| wjnfirearms |
01-06-2012 12:29 PM |
So far, I have accounts with close to 10 distributors. Zanders and Williams are by far the cheapest, relatively speaking. MGE Wholesale also has decent prices. All three have good shipping rates. I try to buy through these three distributors before I fall back to RSR or Lipsey's or the others simply to fill an order for a customer. Lipsey's is the first distributor I got an account with when I opened for business and they turned out to be one of the most expensive in the end.
I like S. Ohio Gun for their selection of European military stuff which is in some demand. They also seem to represent their surplus stock pretty well. I bought a PA63 Polish police pistol for a customer from SOG and it showed up in new condition. He was thrilled.
From what I have seen, buying factory direct is hard unless you do a pretty good volume business. Some of the distributors have dropped Sig Sauer because they are fed up with their business practices. I have on good authority that they track what retailers buy what and how much of their guns and then contact the big sellers and offer to cut out the distributors. Right now, I believe I only have two that handle Sig because of this. Maybe three.
I have a factory direct with Bond Arms for the two shot models they sell and SCCY. I met a Bond rep at the NRA convention here last year and it didn't take much to get set up with them. SCCY I hooked up with them over the phone after they contacted me about getting familiar with their pistols, which I already was. That shows that some will do business direct with retailers, even real small ones like myself. I wouldn't count on ones like Beretta or S&W, though.
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