On 7/26/2021 GunBroker.com will be assessing a compliance fee.

[Dust2Dollars]

This notice just arrived, but makes no mention of the amount!
On 7/26/2021 GunBroker.com will be assessing a compliance fee. The fee will be assessed on the purchase price of the item only and will be added to the order total paid by the buyer. The compliance fee will be collected by the seller and remitted to GunBroker.com through the seller fee ledger. The fee will appear as a separate line item on the seller statement.

Read More

 

[Caveman Jim]

What is it for, compliance for what?

 

[CRBMoA]

Unfunded mandates if you are a bean counter.

Unrepresented taxation if you are a citizen.

 

[Dust2Dollars]

What is the Compliance Fee?

The Compliance Fee is a fee assessed by GunBroker.com and added to the price of the Item at the time of purchase. The U.S. states have been very active in passing new laws applicable to GunBroker.com, including in the areas of taxation, privacy and firearms. These laws have increased the compliance costs of GunBroker.com substantially.
In other words, the code, time and other BS they are having to deal with costs money. Which they are not going to eat, the buyer's that keep their site up and running will!!

 

[Aero Denezol]

Economic warfare

 

[flashpan]

I've bought and sold a fair amount of firearms on GB over the years .... With the tax assessment and this new compliance fee...we have parted company.

 

[justonemorear]

Me too

 

[WWShooter]

Gunbroker compliance fee = 1% of purchase price of item sold.

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Hmmmm...

-Robert

 

[CountryGent]

Annoying, but I can't really fault them. Compliance is costly; in some industries very much so. Sounds like they had to scramble to address the latest BS and have to charge something for said.

 

[Nosferatu]

All they are is a middle man between buyers and sellers, they don't handle any aspect of state compliance. It's always up to the buyer to make sure the item they are purchasing is compliant in their state.

This is just another made up fee for the sake of making more money. I'm not against making money, but at least call it what it is, a buyers premium.

 

[PointyEndOut]

Never did get around to buying guns online. Always preferred being able to hold in hand and inspect and negotiate in person. Another good reason to keep it always in person.

 

[gmerkt]

Annoying, but I can't really fault them. Compliance is costly; in some industries very much so. Sounds like they had to scramble to address the latest BS and have to charge something for said.

I have to reluctantly agree. Once GB became legally obligated to collect the tax, I foresaw a big load of new administration for them to carry. The new fee doesn't surprise me much. But see below.

All they are is a middle man between buyers and sellers, they don't handle any aspect of state compliance. It's always up to the buyer to make sure the item they are purchasing is compliant in their state.

This is just another made up fee for the sake of making more money. I'm not against making money, but at least call it what it is, a buyers premium.\

I don't think the first paragraph in this statement is true. The Wayfair decision caused most of the states to go after collection of state sales taxes for remote sales. Various state laws have mandated that third party online platforms become marketplace facilitators for tax collection. So they are legally involved in state sales tax collections for most of the states.

As to the second paragraph of this statement, GB is no different than eBay, in the sense that they are both third party facilitators and must collect state sales taxes. The difference is, eBay doesn't tack on a fee in an obvious manner. But earlier this year, they started administering their own payment system and I noticed that fees on sellers had increased a bit. Which likely includes some amount to offset the cost of being a marketplace facilitator for collecting state sales taxes. Gunbroker is a much smaller business, more difficult for them to hide a new fee. Passing along this fee in the open like Gunbroker has chosen to do is akin to merchants charging an add-on fee for using a credit card for making a purchase.

Lately some of us have posted in another thread about added on credit card fees. it seems to be prevalent in certain businesses that have products that are in the "we've got it, you want it" categories more than just general merchandise. Such as gun stuff and gold / silver coins. This new Gunbroker fee being gun-related, well, makes it even less surprising.

Buyer's premium. Which I might argue is just another way to make money, but the auction houses claim they charge this money to help offset the cost of putting on the auction. Which sounds a lot like the ordinary cost of doing business to me, but it's hard to argue that GB's new fee isn't about the same as a buyer's premium. I don't know; the new GB fee is 1% of the selling price. Does it really cost all that much to move some electrons around to organize and remit payment of sales taxes to the states? Oh, and collect it from sellers who've collected it from buyers?

New fees crop up here and there. In vehicle sales in Wash. state, dealers are allowed to charge up to $150 for a "documentary fee" which is to cover their cost of doing the paperwork. It's not required but permitted.

 

[TTSX]

It's 1% here, 1% over there, 1% last year, 1% next..... Just like taxes it's all about more more more

 

[nammac]

Unfunded mandates if you are a bean counter.

Unrepresented taxation if you are a citizen.

Did some guys throw the kings tea into the harbor because of unrepresented taxation some 247 years ago???

This will cause me to second think about buying on Gunbroker. Unless it's a rare and hard to find item. They just keep squeezing the good guys until they explode…

 

[spookshack]

Wasn't GB recently bought out?

 

[DGordon]

I'm a small, home-based FFL in Texas. (I participate in this forum because I like the discussions and I learn something new every week.) I built most of my inventory with GB purchases because the distributors who would even accept a home-based FFL as a client (many won't!) simply had no good guns for sale during the pandemic. I look for the best retail purchase from the BIG retailers — the ones sucking up all the inventory — and then re-sell it for MSRP. Needless to say, my margins are small (so is my overhead) and I often need the patience to participate in many auctions to get the guns I want to sell at the price I want to sell. Lately, I've been able to find guns at distributors again — better margins for me, no sales tax on my end, and no auctions — and so my GB use has slowed. But they were there for me when I needed them.

Two points: 1) The credit card markup many GB sellers charge is a pain in the butt. The reason many charge it is often that payment processing for gun businesses is more expensive because all the major bank-affiliated payment processors will not service gun-related businesses. Neither will PayPal. We have to use smaller processors who lack scale, which increases the service charge the SELLER pays on each transaction. The credit card markup passes this cost on to the buyer to preserve the seller's lean margin. THE GOOD NEWS is that you can still find sellers on GB — typically large retailers — who do NOT charge a credit card markup.

2) GB offers a premium experience, with lots of bells, whistles and assurances along the way. That can't be cheap. I've tried to buy through other sites (notably GunsAmerica) and noticed many differences, such as sellers in GunsAmerica not actually having the guns they claim to sell! GA made no apologies for this — it's actually their business model. If a seller attempted that on GB, they'd be kicked off the platform.

Final disclosures: I have never sold through GB, I've only bought. I do not use their payment system, only credit cards and certified checks. I have bought guns for myself (bother new and used) and for resale. And if you've read this far, thank you!

 

[flashpan]

fyi...
Armslist now requires a monthly subscription...not my favorite site but I have bought and sold a few there..goodbye as well.

 

[Alexx1401]

To me its a big who cares? They will either work or they will go away. If they go away I guess those who are angry will be able to say they won.

 

[Dungannon]

Wasn't GB recently bought out?

As I recall, AMMO Inc signed a letter of intent to purchase Gunbroker and planned to make them a wholly-owned subsidiary. Haven't seen any news recently on whether this as gone through.