How much imitation crab meat did you take home?

Sounds like a legitimate concern

Building clientele to do transfers will take awhile. I plan to offer cerakoting and gunsmithing to an extent, IE barrel threading/cutting, pin & weld, small installs.
My focus won't be on gun sales, that's for sure. Will probably start out of my home once I find out if I can run home based business and most likely find a small shop near me to rent out.

Gun sales are meh, gun modifications seem to be a better path to take.

Three of them just opened up in our area that already had four or five well established places in a population base of maybe 150,000.


So I guess its possible , but i would not want to do it.

This of it this way:

You, the buyer, have two options to handle the incoming firearm transfer, a local walk-in, traditional gun shop or a guy with an FFL working out of his house. Both options are the same price, same distance, neither offers an discernible advantage over the other for the transfer. Which do you choose?

I'd be willing to bet the vast, overwhelming majority of people would choose the gun shop. Some of that preference would be due to the opportunity to peruse and shop, but much of it would be to avoid walking into a stranger's house to conduct business and all that this entails.

Whether it's stated or not, admitted or not, it's an awkward experience. An appointment is necessary, rather than at your leisure during normal business hours. There is an undeniable shady quality to it which is totally absent from a gun shop, as if one were there to buy drugs. What do the neighbors think is going on? You are forced into someone else's private life, even if just for a few minutes.

I've never transferred a gun through a kitchen table dealer but I suspect it's a lot like going to somebody's house to buy a gun you've spotted in the newspaper classifieds. Sometimes, that sort of transaction goes smooth as silk and there's no awkwardness or weirdness at all. Other times, you can't get out of there fast enough. It's completely dependent on the people you're dealing with. I'm sure some kitchen table dealers are good at putting people at ease, while others freak people out. It probably has a lot to do with how comfortable the dealer is with what he's doing. Dogtown Tom says he does a couple thousand transfers a year. I bet somebody who does five or six transfers a day has got the drill down pat and everything goes smoothly. Some guy who's doing his first transfer with a stranger is likely to be a little off-putting.

I've actually met some really nice guys getting my transfers from home based FFLs.

I feel A LOT more comfortable with them than going into the local gun stores. Since they've done me transfers, sometimes I will order guns through them if the price is comparable to the online price, just to throw them a little bit more profit-because they're nice guys with small businesses.

Most gun shops I've been in treat me like shit, think i'm stupid, or just flat out ignore me. The customer service is terrible and/or non-existent. Most shops won't even do transfers, or they charge an outrageous fee- they want you to buy from their overpriced inventory...

One of the home based FFL guys I've dealt with was excited to show off his huge, incredible collection to me. He had a VERY impressive collection; Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWII...

I'm to the point were I won't even waste my time walking into a shop any more...

The short answer is yes but it will take allot of work a few things will increase your chances of success
1) low overhead
2) if you have another source of income ie:a pension or other fixed income very helpful so your not bleeding the shop profits
while you establish the business at least three years
3) at least one or more co owners to share the work load if your alone its you 24-7
4) a side business like gun and pawn , gun and outdoor sports . guns and antiques so long as its guns and anything else
5) work on a volume business model , its easier to make a dollar a million times than a million dollars once
6) be willing to do 40 or more gun shows a year
7) don't be afraid to make $20 on a deal if you can replace the item tomorrow
8) every dime has to go back into the shop
9) expect atf to knock on your door any day and at any moment self audit every month to cover your ass
10) did i mention low overhead  


right now is a good time to get into the business because inventory is cheap but don't expect to be rolling in dough without allot of sacrifice

i had a gun and pawn shop years ago and made allot of money but it was allot of work I started with 12 guns and $2500 some days id open
the shop and all i had was $20 in the safe by the end of the day i had done $30k of business and only had $20 in the safe wondering how
the hell i pulled that off a good formula is buy new guns trade for used guns sell used guns make lots of money

i would do it again but not by my self

Good Luck

The last three guns I have purchased was through a home dealer.  The experience is much better than gun shops.  He is completely respectful of my shit and refuses to open the box.  He lets the customer do it.  I drive an hour to do business with this guy.  Its never awkward or weird.  We Texas folks are friendly, especially to each other!

There are at least two problems with waiting for the customer to open the transfer package:
1.) By law, the gun is supposed to be logged if it's on premises. Acquisitions should be recorded by the end of the next day's business. I've had customers wait several days to pick up a gun.  
2.) If the seller didn't include the necessary information to log the gun, the transfer probably isn't going to happen. I bet you'd be pissed if you drove an hour only to find out your seller didn't provide the information the dealer needed for his log book.

If you don't trust your dealer to open your package, you probably need to find a different dealer . . . that said, I've had customers who requested that I wait until they're there to open the box. I don't have a problem waiting, so long as they agree to show up promptly.

This.
75% of the packages I receive have no customer information on the outside. Pretty difficult to guess who its for unless I open the box.

Yep. It's hard to call a customer to tell him his gun has arrived if you don't know whose gun is inside the box.

And, technically, the BATF doesn't want us to log based on what's on a box. They want us to log what's written on the gun. That means gun in hand.

Since September 1st I've received two firearms from two of the largest online dealers...............both were different serial numbers than what was on the box and the invoice.

One said thank you for noticing the error, Palmetto never responded. But in a few months they'll call in a panic because they've discovered the error. happens every year with them.

I've had everyone from Adam's Arms to Zanders make mistakes that screw up bound books.

Shit gets opened and the gun inspected within 30 minutes of signing for it.  Why? Because my FFL is more important than any one customer.

I find that a lot of customers don't understand this relatively simple concept. You'd think a dealer who wanted to make a sale would be more amenable to straw purchases, out-of-date ID's, etc.

Last 5 transfers have been with a dealer that works out of his basement, I'm totally fine with it and he is my current go-to guy for internet purchases.  Cheapest transfer fees in town and he is very accommodating about his hours.

He logs his firearms immediately upon receipt, so my stuff has always been opened when I get there to pick up the firearm.  Again, totally fine with that also.

Great guy to do business with, he is retired and primarily does internet sales transfers for extra income.

In a word, no.

Of the home FFL dealers I've been to, only one was a true kitchen tabler, while the others had a room or "office" set up for conducting business in the house, or in their garage.  If you ever had your hair cut or taxes done by someone who works from their home, it's the same deal.

Home dealers are great if you know what you're shopping for, or have an idea what to order.  Depending on the distributors they go through and volume they buy, chances are they can't order a gun for the same price a larger shop can offer.  If you want to handle the goods or stumble across an impulse buy, that's where the larger shops come in handy.

I suggest anyone considering opening a gun shop (or any business) try this exercise:
1.) Visit a shop you like and would like to emulate
2.) Look around
3.) Count the cost of everything  you see . . . and I do mean EVERY thing: the inventory, the fixtures, the paint on the walls, the trash can, the tape dispenser, the thumbtacks on the bulletin board, the pens and paper . . . Everything. Just guess.
4.) Now think about how far away you are from being able to even get started

Also, a proper business plan is a must. If you're not willing to take the time and make the effort to write a real business plan, you don't have what it takes to run a business.

Add in a Pawn shop and Buy Gold and you might make it.  IF you can toss in some auto loans, even better.  a Gunshop alone anymore is a hard business

The gold boom is over. It's all been bought and melted down . . . not all, of course, but a bunch of it . . . That, along with falling price, has taken a lot of the luster off of gold. It's still part of the formula for pawn shops, but not nearly like it was a few years ago.

A home based dealer transferred my first 2 machine guns to me.

Ralph Shattuck was a home based dealer when I met him in 1972. He was the country's foremost authority on Lugers. I don't know if he ever set up a storefront.

The most successful LGS here near me (Mace Sports) probably sells more guns than most anyone else in North Carolina. He says it's not hard to best the big sporting goods stores, has 20,000 sq ft of store. Sells ammo by the pallet. But he started in a barn behind his house in the 90s. His selection of guns is huge. He has lots of knowledgeable staff, sells optics, archery, clothing, targets, cleaning supplies, reloading supplies, safes. He got out of fishing.

You have to start small, be focussed, be a good businessman. It's not for everyone, and most fail. You have to do some smart marketing. Your location is important.

But if you have a vision and provide excellent service at a reasonable price, give a fair price for used guns, you can do it. You can make a decent profit on guns some sneer at, but they work. Profit on used guns can exceed that for new ones.

Don't let the naysayers squash your dream, but heed the warnings and make a good business plan, get some advice from experts...

Good luck!