Selling Your NFA Devices
Machine Guns, Silencers etc.
In establishing a sales price for your NFA devices please keep several things in mind:
You will always get more if you sell retail direct to another individual than if you sell to a dealer.
o This is because any dealer has operating and marketing expenses which he must cover.
o So the dealer cannot buy your NFA device unless he expects to sell it to someone else at a profit.
However, selling direct to another individual is not a free ride and usually is not the best way to go.
o This is because, by law, you cannot sell to an individual in another state — you must go through a class 3 dealer in the buyer’s state of residency and that dealer will charge you a fee for his services and may very well steal your deal. After all, the out of state dealer is in the business and is local to your buyer. If you sell direct you are limiting your market to your local area.
o Are you equipped (and do you want) to take professional pictures that will present well.
o Also, you will have to pay for the ads, do the marketing and field the calls from every person out there that wants to talk about guns and how he thought machine guns were illegal. Then once you and the buyer reach an agreement you have to thread your way through all the paperwork involved with the transfer. See that process on this web site under ———.
o Of course, the potential buyer knows you are selling direct and will expect an appropriate discount.
o And, how are you sure you are going to get your money?
Our advice, generally, is to either sell direct to a reputable class 3 dealer at the best wholesale price offered, or, if you have the time, place the device with a reputable class 3 dealer on consignment.
o At Historic Arms we let the seller set the offering price and we charge a flat 15% of the final sale price. The seller retains ownership until the buyer has paid everything and the transfer is approved by BATFE.
o We always keep the seller fully informed of all negotiations and the seller is welcome to change or modify the offered price until a deal is struck.