FFL Transfer fees The Arms Room

[puma guy]

I purchased a firearm from a local online auction house that I have bought from before. They use the Arms Room for the transfers and for the last one I bought paid the transfer fee directly to the Arms Room where the gun was stored and since I have a CHL the fee was $15. This last purchase a $25 transfer fee was included in my bill which I don't mind paying since they store the firearms as well. Out of curiosity I checked the Arms Room website for the transfer fee price schedule and was shocked. $60 without a CHL and $50 with one. They note that you can save money by purchasing directly from them. I'm guessing they don't get many third party transfers!

[Soccerdad1995]

Are you talking about the place in Dickinson?

[Abraham]

I don't know if the address is in Dickinson, but it just off 45 south.

Nice place, but costly.

I'm fairly certain we've some guys of the forum who're qualified FFL who charge MUCH less for a transfer.

The Arms Room is over the top with their FFL transfer fees.

[mrvmax]

I don't know if the address is in Dickinson, but it just off 45 south.

Nice place, but costly.

I'm fairly certain we've some guys of the forum who're qualified FFL who charge MUCH less for a transfer.

The Arms Room is over the top with their FFL transfer fees.

I’ve had people come to me who were mad about their transfer fees. When you think about how high their overhead is (someone told me that when they first opened their overhead was 25000 a month) it makes sense.

[Abraham]

No sense getting angry.

Shop around..

There's a number of qualified guys who'll do transfers for far less cost.

Look for em first before buying...

I used to be a fanatic wade fisherman.

I bought a lot of tackle.

I learned that one tackle store, famous locally, had prices a third or more costly for the very same stuff to be bought at Academy.

The famous store had a very high overhead (after they moved to a high rent area) and I'm supposed to pay ludicrously inflated costs because of that...?

Not me.

[BBYC]

If you need their overhead you should expect to pay for it. On the other hand, if you don't, then it makes sense to find somebody else.

[Liberty]

I don't know if the address is in Dickinson, but it just off 45 south.

Nice place, but costly.

I'm fairly certain we've some guys of the forum who're qualified FFL who charge MUCH less for a transfer.

The Arms Room is over the top with their FFL transfer fees.

It's in League City, Like just about everything else in League City, The Arms Room is pretty but they have League City prices.

[Syntyr]

Pffft the first and LAST time I did a transfer with collectors firearms in Houston about 10 years ago the fee was $75. Yup shame on me for not checking but really?

Now I go to defensive firearms on Beltway 8 and westhimer. $25 a pop.

[Soccerdad1995]

Pffft the first and LAST time I did a transfer with collectors firearms in Houston about 10 years ago the fee was $75. Yup shame on me for not checking but really?

Now I go to defensive firearms on Beltway 8 and westhimer. $25 a pop.

Collector's firearms is in a whole other category when it comes to pricing. Let's just say that I don't think they are trying to be a high volume, low margin, operation. They do carry some nice guns, though.

This is a radical notion, but I think a gun shop would be well advised to offer very low FFL transfer fees, at least for your first few transfers. Inevitably, I am in the store for around 30 minutes or so whenever I do a transfer. How much would a typical retailer pay to get someone who was generally a fan of their products in their store for 30 minutes? I'd think that a store would be well advised to sell this service at their incremental cost and not try to make a profit on it. Consider it a part of their marketing efforts.

[ml1209]

I won’t pay any more than $15 for a transfer fee

[Odiferous]

I think most of those places see transfers as profit lost because you didn't buy the gun at their inflated prices, and I'm not sure they're wrong.

I like the range, but regardless of how they price transfers, they won't get me spending on the store side.

Sure, you'd be in there a while, but that doesn't necessarily translate to sales. If you need an FFL, you know how to shop the internet, and you know their prices are high. That isn't their target market.

Now, if Primary Arms had dirt cheap transfers, I'd make the drive to Pearland, and most likely buy something else while I was there.

[Alf]

Now I go to defensive firearms on Beltway 8 and westhimer. $25 a pop.

Not anymore. http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic. ... &p=1182475

[Bitter Clinger]

DFW Gun Range provides me with 4 free transfers a year with my range membership.

[puma guy]

No sense getting angry.

Shop around..

There's a number of qualified guys who'll do transfers for far less cost.

Look for em first before buying...

I used to be a fanatic wade fisherman.

I bought a lot of tackle.

I learned that one tackle store, famous locally, had prices a third or more costly for the very same stuff to be bought at Academy.

The famous store had a very high overhead (after they moved to a high rent area) and I'm supposed to pay ludicrously inflated costs because of that...?

Not me.

If you need their overhead you should expect to pay for it. On the other hand, if you don't, then it makes sense to find somebody else.

Maybe I should have been more clear when I said I didn't mind paying $25 since they store the firearms for the auction house. They have a partnership with the auction house and show the firearms to potential bidders. Winning bidders have no choice where to do the transfer so it's actually a discounted price from normal transfer fees at The Arms Room. That fee went from $15 to $25 since the last time I won a bid and as I said I didn't mind paying that. My post was more to let folks know the fees for other transfers are very high. I do all my other transfers at Pasadena Gun Center for a very reasonable fee.

Not related to the fee schedule, but the fellow that retrieved my purchase brought out a little pocket size semi-auto pistol that was also in the auction. He said it has a tag that say JC Higgins Model 103.18 .22 S,L,LR. I said that wasn't my gun and told him it was a Kassnar .25 ACP that someone had bought in the same auction for a ridiculous price and they might be upset if I got their pistol. He went back and got my JC Higgins .22 rifle, which is really a Marlin Model 100 made for Sears. He said he could sell me a rifle for much less in far better shape. The same mantra as the wording associated with their transfer fees. I told him I'd keep that in mind. They had less than a dozen used rifles; none of which were .22 bolt actions.
I only paid $95 for the rifle and have never run across one for less. LOL

[Soccerdad1995]

I think most of those places see transfers as profit lost because you didn't buy the gun at their inflated prices, and I'm not sure they're wrong.

I like the range, but regardless of how they price transfers, they won't get me spending on the store side.

Sure, you'd be in there a while, but that doesn't necessarily translate to sales. If you need an FFL, you know how to shop the internet, and you know their prices are high. That isn't their target market.

Now, if Primary Arms had dirt cheap transfers, I'd make the drive to Pearland, and most likely buy something else while I was there.

The trend for a while now has been for retail to move to the internet. B&M locations need to shift their focus to those things that you can't get from internet retailers. In the gun business, that is gunsmithing, in person training, range sessions, gun rentals, and "convenience items" like ammo immediately available for a range session. It would also include FFL transfers, but they will be undercut on those by individual FFL's who don't have the overhead associated with a storefront.

Even in this reality, it still makes sense to get people through your doors. You may not sell them the gun they are picking up, and you may not ever sell them any other guns. But the alternative is having the person use an individual FFL, and then go to one of your competitors when they are looking for a range where they can fire their new gun. Instead, they could have come into your facility, met your nice, friendly staff, maybe chatted with your folks a bit about range memberships, and training opportunities. As part of the transfer process you find out whether they have an LTC and if not, you can naturally mention the great LTC classes you have available, etc. Of course, if your staff are rude and act like they are doing customers a favor by even talking to them (like many gun shops), then it's probably best to not have any prospective customers at all.

The attitude of "I'm not making money on this one sale, so go somewhere else" is counterproductive, IMHO. I encountered this attitude with one guy who was recommended as a great source for a Les Baer 1911. While I was talking to him, I casually mentioned that I frequently buy guns from Buds gun shop. His tone immediately changed and he said "you don't impress guys like me by mentioning that place" in a very condescending tone. I replied that I was not trying to impress him. I was just thinking about buying a gun from him. It was enough to put me off the sale. I ended up getting the same gun a while later, from another source.