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Old October 22, 2013, 03:04 PM   #26
Skans
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 20, 2008
Posts: 11,132
Quote:
One might be able to argue that the 3% fee is a "junk" fee although it does provide some protection/benefits, but it doesn't really make sense to call the shipping and transfer fees junk fees. If they weren't saving you money, you'd have bought locally and avoided them.
I purposely stayed away from calling it a fee - it's just a cost of doing business, I understand that, but it's still "junk" because it it's being paid for taxes or services I don't really want, i.e. not directly for the hardware I'm purchasing.

Quote:
$30 shipping plus a $30 transfer fee and a $5 NICS fee plus 3% on a $700 base purchase is $86 bucks. That's 12.3% in fees.
I said "about" because I was talking about guns ranging in price from $700 - $1000.

Quote:
If you buy locally, you'll have to pay sales tax. On a $700 base purchase, sales tax, + NICS + 3% amounts to $83.75 in my neck of the woods. That's 12%
Sales tax + markup are almost always more than shipping + transfer. Some dealers will even try to charge you for doing the 4473 paperwork on local purchases. Not that I can blame them, it's a PITA that they need to do and probably should be compensated for. However, if you can avoid paying the credit card fee, sales tax and get the gun for a little less than the LGS will sell it to you for, you almost always come out at least $100 to the good on internet purchases.

Basically, you can really save lots of money with internet purchases when you are looking for a barely used current production gun that is somewhat rare or difficult to find. IMHO, that's the sweet spot.

Last edited by Skans; October 22, 2013 at 03:11 PM.
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