man of blues said

Steve said

decoyme said
Third party holds monies till purchase OK'd by buyer. I'm using 1 of 2 recommended by GB.

This is interesting, and maybe something new for us to learn about.

If you can, please share more about this process, costs involved, finding escrow agents, ...

when I was considering recent sale, I went to my LGS/FFL, and asked him about brokering the sale.. his resplonse was he does it all the time.

I would hand him the gun, and the contact for buyers local FFL guy, they would call each other, exchange FFL info, and agree on terms... Seller would send me a USPS Money order, Via USPS Priority and tracked Envelope, which was insured for purchase price..., and I, upon reciept, would call my FFL and release it for sale.. he would notify and ship straight away, insured.... pretty much done dealeo.  out of pocket was approx  his fee, approx $25-30, + $28, shipping insured, and $6.45, for the buyer to send M/O...

I have to think an "escrow agent" is gonna be a bit more money, because he is a "third party" involved, and really has no liability..or does he?  but please do tell use what this costs, and who you used... and whether there were still additional shipping and FFL charges on both ends of the transaction.

If someone is truly acting as an escrow agent they are depositing funds into an escrow account which can only be accessed when a certain set of agreed upon conditions have been met. They do indeed have legal liabilities responsibilities.

What you are describing with "my LGS/FFL" isn't brokering a sale. He is simply fulfilling his responsibilities as an FFL to legally ship the firearm to another FFL for the purposes of transferring ownership. As a part of that he is satisfying shipping and governmental requirements background checks, etc. for which he is charging you a fee. The buyer is paying for the same services (less shipping) on his end.

An escrow agent would hold the money until both buyer and seller are happy that all conditions of the sale and transfer have been met. He's guaranteeing the financial safety of the transaction.

You "brokered" the deal when you made a deal with the buyer.

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decoyme said
For this deal of about $1200.00 the charge is $75.00, when the gun gets to my FFL I go down and inspect it, if every thing is OK I contact escrow service and they release monies to seller immediately, if not it goes back to the dealer on his end. It is designed to protect seller and buyer. Escrow lets seller know you are serious, seller usually pays half of escrow cost. Escrow service tracks shipment and if they do not hear from you release monies to seller usually in 72 hours, if you have taken delivery, whatever you and seller agree to. These types of services are sometimes pretty specific to product being sold. I have used them before for jewelry and first edition books. Thats about all I know, it keeps every thing on the up and up and allows neither party to take advantage of the other. The man I'm buying SM from is in PA and I'm not up to that big of "road trip". What have you guys been doing? I hate to believe I have become an enabler of 

Randy, thanks for explaining the process and it's purpose.

Unfortunately, you have learned one of the symptoms of is the overwhelming need to infect others with it.

This thread has strayed badly from the original subject, I'm going to recommend that an Admin or Mod. lock it up. The subject of escrow, since it's fairly new to most of us, might be best served under a separate topic. Thanks for bringing it to us.

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