Transaction fees?

Not sure if this is the right section but best I could find for this question. I recently participated in my first private sale since the new laws went into effect. I was the seller and picked a participating FFL off the VSP website that was convenient for both of us. I was a little surprised when the FFL charged almost $40 to the buyer to do thee transaction. Curious as to what others are experiencing. This just seemed like a lot to me. Also, do they have to take the firearm into their inventory and then transfer it to the buyer? I thought the purpose of this law was to do a check on the buyer to ensure they are not prohibited. Can't they just do the check. Forgive my ignorance but this seemed ridiculous. Of course the whole law is stupid but that is another topic.

There's a guy here in Chesterfield that charges $17.00 for the same thing.

That is good to hear. I thought the code capped the fee at $15 plus the $2 for the background check. I guess some of these guys found a way to make more money off it. Anybody else out there who can report on what their FFL's are charging? Maybe we should list what they charge so people can decide where to go and who to use.

A little late on responding but this is an important topic that many people don't understand. For context, I was a brick and mortar dealer for many years.

First: There is no cap on what a dealer can charge for background checks. I've seen some dealers charge as high as $70 (ridiculous). I've seen as low as $15. The average is around $30. (home dealers usually charge less; less overhead and trying to gen up business)

Second: The VA State police charge the dealer $2. Some dealers pass this on to the customer and some don't. They don't have to.

Third: The paperwork and time involved in doing background checks is more that most customers understand.

For every 4 background checks that went through instantly we had one that would get delayed. When a background check gets delayed about 50% of them require a phone call to the State Police. If a delay goes into multiple days the dealer has to store the gun. This requires time and space which costs money. Many delays turn into denials. Many denials turn into State Police and in some cases federal investigations. Many of these investigations turn into court cases where the dealer gets a subpoena to testify in court that they don't get paid for (I've spent many days sitting in court rooms thinking about all the money it's costing me)

The Federal form 4473 that every buyer has to complete has to be held by the dealer for 20 years. This requires time and space to manage the forms and store them which costs money.

Fourth: Every gun that comes through a dealer (even simple private sales) has to be checked into the dealers A&D books. These A&D books have to be kept for 20 years. When you do a private sale the dealer takes possession of the gun (checks it into their A&D Books) and then after the background check is run releases possession of the gun (checks it back out of their A&D books) to the new owner. All of this takes time. 99% of Brick and Mortar dealers have electronic A&D books to help manage the volume of guns. Electronic A&D books are expensive.

Bottom line is that every transaction takes at least 1 hour of total time and requires storage and other items that the customer never sees. All of this costs money. If you pay someone $15/hr then each transaction costs the dealer $15 in plus the cost of storage, plus the cost of delays/denials, plus the cost of A&D books, plus other business costs.. Dealers are in the business of making money so $30-40 for a background check is really not that much in the scheme of things

WOW... local stores here all charge $5.00 for the background check.

As for talking about delays are you doing call-ins? Because if you are signing in and using the computer method, you dont have to call in for delays... they will come back approved or denied without you having to do anything. (work part time in a fun store)

I went to a local gun show- that did cost me and the other party entry fee of 10ish each- and the VSP did the transfer for 2 bucks.

Seller provided "basic info" on one form, buyer filled out the normal form (4473?). Both provided ID. Once the transaction was approved the VSP rep signed the seller form and noted the approval number. They kept the 4473.

There was no notation of serial number nor any in-depth data on the item.

I think the seller put the manufacturers name and BASIC description. IE- "Browing double barrel shotgun" and nothing else. The only real question was "is this a handgun?" and I'm sure that is tied to the one a month law.

Overall super easy. I'll use this option again if things line up!

I had a purchase week or so back. First deal for me also, since new law went into affect. Met up in Culpepper at Gary's Ace Hardware. I was purchaser and the cost was $15 out the door.
If you want to be compliant, and near Culpepper I'd recommend Gary's.

Thanks to all who chimed in. I appreciate the reply from AXLARMS who was in the business. All the different responses tell me that this whole thing is clear as mud. If the VSP can do the background for you at a gun show, they obviously don't take the weapon into their inventory, then there should be a way for FFL's to simply provide the background check without all the additional BS. You are not selling the weapon to or buying it from the FFL, they just facilitate the background check. Sounds like this has been made more complicated than it need to be. Now there is a shock!

I'm new here and preparing for my first gun purchase. I'm confused by the statements here that there is no cap on the background check fee, because I see this on the VA State Police website, which is linked from this forum:

"The dealer may charge and retain an additional fee not to exceed $15.00 for obtaining a criminal history record information check on behalf of a seller."

This seems pretty clear to me, but am I missing something or not reading it correctly?

It seems that ambiguity is in the law. Some say that the dealer can only charge $15 for the background check, but since they're also doing a transfer, they can charge for that as well. So if AAA Gun Shop shop charges $20 for a transfer, they can add the $15 for a background check, and now it's $35.

Thanks, that makes sense, and I guess I agree that gun shops can incur more of a burden than running the background check when they do a transfer, though I wonder how often that's the case. Since posting, I did some surfing, and every gun shop that advertised transfers quoted a fee around $30-$40, and they did call it a transfer fee, not a background check fee.

I don't know what everyone charges. Most of the shops near me have been charging $20-30 for a normal transfer. I haven't done any private sales in a while, so I haven't dealt with their prices on those.

The FFL has to follow Federal law as well as the State's dictates as he holds a Federal license . The Staties don't actually do transfers , so they just run the check on the buyer. Sure looks like they should do that anywhere/anytime instead of just at gun shows.