Florida Gun Trader has seriously gone downhill

[Deputydave]

I've gotten a lot of really good deals here, Armslist and Florida Gun Trader. FSN continues to be fine but AL and FGT have dropped off the cliff. First AL of course with their paid route, even for buyers. That kinda sucked and I don't look at it that often anymore. I have noticed that many sellers are circumventing the paid thing for buyers by putting in an email or phone number. Bit risky for them because of the spammers but it widens their net pool of buyers to those, like me, that aren't going to pay to buy.

However...

FGT has become trailer trash on three fronts. First, it is inundated by spammers big time. Type in any Glock like 19X and see how many pics come up for the same pistol from all over the state. And all at a ridiculous price like $400. Hey, I'd love a $400 19X just as much as the next guy...but it's all scammers. Second, the site itself sucks behind the scenes. If someone responds to an ad, I only get an email notification about half the time. Not that big of a deal as I check the site as well. But I haven't been able to respond to any messages on the site itself. If it's a msg that has been sent to me from the site but didn't show up in email, I have to respond on the site which gives me a message sent failure in my email (which means the msg didn't go through on the site itself and I can't respond to a buyer) and then have to go into the message failed email to get the email of the person contacting me in order to respond. The third, and biggest problem is the asshat that keeps posting gay porn all over the site. Makes it difficult to browse a page at home around family or if your at work on a break when you've got gay porn all over the page.

I don't know who owns the site or if they have any administrators but they seriously need to step up and get their house in order.

Sorry for the rant. I feel better now.

[REDinFL]

And, you are correct on all fronts. Neither AL or FGT care about flags. FGT is full of scammers. A shame, because I got some good deals, but one has to sort them out, and do FTF. If one does go there to look, I recommend taking advantage of the "infosniper". For those who don't yet know, that's the red target-like symbol next to the name. It will tell you where that post comes from, based on IP address. If the post is listed from someplace local, but the sniper says NYC or Tunisia (not being facetious, I saw one) there's a problem. Yes, there can be a legitimate reason for another location, but that's not likely more than 1 in 10.

AL had to close off because they were getting a lot of the same, and it looks like there are traps for the foolish, likely placed by certain "agencies". I posted WTB ads, and got responses from all over the country offering to ship. Right! No way of knowing if they really were where they said they were. I do everything FTF, though I'll gladly do shipping with people I know on here. Where else would I be willing to say, "I'll send it . If you like it,send me a check; if you don't like it, send it back." There's the test.

[tector]

I am pretty much down to here and Gunbroker. Yeah GB takes a slice, but they are reputable.

[FfNJGTFO]

I am pretty much down to here and Gunbroker. Yeah GB takes a slice, but they are reputable.

I agree. Most of what I've done over this past 1/2 a year has been GunBroker. But I've been "buying" mostly, not selling.

[lakelandman]

The gun panic buy has turn out more scammers as well on all platforms. This one on Gb had me rolling when asking the owner if it was a joke he told me to troll elsewhere and that I'm banned from bidding on this extremely rare HK USP 45.

[Wulfmann]

I have seen TBF at the Melbourne Gun Show. He has very nice stuff, some very rare and most in really great condition.

His prices are high and he seems to cater to collectors looking for super condition stuff where money is no object meaning not me LOL

I do not know him personally but can say he is very knowledgeable and his guns are very nice but I don't live in the part of town that can afford his prices

[Tenzing_Norgay]

Lol. Here's the link to the ended auction. Check out the "appraisal"...

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/893574398

[N4KVE]

Well I feel real lucky after reading that. Picked up a pre owned one from Ira a few years ago. LE turn in that cost me $400. Exact same gun. The seller must be eating expired meds. GARY.

[Wulfmann]

Always buy the gun not the story.

[Deputydave]

There was about three pages of scam ads on the site this morning. I got a little fed up and sent the admin a message:

I would like to inquire if FGT is going to take any action to filter out the scammers? I am or have been a moderator, administrator and owner of several different sites over the last 20+ years and know that there are filters that can be put into place for new registrations such as email verification or holding in a queue for an admin to approve after checking IP and email. These would go a long way towards weeding out the gay porn as well as the $300 Glock 19X ads (among a ton of others coming in from all over the country/out of county). Additionally, if I click on Central Florida I'm still seeing ads from Miami all the way to Panama City so that filter isn't working very well. I enjoy the site but additional effort needs to be taken because it's already at the point of the ridiculous. I don't want to have to be careful around family looking at a gun site hoping gay porn isn't going to be seen on the page. And having to wade through page after page of scammers is getting to be too much of an effort to be worth the effort. I appreciate your attention in this serious matter.

It really has gotten past the point of the ridiculous. Imagine being at work on a break and popping onto the site to see what's new and the first page has gay porn all over it. Or being at home around family. Shouldn't have to worry about that from a gun site. I own a site using the same software as FSN, and have owned or been an admin on sites using other software so I know what can be done on them to filter out scam accounts. This morning on my board (http://sepboard.us/) there are two accounts waiting in the queue for me to look at. Only takes seconds to approve or disapprove them and it cuts out the scammers/spammers that make it onto the board by 99%. Same is done here which is why I can appreciate FSN so much. The owner/Admin have gone to the effort to make it a good forum that is enjoyable to go to and spend time on. FGT needs to put in the same effort or they may as well close the site down. I've seen boards that I've taken over Admin duties on that literally had thousands of scam/spam accounts to the point that they just couldn't be saved.

Anyway, I'll see if I get a response and if I do I'll post it for others to see.