So what's up with Armslist?

rogerwilco1 · Oct 22, 2020

Apparently, you now need a paid account to contact sellers, edit your previous listings, and create new listings. In other words, to do anything. Or was it just me?

They say it's because of legal costs but few people are going to pay for the privilege of even being able to search. If they stick with that business model they won't be making any profits at all.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

sigp220.45 · Oct 22, 2020

How did they make money before?

I've only used it once, and that was to find a Colt Cobra near me. I then went to the pawnshop and bought it. Armslist didn't get any money from me.

Do you have to pay to list, or was it all supported by ads?

rogerwilco1 · Oct 22, 2020

I believe a combination of ad and some paid levels for some services above and beyond the norm.

BillBond · Oct 22, 2020

So are you saying that there was once a time that you could sell on Armslist for free ?

GypsmJim · Oct 22, 2020

BillBond said:
So are you saying that there was once a time that you could sell on Armslist for free ?

Yes. I did!

g-dad · Oct 22, 2020

Yep, me too. Bought & sold many with no fees. I haven't visited Armslist in over a year so I was unaware of any fees.

paplinker · Oct 22, 2020

Reminds me of the photobucket fiasco.

I get a fee to list, but to search

Farmer17 · Oct 22, 2020

I bought and sold many guns for free and some pawnshops and vendors paid a premium fee to list all of their guns first. Not sure what's going on there now I haven't used them in a year or two.

BillBond · Oct 22, 2020

GypsmJim said:
Yes. I did!

Well I missed that boat.

PatriotX · Oct 22, 2020

This is a new development.

Not a good one, IMO

LVSteve · Oct 22, 2020

The corporate mind strikes again.

ladder13 · Oct 23, 2020

Yes, it’s true.

petepeterson · Oct 23, 2020

I found this out yesterday. The upside is that it will probably keep the spammers off. I seem to get a lot of those when I list something.
The downside is that you have to pay for it, which I probably will not do.
The upside to the downside- It will keep me from selling anymore guns.

StephenWhoDat · Oct 23, 2020

In Louisiana, Armslist is about 75% scammers or criminals who can't purchase firearms legally trying to get their hands on one. It's terrible here. I've heard good things about it in other states, but not here. Got so bad that I quit even looking at it last year. Luckily, we have multiple other LEGIT forums/firearms classifieds sights in Louisiana, so this news on Armslist doesn't bother me one bit. I have not had good experiences with the site.

jeffrefrig · Oct 23, 2020

It seems like every online dealer, etc., makes you have a log in/user name and a password just to buy something. That turns me off right away. Forums, banks, Soc. Sec., stuff like that I understand. But if your company wants to sell something to me, I'm not setting up some stupid account.

StephenWhoDat · Oct 23, 2020

jeffrefrig said:
It seems like every online dealer, etc., makes you have a log in/user name and a password just to buy something. That turns me off right away. Forums, banks, Soc. Sec., stuff like that I understand. But if your company wants to sell something to me, I'm not setting up some stupid account.

I think that's why a lot of companies offer "Guest Checkout." That way they still make sales from people that don't feel the need the create an account with said company. I use the guest checkout option quite a bit.

TTSH · Oct 23, 2020

petepeterson said:
I found this out yesterday. The upside is that it will probably keep the spammers off. I seem to get a lot of those when I list something.
The downside is that you have to pay for it, which I probably will not do.
The upside to the downside- It will keep me from selling anymore guns.

LOL!!!

If it keeps the Nigerian scam artists off the board, then I'm all for it. But I'll bet it won't. We shall see.

On the other hand, I see that I no longer have access to my account so I can no longer keep track of my favorites and I can no longer contact most private (non-dealer) sellers.

That makes it almost completely useless to me and to 99.9% of private sellers.

Lord knows that I am not going to pay $3.99 or $6.99 per month to use Armslist. That's just plain silly.

If I want to communicate with Nigerian scam artists, I'll just start answering my spam e-mails.

CAJUNLAWYER · Oct 23, 2020

StephenWhoDat said:
In Louisiana, Armslist is about 75% scammers or criminals who can't purchase firearms legally trying to get their hands on one. It's terrible here. I've heard good things about it in other states, but not here. Got so bad that I quit even looking at it last year. Luckily, we have multiple other LEGIT forums/firearms classifieds sights in Louisiana, so this news on Armslist doesn't bother me one bit. I have not had good experiences with the site.

What other sites in Louisiana other than Bayoushooter. Seems like everyone trying to sell guns is from Livingston Parish

panther · Oct 23, 2020

I've sold and traded a few guns on Armslist. I sold one last week and have one currently listed. I checked and I can't access anything without signing up for an account.
I use the site to try and get a fair price for something I don't want anymore. I have a bad habit of buying something that looks cool, or is unique, then shooting it and finding out I don't really like it that much. Armslist gave you a chance to sell at a fair price or find someone who would trade with you. I get tired of taking a beating from FFL's that low ball you when you trade something in.
I think Armslist will lose alot of the private ads it's had on there.

dockmurgw · Oct 23, 2020

"They say it's because of legal costs"
Yup, that makes sense. Armslist is the anti's poster child for illegal gun sales...for good reason. It is their go to example of everything that's wrong about guns.

So what's up with Armslist?

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