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Wondering if anyone could shine some light on this topic. I've been to about 4 gun shops in and around my area. And always wonder why do these shops over price their guns. I purchased a M&P40 from one of these shop for all most $700 bucks (I know stupid :stupid:, got to excited when I saw it) And when I went online to look for accessories for it I noticed you can but it for around $500 with free shipping! :banghead::aargh4:.
Gun shops have a higher overhead. They have to pay for that store front, and pay for the actual inventory instead of drop shipping for the manufacture. They also have to pay employees to answer your questions and the phone.
With that said, $700. is way over priced. I'd expect a brick and mortar dealer to be 20 or so over online dealers... and that 20 is well worth it.
The difference is the primium we pay to be able to actually fondle and drool over more that an image on a computer screen. I always try to support a local dealer whenever possible.
I'm all for online, but there are certain things that if you have issues with its much easier to go back to the store
If the price difference is reasonable $20- $50, I'll go to a local dealer. You can actually see what your getting, and you have somewhere to go if there is a problem with what you purchased. Usually shipping and transfer fee's will eat most of what you save online.
Now if it is something not available from a local dealer, that is another story.
I've found most of my local deals pretty reasonable here in North Texas. It's getting what I want that made me go on-line and I was very happy with the whole deal on-line, it was a darn good purchase overall. I'll still go local if they have what I want.
In my view, if your local dealer was that much over, he/she is just padding way to much and some do that knowing that a lot of people will do what you did, get excited and purchase it because it's right there in front of you or their the the best thing going in that area and getting an on-line deal would be a hassle still due to location. Resist that temptation next time if you can.:wink:
The gun stores offer after the sale services that you just can't get online, like advice, demonstrations, expertise etc. You can always get cheaper on the Internet, but factor in freight, ( it's built in some where), and FFL transfer fees. The competitive over head or mark up that you pay a gun store is usually worth it, IMO.
For the past few years, I've been printing out the price from an online seller and taking it to my local dealer with a simple, "I'd like one of these. How much can you get me one for OTD?" In almost every instance, I've ended up buying from the local dealer. I'm willing to pay a bit more to the local dealer because I'm in business in this town also and I appreciate him reciprocating. Plus, if I order from an online dealer, even if shipping is included, I'm still going to have FFL fees on my end.
Don't be afraid to negotiate with your local dealer and never buy on impulse unless you are well aware of the average prices being paid for what you want.
While your local dealer has certain expenses not associated with an internet only store, there are advantages for him moving his product, even if he doesn't make as much profit as he would have liked. My local dealer is a Benelli World Class dealer. You don't get to that point unless you're selling a lot of their product. Same for buying from a wholesaler like Davidson's. Davidson's has a lot of the hard to find firearms that they list as "allocated". This means that if they have them in stock, they only go to the highest volume dealers.
I don't fault a LGS for putting a price tag at or close to MSRP on a gun. In some respects, they're like a car dealer and if you come in with a gun to trade in you have to know that you're going to be working from full sticker price. But if I'm paying cash and they still want to take advantage of me (and yes, $700 for a M&P is definitely taking advantage), I'll move on to someone else.
Hoss
I like to support local dealers too. But when they are asking full MSRP, forget it. The last two I have bought online. Buds usually includes shipping in their price and transfer fees for me are $40 for pistols and $30 for long gun.
Where I live, sales tax is almost 10%. That adds up quick when you are spending $1000 or more. I'd rather not give the liberal Governor the extra dough. When I buy online, I don't have to.
+1! I prefer to buy locally as I want the retailer to stay in business. If they won't negotiate, I go online. Some retailers have jacked up the fees charged to handle online transfers to dissuade online purchases. If you find one of these, keep shopping. There are other retailers out there who will work with you as they know you're going to need accessories, ammo, targets, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by archer51
The few that I frequent around here are pretty competitive with the internet and each other. I usually look up the gun on Gallery of Guns.com Gun Genie first. The gun stores that I go to come up in the search for the specific gun. If the gun is in stock on Gallery of Guns, you can do an instant quote to get their lowest price. If the gun is not in stock, it will not show the discounted price. The stores that I go to honor the discount price and sometimes are able to do better.
It is usually cheaper to buy online here in NC($25 transfer fee) than it is to pay at a physical gun shop. I did buy my first two handguns at a gun shop because they guy was very reasonable and acted like he wanted my business, we negotiated the price on the firearms and he threw in a couple of boxes of premium self defense ammo and also showed me how to field strip the weapons. The last two handguns I purchased online from budsgunshop.com and was very pleased with their prices and service.
If you live around or are willing to make the trip to Manassas, the Virginia Arms Co. always has fair prices below retail, awesome customer service, and backs everything that goes out the door 100%.
Sounds like a sales pitch, and it is, but still true.
I prefer to buy local when ever possible. I've purchased ammo and accessories on-line when the local dealers had empty shelves and/or never responded to my request to see a certain type of item, like plastic flip top ammo boxes for instance. I've never bought a fire arm on-line. I really like the face-to-face interaction.
Guns shows, Sherwoods Guns is usually at the shows in kentucky and has good prices and Buds is only 70 miles from me. The local guys want way to much by the order of 30-40 percent too much.