Gun store owners, what’s it like being one?

Just buy them at the store and sell them from your pickup bed. No license hassle. Do this with NFA items especially. People are always hunting for good nfa stuff without the wait and stamps.

In all seriousness, Prop can answer this. While some here have worked at gun stores, he owns and operates one.

No money in it.

Very thin margins. Hard to be competitive with big box stores and online prices

I’m not expecting it to be some kind of glorified business like the movies make it out to be. It would be a career change most definitely. I’ve heard of people doing it as a hobby to start out while keeping their day job.

I couldn’t handle the stupidity of certain customers. I don’t mind at all folks who ask questions, but too often I overhear fellow customers trying to impress and show how smart/badass they are. I get sick of that crap in a hurry.

It happened one day at Bass Pro. After the morons left, I told the clerk that I bet he hears more bullshite than any other employee in the store. He replied, “Yes, sir.”

Been in plenty of gun stores, where the clerk doesn't know much, especially about AR15's.

Last one, to his credit, was quick to admit his limited knowledge.

Owner was very knowledgeable, though.

dont do it. in hunting/fishing stores, guns are by far the least marked up items. it's impossible to make money if you just sell guns. if you take used guns in, youll get lots of trash in there peddling shite guns trying to get twice what they're worth.

trust me, do not do it. you will get put to bed by online sites selling the same shite you have at cost with no tax. it's a hard business with the worst margins ever. you have to have some kind of manufacturing capabilities like Sulzer to even think about making money with it

You can find Anderson lowers on sale online regularly for $29.99, which is considerably cheaper than their dealer pricing. Aero's dealer pricing is tiered and gets lower with quantity. The problem retailers have with Aero, and manufacturers with similar business models, is Aero is their dealers biggest competitor. They will under cut you on pricing without blinking an eye. So, unless you are buying at their highest quantities you won't be able to get under their pricing when they run specials and sales. If you're only going to be doing 25-50 receivers at a time you're better off just doing the transfer for the customer. This isn't unique to lowers, anything an 01 FFL can deal in is going to have paper thin margins. The market is saturated with 01 FFLs and everything is a race to the bottom on pricing. There is a saying in the FFL world, the best way to make money selling guns is to figure out something else to sell besides guns. Like Carson said, your money makers at the gun stores are the accessories, gear, or services the shop offers. Selling just guns locally could be a fun hobby, but there is a 99.99% chance it will always be a hobby for you. It's a volume game and you need a lot to make it work. An 01 FFL is only $175, if you want to try it out it's pretty cheap to get in the game and see what's up. A good collection of hobby gun dealers can be found as vendors at your local gun show. Thier pricing is what they need to charge to make it worth it operating and buying at their volume. Despite online opinion, most are not out there trying to gouge people. They want to be as competitive as possible, but they're just not able to compete on price with bigger fish. Also, notice even guys at that level will have 10s of thousands in inventory on top and under their tables.

You could do this out of your house if you honestly wanted to try it. Depending on local laws and zoning of course. Look up requirements for FFL.

How so?