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Business slow?
8/26/2011 10:10:37 PM
I had a slow June, a really slow July and august was slow with a nice spurt in the middle to make august OK.
I'm in Pa but most of my Business is online & National.
Is everyone else slow or is it just me?
PS
I know summers are slow but this summer was a killer.
And with September & School approaching money is probably tight right now also.
I'm in Pa but most of my Business is online & National.
Is everyone else slow or is it just me?
PS
I know summers are slow but this summer was a killer.
And with September & School approaching money is probably tight right now also.
8/27/2011 12:10:01 AM
Nope. We did a group buy on YHM cans that worked out well both for us and our customers.
8/27/2011 1:25:08 AM
Originally Posted By Bubbles:
Nope. We did a group buy on YHM cans that worked out well both for us and our customers.
NiceNope. We did a group buy on YHM cans that worked out well both for us and our customers.
8/27/2011 2:07:44 PM
We stayed physically busy all summer, and did enough business to keep everyone working, but we drop almost 50% from our peak months in Jun, Jul, and Aug.
Things are starting to pick back up now, and like I said, the store stayed busy with people all summer, so once it gets nicer out to shoot (our summer's are 105 degrees daily) and money starts freeing up, kids back to school, etc, they're all still here and they'll start dropping the money again.
Things are starting to pick back up now, and like I said, the store stayed busy with people all summer, so once it gets nicer out to shoot (our summer's are 105 degrees daily) and money starts freeing up, kids back to school, etc, they're all still here and they'll start dropping the money again.
8/27/2011 3:21:53 PM
We have been open for 3 years now and the summer sucks. Around the end of May until the first of September gun sales drop.
We were worried that it was something we were doing wrong until we went to the SHOT show. During a seminar at SHOT they showed a graph of monthly NICS checks nationwide. We were glad to see the "dip" was a yearly and national trend.
Google NICS checks by month and you will see the dip on the graphs. Another thing we found that surprised us was our best month in sales was Feb. when people are getting their tax refunds and the money is burning a hole in their pocket. We also found that around May/June many of these same people will be back wanting to sell or pawn the gun(s) they bought in Feb.
We were worried that it was something we were doing wrong until we went to the SHOT show. During a seminar at SHOT they showed a graph of monthly NICS checks nationwide. We were glad to see the "dip" was a yearly and national trend.
Google NICS checks by month and you will see the dip on the graphs. Another thing we found that surprised us was our best month in sales was Feb. when people are getting their tax refunds and the money is burning a hole in their pocket. We also found that around May/June many of these same people will be back wanting to sell or pawn the gun(s) they bought in Feb.
8/27/2011 10:03:55 PM
I was good Jan/Feb/March...
April/May/June business fell off a cliff. I'm talking 40-50% off... like a lightswitch. I was getting worried about covering the rent.
July started showing promise... and August has finally been getting back on track.
What fucks me up is the see-saw nature of the foot traffic in my store.
I will sit there all day sometimes for chump change lunch money... and the following day you'd think Obama won another election.
Sometimes I have a sales day that eclipses the prior two weeks combined.
There is no rhyme nor reason for it. I think it depends on the moon and stars alignment. 
April/May/June business fell off a cliff. I'm talking 40-50% off... like a lightswitch. I was getting worried about covering the rent.
July started showing promise... and August has finally been getting back on track.
What fucks me up is the see-saw nature of the foot traffic in my store.
I will sit there all day sometimes for chump change lunch money... and the following day you'd think Obama won another election.
Sometimes I have a sales day that eclipses the prior two weeks combined.
There is no rhyme nor reason for it. I think it depends on the moon and stars alignment. 8/28/2011 3:47:59 PM
As a brand new home-based FFL, I can't speak to how things have changed over time or what foot traffic looks like.
When I first got the FFL recently, I was very hesitant to put my name out there on all the FFL lists as a transfer dealer. My hesitation was based on the number of transfers that were being reported by some of the dealers on this forum and I wasn't sure if we would be hit with a fairly large amount of transfers right away. Since then, I have put our name out there a little more and have gotten listed on Auction Arms, Gunbroker, and some of the other web listings.
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
I am curious if other home-based FFLs see the same fluctuations the other dealers have talked about.
When I first got the FFL recently, I was very hesitant to put my name out there on all the FFL lists as a transfer dealer. My hesitation was based on the number of transfers that were being reported by some of the dealers on this forum and I wasn't sure if we would be hit with a fairly large amount of transfers right away. Since then, I have put our name out there a little more and have gotten listed on Auction Arms, Gunbroker, and some of the other web listings.
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
I am curious if other home-based FFLs see the same fluctuations the other dealers have talked about.
8/28/2011 3:58:57 PM
Originally Posted By Rigmarole:
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
A little off topic, but a cool bit of info. The Gunbroker database will always give you the most amount of transfer traffic because its the best database out there searchable by serial number and many dealers (even when not selling on Gunbroker) use it to find transfer dealers for their customers and many even link it to their website so their customers can use it to find someone to use by zip.
8/28/2011 7:24:21 PM
Originally Posted By Guido1:
A little off topic, but a cool bit of info. The Gunbroker database will always give you the most amount of transfer traffic because its the best database out there searchable by serial number and many dealers (even when not selling on Gunbroker) use it to find transfer dealers for their customers and many even link it to their website so their customers can use it to find someone to use by zip.
Originally Posted By Rigmarole:
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
So far, we have seen a little interest from Gunbroker but not huge volume by any means and nothing from any of the other sources. Since this is starting out as a side gig for us, slow right now is OK but we would like to see things pick up a bit going forward.
A little off topic, but a cool bit of info. The Gunbroker database will always give you the most amount of transfer traffic because its the best database out there searchable by serial number and many dealers (even when not selling on Gunbroker) use it to find transfer dealers for their customers and many even link it to their website so their customers can use it to find someone to use by zip.
Thanks for the tip! To keep the sidebar going let me ask you - Has it helped to have a copy of your FFL on your website that anyone can download and send off to the shipping dealer/seller?
We don't have our site up and running yet and I was worried that putting the FFL out there may make it easier for forgers and other bad folks to use it. On the other hand, it is pretty user friendly for a customer to be able to just grab it off the website themselves as well. In fact, my sister-in-law used the FFL copy off your site not too long ago to have a transfer done through your shop.
8/28/2011 11:09:06 PM
Yes, laying the process and prices out like we did makes it really easy for both us and the customers.
For us, we have somewhere to refer people to instead of getting in a 25 min phone conversation or e-mail about it where they can clearly read and understand the process. It also cut down by 80% the number of times we need to fax or e-mail the FFL off to people.
For the customer, if they're doing research online its very user friendly and many set up transfers without ever speaking to us and e-mail us all the info as we request without ever interacting with us. I think we've gained a lot of transfer business because of it. A lot of dealers don't like it, but the way I see it is if I didn't offer it, we would lose a lot of customers to other stores, and when they do buy guns, ammo, acc local they wouldn't come back to mine.
As far as forging, if an issue ever came up with the way we can track packages on the web and people keeping e-books, etc it would be really easy to come up with the facts that the gun never came through our store. Technically, anyone shipping a gun should be verifying the FFL through EZ Check anyway to avoid falling into a fraud mess.
8/30/2011 9:02:07 PM
Well it seems to be picking up 
8/30/2011 10:51:48 PM
Originally Posted By jrzy:
Well it seems to be picking up
Well it seems to be picking up
Yup...I've been beating the streets (the interwebs) and things have been picking up a bit.
Plus we just got word today that CCW Holders in NV don't have to pay the $25 NICS check any longer (if they got their permit after July 2011) so that will also sweeten the pot for guys in the market for a new gun!
8/31/2011 10:37:50 AM
Originally Posted By jrzy:
Well it seems to be picking up
Well it seems to be picking up
I agree.
Yesterday was a record day for sales. I made more money yesterday than I did the previous two weeks combined.
I just wish I knew when I was 'gonna have days like that, so I could stay home the rest of the week when I'm slow.
9/2/2011 2:31:53 PM
The past few months over here have been great.
