their packages for them. Even when USPS attempts to deliver a service, they have to piggy back on a competent private sector corporation.

2.) Their propaganda around USPS priority is BS. 2-3 day delivery means "87% of packages arrive in 2-3 days" which is misleading and also very old data. When you peel back the terms of service USPS has a TEN BUSINESS DAY service level objective for priority mail. Meaning? You cannot even trace your package or escalate for ten business days which in fact might be closer to three weeks with holidays and weekends.

3.) The USPS is so F'd they sell forever stamps as a ponzi scheme. They are willing to deliver future services at a loss in order to stay alive another day for immediate revenue.

4.) They are government slobs that lose packages, argue with you, and just hold the package at the post office if they don't want to deliver that day. Recently I had a first class letter take 14 days to go 300 miles. (destination Chicago...not the sticks)

5.) They have lobbied to prevent any private competition from having the right to deliver to a mailbox. Naturally, if that day ever comes, USPS will be out of business immediately.

6.) They are the government, they suck at everything. Do you think they are experts on fraud? No. The USPS money order is the easiest instrument to counterfeit and the USPS makes little effort to prevent counterfeiting because they are an agency, not a business. Who cares anyway, its just somebody else's money.

7.) They cannot deliver a package on a Sunday, but they are so defective and insolvent they are delivering Amazon packages on a Sunday at a loss.

I've made my feelings crystal clear on the USPS. I put that prohibition in all my classifieds. About every 2-3 years someone disregards that and either sends me a PO money order or sends me a package USPS signature required. In case of the former, I throw the money order away. Sorry. I don't take funny money and I told you I wouldn't. In the case of the latter, I refuse to go to my USPS on a Saturday for the 4 hours they are opened begging for a package. I charge a $1000 inconvenience fee for going to the post office, therefore anything sent signature required USPS or anything they fail to deliver goes back to the post office where I will never, ever collect it.

It's a free country, don't engage with me in commerce if you wish, but do not try to get me to participate in supporting a worthless government agency. There is nothing I need the USPS for and my life would not be impacted whatsoever if they ceased to exist tomorrow.

I agree!!!

I laugh when guys won’t take payment through PayPal because those commies are anti gun, but they want postal money orders. I skip right past ads that only take money orders.

 

[RR 314]

I agree!!!

I laugh when guys won’t take payment through PayPal because those commies are anti gun, but they want postal money orders. I skip right past ads that only take money orders.

And here is another kicker about money orders. I had the post office complete a suspicious activity report when I purchased money orders and they told me they were doing a SAR!

 

[tmjames0709]

Has anyone used guntab to receive payment? Opinions please.. Thanks

I am about to post a Blaser rifle for sale that is valued at $10K and planning to use GunTab.com. It is recommended by GunBroker for use with gun sales on their site. It is an escrow platform that supports holding the buyer’s money until they receive and accept the firearm. Once the buyer accepts the firearm, the held money is released to the Seller. The buyer gets 3 days from delivery to Accept or Dispute the purchase. It also allows the buyer to use credit cards for the purchase/escrow amount……of course for a 3% fee. Not sure why more people don’t know about it. All the best!

 

[wiyofa]

I use Zelle and Apple Pay as Venmo and Paypal have locked my accounts for selling scopes....which I was able to sell on Ebay(owns Paypal) with no issues and of course they make you use PayPal for payment.

As mentioned, there is no buyer protection with Zelle but to be honest, Paypal would not have paid on a claim involving firearm-related items anyways. On top of that, when using Paypal, there is no seller protection. I won't go into details but there are 2 very easy ways for someone to shaft the seller in a transaction when using Paypal.

USPS MO are generally a good idea, you can easily see if they are fake or real, depending on the amount and your post office you can cash them at the post office.


In the end, due diligence is your friend. If a deal is too good to be true, scrutinize it a bit more.
Red flags:
-New members with low post count
-New members with normal or high post counts in a short amount of time
-Seller wants to switch to email communications vs PM
-Messages with odd or incorrect use of the English language(its sometimes subtle)
-Seller refers to the item in question as "the item" instead of scope, rifle, binos etc
-A PM when you have an active "WTB" thread where someone directs you to his "friend" that has what youre looking for and provides an email address

What you can do
-Ask for pictures with your screenname written on a piece paper in the same phots as the item in question
-Pm other memebers who have possibly made a deal with the seller and an inquire as to how the transaction went
-Possibly ask to speak over the phone
-Use Google to check email and names to see if they show up anywhere in a negative manner


Those aren't foolproof, but they paint a picture to work with. I recently busted a scammer here that was the best scam play I’ve seen yet, and verifying details such as the official Southern Bank customer service number actually helped me catch some inconsistencies. It was well done including some fancy photo manipulation to try and pass my screenname picture test....almost worked.

In the end, go with your gut unless you can afford to risk the money in question.

I’ve generally found that payment methods with some form of buyer protection work best for internet purchases from individuals. Personal checks can be fine when both parties are trustworthy and willing to wait for clearance, but they rely heavily on trust. For most situations today, PayPal Goods & Services or a credit card tends to offer the best balance of convenience, documentation, and dispute protection. Wire transfers and certified checks make me more nervous because once the money is gone, recovering it can be difficult if something goes wrong. In the end, the seller’s reputation and communication are usually just as important as the payment method itself.

 

[Hornedfrogbbq]

What is have found is talking to guys on here and getting known is key. I have had maybe 20 transactions on here buying everything from tripods to Heyms. Zelle to me is the safest but I always want to pay exceedingly quickly to willing to wire money as well. I have, at the request of the seller, used any method they prefer. I am agnostic. I just want to make super sure that if ever asked, the seller says, "great guy, great transaction and massively quick in paying.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I can usually find everything I need on auction sites and pay with credit card. For friends or family I can do global money transfer direct to their bank account but then their bank charges a fee to them (my bank does not charge for sending). Fee is about the same as what I'd pay on this end if I wired the funds. The other drawback is funds can only be deposited in their local currency. My outfitter in RSA prefers US funds so that method generally doesn't work. However, I have paid the deposit with GMT but it requires fiddling with exchange rates and adjusting for his withdrawal fee (which apparently can be "flexible") so I gave up on it.