Manny DelaCruz - CEO/GunAuction.com
The most important reason you should sell your gun online is the most obvious: Price. You're going to get the best price for your gun online, as opposed to selling it on consignment with a gun shop, selling it at a gun show, or selling it to a friend or acquaintance.

If you're in a hurry, you could just sell your gun directly to a gun shop or pawnbroker. That's the fastest way to get paid for your gun, but you're not going to get the best price for it. The gun shop owner or pawnbroker isn't being dishonest. They're businessman who need to make a profit on everything they buy. That means they'll offer you what sounds like a lot less than retail. They have costs to cover.

If you give your gun to a local gun shop to sell on consignment, the amount the shop is going to charge is going to vary widely. The gun shop has expenses to cover including things like rent, power, utilities, labor costs, etc. With those hard expenses, you can expect to pay between 15% and 30% to the gun shop. Reputable websites typically charge between 2.5% and 5%, and the gun stays in your possession during the auction.

Selling your gun to a friend is always an option. It's the least amount of hassle - you might not even have to go anywhere if it's your neighbor, and if it's legal to sell a gun to a friend without going through an FFL (Federal Firearms License) holder. But again, you're probably not going to get the best price because of that "friend discount".

Selling your gun online means more people will see it, and you're more likely to connect with the right person who's willing to buy it. A good gun shop might have a few hundred people a day coming through it - but most do far less than that. A gun show might have 10,000 people a day coming through, which sounds like a lot. But not all those 10,000 people are going to see every table, or see every other person on the show floor. Also, you can expect that a little dickering over price is going to take place, so you'll probably lose a little there. Connecting with the right buyer at the right price at a gun show can be a difficult and time consuming task.

Gun websites where you can list your gun for sale typically get millions of visitors a month, far outstripping the traffic of gun shops or even gun shows. There are so many people looking for guns online that your listing will likely be seen by hundreds of serious buyers looking for that exact gun. And the more eyes you get on your gun, the better the price you'll get.