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babagan00sh

Looking to get a handgun at low cost. How do you / can you shop around?

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My wife's been trying out some handguns and thinks she has what she wants narrowed down - I think she's looking at the 9mm Walther PPQ.  She's got maybe 15 days left on the pistol permit to make the purchase (she already extended it the 1 time, so she has to do this now or start over : )

Any tips on where to buy? Is pricing pretty consistent from dealer to dealer?  Do you just get on the phone with each one?  Do they give prices over the phone or you have to go to each one? Other than sales tax, are there charges that some dealers add on and others don't / they build into the price? (background check?)

If you shop online and get a good price out of state, there's the cost that a NJ FFL will charge to receive the gun and sell to you, right? likely negating the lower price you get online?

You have to take possession / complete the sale by the expiration date of the permit, right? They need to enter the serial number on the form so if they are out of stock, they won't know the serial number of the gun they will be supplying. ie you can't pay for the gun before the expiration while they wait to get it in, right?

Anything else we should know?

Thanks!

And yes, if you buy from an out of state dealer, you'd have to make sure to get a 10 round magazine / do they bother to have those? ie another reason web shopping won't work?

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Make it easy on yourself....

Post what area you live, and I am sure some member will recommend a local FFL/Dealer with competitive pricing .....

You can also use this 

https://www.njgunforums.com/forum/index.php?/forms/2-handgun-price-request/

the link is right at the top....

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7 hours ago, babagan00sh said:

My wife's been trying out some handguns and thinks she has what she wants narrowed down - I think she's looking at the 9mm Walther PPQ.  She's got maybe 15 days left on the pistol permit to make the purchase (she already extended it the 1 time, so she has to do this now or start over : )

Any tips on where to buy? Is pricing pretty consistent from dealer to dealer?  Do you just get on the phone with each one?  Do they give prices over the phone or you have to go to each one? Other than sales tax, are there charges that some dealers add on and others don't / they build into the price? (background check?)

If you shop online and get a good price out of state, there's the cost that a NJ FFL will charge to receive the gun and sell to you, right? likely negating the lower price you get online?

You have to take possession / complete the sale by the expiration date of the permit, right? They need to enter the serial number on the form so if they are out of stock, they won't know the serial number of the gun they will be supplying. ie you can't pay for the gun before the expiration while they wait to get it in, right?

Anything else we should know?

Thanks!

And yes, if you buy from an out of state dealer, you'd have to make sure to get a 10 round magazine / do they bother to have those? ie another reason web shopping won't work?

Seems to me you should have been asking these questions a couple of months ago.

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I have found most dealers will give you a price over the phone.

Buying from out of state may not be cheaper after you figure in shipping and the transfer fee. Each dealer sets its own transfer fee, some as high as $50. NICS is charged either way and costs about $16.

She has picked a wonderful gun. I should have bought a PPQ with my last permit.

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For the few bucks you save generally better to buy local.  That said, there are times when the market is tight and you can only find what you want in another part of the country.  If you really want to save money then look into buying a previously owned gun from an individual.  There are many people that rush out to buy the latest and greatest new gun and then after shooting maybe two boxes of ammo decide they don't really want it and sell it cheap just to get rid of it.  Check out various buy-sell boards or ask people if they know of anyone wanting to sell what you are looking for.

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Here is one dealer in Somerset along with their online pricing for a Walther:

http://www.gardenstatearmory.com/handguns/semi-automatic-handguns?manufacturer=42&page=1&caliber=18

Here is another dealer on Rt 22:

http://www.middlebrookfirearms.com/

and another in Flemington: https://tacticaltrainingcenternj.com/firearm-sales/

Call them and ask what they have in stock and what their best pricing is.

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This has been an amazingly frustrating experience trying to get pricing over the phone and in emails with local dealers (I agree with your thinking Howard - buy local and with the laws, having to send to a FFL in NJ and the extra costs, we didn't consider going out of state).

So with several different  LOCAL places we ask a question and they answer something else,  We ask several questions in an email and they answer only 1 of them, etc.

We really value customer service. And it's common for us to be disappointed with the lack of it - in all kinds of situations... So I guess I shouldn't expect different from firearms dealers? 

But I'd think a gun sale is less frequent / more valuable to a store than buying a quart of ice cream. ie if someone contacts a firearms dealer to make a several hundred dollar purchase that the customer won't make all that often, the dealer would endeavor to answer the questions the customer asks / do what they can to earn the sale?  Is that expecting too much?  Maybe they don't want to be price shopped or expect to make a sale from people that don't ask questions?

With each call and email that didn't get the answers we were asking (hard ones like - do you have this model in stock, how much is it and if it's out of stock, what's the lead time to get it in considering my wife's permit is expiring soon), we kept thinking 'time is money' and 'we're not going to save much of anything with all this effort'.

Wound up buying where we started and are happy with the purchase.  

Thanks for your advice on this.

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On 12/4/2018 at 11:47 AM, babagan00sh said:

This has been an amazingly frustrating experience trying to get pricing over the phone and in emails with local dealers (I agree with your thinking Howard - buy local and with the laws, having to send to a FFL in NJ and the extra costs, we didn't consider going out of state).

So with several different  LOCAL places we ask a question and they answer something else,  We ask several questions in an email and they answer only 1 of them, etc.

We really value customer service. And it's common for us to be disappointed with the lack of it - in all kinds of situations... So I guess I shouldn't expect different from firearms dealers? 

But I'd think a gun sale is less frequent / more valuable to a store than buying a quart of ice cream. ie if someone contacts a firearms dealer to make a several hundred dollar purchase that the customer won't make all that often, the dealer would endeavor to answer the questions the customer asks / do what they can to earn the sale?  Is that expecting too much?  Maybe they don't want to be price shopped or expect to make a sale from people that don't ask questions?

With each call and email that didn't get the answers we were asking (hard ones like - do you have this model in stock, how much is it and if it's out of stock, what's the lead time to get it in considering my wife's permit is expiring soon), we kept thinking 'time is money' and 'we're not going to save much of anything with all this effort'.

Wound up buying where we started and are happy with the purchase.  

Thanks for your advice on this.

So frustrating and one of my biggest pet peeves, not answering the simple questions that were asked!

From where did you end up buying?

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