Review: Online Gun Auction Sites
Some of the largest online auction marketplaces, such as eBay, are closed to buyers and sellers of firearms. But in Canada, several websites have appeared to fill the gap created by eBay’s “no guns” policy, enabling the legal trade of firearms online.
The most recent addition to the lineup is Mississauga-based www.gunaddicts.com, launched in August this year.
The biggest selling point for buyers and sellers is that the site offers free membership with no listing or auction fees. Site revenue appears to be ad-based, and the site offers a comprehensive assortment of listings, dozens and dozens of pistols, rifles, shotguns, air guns, ammunition, reloading supplies, and more.
With zero-fee auctions now available, other auction sites appear to have followed suit. www.gunauction.ca shows no listing fees for their auctions, and no end of listing fees either, although their fee page contains entries for both types of charges. They do still charge for uploading photos, bold titles, or other additions, and commercial users must also pay based on number of listings.
Gun Auction Canada uses a professional looking PHP configuration, and also carries several categories of auctions. All firearms are carried under one “firearms” category, and presently only 33 firearms are listed, mostly rifles. The site also carries online Google ads, and at least a few of them were for online stock trading, indicating misapplied keywords hitting on firearms “stocks”.
Averaging almost 2,000 visitors a month is www.canadiangunnutz.com, now about 7 years old. Mainly a messaging forum, it offers buyers and sellers a place to meet and make deals, but is not strictly speaking an auction site.
Several antique auction sites also carry firearms sales, but guns are not the main focus. The marketplace is certainly alive and well for gun owners to buy and sell firearms in Canada, which can be very convenient for those who are not situated near a gun dealer, or who prefer to buy used guns at a discount from owners who no longer want them.
Since firearms shipping rules were relaxed a few years ago, however, both non-restricted rifles and shotguns and restricted pistols and long guns can be shipped via Canada Post or by licenced transporters, making online deals easy, affordable and attractive.
As always, online firearms sales still require a valid Possession Acquisition Licence (PAL), and sellers are required to verify PAL’s through the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program, before completing a transfer and shipping a firearm.
