Buyer requesting to see hi res pictures up close of my firearm for sale. Scam or just cautious buyer?

[2muchsoysauce4allthisrice]

The website doesn't let me post more than 3 pics or at least it didn't when I tried.
I sent the person multiple pictures through their email also so that should have been good. Someone said something about serial numbers not matching... that's weird why wouldn't they match? My firearm is stock so it should be assumed that the serials match. I would not expect to get 1300 for a firearm with serials that don't match. Someone else mentioned that the buyer was driving far away. Idk how that could be bc they set the location and asked me to drive to them. It will be about 100 miles round trip for me to drive to them and they haven't mentioned to me if they are local to where they set the meet or not. But they're no longer responding and instead liking these posts so that says a lot on how serious or non serious they are about buying the firearm. I bought an Arsenal Sam7 just last yr from a user in here and I didn't ask for 100 pictures. I drove to them 1 hr and inspected the firearm in person. Everything was good so I went through with the purchase at the ffl and I paid 1500, much more than this seller would pay for my firearm. It's just weird to me, ya know? It's a lot of weird little quirks to this deal that don't make sense and buyer again has gone radio silent but is freely liking these comments hahaha

Yeah I totally get that for collectibles but as you stated my firearm is new. Nothing has been switched or changed. It's fully stock.

Hey, just see it as it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t worth it. Someone else will come along. It’s all good in this neighborhood.

 

[2muchsoysauce4allthisrice]

I mean, you tell me if these pictures are "not hi res enough" . . .

Those hex dragon scales look nice. Usually, the photos we upload through this site or email will be compressed. The photos I uploaded in the two previous posts as jokester examples are clearer on my phone. I’ve noticed sometimes the clearest usually will be by sending through text messages, Google drive/photos, or even Imgur can be clearer.

 

[Nacho_Libre]

Those hex dragon scales look nice. The photos be we upload through this site or email will be compressed.

Thanks man. The grip with these is pretty comfortable as well. However I prefer the shadow 2 grips on this firearm, they just feel better.

 

[bottomtime]

Charge $100 fee for the pics, and you will send them when you receive the money and a high res pic of his driver's license and a piece of mail with his address clearly shown. Pro tip; I wouldn't sit around hitting "Refresh" in anticipation.

This is the best pro tip I’ve read all week! Well said!

 

[ikeo1]

Those hex dragon scales look nice. Usually, the photos we upload through this site or email will be compressed. The photos I uploaded in the two previous posts as jokester examples are clearer on my phone. I’ve noticed sometimes the clearest usually will be by sending through text messages, Google drive/photos, or even Imgur can be clearer.

We do image compression and size reduction here. People should use free hosting services for images for larger resolution images.

This helps keeps the site fast and efficient since 80% of users are on mobile. With the payload smaller, the number of times you refresh it saves you bandwidth data AND battery for both buyer/seller and the site. This reduces overall cost and efficiency for us here and better user experience for 90% of the users. Then offload the 10% to the higher res services.

The file sizes here are limited by design. It allows us to scale farther longer and cheaper.

 

[guncurious]

I mean, you tell me if these pictures are "not hi res enough" . . .

They aren't. They are 1024x768, hard to zoom in and look for scratches, etc. Also there are no internal photos (barrel, slide wear, etc). Personally I would have asked you to email me more. I see a bunch of white gunk on the serrations of the slide but can't tell if it is dust, scratches, cheese, something else...

 

[ikeo1]

I mean, you tell me if these pictures are "not hi res enough" . . .

Also clean your camera lens. The pics are so/so I’m sure serious buyers would ask

 

[Solaire]

So, to shed some light:
His ad was posted from different account (zero rep too, zero messages on top of that) got taken down. Reposted from the „Nacho” one, If I recall correctly with $100 higher in price. Explained that „a mod took it down and said to post it on the main account”. Kinda red flag-ish, isn’t it? Still decided to proceed.
– Got pictures from him.
Seems good, visible, but only one side, no slide off picture – asked for another side and with a slide off – He mentioned that he’s uncomfortable with sharing serials – I replied that covering serials is fine by me. Regarding asking for the photo of the internals – he replied that he doesn’t know how to or afraid to take a slide off. It was kinda weird for me and made me hesitant. Never asked for a video, he offered it himself, maybe got confused using email or talking to another buyer. I got all our conversations saved and what he says differs from what he claims now.
– it was 2,5+ hours drive for me. I mentioned that, asked if he will ever be in my area, because.. why not? We didn’t get to the part for meeting somewhere in between. I NEVER ASKED to drive to my location, I wouldn’t expect a seller to.
He wasn’t ready to sent two more pictures – fine, nobody is obliged, but I don’t have to waste three hours to driving one way, to „inspect everything in person” for something to turned out to be off. I understand that I have zero rep and so does he, who’s at risk more – I’d say a buyer.
– While chatting I mentioned that I’m on a fence between getting a manual safety SP01 now or waiting on a Tactical one. When I decided to get the latter, you know what other sellers I chatted with told me? „Yeah, cool, whatever” and their ads are already closed with „sold”, Nacho can’t move on for some reason.

After some time I decided to reply back to our DMs saying apologies to waste his time or thanking for the all details (insufficient for me though). However, instead of blocking/ ignoring or just moving to another buyer - he started to calling me names, scammer and jobless, lol.
I invited Ikeo to the convo and, I assume he checked me and proposed to dismiss the whole show, and that what I did.
But! For the second or third time when I go to new threads hoping to see a new post from Scott-R66 with roster addition rumors – I see Nacho’s posts mentioning me and his crusade against scammers here instead!

Sorry for the wall of text, the guy might not even see it if blocked me, lol, but maybe some of you will find it entertaining!

 

[Nacho_Libre]

They aren't. They are 1024x768, hard to zoom in and look for scratches, etc. Also there are no internal photos (barrel, slide wear, etc). Personally I would have asked you to email me more. I see a bunch of white gunk on the serrations of the slide but can't tell if it is dust, scratches, cheese, something else...

I did email more haha. But seriously there's nothing wrong with it at all. It's in brand new condition. No scratches/dents etc and I explained this to the buyer. As for white stuff yeah it's a bit dusty bc it's been in the safe for a yr. It's a nice gun but I can't ccw it so it lives in the safe most of the time.

 

[BRADPA3772]

I always ask for high resolution pictures to be texted to me when buying something online… Why drive all the way down to the gun store and deal with a problem there…. If a seller can’t provide those, then I don’t waste my time.

 

[Nacho_Libre]

I always ask for high resolution pictures to be texted to me when buying something online… Why drive all the way down to the gun store and deal with a problem there…. If a seller can’t provide those, then I don’t waste my time.

I sent hi res pics via email and they still wanted more. There comes a point where u have to say enough is enough bc some people aren't serious and just want to window shop, and have no intention to buy. Which is cool but let me know so I'm not investing tons of time into something that'd not gonna go anywhere.

 

[Ron Swanson]

When additional pics are requested, I’ve asked if there is something specific they wanted to see. Getting it out and setting up proper lighting can be slightly troublesome so getting what they want to see helps minimize that.

 

[H. Bowman]

There are thousands upon thousands of great photos on gun forums all over the country.

So there is no need to bother anyone with requests for few more.

But then again I am not a scammer so what do I know....

All of those thousands of great photos on gun forums are easily searched and if found to be listed on other forums, the likelihood of a scam is high. Unique emailed photos that are not already displayed elsewhere are easier to convince someone of because you can't just do a 3 second google image search and find they're posted elsewhere already.

 

[H. Bowman]

I mean, you tell me if these pictures are "not hi res enough" . . .

Those pictures kind of suck, really.

All the same side, none of the breech face or any wear parts, pieces of the gun cut off out of frame, different grips is it even the same gun in all the photos, terrible lighting.

You sound like someone I wouldn't want to deal with.

 

[H. Bowman]

I did email more haha. But seriously there's nothing wrong with it at all. It's in brand new condition. No scratches/dents etc and I explained this to the buyer. As for white stuff yeah it's a bit dusty bc it's been in the safe for a yr. It's a nice gun but I can't ccw it so it lives in the safe most of the time.

Sounds like exactly what a scammer would say.

 

[H. Bowman]

I sent hi res pics via email and they still wanted more. There comes a point where u have to say enough is enough bc some people aren't serious and just want to window shop, and have no intention to buy. Which is cool but let me know so I'm not investing tons of time into something that'd not gonna go anywhere.

You've invested more time into trying to justify this whole silliness in these threads than it would have taken you to ask the potential buyer a simple question or two and to snap some adequate photos.

 

[ikeo1]

You've invested more time into trying to justify this whole silliness in these threads than it would have taken you to ask the potential buyer a simple question or two and to snap some adequate photos.

Let give the guy some room. They were a bit hesitant new to this kinda thing so it’s important that we show people how to go about it on a good way. The pictures are one thing, deposits, Venmo, shipping etc are areas we (the site) needs to improve for people to make things easier. There’s still quite a few people who are new to this kind of platform.

 

[Whiskey Diet]

I think the only scams I was almost duped into were:

1. Guy wanted gas money for meeting me and selling a pistol that was dramatically dropped in price. Turned out to be a scammer.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Another buyer tried to offer me less when meeting at the FFL after agreeing to pay asking price as we were doing paperwork. Luckily the FFL stepped in before I had to and stopped doing the transfer if the guy didn't pay what we agreed on.

It all worked out, but my advice is to never start a transfer w/o getting full payment unless you feel confident with the seller/buyer. Most sellers/buyers have been amazing, but there's always the possibility deals can get squirrelly

 

[BriskyLeopard]

I would request more photos if I were the buyer. Photos are usually more convincing than words. Most of the posts are listing guns as very good or like new. And I have seen beaten up guns with thousands of rounds posted as like new. I don’t trust random internet strangers unless I see some proofs

 

[Nacho_Libre]

You've invested more time into trying to justify this whole silliness in these threads than it would have taken you to ask the potential buyer a simple question or two and to snap some adequate photos.

I did ask them and they ghosted XD