Getting to age where I need to dispose of some nice S&W's. UPS charged almost $80 for pistol sold few months ago. They insist on overnight shipping and with added ins cost was about 10% of gun value. USPS will not ship for non FFL. Any better ideas? Thanks in advance.

My local gun shop will ship for $35.00.

Jeff

I believe the rule with UPS is second day air which is cheaper. I take all my guns to my FFL who charges me $50 to ship. The cost doesn't bother me as I charge the buyer $50 shipping.

My FFL only charged me $20 for a gun I sold on gun broker a few weeks ago. He ships USPS priority to keep the cost down.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Nope, all the private shippers are in lock step and require next day air. Feel free to check their website if you wish. This is not a requirement of law but rather a by-product (according to the shippers) of the fact that they cannot control their own operations and are incurring too many in-house thefts.

Bruce

Yep, use a FFL to ship it if you can as they don't have the same shipping restriction as an individual.

Use These UPS Services for Your Firearm Shipment;
Handguns, as defined by 18 U.S.C. § 921, will be accepted for transportation only via UPS Next Day Air Services, specifically, UPS Next Day Air® Early, UPS Next Day Air®, and UPS Next Day Air Saver®. (Note: UPS Express Critical™ Service is not available for firearms).

Shipping Firearms and Ammunition: UPS

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Waiting for the break of day

Good info,Thanks to all.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

Having an FFL ship it is probably the way to go. You may ask the buyer to at least split the shipping with you, or add a statement to the terms of sale about a flat shipping fee.

The main thing is to communicate well and to be very clear. I bought a revolver off this very website some years ago. The seller got my Postal MO and then e-mailed me that he dropped the gun off at his FFL with instructions to send it out immediately.

A week went by, no gun. So I contacted the seller. He professed astonishment, then gave me the phone number of his FFL and basically told me to handle it myself. So I called the FFL. He had a completely different story, saying the guy had just dropped it off a day or two ago, and gave no instructions about any urgency to ship it ASAP.

Turns out he was a part time FFL with a full time day job and just shipped stuff when the spirit moved him. When he heard my story, he said he would make a special trip to UPS to ship it to my FFL, but he wasn't any too happy about it.

All turned out well, but I shouldn't have had to go through that. Like I said COMMUNICATE. The transaction will go much better.

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You're shy a few manners.

I use my local FFL for all my shipping. As an FFL he is able to ship USPS Priority Mail Insured FFL to FFL, which saves a ton of money. Because I am a good customer he doesn't sock me for the service so it ends up being much cheaper than using either UPS or FedEx.

I have the same problem. I've got a couple of guns I'd like to sell, but have had no luck locally. I could no doubt easily sell them on the internet, but the cost of shipping is so high that I'd likely end up loosing money.
So far I haven't been able to find an affordable dealer here. Most don't want to bother with it and those who will want $50 or more PLUS actual shipping costs. Might as well just ship it myself via UPS.

You sell the guns for the amount you want, PLUS Shipping. The shipping cost should be on the buyer. Now, I do recommend you have your friendly local FFL ship for you at a far lower cost.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Send it USPS FLAT RATE INSURED THROUGH YOUR FFL

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Still Running Against the Wind

Bruce nailed it, though it's not only from in house theft, but from incompetence as well. Like the time I came home from work to find a S&W 686 leaning next to my front door.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Thanks for all the good info.

My local FFL charges me his typical transfer fee of $25 plus his cost to ship through usps.

I know a guy that has received many many C&R pistolas through the post office's priority mail. I mean machine parts.

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James Redfield
LM #497

The guy who bought my gun on gun broker asked me to do that.
I said HELL NO! Not worth my liberty to save a few bucks.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

You should be able to find one here. Most of the listings include the cost.

FFL Finder: Find an FFL Dealer In Your Area at GunBroker.com

My local LGS has gotten GREEDY, the last time, (and it will be the last time) they charged me $90.00 to ship a gun. With the exception of acting as my receiving station they have lost my business.

For the private occasional seller the cost of shipping makes it very hard to sell a firearm at a fair price, and still make a small profit.

If you look at seller info on GB you will see that many ship handguns
only by priority mail. Some of these sellers have 01 FFLs, some have
C&Rs and some have no license. Most but not all of these sellers ship
handguns to anyone qualified to receive them, including C&R eligible
guns to C&R holders. Nothing is hidden, their shipping policies are in
their auction listings. Number of feedbacks on these sellers range
from few into several thousand.

Lots of folks think that they're both cute and ingenious trying to job the system like this and that's fine-right up to the point that your gun is lost or damaged and you try to collect on your insurance. If you think that you won't have to verify what was in the package in order to collect on a substantial insurance claim-don't hold your breath or your hand under your butt.

Bruce

C&R holders are allowed to receive C&R eligible guns directly, that's
what the C&R license is for and nobody is trying to "job the system"
by exercising their rights. I have bought quite a few handguns on the
net auction sites over the years that I have had my C&R and every
one of them that was eligible has come directly to me. I can only
remember 2 or 3 out of many that did not come by priority mail. I
don't know what kind of conversation transpired between the various
shippers and their postal clerks but in shipping a variety of items
in flat rate priority boxes I have never once been asked what was in
the box. I think the BATF has more serious issues to worry about than
a relatively few old handguns being bought and sold by gun collectors
who are on record as having C&R FFLs.

My emphasis added to the above quote.

My comment was to be take in the context of the "machine parts" shipped via USPS Priority Mail which were actually pistols.

Bruce