This is a free public service announcement to FFLs everywhere: Firearm transfers are like free money!
The internet is here to stay. You can deny that all you want as your gun store folds or you can cash in on that fact. If you own a gun store that is actively discouraging transfers by pricing them exorbitantly high or refusing to do them all together, you are short-sighted and missing out on one of your best potential revenue generation methods. Transfers do not represent a threat to your business; they represent easy cash.
Think about it. The margins that you make on most of your firearms are pretty low. You have to take the time to order them, sit on the inventory, staff the store, and then spend the time it takes to complete the sale and transfer to the purchaser. That all adds up to a pretty small return on your time and money.
However, transfers are nearly pure profit. It only takes minutes for you to receive the firearm, hand over the 4473 to a customer, and then call it in. You don’t have to lay out any cash or sit on any inventory. In return for these few moments of your time, you get $25 (or possibly as high as $45 depending on going rates in your area).
Successful shops try to beat all of the other local shops prices on inventory. They should also be trying to offer the most competitively priced transfers. You should be striving to do 10 (or more) of them a day and to be known as the best place in town to do a transfer. That is smart business.
The internet and internet guns sales are here to stay, but so is the need for local FFL holders. So, get a clue and start cashing in on transfers.
