I found a rifle scope combo on the internet that's in-state (Midland area) . That's 9 hours from me to drive and pick up. It's a good price and exactly what I've been looking for in the rifle and the scope is my preferred brand.

Is there a safe way to send money for the transaction and to insure that the merchandise is sent back vis USPS or other carrier?

I don't want to trust an unknown. Need some wisdom here.

Should this go in the rifle section?

Venmo or PayPal can work. Just make sure you don’t make it a Friends/Family transaction.

Don't know about Venmo but paypal is anti firearms and have been known to lose the transaction where firearms are concerned, understand this is just a rumor but !

Venmo is designed for payments between friends, family, and trusted parties. It should NOT be used for purchases from parties you don't trust because there is no recourse.

If you are buying something from a site like Texas Gun Trader, I would only do a FTF transaction. I have occasionally browsed that site for Mini 14s and it seems like the majority of listings appear to be scams.

The short answer is no. There is no way for you to send money and insure that the merchandise is sent back. If you are buying it through gunbroker, they do have recourse set up if the item is not sent. Otherwise, you have to be able to trust the other party. If you found them on Texas Gun Trader, I would not trust them.

Agreed.

Buying from an individual on a forum is actually quite safe. This forum and one other I have had many dealings with individuals, and never been burned. Pretty much self Policing.

OP, do you have a friend or family that is geographically close to the seller? Ask them to buy the rifle in person for you.

Paypal Goods & Services is all I use for non-FTF transactions. I'll gladly spend the 3% fee for the goods & services option. If using the family & friends option, and the seller doesn't ship, you're just SOL. If using the goods & services, you have a certain timeframe that you can contact paypal and say the good were never shipped and they can refund your money.

Edit to add: Dont put anything about firearms in any notes. I've always just kept it very generic and not firearm specific.

Venmo I believe is also a part of PayPal. If you have to go about any recourse neither are good options.

Correct.......however do not put anything in the PayPal description that indicates it’s firearms related or they will refuse the transaction.

I am in Midland. Not really sure I want to get involved in this but if there is something I can do to help the process let me know and I’ll think about it. Several can vouch for me on here if you have any concerns about dealing with “another unknown”

Ringworm, you're correct. I meant to put that in there.

Ringworm is to be trusted.

He won't do anyone wrong.

This is Texas Gun Trader. Really nice rifle (Tikka SS). I have made purchases on TGT before but always arranged a FTF. I guess I need to temper my want for this rifle with a little common sense.

I offered to meet the guy in SA or the Hill Country somewhere. That would be 6 hours for me and probably 3 hours for him.

Thanks for the advice and replies. I was definitely having cold feet.

RayBob, I am at work just south of Odessa right now. If you need to, I can pick it up and drive it home to Canton if that would help you. But on TGT, are you sure this guy is legit? Tons of scammers on that site.

Negative, negative, negative...if they find out you did a firearms transaction they will suspend, lock or close your account. You will NOT have any recourse to collect any money and they will not support you if the transaction goes south.

Texas Gun Trader is good to go FTF. I have had not issues whatsoever. I do NOT do out of town deals from TGT. As stated, too many scammers. "If the price is too good to be true" then, well you know the rest.

Good question here; do any FFL's offer payment escrow w/transfer?
I do understand a FFL is not required, but in a case like this could be way to go. Escrow & ship thru trusted FFL.

Edit - I just searched, and found this: https://www.guntab.com/how-it-works
anybody ever use it?

There is no certainty to long-distance firearms transactions; even FFLs can screw things up.

Research the seller as best you can. If it is on GunBroker/GunsAmerica/Armslist, etc., their feedback can be a guide. Texas Gun Trader seems to have a number of shady characters.

Talk to the seller, maybe meet them half way? I like the idea of a local THF'r putting eyes on the gun and make sure it exists. They could also get a feel for the sellers character. Just my opinion...

Is it a Tikka T3x on Tx Gun Trader being sold by Jeffrey38? If so, it's a scam. He has a text only phone number, has 5 total listings at cheap prices and he just joined TGG 2 days ago, and one of his listings says he ships via "standard Canada Post shipping to most provinces."

In my limited time looking on Tx Gun Trader, many of the scammers say they're located really far away from the major metro areas and they don't actually list a location in their post. I encountered an abnormal amount of listings for Midland, Odessa, Brownsville, etc....this allows them to make their case as to why you need to send them money and they'll ship it to you.

If you are buying something online and try to call them and you get an automated message stating, "the text mail subscriber you are trying to reach is not available", then it is almost certainly a scammer. A legitimate seller will have a real working voice number and will usually talk to you on the phone if necessary (not to say that scammers won't also talk to you on the phone). After 20 years of internet scams related to buying/selling, it's pretty easy for me to sniff out the scams.

BTW...on TGT you can verify their IP address...

Click the "target icon" under their name and to the left of the question mark.

Beware of TGT. I stopped looking a long time ago after I got hosed. Best of luck.

Yeah I had a guy where it said he was in Nigeria. He told me he had his ip like that si people can't find him. He wanted me to send half the money then he'd send the gun. I said send it to my ffl then I'll send you the cash on pickup.

was your transaction FTF or long distance?

This is true. Avoid PP for firearm stuff. You can end up with no money, a locked account, and no gun.

I bought lots of stuffs (ammo and firearms from TexasGunTrader). It's the best site for buying/selling/trading guns and ammo.

I just recently was considering buying something long distance from a seller on TGT(username dealbest55). It seemed like a better than average deal. Everything went smoothly until I asked the seller to have a phone call with me. He replied “no” and removed all of his ads(approximately 8). Luckily I hadn’t sent any $. TGT is a free site so it will have a higher scam rate. Armslist is trying to combat this by charging for monthly use. It doesn’t mean that Armslist doesn’t have scammers, I’m sure they still do. IMO, there is no way to get recourse if you get hosed, so I wouldn’t do any long distance transactions worth enough that it would bother me to lose that $. I only trust FTF transactions.