Home Forums Gear Free Classifieds Arm List, what do you think?

I've used both to buy and sell. Yes, since you can sort by state and locality, it is easier to set up a FTF meeting. That's where I see it's worth. I've also bought and sold from a distance and yes it takes some good communication, or you "can" get burned. However, it a good way to find local stuff or list your stuff.

Bought from it before, picked up a 20 year old unfired Sako from the original owner just last week but have run into a lot of scams also, if it seems to good to be true it is

I've done the same thing. Funny as heck when they claim they don't have time for you to go and pick it up, but they have time to mail it.

Worked great for me. I sold a shotgun out of state. The buyer sent me a cert check and I sent him the shotgun. He was pretty exposed I thought but I suppose he looked me up through my phone number and figured out I was legit.

My first and only experience turned out to be a scam. But wise words say if its too good to be true, it probably is. It was what looked like a REALLY good deal and I bit the hook. Luckily I figured it out quick and parted ways. The next day I got an email from armslist saying that the add I responded to was reported as scam.

guy on AL just wanted to sell a Savage F class with Nightforce scope for 700.

I got a scam warning back from the site. People are flagging the scammers.....

HM

Tried to buy a rifle once off of it, guy wouldn't sell to me because I didn't have a CCW permit. I offered to do a transfer through a FFL transfer agent and he refused that. Unless it's something I can't live without I'll stick to the forum, I just have less issues here.

I've used it several times to sell things, but only local. I only meet folks at public places-never my house or theirs, and to date every transaction has gone fine. We meet at gun shows or a local indoor pistol range, and if possible I always take someone with me.

Armslist full of scams����..full of deals.
Can search by state or Power search for item.
Bought , (mostly bought) and sold on Armslist more than any other site.
One must be careful�not for the novice.
Cisco

Be careful, I tried to do a remote sale through an FFL, and sometimes the scammers are very good and seem legit. I'm in the process of building documentation for a postal fraud investigation and am working with the BATFE on a scam seller now. Once I have all my documentation, a police report will be filed. It may not get me my money back, but if I can cause any trouble for this guy or get him shut down, it will be a good day.

Armslist has been a real good venue for me to make INITIAL CONTACT FOR SUBSEQUENT FTF. For those of you that would use it otherwise--eventually you will be sorry.
G

I have sold a few and tried to buy one from there. The attempted purchase was from "a part time police officer" in southern CO. He started off saying he was willing to meet in C. Springs in the ad, but then changed his mind and wouldn't even meet me on I-25, about 15 minutes from his house, he would only ship it. I asked a few times what dept. he worked for and then he stopped responding.
My sales were full of communication and all sales were done in public places with someone else knowing who I was going to meet and a few conversations first. I got descriptions of cars first, wrote down vehicle descriptions, license plates and ID info for each of them as soon as I got back in my car.
Once I had a friend come along and park a few spots away just to make sure all was good. Turns out he was an elderly gentleman that couldn't quite figure out the internet and only heard 1/2 of what was being said. Turned out all good on all occasions.

This has always worked great for me buying and selling locally but I have seen to many adds that have been ripped off from Gunbroker or Longrangehunting to trust anyone to ship anything....

I've had good success on there, and have bought several muzzleloaders and had them shipped. However, I don't send payment until I've actually talked to someone in person, so I can get a feel for them. There have been a couple that sounded flakey, so I bailed out. I've never been burned, but do acknowledge that the possibility exists. A couple rules I follow are 1. If it sounds too good to be true, it's a scam, and 2. Don't send money to anyone that you can't afford to lose.

I have bought a couple of guns from guys posting on Armslist. My advice, FWIW, is stay in your own area and do a face-to-face transfer. This also let's you see what you are buying before you hand over your hard earned cash. Just narrow your searches to your area/city and just do FTF transactions. Meet only in well lit public areas. My transactions have been in Wal-Mart parking lots. If someone can go with you, even better.

Once you have been on the site enough to get a feel for it the questionable posts are not to hard to spot. But, you have to be careful all the time. I don't now if I would ever do a transaction from Armslist involving sending funds and then waiting on a shipment. I like the comparison to Craigslist. That about sums it up.

I've done quite a few FTF deals through the site. Got some nice hard-to-find guns and met some great people. Also had some suspicious types contact me to buy my items. I check it daily for deals, mostly on out-of-production rifles.

I've only used Arms List once, it worked well for me.

I'm glad I happened on to this post. Just recently I bought a pistol from a guy on Armslist. I was worried but did it anyway and it turned out just fine. Before I sent him the money, I asked a lot of questions about the sights etc. and a couple more pics. I really didn't think he would respond as he was selling the pistol very reasonable. Anyway, he did all that I asked him to and answered the questions correctly and I ended up with just what I wanted. But I was worried that I had screwed up until I had the gun in my hands!! Thanks for the heads up guys. Usually only buy or sell on the Campfire--never been screwed and have never worried about being screwed!!
Thanks again for this revealing post,
Ken

Good set of rules Hawk!!!

I always wondered about doing things FFL to FFL where the seller turns the gun into his FFL and the buyer sends his MO to seller's FFL with instructions to ship the gun when the buyers MO is received. That leaves the FFL in charge and seller doesn't get his money until the gun is shipped. It seems safer then trusting the seller to screw you.