I suppose it preemptively bears mention that this idea applies to everything you might buy ⸺ online and otherwise. No matter where you go or what you're buying, folks want to separate you from as many of your dollars as they can. Such is the tao of capitalism.
Anywhomst…
One of the ways online gun stores compete with each other is to get themselves to the top of various price aggregators like gun.deals. How do they get there? Easy: They list their guns very cheaply and then tack on a plethora of fees once the user's going through the checkout process.
At the time I wrote this draft, a certain online gun store had the S&W Bodyguard 2.0 for a mere $334.93. This was the price propagated to gun.deals and others ⸺ a seemingly fantastic deal considering its MSRP is $450 and most stores will sell it for $400!
One of those physical stores I frequent, and from which I ended up buying this gun, told me that this alleged $334.93 price was not just low but below wholesale! Of course, once you start going through the checkout process, you'll discover there's way more you don't see in the advertised price.
Copied from that site's checkout page:
- Subtotal: $334.93
- Discounts: $0.00
- Shipping, Taxes, and Fees
- In Store Pickup Fee: $29.95
- Firearm In Store Pickup Fee: $37.00
- Firearm Fee: $9.00
- Sales Tax: $20.10
- Credit Card Processing Fee: $21.50
- Total: $452.48
How did a gun priced under wholesale suddenly end up above MSRP? Well, this is exactly how they get you. They're hoping you won't remember there's myriad fees involved or that you won't pay much attention because you've gotten yourself excited about the prospect of your new gun. Adding to that is some psychological effect in having gone so far into the process: You might as well go through with it since you've gone this far already, right?
Don't give in to that feeling! Because you can do better, and it's not even difficult. The physical store I mentioned above sold me my Bodyguard 2.0 at a regular retail price, no special discounts or anything, for less than the "below wholesale" price the other place was [not really] offering.
Not copied (because in-store) but in the same format as above:
- Subtotal: $399.99
- Discounts: $0.00
- Taxes and Fees
- Sales Tax: $23.99
- NICS Fee: $2.00
- Total: $425.98
Not a huge difference, no, but the point is that the extremely low online price was smoke and mirrors and ballooned up nearly $120 from list. The physical shop, meanwhile, played no games, had a higher price to start with, and still came out ahead.