Worst experience as a seller or buyer?
First off, if it happened on this forum I'd rather you didn't post the individual's username as I don't want this thread to go sideways.
Everyone here has bought and sold numerous guns, often meeting with persons unknown in parking lots to conduct the transaction. I've bought and sold quite a few where everything went smoothly and the person was a good guy and there were zero problems whatsoever. Everyone I've met on this particular forum has been outstanding. Met a few jokers off Armslist that were a bit of a problem.
I know most of y'all have had experiences where the other guy was a no-show or a gun described as "98%" is more like 85%. I'm interested in hearing about deals that went bad because the other guy was a scumbag or an idiot.
I'll go first. I've got two stories to share.
Story number one was one of my first transactions as a seller. I had a really nice WW2 M1 carbine with a guestimated value of about $750, possibly more to a collector. All original except for the stock, which was badly cracked and replaced with another one on the rack at the time of purchase in the late 1980s. Came with about $200 worth of ammo and accessories in a WW2 ammo can. Needed fast cash to finance another transaction so after it did not sell at $650 I dropped the price to $600 and after a few folks in other parts of the state expressed interest someone here in Denver said "I'll take it" and agreed to meet with me at Tanner shortly after I spent nearly all of my cash on a new target pistol.
Guy shows up in a brand new truck that probably cost over 50K. Starts off by telling me he is a collector and has 10 carbines at home and "doesn't really need another." Then he asks if he could field strip it (which, admittedly, I had never done, having shot less than 100 rounds through it). I say "sure" and he strips it down a bit further than the basic field strip, which makes me a bit nervous as I know I'd have difficulty putting it back together again to resell it. Then he pulls out a multi-tool and says he wants to remove pins from the trigger group so he can see if the numbers on the small parts match up! Now, I'm no gunsmith, but I've read the armorer's manual for that piece and you need special tools to take down the trigger group, and that wasn't going to happen. I told him I was not comfortable with him taking down the trigger group so he put everything back together.
He tells me that, because the stock apparently did not match, that my original WW2 carbine was a "mixmaster" and he couldn't pay $600 for it. Then I find out that he didn't even have $600 cash on him. He was a hundred dollars short. He said "This is my mad money, it is all I have to spend. Take it or leave it." Now, I had already bought a pistol I couldn't afford an hour earlier and was counting on the cash from this transaction to buy a few things at the show, go out later that evening, and buy groceries for the week, and as much as I wanted to tell him to f**k off I decided to take a hundred dollar loss since I'd paid less than $150 for the carbine 20 years earlier. So I tell him I'll sell it for $500.
So he counts out $500 into my hand, but then he wants to play some sort of quick change game, saying "Oh, I want to hold onto that fifty" and taking it back, and handing it to me again without counting it. At this point I was half pissed and made certain to count it out in front of him. Then he starts asking, "Why are you selling your carbine? Is it the economy?" with a bit of a smirk on his face that I kinda wanted to smack at this point, but I didn't. I told him I hadn't fired that carbine in over 10 years and it was taking up space in my closet and I saw something else I wanted instead. End of transaction. I am still pissed off at that jerk for rolling up in a 50K truck, trying to tear apart the trigger group with a multi-tool, then not having the agreed upon amount as promised. But it was a valuable lesson learned.
Second story was a little different. There is a fellow who posts on cologunmarket a lot who I've dealt with a few times. The fellow is pleasant enough and has decent guns, but I think he's about 80 years old and not all there mentally. Anyhow, every transaction I've done ended with him wanting to show off his CCW piece by waving it around inside my car. Okay . . . that is fine, I suppose, but the LAST time I dealt with this clown the muzzle of a loaded LCP was pointed at my knee with his finger on the trigger! Now, I know the LCP is DAO, and he wasn't threatening me at all, he was just totally oblivious. But I'm not conducting another transaction with him ever.
Those are my two stories. Both are true and recent. Would be interested in hearing a few of yours.
