Just bitching about Armslist

[Michael W]

I'm sure this isn't news to any of you guys. But Armslist is full of shit.
So let me tell you a story. I was looking for an optic( can you believe that) so I dropped into Old Armslist, typed in Nightforce on a search ,got rid of vendors and started looking.
Out of the five ads that I replied to ,5 were scams... To the same fucking guy. Unbelievable. The ads totally looked legit maybe he copied and pasted somebody else's add that's all I could think of .Not like the old days when you could absolutely tell the person that was trying to scam you wasn't for the United States by the verbiage of the ad." This scope be very good to shoot through nice Bang Bang shoot straight"
When I text messaged the jackalope he almost sounded legit but wouldn't accept a safe form of payment. That's when my alarm Bells clanging. This was for Nightforce Beast(he was asking real money for it not a unbearable deal)I asked him how was the eye box. He told me it was in great shape no scratches looks brand new. Then I asked him what kind of weapon he used it on, he told me an AK-47. Needless to say at this point I had to fuck with him a bit. I've spent a little time in Somalia and Nigeria, so I started speaking to him in Somali and I guess he didn't realize that he lapsed into Somali... After about three questions of that I informed him that he was speaking Somali that was his last contact with me.
Now I'm not saying every ad on Armslist is fake hell I've advertised on their myself. I'm just saying be very careful I'd hate to see any of you SOB's getting screwed... Well most of you SOB's
I know you grumpy old bastards are going to start pumping out you should only buy on snipers hide so save it I know that. I'm the guy that touches the hot stove over and over and over again

 

[E. Bryant]

Armslist could fix this problem by requiring verified accounts, or at least burying/shadow-banning unverified accounts. That they choose not to after all these years shows that they wish to run a website dominated by scammers.

Typical Armslist purchase attempt:

1) Locate something I want in a nearby town.
2) Send email to seller stating that I have cash in hand and would like to schedule a time to meet.
3) Receive email from an account with a name like "e Al" stating that the item is actually 1500 miles away, and it was posted in my local area only because he was traveling for work. Yeah, sure, other than the fact that it would be illegal to sell a firearm in that fashion and highly impractical to pack a Barrett M107 in checked baggage on the off-chance that a seller could be located, sure, this is completely plausible.
4) I mention that my brother-in-law lives in whatever state and can head over to check out the item.
5) Seller either goes quiet or moves immediately to a conversation about putting non-refundable payment in his possession via postal mail or electronic means.

Every. Single. Time.

Fuck Armslist, and fuck scammers.

 

[Michael W]

Armslist could fix this problem by requiring verified accounts, or at least burying/shadow-banning unverified accounts. That they choose not to after all these years shows that they wish to run a website dominated by scammers.

Typical Armslist purchase attempt:

1) Locate something I want in a nearby town.
2) Send email to seller stating that I have cash in hand and would like to schedule a time to meet.
3) Receive email from an account with a name like "e Al" stating that the item is actually 1500 miles away, and it was posted in my local area only because he was traveling for work. Yeah, sure, other than the fact that it would be illegal to sell a firearm in that fashion and highly impractical to pack a Barrett M107 in checked baggage on the off-chance that a seller could be located, sure, this is completely plausible.
4) I mention that my brother-in-law lives in whatever state and can head over to check out the item.
5) Seller either goes quiet or moves immediately to a conversation about putting non-refundable payment in his possession via postal mail or electronic means.

Every. Single. Time.

Fuck Armslist, and fuck scammers.

The funny thing is I asked him to send me a picture of the serial number on the scope and the serial number on the box and he did. Both matched I'm sure that he did some kind of photoshopping to make that happen. You know what's sad if the fucker put as much effort into doing a legit job he would be successful

 

[Hound Dog]

I just sold a couple things on armslist. I had 3 separate ads, this guy reply's to every single one within a minute of each other with the same exact copy paste message. He almost immediately wanted to send me a certified check, and asked what the final price would be. So I just put an extra zero on the end to see if he would catch it. He says no problem what name do you want on the check. I gave him the number of the local police dept and asked him to call me. lol

 

[Cheyenne Bodie]

AL is shite. Stay away.

I once had a dude try to get me to mail an AR15 to his "FFL". His FFL info was just his pick up address and a Canadian FFL number.

I'm convinced it's just a giant ATF honeypot anymore, I've had to talk to them a few times years ago about AL fuckery. They never once even bothered to call me back. I started giving out the director of ops for Baltimore ATF's phone number as my contact info when someone would try to scam me, but that got boring. Just stay away.

 

[Doc68]

I'm sure this isn't news to any of you guys. But Armslist is full of shit.
So let me tell you a story. I was looking for an optic( can you believe that) so I dropped into Old Armslist, typed in Nightforce on a search ,got rid of vendors and started looking.
Out of the five ads that I replied to ,5 were scams... To the same fucking guy. Unbelievable. The ads totally looked legit maybe he copied and pasted somebody else's add that's all I could think of .Not like the old days when you could absolutely tell the person that was trying to scam you wasn't for the United States by the verbiage of the ad." This scope be very good to shoot through nice Bang Bang shoot straight"
When I text messaged the jackalope he almost sounded legit but wouldn't accept a safe form of payment. That's when my alarm Bells clanging. This was for Nightforce Beast(he was asking real money for it not a unbearable deal)I asked him how was the eye box. He told me it was in great shape no scratches looks brand new. Then I asked him what kind of weapon he used it on, he told me an AK-47. Needless to say at this point I had to fuck with him a bit. I've spent a little time in Somalia and Nigeria, so I started speaking to him in Somali and I guess he didn't realize that he lapsed into Somali... After about three questions of that I informed him that he was speaking Somali that was his last contact with me.
Now I'm not saying every ad on Armslist is fake hell I've advertised on their myself. I'm just saying be very careful I'd hate to see any of you SOB's getting screwed... Well most of you SOB's
I know you grumpy old bastards are going to start pumping out you should only buy on snipers hide so save it I know that. I'm the guy that touches the hot stove over and over and over again

Hey, it's a real scope. I just didn't have time to take real pics so I figured I would just get some from the internet. Just send me the money through paypal FF.

Doc

 

[myronman3]

well, if you use it, i would ONLY do face to face deals. NOTHING else.

 

[E. Bryant]

I find that 90% of buyers and sellers on Armslist are scammers.

If you strip out the dealers, that number is probably too long. Might even been too low if you include the dealers

Yes, face-to-face interactions only, and even at that, expect to get annoyed.

 

[E-Tool]

I guess I’ve been lucky, only had to deal with one scammer buyer a few years ago and i’ve probably done a dozen arms list deals all face to face of course.

If I get something the dealers don’t want in trade or can’t offer a fair price, it always sells on armslist.