These are the two main sites for buying firearms in the USA. While one reviewer seems to have issues with AA, as a seller and buyer, my experience has been very positive. It appears that the site owner does just about everything, which can be good and bad. However, if and when problems develop, you know you're dealing with the head honcho. How many other sites can claim that? No real problems and an easy site to navigate. Some people want fancy, with all the bells and whistles. Gun buyers want to buy guns - period. Who cares about color schemes or layout, etc? I want to see the guns! And it's not difficult to find what you need - use the Search engine!
On the other hand, my experience at GunBroker.com was almost entirely negative. First, despite a legal contract (the "User Agreement") that specifies that only individuals can use the site and they must use true physical addresses (no PO Boxes), during registration you can sign up as a business, with the added feature that not only can you use PO Boxes, but your personal info is hidden! Talk about possible legal conflicts! I had over 40 transactions on AuctionArms without incident. I had 7 on GunBroker.com with disasterous results! One seller cashed my payment then held the gun for a month. My resulting negative feedback resulted in another member using their e-mail system to harass me. GB seems to use eBay's playbook and favors the "Powerseller" over the little guy - gotta get those listing fees! AA appears to treat everyone the same - from "Jack the Dog" who lists hundreds of guns to myself and my few sales.
GB has the more polished look, but looks are deceiving. Neither allows for customization. Both update constantly. Speed? Too many factors to get a true picutre. If you're on dial-up, the pix are ALWAYS going to slow things down, and some listings may have 10-20 pix. However, such listings are as complete as one could make them, so the wait is worth it, especially if you're about to spend $3K on a gun (I have). AA's customer service, Manny, is The Man! He appears to run almost everything, and if you have a problem, you're dealing with the guy who can fix it. GB's support was rude, insensitive, and may have violated the law by shielding the non-shipping seller.
Before you do a review, I suggest you buy and sell on the site. By doing so, you get to see just how things work - or don't work, such as getting the address of a non-performing seller on GB! I think Manny would have booted that guy for good, as it wasn't his first time to sit on someone's money for a month or more!
AA deserves it high rating. GB....to me it means "Good Bye!"
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Oct 3rd, 2006
very helpful by (75%):
helpful by (25%):
