GunBroker
reviews and complaints

As someone who has been involved in the firearms industry for years, I understand the importance of reliable platforms for buying and selling guns. GunBroker.com, however, seems to have a mixed reputation based on customer reviews. While some users praise the platform for its ease of use and successful transactions, others have faced significant challenges. Issues such as receiving misrepresented items, poor customer service, and high fees have been highlighted. It's crucial for potential customers to exercise caution and thoroughly research before engaging with GunBroker.com. As with any online marketplace, it's essential to be vigilant and prioritize safety and transparency in all transactions.

Just like with ANY e-tailer there is a level of due-diligence you must do for each sale. IF you do not and have a bad experience than you have no one to blame but yourself. I have bought and sold on gunbroker for YEARS without a single problem. If accurate and transparent expectation levels are established & met along with good communication BOTH ways you should NEVER have a single problem.

I don't know why buyers are complaining.
I just won the first auction I bid on, and the sellers all clearly state the price, whether there is a reserve amount or not (amount is not visible, though), and whether they charge taxes or CREDIT CARD FEES!
I chose one who did not charge a fee and used my card! Now I just contact my FFL dealer and pay him to receive it for me.
If the deal goes wrong from here, I will write a new review.

Five years and only 1 bad transaction. Compared to ebay this site is heaven. Every minor problem involves a refund on ebay and tutorials if you use a trademark name. And listing fees car auctions run about 60.00 a week. Gunbroker is not perfect but if you use common sense and communicate their are no problems. People just like to hear themselves whine.
3% is fee after selling on Gunbroker NO LISTING FEES! NO HOLDS ON PAYPAL! NO RESTRICTIONS ON ITEMS NATIONALITY THAT you sell.

I have had great success on Gunbroker. I have successfully purchased 5 pistols and 1 rifle, along with numerous ammunition purchases. I've never been scammed or paid more than I wanted to. I think the negative reviews come from folks that fail to understand how the auction system works, do not do their research on the Sellers, or maybe a bit stupid about their bidding and get suckered into bidding too much. Hint: bid only with reputable sellers with many transaction (gunshops work best), ask questions before you bid, don't get suckered into a bidding war. Simply stop and look for another item. GB is place to bring buyers and sellers together. Folks expect too much and don't want to take individual responsibility... something in fashion these days.

The negative comments about this site are obviously from the anti-gun crowd... their agenda is to smear and scare new users from visiting... those that know this is a good site will keep coming and the new users will probably be influenced not to trust... pretty sad when this is the best they can do... I urge you to think about how much negative feedback is here... it's not normal... I have never been burned by this site in 15 years... and have talked to some very nice people in this country from Washington to Florida... mom and pop stores just trying to make a living doing what they can to get by... I wish these liberal haters had something better to do... but alas this is their choosing and they have nothing better to do than to try to tear down a thriving industry that serves millions!

Have been on this site for over 10 years and done 100's of successful deals! But with any site that you routinely buy and sell off of; you do run into dirt bags that don't understand or expect more than they paid for! I received a negative feedback from one of these dirt balls because I didn't promptly ship an item even though I refunded the fellow's money as soon as found out about the problem! I had explained to ths dirt ball that I was in the hospital with a life threathening illness and all he had to say is that I should have shipped the item or refunded his money promptly-- I even returned his uncashed money order that took him three weeks to send in the first place but that was not good enough! So if you can put up with the occasional dirtball this site s the best one I have ever been on; forget the others you will like Gunbroker!

Once eBay a few years back started getting funny about firearm parts (I am fine with eBay not selling firearms but a shotgun barrel by itself, come on) I ended up finally jumping onto gunbroker.com. Although not particularly easy to navigate at first, once one has the hang of it, navigation proves less of an issue. Let's be clear on something here, gunbroker isn't selling you a firearm, they're facilitating you making a purchase thru a licensed dealer who then ends up transferring your firearm to a licensed dealer in your area who the legally sells it to you. All of this is professionally done and efficiently handled.
The handful of transactions I have initiated thanks to gunbroker.com have been hassle free and no doubt in each case I would never have even seen the item purchased locally, but thanks to the Internet and specifically this site, the world is my oyster! Carpe diem!

I'm sorry, but I just had to comment on some of the bad reviews I'm reading here. People complain because they have to pay $1 to verify their account? That's called preventing scams. People complain because they had to pay the "Buy it Now" price on a Buy it Now only listing instead of being able to place a lower bid? What do they think 'Buy it now' means? People complain because they didn't read the description and got something they didn't want" C'mon people, show a little responsibility. One person even complained because he decided he didn't want something after he won the auction and didn't pay for it, so Gunbroker shut his account down? That's called being a non-paying bidder and any site will shut you down for that because they want to keep things honest. You know, sellers DO have to pay for listings and if you are a non-paying bidder, you are essentially ripping them off.

You know, we're all supposed to be responsible adult gun owners, not a bunch of whiny Liberals who always try to blame everyone else for their own mistakes. If you don't like Gunbroker, that's fine, then don't use it. I have only had 20 transactions on there so far, but I have never given or received a single bit of negative feedback.

Like all sites OF THIS COMPLEXITY, you have to read all the fine print. Gunbroker is just the medium that brings buyer and seller together. So stop blaming them for things that are not their fault. Gunbroker's site is the best and most user friendly of the bunch. They are also the 800 pound gorilla in the gun auction business and for very good reason. They also don't tolerate bidders that don't pay their bills which protects reputable sellers. Bidders don't complete auctions for many reasons but most are because they bought the wrong item, they bought something which they couldn't afford, they had a few too many and woke up to the reality they bought something and didn't have the money to pay for it. As a seller with thousands of transactions under our belt I've heard it all. People complain that Gunbroker is the bad guy but that's the farthest from the truth. Most of the problems stem from uneducated buyers that don't read the terms of sale and then complain after the fact that they didn't get something they assumed they should have gotten. The keyword is ASSUME! Don't ASSUME anything! Read the terms of sale B4 you bid. If you have a question then ask the seller B4 you bid. After you win an item is the wrong time to ask questions. Most sellers are reputable business people. Yes there are some bad apples but you have that everywhere. And Gunbroker will shut down a bad apple if then get too many negative feedback's from buyers too.

I noticed that some reviews accuse Gunbroker of putting in their bid at the wrong price. This is a ridiculous statement. The only way a price gets entered is if the bidder puts it in and then the site asks the bidder to confirm that his bid is correct before entering it. Another complaint I saw is that bidders claim that the site put in their bid at the "BUY IT NOW" price. Again just a ridiculous statement. The site only does what the user tells it to do! All these problems and complaints are mostly from new users that don't know what they are doing and then making mistakes that are their fault.

Another complaint which I see is that these uneducated buyers accuse Gunbroker of ripping them off by charging $1.00 (one dollar) to their credit card to verify that they are a legitimate person and not some jerk that wants to play games. This is a very reasonable request to protect the integrity of the site for the benefit of the buyer and seller. So all you tight $#*! complainers on this issue please stay away from Gunbroker because if you can't afford a dollar to verify that you are dealing with a real person on the other end of the transaction then you definitely don't belong on this site!

Gunbroker is a high volume site and I see complaints that they don't have good customer service due to the fact that they don't publish a phone number. If they had to address every question from people who are mostly too lazy to read the instructions then they would have to quadruple the amount of support staff which would have to be paid for by increased fees to the sellers which will be passed onto YOU as the buyer. So which way do you want it? Can't have your cake and eat it too!... If you want full service or someone to hold your hand then go to your local retailer and pay retail for the full service transaction you are requesting from Gunbroker that they cannot provide due to the nature of being an internet website. This is true of all high volume websites that basically sell at a discount. Try reaching a live body at AMAZON.COM... Good luck!

There are millions of happy users on Gunbroker that you don't here from. There is the saying that good news travels to one, bad news travels to a hundred, and that's what you have from 99% of the complainers that have written negative reviews here. This a great venue to find what you want an a good price with no BS. If buyer and seller follow the terms of sale that are written into the auction then there will be virtually no issues. KEYWORD: READ THE TERMS B4 YOU PLACE A BID. Nobody is forcing you to place a bid or to buy anything through this site. If you don't like the terms of the auction then don't buy the item, PERIOD! Don't buy and then try to get the seller to change the terms after you've won the auction. It doesn't work that way. The seller expects you to follow the terms of sale that you agreed to when you placed your bid.

I got a great deal on a Canik TP9SA when I placed my bid, I didn't think I would get it since I seemed to be in a bidding war. But, I won a bid using Gunbroker.com. I took it out for target practice it is a great 9mm handgun at a great price.

I use GunBroker.com for buying firearms because it is the only online platform that offers buyer's protection in case I don't receive the item I paid for. GunBroker.com is dedicated to creating a transparent marketplace for buyers and sellers.

I changed my computer and I tried to download the link to Gunbrokers.com. It is no longer available for download on google. I've made some great purchases on that site. I contacted one of the people I bought from and I am happy to say, I am back on Gunbrokers.

Gunbroker is one of the best site on the web to get great deals and educate yourself about the best equipment out there. You can learn what would best suit your needs and get good pricing at the same time. Just navigate to the site and add the site to your device.

I like having three ways to buy an item on GunBroker.com. The seller determines which option(s) to allow when listing the item. You can search for a fixed price, Take a shot allows you to make an offer on a fixed price item or you can do bid at an auction. It's great.

I wanted to buy a gun but I am on a tight budget. I went to GunBroker.com to see if I can what they had. I am not proficient or very knowledgeable when it comes to guns. They were very helpful with the email feature. This was the 1st weapon I have ever bought. Thanks.

I've sold several firearms through GunBroker.com. It's the best resource for finding educated buyers who know how to spot quality. I have had an excellent experience each time. Their fees are reasonable and well worth the value of having a marketplace for my collection.

I have been a customer for several years. I have bought weapons from them in the past and more recently ammunition. They seem to get it done when no one else can. My go to supplier during this crazy pandemic. Good value and innovation! Love text a check option for payment.

The auction option at GunBroker.com has been such a great resource for me. They take care of everything for a reasonable price. They make the process so easy, whether you're buying or selling. Using them allows me to weed out false leads and earn a decent return on my investment.

Since I was reinstated I was able to look at my account and found out what the cause of my problem was and admit it was my fault and apologize to everyone involved. I changed my email connected with this account and them move to a different state and forgot about the email change so I did not see any of the messages sent to me. Once I was able to get a hold of GB they took care of me right away.

So here we go,

Found the Rifle I want, and noticed to be priced a little lower then other rifles on GunBroker, Since it is a specialty Rifle there was not a lot to look at and I was excited.
Contacted the seller asked the questions as why he was selling, How long has he had, Was it the current model?
The guy responded in a very quick and timely manor and with utmost respect.
This went back and forth for a week as far as getting the FFL stuff of his to my FFl dealer and a little more bartering on the price. Figured hey why not? It don't hurt to ask.
After all was agreed upon and he gave me his word he was a dealer for this manufacture. In Fact said he bought it direct and since he has heard so much about them he could not let it sit on the shelf without trying it out.
So he stated he put about 10 rounds through it and was in love with it, but as a dealer still needed to sell it. So he took the hit on profit to try it out.
I did try to get ahold of NEMO and get more info on it, as I like to really do my homework and make sure all facts are correct. As I would love to trust everyone, I just have learned my leason.
Well unfortunaltly I decided to purchase a gun during Shot Show and they were not calling back.
The Seller then reached out to me telling me there was another interested party and since I had contacted him first he wanted to give me the oportunity.
Well what a nice guy. So I took the plunge he was not lying and pushed the buy it now button.
The Rifle arrived in a week and I went and picked it up. I made sure it was the one we talked about and everything that came with it was there. It all checked out.

I had the rifle for about 3 days and the seller even reached out to me to see if I liked it. We had really bad weather and I told him I had not had a chance to take it out due to the weather, but I was in love with having it.
Well it had been about 5 days now since I had it and NEMO Arms called me back.

Here is were it goes down hill,
It looks as if the NEMO was a Oct. 2013 model so not the latest one as he stated, he is also not a NEMO Arms dealer, and the gun was originally purchased in Dallas Texas buy a real Nemo Arms dealer.
When I had checked out from a local NEMO dealer he even stated there was a lot more then 10 rounds through this gun.
He then went to tell me it looks like they put the latest muzzle break on it to look like the newest one
So I reached out to the Seller to find out why this is all not what he said and got very bad emails from there and very foul language. He stated he knew I was trouble the day I started asking question.
I reached out to Gun broker right away as I noticed I was not going to get help form him.
They closed the case and stated I need to wait 30 days from time of purchase and try to settle it with him.
Well I knew that was not happening so I waited my 30 days and re-opend the case. It has now been over 2 months and they have only responded with nothing I have said is in his listing. I responded same day describing all that was said is through emails and I could send then forward to show if needed.

Well it is still to this day writing this and no response. I feel as I have spent 4525. 00 through them I have waited long enough and should know something by now, but I do not
The original claim was started on 2/5/16 and I am still sitting on something I have spent a lot of money on and do not want to use so It is the way I received it.

I hope this long story helps someone form getting scammed too.

OK quick update,
GunBroker just emailed me back pretty much after this post. They said they have been in contact with the seller, He gave me 3 days to look over the unit and make sure it is what I was asking.
This is true he did, as you read above though I could not get ahold of NEMO cause of the shot show.
They also said that non of what I am saying is in the listing and for that reason they are closing my case.
Take a look at the transcript below. This is BS, there is no resolution for the buyer. I guess it is cause they only make money off people selling items and want to keep that relationship strong. Non the less I will find a way to get this across to all I can. Facebook. News stations, radio. I will let as many people know. I work in the market were I go into a lot of homes and specially for people with money and tell you what the words from one to another is a powerful thing.

I renamed my Gunbroker account to match my business name when I became a FFL. Gunbroker has incorrectly closed my account stating I have two accounts. I have been a customer of Gunbroker.com for approximately 19 years, initially as a recreational gun owner, and now professionally as a Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealer. I incorporated as a LLC and applied for my FFL license last year. After I received the FFL I changed the name of my Gunbroker account - which was "webfeet" - to "minturnco" so that it matched my LLC business name and my FFL license name of Minturn and Co. I did this using the account tools within the Gunbroker website. When I changed my Gunbroker account name to "minturnco" I also added my FFL information to their FFL dealer list; I also updated my email contact information to my new "minturnco" business email address instead of my personal email address. A little over four weeks ago I tried to log into Gunbroker using my account to renew my listings, and got a message that my account was "inactive due to an association with another account on the site". To be clear: I do not have an association with another Gunbroker account, nor have I ever had multiple Gunbroker accounts. I have only a single account that was renamed for reasons I explained. I am not sure when the account was actually made inactive as I did not receive an email that the account was suspended, I only found out when I attempted to log in. I have sent several customer service requests over the past four weeks trying to resolve this problem. I keep receiving automatically generated replies that customer service will respond to my request, but I have not received any contact from Gunbroker. My account has remained inactive i.e. I can log in, but nothing else. At the moment I am still listed as a FFL on the Gunbroker site and I receive calls from customers, yet I am unable to use the site to list items for sale, purchase items from the site, or contact customers. I also still receive Gunbroker sales emails, but I am unable to do anything with them. This is a serious problem for my business and thus far Gunbroker will not communicate with me to resolve the issue. They do not have a telephone number to contact customer service, they are not replying to my emails, and their fee based automated chat support feature on their website is not available for users with an inactive account.

I won a bid from AR Precision Solutions and paid in full for a Colt M4 rifle. However, I have not received the rifle yet. I tried to resolve the issue with the seller and Gunbroker.com, but without success. On September 22, I won the bid and AR claimed to have shipped the item on October 21. Gunbroker also confirmed that the item had been shipped. However, I faced difficulties when trying to pay with my credit card, even though AR listed Visa/MasterCard as a payment method. I contacted AR and he asked me to provide my credit card information over the phone, which was unexpected and inconvenient. In the past, I have always paid for bids with my credit card on Gunbroker's website. I then tried to purchase a money order, but there was a $500 limit, so I bought a cashier's check from my bank instead. I informed AR that I had sent him a cashier's check for $1459.99, but he expressed dissatisfaction, claiming that cashier's checks are easily forged. Despite these issues, AR received my payment on October 21, but I still have not received the rifle as of mid-December. AR mentioned speaking to a postal service clerk named Bernice, but when I asked for her contact information, the number provided did not work. According to AR, Bernice said that the weapon might be in Memphis and that the delay was due to sorting issues at the hub facility. I tried calling the postal service number, but it did not provide any helpful information. The tracking number shows no movement since October 26. I have filed a trouble ticket with the USPS, but the response only stated that the package is in transit and will arrive soon. The last scan shows that the pre-shipment information was sent to USPS on October 22.

I've been using gunbroker for over 10 years. I've had over five hundred complete transaction a lot of them good until this. I recently had a seller threatened me. And I refused to complete the sale. I Contacted gunbroker and told them what happened. Gun broker then suspended my membership. After the seller was still contacting me by phone And by text message harassing me. I then emailed gunbroker again.

Told them that if this individual the seller did not stop. I would have to be contact law enforcement this is terrible customer service. If this is the way I have been treated. I can only imagine if you were ripped off in any way. Gunbroker will not have your back buyer beware.

I have tried so many times to sell. I am a previous seller. You have all my information it has been updated. No one gets back to me so that I can get released and sell on gun broker. This is ridiculous please someone get back to me all my banking account and everything is registered, I push sell and it goes back add an account. I already have the account.

I sold three guns thru gun broker. two for $150 and one for $175. they charged me over $60 for these three transaction's. This was not right, way to much. I have called them, e-mailed them many times and gotten nothing back explaining what they took all that money for. Their customer service sucks by the way.

4/13/2023

I purchased a rifle, paid and submitted FFL immediately. A week went by and no change in the shipping so I messaged the seller with no response a week later. 2 weeks without any communication and not shipping my item seems ridiculous. I'll be purchasing from the shops moving forward.

Update 5/3/2023

Seller finally said "there was a supposed shipping issue" after 3 weeks and that it would be in early week of 4/24. Reached out 4/28 and was told that I would have info by EOD. Nothing and reached again 5/1 with still no response. I just want the rifle or issue a full refund because 5 weeks is REDICULOUS! I run a few businesses and if I did business this way they would all be out of business!

I purchased a rifle on gunbroker which upon receipt the stock was broken.

I contacted the seller and he said, kiss off. I contacted Gunbroker to see about there so called buyer protection program.

What a waste of my time. The things they requested was things you could never get no matter how hard you tried. They wanted a police report which the police department said they can not do a report on something damaged in the mail or prior to mailing it. They also asked for the following; Credit card refund denial

USPS report, A police report, IC3 report plus more.

What a joke. They should just tell you kiss off and get it over with.

I bet they never have paid a claim.

If you use them beware your on your own. They charge to much to sell and offer nothing in return.

Buyer bought a item for 3k that was started at a penny, then tried to buy others off gunbroker. Told me to wait until returning from vacation as the auction did not end till he returned . Then bought the same item for 1.7k (of course different guns) and now wants to return the higher value one saying it was not as described. 28 photos tell the story. He is mad he overpaid and said so in a email. Buyer also paid with his mastercard in which is a Apple pay. Told me he will dispute the whole charge. We do have a 3 day return as a 20% restocking feed. This type of behavior should not be allowed. And what can I do?

I received an email this morning that one of my account emails was changed, I only have one email.

They also changed the password so i can't access my account. Since they changed the email, I can't receive a conformation email to reset the password. Customer service is a literal nightmare with this company. They definitely need to do a better job at security, especially when it comes to an account that retains peoples credit info.

I won two items from the same seller. I paid for one and tried to pay for the other, but had technical website difficulties paying for the second item. I wrote GunBroker's "Help" department for help paying for the item and waited a few days. Nobody responded. I wrote the seller, who told me to contact GunBroker's Help department.

I contacted GunBroker's Help department once more. I cleared my cookies and tried more than 12 times to get the payment made, read and re-read the directions.

I NEVER got a response to my requests for help paying for the item.

Not only did I lose the item AND get barred by the seller for non-payment, but GunBroker locked my account. I contacted them, asked them to check my history and see that I tried to pay and would have paid. They refused

This affects other auctions I bid on, too. So now those sellers may file non-payment complaints.

All of this could have been avoided if GunBroker had answered the help requests I sent.

Instead, they punish me and the other sellers who have to relist items I now cannot complete. Incredibly foolish and bad business

On 11/13/2022 Gunbroker blocked my account due to suspicious activity.

Someone attempted to hack my sellers account. I promptly changed my password. I've sent them at least 30 emails in the past 3 days requesting my account be re-activated to no avail. All I receive are automated emails confirming they received my request. I have several items in the middle of a transaction but cannot access my account to correspond with them. My user name is 37Alameda. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Starting around mid August this year, I tried to update my address in my account and was informed that my account had been locked because of a potential security breach. I have tried no less than five times to go through their help section to get this resolved. I have received notifications that they have received my inquiries yet nothing happens. There is no way to telephone and speak to a live individual. It is extremely frustrating and I'm wanting to find a way to resolve this issue.

I had a seller that was being a problem. Sent payment. He said he never received it. Only option was a mailed check. I cancelled the check and requested another option. He only offered PayPal. I had to re-establish that account. During that period he filed a non payment complaint. GB blocked my account. I was never sent any notice of nonpayment from the seller or GB. Pretty crappy.

I started a listing on 9/7 and shortly after listing it was removed by GunBroker without reason. I selected options like featured on home page and view counter. After emailing them and receiving no response I tried relisting my item and it still kept getting removed. So after a week and still no response I decided to check my fees for my other listings and I am being charged listing fees on my item that they continually removed after only minutes of being listed. It is completely unfair that I have to pay these fees for an item that never sold or even got the full listing time.

Customer purchased two auctions almost a month ago and has been given reminders, no communication, left phone message, no responses. He has two previous no pay. And still has an A+ rating?

I would like to get paid. Tied up a major portion of what I was offering.

This guy needs to be removed from GB...

I have been trying to contact GB for over a week to determine which credit agency you are using so that I can release the credit freeze on my credit agency account so that I can complete the extended verification process and start to sell guns. I have credit freeze on my accounts because I have had identity theft in the past.

I have a new FFL business and if I don't hear back from you, I will take my business elsewhere. I hear lots of complaint about GB, specifically your response rate, you should listen.

The item that I bid on (#58674) was scheduled to close at 9 PM EST on 7/17/2022. There was a flurry of bids near the end time. My last bid was at 9:04 PM. In accordance with GB 15 min rule, policy the auction was closed @ 9:19 PM, with my bid being the highest, at closing.

On Tuesday, 7/17/2022, I checked the status of the auction, only to find out that another bidder WON the item, with a bid at 11:52 PM EST. GB's response was actually an insolent and arrogant non-answer, and is noted below:

"We apologize for the frustration; however, the site unfortunately experienced an issue and not all users were able to access their ability to bid and buy which affected the outcome of some auctions. To allow for fair and equal opportunity to auctions, GunBroker management elected to extend the ending time of affected listings."

As a multiple bidder on this item, I was neither informed that there was a problem with the site, nor that the ending time for this auction was extended.

I have emailed customer support numerous times and they fail to resolve my issue. My account was hacked, and information was changed. When I tried to go back into my account it states that it is "LOCKED" and being investigated when has been for over a month now with no communication from support. What is triggering GB preventing me from making a new account?

WHEN WILL MY ACCOUNT BE UNLOCKED?

FIX YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE ASAP!

-Brett

I’ve used GunBroker for many years to buy and sell firearms. On April 16, 2022, I sold a firearm to a buyer in Arkansas and shipped it to their FFL by USPS after purchasing the mailing label and insurance directly from GunBroker. The firearm was lost/stolen by USPS. After several inquiries to GunBroker about the insurance claim process, they finally admitted that the insurance purchased was from a third party, not USPS. They have absolutely refused to provide me with any timeframe for the insurance claim to be paid. I’m currently out more than $1,400 due to GunBroker’s misrepresentation. I will never use GunBroker’s shipping system again after this terrible experience.