Rip off|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

steve004 said

Buck94 said
Well the plot thickens. They lowered their rate to $380. Still crazy high so I called in and was speaking to the young lady who answered the phone and questioned the rate. The owner comes on the line and went off on me. He said his Fed Ex rate alone was $120. Possible I suppose but when I told him there are better rates he said it is impossible because he is direct through FedEx. I don’t know if he is stupid, lazy or a liar but I then asked why he was adding over $250 on top of the shipping rate and he said he deserved to make money. Heck, I’m a capitalist and I agree but when I told him that is a ridiculous mark up he told me he would take it back to the auction house and hung up on me. Breaks my heart! In 15 minutes I had googled the closest FFL to the auction house, called them and they agreed to ship it to me for 1/3rd what this clown was trying to charge me. Interestingly the auction house or at least the person I spoke with there didn’t seem to care he is taking advantage of their clients. Makes me wonder if he is kicking back to them and that is part of the reason for the outrageous prices? Happy ending for me though!
  

I’ve had minimal experience buying from auction houses.  As I understand it, some auction houses have their own staff do the shipping.  Other auction houses have the shipping service performed by an outside business.  They receive payment for that service from the winning bidder.  That payment needs to cover the actual shipping charge and insurance as well as the time for their employees to pack the gun up, perform record keeping, accounting oversight, pay someone to answer the phone etc. etc.  And of course as a business, a profit would be expected to be built in – and it needs to be profitable enough to entice someone to do it vs. do something else that would be more profitable.  This is making more sense to me than when I first read the original post.
As to the gun itself, the “in the ordinance pipeline” …. An intriguing thought anyway.
I’m glad you like the gun.  As you say, you were able to purchase it for much less than other examples you pursued.  
  

You are correct some auction houses do handle their own shipping in house. In this case, they did not and outsourced it to an independent mail house who also holds an FFL to ship firearms and he was billing me direct. I agree with your overall statements but Let me offer an example that sums up perfectly your contention that it has to be profitable enough to do it. Gas in my area costs about $3.55 at almost every gas station you pass. Maybe it is $3.45 at some and $3.65 at others and one can reasonably assume that covers all the expenses necessary for a business to be profitable. This shop trying to charge me $450 to mail a firearm is the equivalent of a gas station trying to charge $10.50 a gallon when every other shop in town charges 1/3rd of that price. The FFL who mailed it to me charged $155 – $55 postage, $50 pack and transfer and $50 because they had to go pick it up, otherwise the apples to apples cost is only $105 vs the Original $450 or reduced $380. It gets worse when you break it down and compare the $50 pack and transfer I was charged vs the $400 pack and transfer fee the original shop wanted. Anyone on here make $400 an hour? How about $1600 an hour because I could easily box, label and mail 4 rifles an hour? I think the truth is this guy is just an immoral jerk who is trying to take advantage of captive auction clients who don’t know any better.