Gunbroker grump

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I had a seller on gunbroker BLOCK me :shock:

Here's the story:
I see a sweet gun listed as an Auction, but no bids on it yet.
I message the seller and ask this,
"Beautiful handgun. I realize you did not put a "buy it now" option in your ad. But I am gonna ask anyway, is there a buy it now price?
Thanks for your consideration.
Jon"

I get a response in 10 minutes saying,
"We only sell by auction.
Bob"

So, I attempt to put a bid on it.
my bid is rejected, the message also says the seller has BLOCKED me.

I sent another message asking why I was blocked.
24 hours later, still no response.
There are now 7 bids on the gun and the auction ending date is still 8 days out. I suspect it will go for way more than I want to spend, so I'm not gonna worry about this.
...BUT, I gonna wonder if I should have NOT asked that question?

[lefty o]

sounds like the guy has a case of classic internet thin skin. no reason for him to block you for simply asking a question.

[Conditor22]

Maybe the seller had its panties in a bunch that day. I'd say you lucked out, I wouldn't feel comfortable dealing with a person like that.

Sorry about missing out on the firearm, you'll find another one.

[JBinMN]

That was a reasonable question you asked & his response answered your question.

His Blocking you may have been an oversight, or it could have been on purpose.

Regardless, His interest apparently is to get as much for the firearm as possible & not so much to just get some reasonable amount of $$ for it, otherwise he would have entertained a Buy It Now amount from you, if you were to offer before it went into the auction. (IOW, he is greedy, and seeks more, or as much $$ for the firearm, than to see it get sold at a reasonable price to someone. He is looking for a "sucker to pay more than it is worth...)

IMO, do not think you are wrong in asking. Probably better off now, knowing what sort of person he is, offering firearms for sale.

Better luck next time.
:)

[Winger Ed.]

Doesn't sound like a very good business model to achieve fame and fortune.

[kungfustyle]

Best to just walk away from that one. Strange, its not like you asked the guy to sell it to you privately and cut gb out of the equation.

[Tripplebeards]

Doesn’t sound like someone I want to buy from anyways. Most sellers are pretty polite when I ask them if they’re interested in doing a buy it now instead of an auction and I either get a yes or a no pretty quickly. I bought an old grizzly bear leather gun sling off eBay that they had an auction with a $10 start plus shipping yesterday and I messaged them if they would sell it out right. They told me 20 bucks so I immediately bought it as the last one I saw sold for $89 last month plus shipping. Doesn’t hurt to ask but sometimes you rub people the wrong way if you don’t ask politely...or even polite. You would think they would at least told you a high ridiculous price ( like most do)instead of no. Reminded me i listed a Timney trigger NIP on eBay last month for $69 that retailed for $89 on most websites. I didn’t realize that I put an offer in on there and somebody offered me $30 telling me the bought a another one for $20 brand new last week and no one wants them and they were hard to sell on eBay along with some other real stupid remarks. I wasn’t very nice to them, commented back which I should have ignored them, and blocked the person. Then the slime contacted eBay because I told him unpolitely take a hike.lol . The good news was I sold it for $69 while the stupidity fest was going on so It probably irked the buyer even more. I didn’t realize that I didn’t check the checkbox to remove “or best offer” that ebay automatically checks for you so my fault and I see why it happened as the “or best offer” attracts some real dandy’s. But if someone asks me an outright price I give one as I’m trying to sell my item. Maybe the seller got the wrong impression and thought you were trying to low ball him? Im guessing you caught somebody in a bad mood or they felt you’re insulting them. You can always make up a new user name and put a bid on it if you really want it. John, I buy most of my stuff the same way...by asking like you. I think some people just don’t like the “game” and sales process, and that’s what you ran into. Either that or he thinks it’s worth a million dollars... or has no clue what it’s worth and just wants to let the auction run to see what comes about. But I like you like to ask before there’s any bidding because you never know how cheap or low somebody is willing to give something away so I make sure to ask as well.

[beechbum444]

The “ make an offer “ option followed by “ low ball offers will be blocked response warning gets me on some sites or “make an offer” and it’s within a few dollars of asking price and folks decline it immediately

[Old School Big Bore]

(Alton Brown voice) "Just...walk away!"
I love to find the 'take a shot' button on one that I really want.
I was trying to buy a Weaver K4 with the dot on OyVey recently. It was way overpriced for its condition so I offered a reasonable sum, about 80% of the asking price. Rejected. I added $10. Rejected. Added $10 more. Rejected. By then I was withing spitting distance of the asking. I backed off, and the guy had to relist it. Since then he has relisted it TWICE with no reduction in asking. Starting to think he would have rejected my bid if I'd offered MORE than his asking.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I should add a couple more details, because I didn't think I'd get this much response, and I didn't want to make a long original post.
Also, these details don't really change anything, but will clear up a couple of the comments you guys made.

The seller is a fairly large dealer with their own website, not just a person selling one gun.
The gun I wanted to bid on is quite collectible and actual value may be difficult to ascertain, making it a great candidate for an auction. All the guns this seller has listed are quite collectible...they have many currently listed...and they also have a long list of guns listed on their website that are "To Be" listed on gunbroker.

Another detail, I have no feedback on Gunbroker, I know I did some business there years ago, but my history must have been wiped when they upgraded software or something? My profile there says I have zero sales and Zero purchases. I also use a Hotmail email address. So those things surely could be RED flags to a "regular" big time seller...along with my seemingly stupid question.
...BUT DANG, he should have responded to my second question asking why I was blocked, you'd think it'd be worth his time to access if I am a potential legitimate bidder.

[Tripplebeards]

...or at least high balled you.lol

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yeah...I think the "no feedback" was what did it.

I've done business through the GB website off and on for lots of years, but had a 5+ year gap with no business, and when I revisited the site I found I'd lost about 37 favorable feedbacks both as a buyer and a seller.

Some sites caution against accepting bids from buyers with no feedback. I've always thought that everyone has to start somewhere, and personally
allowed folks without a feedback record to bid. Got burned 2 out of the 3 times. So, I don't accept any bids from anyone with less that five favorable feedbacks, but still don't know how they will accumulate them.

[ThomR]

I will never understand why someone would rather keep relisting something than take a reasonable offer.

Reminds me of my sister. She has been trying to sell her house for 5 years. She hasn't lived there for a little over 4 years. She absolutely refuses to go down in price. People have made reasonable offers only to be rejected.

[richhodg66]

I once wanted a rifle on gunbroker real bad. As I looked at it, I realized the guy was almost local (in a town between the two points I was driving quite a bi.> I asked him simply if I won the auction would he allow pick up rather than ship. He responded and said "if you really want it, I'll put a buy it now and let you know when so you get first crack at it". He did just that, I payed a little more than his starting bid using by it now and picked it up at a prearranged point on I-70. I wish more people were that easy to work with, it's one of my favorite rifles.

[bayjoe]

Maybe he is computer challenged like me, and he hit a button he didn't know about

[swheeler]

Too bad you don't get a chance at the gun, BUT I wouldn't lose any sleep over being blocked from bidding.

[MrWolf]

Can you go to their website and see that particular gun, get a phone number and call them to purchase there vs gunbroker? Think some adds state can be sold in store. Good luck.

[DiverJay]

When I was in business, I was selling about $10k-$30k per month on GB. Some items were BIN. Others were straight auction. Anyhow, I'd get asked a lot for a BIN price or to end an auction early. Sometimes I was able to accommodate. Other times not. Nevertheless, I took no offense when people asked. Quite the contrary because it is still an opportunity to make a sale. With the firearms market still being soft, I cannot understand why this individual would lock you out. If anything, you might have driven up the auction price and he would have made more money. Not so smart I'd say.

[EDG]

There are some collasal egos in the gun business.
One dealer refused to combine shpping on 2 oddball trim dies about 2 years ago. He is still trying to sell them.

[fatelk]

I will never understand why someone would rather keep relisting something than take a reasonable offer.

Reminds me of my sister. She has been trying to sell her house for 5 years. She hasn't lived there for a little over 4 years. She absolutely refuses to go down in price. People have made reasonable offers only to be rejected.

It’s sat empty that long? My aunt and uncle have done the same thing with their house, only for about 10 years. They want to fix it up before selling because it needs a lot of work. They even had a contractor try to make a deal with them to live there rent free in exchange for working on it; no dice. Even if they had rented it out for half of what it’s worth, it would have still brought in ten of thousands of dollars in that time.

Hard to understand why some people make illogical financial decisions.

[dverna]

Seems like an overreaction to block a bidder under the conditions described.

I never have a BIN price as I want to maximize the value out of the item. I cannot recall anyone asking for a BIN price but I would not entertain doing it. It makes more sense to me to let the auction play out...but I might be missing something

[Randy in Arizona]

They even had a contractor try to make a deal with them to live there rent free in exchange for working on it; no dice.

I went for a 'deal' like this.
The clown trashed the house, burglarized the detached shop & storage building, and left a dead car in the driveway.
So I really do not blame your Aunt & Uncle!

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