(How To Buy A Gun Online - continued...)

Getting Your Gun

Use a phone. Seriously. You may think this is an unusual request, coming from someone running an internet auction site. Many gun sellers on the internet operate without any phone numbers at all. But we're talking about gun sales, which usually involve not-insignificant amounts of money! Any seller that won't speak to you when you're trying to send them money, will be even less inclined to speak with you when your gun doesn't arrive on time. Or not at all. And while we work very hard to make sure that scammers don't make it on to Auction Arms, people who are criminals can be very creative. Every once in a great while, a fraud makes it through our defenses - usually because the buyer didn't follow our advice in contacting the seller first. Apparently, crooks don't have phone. Or at least phone numbers they're willing to publicly disclose. If you're talking to your seller on the phone, you'll be just fine.

There are things the seller is going to need in order to send you your gun. First, payment. That's up to the seller, but don't be surprised to hear a number of options including all major credit cards, money orders, personal checks, cash - we've even had sellers that accept gold or silver bullion. Personally, I like credit cards. There are a number of protections available to credit card users that just don't exist for any other payment system. If your seller can accept credit cards, it's because they've jumped through a number of hoops and background checks in order to do so.

The seller will need a signed copy of the FFL that you'll use in your area, before shipping the gun. Some FFL holders won't want to give you, the buyer, a copy of their FFL. That's fine, as long as the receiving FFL holder is willing to send a copy to the seller.

Track Your Shipment

So you've paid the seller and he has your FFL's information. Great! When you next hear from your seller, you should be getting a tracking number. This isn't the dark ages, when shipments disappeared into the void for weeks before mysteriously arriving at your door. This is the information age! You can take that tracking number, and plug it in to the shipping company's website, and get an hour-by-hour status on the location of your shipment. You should know exactly when your gun arrives at your FFL holder.

Once your gun arrives, immediately go and take a look at it. The clock on the 3 Day Inspection Period starts ticking the moment your gun arrives at the FFL holder. You need to get down there, open that package, and make sure you're getting what you ordered. You're going to open that package, and feel the thrill of victory. You did it! You bought a gun online! You da man! Or da woman. You'll feel a warm glow for days afterward, and tell all your friends. Awesomeness ensues for the entire planet. Yeah!

Only one last thing - leave feedback. Feedback is the conscience of the internet, and the currency of your online reputation. Without feedback, people who interact with either you or the seller won't know how awesome you are. Or aren't. But you did everything right! The seller did everything right! Nothing but love, so make sure everyone knows about it. It goes without saying (but I'm saying it) that you shouldn't be buying from a website that doesn't allow you to post feedback. With Auction Arms, the process couldn't be easier. Just log in to "My Closed Bids", find the closed auction, and click on "Leave Feedback" in the right-hand column. Leave a short description of how great the seller was, and you're done!

You might want to check back in a few days, and review your own feedback about the transaction. As you did everything right (paying immediately, sending FFL info right away, leaving positive feedback on the seller) you should see feedback of your own about the transaction. If you see something unusual about your feedback, make sure you contact the seller right away. Discovering that the seller accidentally left a negative feedback six months after the fact, when you should have gotten a positive, makes sorting the mistake out that much harder. Keep an eye on your feedback to make sure you're getting what you deserve.