Is there a safe way to buy a Firearm from an individual out of state

[Redneckbuckeye]

Found a rare gun that an individual is selling and it is out of state, is there a safe way to do the transaction? i understand he will have to ship to my ffl but I worry about him taking the money and not shipping it.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Found a rare gun that an individual is selling and it is out of state, is there a safe way to do the transaction? i understand he will have to ship to my ffl but I worry about him taking the money and not shipping it.

I think if you use a USPS money order you have some recourse if he "takes the money and runs".

 

[Beowulf]

Frankly, the safest way would be to use one of the electronic payment systems (Square, etc) to pay via credit card. Then if the seller takes the money and runs, you just dispute the charge with your credit card company. The downside to this is that you will have to pay around 3% on the transaction fee (or get the seller to agree to eat that cost).

Edit: Though, I guess Square bans the use of payments for firearms. So, maybe that isn't a good idea after all (however, as long as the payment goes through, I don't think it matters, since your dispute will be with your credit card compnay, not Square/Paypal/Intuit, whoever).

 

[iChokePeople]

I used to do this a lot. You have to use someone with an FFL, anyway, so I used to do MY part of the deal with the FFL. I pay him/her, he/she pays the other person. If I'm the buyer, I choose the FFL in his area so I know it's not his brother in law. He takes it to the FFL, I get the FFL on the phone, FFL inspects the item and gives a nod, I pay him/her, he pays the seller, he ships the item to my FFL here. Flip the whole thing if you're the seller. Never had one go bad.

 

[Redneckbuckeye]

I used to do this a lot. You have to use someone with an FFL, anyway, so I used to do MY part of the deal with the FFL. I pay him/her, he/she pays the other person. If I'm the buyer, I choose the FFL in his area so I know it's not his brother in law. He takes it to the FFL, I get the FFL on the phone, FFL inspects the item and gives a nod, I pay him/her, he pays the seller, he ships the item to my FFL here. Flip the whole thing if you're the seller. Never had one go bad.

This is what I was thinking of doing. Thanks for you reply everyone.

 

[223 Gunner]

I usually ask them if they have feedback on major sites such as ebay and gunbroker. I then ask them to send me links to their feedback, I also do a google search of the email address and the person's name.
If it is on gunboards or AK files or FAL Files or the like, there is a feedback feature in place already.