This Gunbroker Seller Looks like One to Avoid|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

Oy vey… his feedback is unbelievable.  GB should do themselves a favor and revoke his account – it is sellers like this that make people nervous about buying online.

His terms are crazy and in many cases they would not be possible to meet – at least not if you need to go to work the morning after a purchase, rather than directly to Western Union or to a bank.  His favorite kind of feedback to leave is an ‘F’ with the statement “Buyer did not follow auction instructions and paid late.”  

I’ve yet to deal with an unscrupulous seller on GB, but it’s a good reminder that buying online is always under the terms “Buyer beware!”

Good Info, thanks for sharing it. 

sb said

But, Gunbroker gives him an “A” rating……  

I was thinking the same thing.  13% of his feedback is an F… so what does it take to have less than an “A” rating?

It’s pretty obvious this guy is a jerk, wanting to be paid by check the next day after an auction closes and representing a new Winchester sign as antique.  In fairness to GunBroker, he only has 1 total negative feedback.  If you do the math, as they show on his feedback page, he has 1 negative out of 13 ratings in the last 120 days, which equals 13%.  GunBroker also dropped his rating from an A+ to an A.

Ratings on web auction sites (especially eBay) are useful only as a general guideline.  Most everyone gives good ratings in fear of retaliation.  It is always up to the buyer to research what he is contemplating purchasing, like the so-called “WINCHESTER” sign of this thread.

The best example of useless feedback I’ve seen to date is of a local neighborhood brewhouse that opened earlier this year.  Six weeks before it opened they had over 400 “likes” on Facebook but hadn’t had a single customer yet!

Failed to look at the 9 review pages following the first one, so I have to add that his A rating is misleading on GunBroker’s part.  At best it should be a B.  Moreover, the fact that this seller keeps getting bad reviews for consistently the same reason, combined with the high percentage of negatives, should be cause for a reputable auction house to ban him.

      I don’t think buying online needs to be avoided completely.     As with many things, it depends on the individual circumstances.     If you live in Illinois and you are looking for a particular kind of gun, and the only ones available are in Oregon and Florida, you may not have much of a choice.     Check all the feedback, request more photos, ask questions, and use your “gut feelings” if necessary.     I have purchased several guns online and done OK so far.

      However,  the things I’ve bought have been “shooter grade” or slightly better, so I haven’t had to worry too much about fakes.     Admittedly, the bores of what I’ve bought have been honestly described.     The sellers I’ve dealt with have been honest and friendly for the most part.     If I was dealing in antiques or memorabilia type stuff I think I would need to be more cautious.     I, too, prefer to see and handle an item before buying, if possible.

When you look at the way he crops photos, combined with all the feedback complaints that his photos are carefully done conceal flaws, it’s clear this seller is a complete scammer.  However, the buyers are begging to get taken advantage of… who would buy a $2,500 gun from someone you did not know, based on photos like these?