Buying & Transfers
What an FFL Transfer Should Actually Cost
The transfer fee is the one part of an online gun purchase nobody quotes you in advance, and it varies by a factor of three for identical work.
What you are actually paying for
A transfer fee buys about fifteen minutes of a licensed dealer's time and a permanent entry in their bound book. They receive the firearm, log it in, hold it securely, run your Form 4473 and NICS check, log it back out, and keep that record for twenty years. The record-keeping is the real product — it is why the fee exists even though the physical work is trivial.
Why the spread is so wide
Shops that make their money selling guns tend to price transfers high, because every transfer is a sale they did not make. Shops that treat transfers as a service line price them low and make it up on volume, ammunition and accessories. Neither is wrong, but it means the cheapest transfer near you is frequently not the shop with the biggest showroom.
The questions worth asking on the phone
Four, and they take a minute. What is the fee? Is it per firearm or per shipment — this matters enormously if you are buying two. Do you accept transfers from an out-of-state dealer? And is there a separate charge for a handgun versus a long gun, which some shops apply and most do not mention until you arrive.
Fees that should make you pause
A per-firearm fee on a multi-gun shipment is common and defensible. A storage fee that starts accruing the day the gun arrives is not, unless they told you up front. And a shop that will not quote a number over the phone is telling you something about how the visit will go.
The case for not paying one at all
If you buy from a dealer you can physically reach, there is no transfer — the seller and the receiving dealer are the same business, so the fee has nothing to attach to. We do not charge one on a firearm bought from us and collected at our Houston counter. For anyone in the Houston metro that is a real saving on every purchase, not a promotion.
Incoming transfers are a different service
If you bought a gun somewhere else, or from a private seller across state lines, and you need a dealer to receive it, that is an incoming transfer and it does carry a fee — the work is real and none of it is offset by a sale. Call us for the current rate before you have the seller ship it.
Common questions
Do you charge a transfer fee?
Not on a firearm you bought from us and collect at our Houston counter. Incoming transfers from another dealer or a private sale do carry a fee — call for the current rate.
Is the transfer fee part of my checkout total?
No. Your receiving dealer sets it and collects it from you directly when you pick the firearm up. It never passes through us.
Can one fee cover two guns in the same shipment?
Some dealers do this, many charge per firearm. Ask before you order — it is the single biggest variable on a multi-gun purchase.