Thinking of selling some guns/ammo - what's the best place in the area for consignment sales?

Also, what are the laws regarding FTF sales?

I can't help you with a consignment suggestion but, all FTF sales now have to go through a FFL for a background check. Last year our govt. decided we needed universal background checks.
Find a local FFL that does the checks, not all offer that service.
My LGS does not want to be bothered with the time and paperwork tying up his people so when it became law last year, he said he was not doing private sale background checks.

Great info, thanks!

For years the consignment answer was Virginia Arms in Manassas, but multiple people report problems getting paid.

Loudoun Guns in Leesburg seems to be very healthy. C and R is a smallish shop with a decent inventory. Trojan Arms is also well liked.

-shooter

Gunbroker is pretty easy and quick.   Easy to see comp prices.  If selling handguns use ship my gun dot com to get a reasonable shipping price.

I tried to get greentop on Ashland to do a consignment once, but they were not interested.  Might just have not been the right gun right time.  Virginia gun trader is good to advertise but as already mentioned you need to get a dealer to do the background check.

For consignment sales, I've had good results with All Shooters Tactical in Woodbridge. they charge 15%.

C&R in Manassas is an easy shop to transfer through. Post it here for sale or on VAGT.

There's always pros and cons. Consigning is the hands off approach, at the expensive of giving the FFL their cut and then comes the part whether they communicate/pay you timely.

Gunbroker, as I've recently experience with all the new buyers and gun owners panicking, is a mixed bag. Some people are difficult to work with, and I've definitely seen plenty of tire kickers. There is the potential to make more on gunbroker, but it's also slightly more work.

I will say that local boards like VAGT are less successful now, as good deals have vanished and even listing your stuff at a fair price is becoming harder to move.

Sharpshooters in Lorton charges 20% and their clientele leans to the uneducated. Do your research by looking at completed auctions on Gunbroker and have a price in mind.

You can sell on vaguntrader.com (it's free) but you will need to go to a FFL that does the background checks. The FFL holder will charge a fee.

vaguntrader doesn't get the traffic it used to and it is full of gun people who know what stuff should cost. Selling on consignment is less hassle and you can usually get a higher price to make up for the consignment fee.

I would send you to vaguntrader. Seems to be a good place to buy and sell, and if it's well-priced it will be sold in 12 hours.

vaguntraderforum.com, or if you want a real store bullseye guns in leesburg.

You have my sympathies for having to PCS to NoVA. Used to be a good place for gun owners but that changed thanks to NoVA rats.

You can thank UBC's for that.

That's just one of the factors, but otherwise 2020's nationwide run on guns and ammo, with prices at a stupid high is also the bigger issue.

When I was in NoVa I sold a few guns to the folks at Vienna Arsenal.  This was usually after they didn't sell on vaguntrader and other local gun boards. They offered pretty decent prices at the time and that was before all this nonsense.  I'd just sell them outright.

Dang, you guys have given me a lot to think about. I'm wanting to sell like 20 or more. Consignment seems much more practical than dealing with so many different people and having to go somewhere to do background checks. Selling them outright is even more tempting if I could get reasonable prices. I don't want this to drag on for months.

If you have that many, check with local guns stores.  They might want to buy the entire collection at once since most are having trouble keeping inventory.  I know Greentop (north of Richmond) buys big gun collections regularly.

Call and talk to Nelson at Loudoun Guns in Leesburg. (703-771-7479)

Have a list of what you want to sell.

I work there part-time, just for your info. Loudoun Guns is the largest gun store in NoVA, with about 800 guns in stock and on display.

That's a great idea. It'll take me a little bit to write up everything.

It would be much simpler to sell at once. I didn't know that selling collections was a common thing.

So I made a list of some of the guns I am looking to sell and sent them to a retailer. He's wanting to know how much I want for them. I was expecting him to know about what he could sell them for and offer about 20% less (roughly equivalent to a consignment fee) but no luck. I am not up on current values so I'll ask you guys what you think would be reasonable prices to expect. Obviously, it isn't going to be anything like Gunbroker prices since the retailer still needs to make money.

Here's the list. There's more I am thinking of selling but I figured this would be a good start. I buy more than I shoot so the most any of them have been shot is about 200 rounds. Actually, most have probably been shot much less than that.


1 - FDE SCAR 17S .308 rifle with Geissele Super SCAR trigger & original box
with 11x 20-rnd factory mags (10 NIB)

2 - SIG 556 5.56 Holo rifle w/factory folding stock adapter added & original box & TRS-25 optic
with 3x Sig Sauer 30-rnd magazines

3 - SIG MPX 9mm pistol w/SB Tactical collapsible brace & factory folding brace & original box
with 4x 30-rnd factory mags, SIG mag pouch & SIG MPX backpack & TRS-25 optic

4 - CZ Scorpion 9mm pistol with shockwave collapsible brace & original pistol end & original box
with 10x 30-rnd factory (9 NIB) & 2x 20-rnd factory mags & TRS-25 optic

5 - DPMS LR308 AP4 rifle with original box
with 2x 19-rnd original mags
***Some scratches on removable handle

6 - Ruger SR-556 5.56 rifle with original box

7 - PA-63 9x18 pistol with 2x factory mags & 74 rounds 9x18 ammo

8 - PPK-S "Walther USA LLC" .380 pistol with 2x factory mags & Alessi holster and original box

9 - Desert Eagle VII pistol .44 Magnum standard finish & original cardboard box
with 6x factory mags & rare factory picatinny rail adapter & Leupold LG-35 red dot sight
*** Bought used – unsure of round count

10 - Masterpiece Arms MPA930 9mm pistol with 2x mags & original box

11 - Glock 17 Gen2 9mm pistol with 2x factory 17-rnd magazines, 1x OEM 31-rnd mag & tupperware box
**has some wear from carrying, missing cleaning rod/brush, dead night sites
*** Bought used – unsure of round count

12 - SIG P229 Equinox .40S&W pistol with 3x factory mags & Blackhawk holster & original box

13 - Yugo SKS 7.62x39 rifle with grenade launcher barrel end & blade bayonet (original mag/original config)

14 - INTRAC ARMS Romanian AK 7.62x39 rifle with sidefolder stock & sling
with 2x 30-rnd East German Mags

15 - Palmetto State Armory rifle CHF 14.7" 6.8 SPC II 1:11 Mid-length Light Profile - Pinned to 16" - ***NEVER FIRED
^^^Both upper and lower are Palmetto State Armory
with 10x 6.8 mags & 60 rnds American Eagle 115g FMJ ammo

16 - Palmetto State Armory pistol 12" CHF 300 AAC 1/8 Pistol Gas SQR 9 - ***NEVER FIRED
^^^Both upper and lower are Palmetto State Armory
with 20 rnds Sig Sauer 125g match grade ammo & 20 rnds Remington 220g ammo

17 - Rock River Arms 5.56 pistol AR with 7" barrel & Shockwave brace
^^^Both upper and lower are Rock River Arms

I can't help with pricing but, it sounds like he wants you to price it in case you don't know what you are doing and low ball yourself more then he would have.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Guy has guns for sale. Offers them to a potential buyer.
Buyer asks "What do you want for them?"

What's wrong with that? If you're selling a gun, you should have a general idea what you want to get for it.
It's not up to the potential buyer to make an offer. It's your gun. What do you want for it?

If I'm at a gun show, and see a gun that I'm interested in on some guy's table, my first question is going to be "How much".
If he asks me to make an offer, I'm going to walk. It's his gun. He ought to know what he wants for it.

For what its worth, no retailer is going to give you 20% off market. Stores buying used guns are typically going to offer you 50-60% or lower, and that's what I've observed at the LGS I frequent. They work just like pawn shops, except that they only deal in guns.

Anyways I might be interested in some of those, I'm going to IM you an offer.

You do realize you are not comparing apples to apples, right? In the first scenario you are buying a gun for personal use. In the second, the gun is being bought for resale.

I agree that if you are buying a gun for personal use the person selling it should have an idea of what market value is and have a price. The issue with prices when selling to a business is that they will not pay market value since they are just flipping the gun for prophet. Some business will not counter offer if you ask for market value. They feel there price and yours are to far apart. The gun shop knows what they will pay for it and there is no way for you to know what that price is.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything disreputable about wanting the seller to state a price. I just feel I am at a distinct disadvantage since I know so much less about the market. Thanks to the internet, I can study up on pricing for a week or more but I'd prefer to develop a relationship with a store that offers fair prices. It's alarming to hear that selling to gun stores is like dealing with pawn shops. I don't deal with pawn shops precisely because I don't like how their pricing schemes work. I know you can dicker with pawn shops and get great deals but I just don't want to deal with all that. Maybe I should have been looking into consignment sales instead. Or just put the guns for sale on the EE.

Heh,

My first thought when I read "SCAR 17S" was "I bet Apec jumps on that one!"

Consigment sales are good for the store owner and not so good for the seller.   Bernie ran a good operation but he wanted to sell my pre-ban M1A in a Marine McMilliam M2A on consignment for less than half of what I ended up selling it for in a private sale. Bernie wanted to sell it for 1K - I sold the stock alone for $600 and sold the rifle in a cheap GI stock for $1500.  

In normal times selling it yourself is worth the effort but in this market it shouldn't be hard to find a store owner willing to pay about as much as private sellers as they are desperate for stock.

I was in a store on Friday and was shocked at how many guns they had for sale. Didn't really look at prices - I'm guessing they had stock because prices were high.

Anybody willing to give a guess as to what prices I should expect from the guns above?

Create an account on Gunbroker. Go to "Advanced Search" and click on the "Completed Items" tab. Search for your model and then look for auctions where the gun sold. You won't get that price locally because you have a lot fewer people seeing the gun but it gives you a good idea of where the market is.

My LGS has a lot more guns on the shelf too. We are past peak-COVID/riots panic on firearms but another will come after the next mass shooting when the Dems launch an all out effort for new Gun Control.

Go Coonman go.

You definitely called it!! I took the guns in the above list (minus the SCAR) to a retailer mentioned in this thread. They made an offer of $4000 for the 16 guns. That's an average of $250/gun. I was prepared to lose money for the convenience of selling them all at once but that's just ridiculous. Maybe I could've bargained them up but I don't want to deal with the "pawn shop" style of people. I guess I am going to start listing them in the EE. It's a pain but it beats the alternative.

Wait they offered 4k for all 16 guns listed above? Holy shit thats criminal lol.

Yep. What really pissed me off was that they said they were interested in buying all of them and wanted me to bring them all in. We got them all laid out and the first thing the guy says is "Well most of these are just junk guns. We'd only be able to sell 3 or 4 of them."

Complete waste of my time.

Which one was it?

Vienna Arsenal

I used to sell them some items from my knife collection at good deals (could have gotten double if I sold them online) and got a few favors/deals from them. Lately now I am no longer inclined to do that, and will only do transfers at their shop because it’s close.

Anyhow, good luck!

Just transferred something to a buyer yesterday at C&R in Manassas. Gotta say, Eddie and Ian (I think) were super easy to work with. Polite, professional and no stereotypical gun store attitudes. Great shop that is relatively new. Walk ins welcome which is convenient when coordinating a meet up with online buyers.