Which Site Has Better Deals — CAGuns.net or Calguns.net? 🤔

[echo1]

Over the decades I've scored hard on Calguns and given away needed items to known long time Gunners. Forgot to mention I've done good on all the gun forums I've been on. The situation is on a parallel universe to SKS Survivors board. Before the split and formation of The SKS Files, the Survivors marketplace rivaled Gunboards Tuco's Trader, as did Calguns at one time. I've been lucky over there with the miserable messaging, buying and selling, but it is definitely frustrating. I've sold several SKSs (15) on Calguns including a Romy, Russian and 2 Albanians (the rest Chinese) mostly at a great profit, and picked up a Hakim at more or less a push for one of the Alby's, but I'm mostly a C&R kinda guy so my market is different than the Glock or AR fan boys. Caguns is very similar to Nevada Shooters in that it is heavily sales driven, versus forum chit chat or show & tell. Calguns is sadly dying on the vine and will never be the resource it once was. This place works but has less soul. PAX

 

[Atomic Soldier]

For me personally it's not even a choice. I tried to join Calguns and wasn't able to because they're site is shot. I reached out to admins with no avail. They're "verification" doesn't work. I found this site not too long after. I'm late to the party but happy a place like this exists.

 

[Striker777]

They both have there places but now they are #2

 

[ikeo1]

Calguns looks to have a larger selection and more lively marketplace. Caguns has a better layout and more refined for sale section.

The keyword is “looks like a larger selection”, we have an expiration of 90 days for free accounts and 120 for paid to force movement. On Calguns, you have listings from 2006 still showing up in search results.

For activity, there’s isn’t really a bump limit anymore where there is one enforced here for one per 48 hours for free accounts 24 hours for subscriber

This was a design decision to expire listings from idle accounts. The bump limitation affects what’s shown in the feed, combine the two and we should have less things on purpose.

Good priced items will move fast, judging by the lower post counts on the other posts, they’ll never see a deal because it gets sold, closed, expired then removed from search only open listings are shown. Over priced things will expire, none of this happens on Calguns automatically. So visually it’ll always look like more. BUT that gives you the benefit of having another place to look to find deals if you have patience and time to check Calguns.

Traffic metrics from 3rd party sources shows a very different picture, but anecdotal experience is gonna differ. I’ll give dude $100 if he can actually get on at anytime on Calguns. I don’t think anyone really believes its 100% available. Because of that, you can find deals and that’s a good thing.

 

[echo1]

I've managed a few deals on years old Calguns ads, few, far between and nonexistent these days, but pre-pandemic stuff that I'd see or was curious about would languish for some time, then possibly be discounted, PAX

 

[Baldy333]

I started on cal guns before I found CAguns. My frustration with outages drove me to a google search about the site where I found a reddit discussion that pointed me here. The last three or four times I tried to log into cal guns the site was down. Tonight I tried to log in again for a quick comparison and I think this site is a much better platform for doing business. A couple of sample searches for comparison gave me the impression that we might even have a better selection here too.

 

[SLORNR]

I started on cal guns before I found CAguns. My frustration with outages drove me to a google search about the site where I found a reddit discussion that pointed me here. The last three or four times I tried to log into cal guns the site was down. Tonight I tried to log in again for a quick comparison and I think this site is a much better platform for doing business. A couple of sample searches for comparison gave me the impression that we might even have a better selection here too.

Calguns.net robs one of the most valuable asset, time. Those who value their time aren’t on Calguns.

 

[jarhead714]

Calguns.net robs one of the most valuable asset, time. Those who value their time aren’t on Calguns.

Those who value their time, truly value it, aren’t even on the internet.

 

[SLORNR]

Those who value their time, truly value it, aren’t even on the internet.

The internet is a valuable resource that saves a massive abundance of time.

Going to a sight on the internet that is dysfunctional and sporadic? Not so much.

 

[ikeo1]

Calguns is sadly dying on the vine and will never be the resource it once was. This place works but has less soul.

It's a different generation for a different time. IMHO, the political climate blocks a lot of comradere from happening. The mix is much broader and the spread in ideology is much wider than it used to be. I never experienced or seen CGN's soul you speak of, what I've experienced there would be very different than most users. In the past, people would work together against CA legislation, now a lot of it is CA against each other.

I try different methods to diffuse the tension but its very difficult. I'll keep trying and see how it goes.

 

[arm3drv]

Bought/Sold/Traded (met a bunch of awesome Calgunners as well that I still keep in touch with) so many and parts on Calguns and it genuinely makes me sad that the site has gone down so bad that I could only log in every other day if I am lucky but I still post all of my for sale and trade stuff there (it’s a pain fully slow process to post there but there’s still more people that visit the site)…..as for deals CalGuns has the better ones but it certainly is getting better here….It is quick & easy to post ads here which leads to more deals getting done and the fact that the site rarely has any issues makes it also makes buyer/seller communication easier…..I would say that the thing appreciate most since I sell/trade quite a bit is how simple it is to provide member feedback after a transaction….no need to copy-paste links like how it is on iTrader and I would say that 95% provide feedback versus Calguns which is around 50%-60% (I’ve done at least 50 transactions on Calguns but only received 28 iTrader feedbacks/ratings)

 

[.dC0m]

IMO, it was a different time...

I've done over 40+ transactions on CGN (both buying and selling) and I felt like the marketplace (outside of off-rosters) was there for those who wanted to offload items and make (if any) minimal profit). I recall selling a lot of Glock parts when they were darn near impossible to source during the COVID days. On the buying side, I was able to score a lot of handguns from older folks that just wanted to downsize their collection without trying to "make their money back".

In recent years (on both CGN and CAguns); it seems like more people are trying to "make their money back". I imagine the 11% sin tax is also fueling this rage. I'll be the first one to admit, I've also priced some of my collection accordingly and still saw the same demand.

So in my (very) personal opinion, CGN had the better deals, but this site has the cleaner, user-friendly interface to actually find what you need.

 

[Nefarious]

I have posted a handful of things over the years on CGN and only a couple of things here on CAGuns. That said I have only recently found out about this place so thats part of it... and the other is I do not sell firearms that often.

I have had lots of success in selling firearms over on CGN (member since 06 iirc, but cant verify at the moment since its not loading for me lol) . More recently I posted some pistols for sale on here and at the same time over on CGN - same exact price, same pics. I got more look-e-loos here and a lot more engagement on CGN, which is where they sold. That said my posts here did lead to some members sending me a PM about other pistols I did not list.... which DID result in a sale from CAGuns as well.

I think its been said time and time again... CGN is slowly fading away... we still check it because we have been members for SOOOOO long, it still works occasionally, and yes theres still some great information on there

Caguns works 100% of the time, is modern, and ultimately.... going to be a great place to call home as the community grows and grows.

Edit: I lied lmao... one of the pistols DID sell on here.

 

[2muchsoysauce4allthisrice]

I’m sorry to say, Calguns; when it works. Was just on there last night. This morning and during the daytime; site is not working.

This site works and is more organized though.

 

[Dooder]

My view of a "deal" is the successful execution of ppt sale. With that said I still have to give it to Calguns. Not because of my history of trading there, that would be unfair as I've been on CGN for almost 20 years. There's no comparison if you're just perusing the marketplace looking at numbers. Prices of stuff in the marketplace is just a price, a number on the page. It is what it is. Approach the two forums not as competitors but as different resources. They're two very different places that have a very different etiquette.

 

[socalgunowner909]

My view of a "deal" is the successful execution of ppt sale. With that said I still have to give it to Calguns. Not because of my history of trading there, that would be unfair as I've been on CGN for almost 20 years. There's no comparison if you're just perusing the marketplace looking at numbers. Prices of stuff in the marketplace is just a price, a number on the page. It is what it is. Approach the two forums not as competitors but as different resources. They're two very different places that have a very different etiquette.

Spoken like a true philosopher of the gun world!!!

 

[SLORNR]

My view of a "deal" is the successful execution of ppt sale. With that said I still have to give it to Calguns. Not because of my history of trading there, that would be unfair as I've been on CGN for almost 20 years. There's no comparison if you're just perusing the marketplace looking at numbers. Prices of stuff in the marketplace is just a price, a number on the page. It is what it is. Approach the two forums not as competitors but as different resources. They're two very different places that have a very different etiquette.

They are two very different places for sure.

One place is functional CAGUNS.NET, and the other is dysfunctional CALGUNS.NET.

 

[Wolkenflieger]

Those who value their time, truly value it, aren’t even on the internet.

Like you, you're not on the Internet!

 

[echo1]

They are two very different places for sure.

One place is functional CAGUNS.NET, and the other is dysfunctional CALGUNS.NET.

If CAGUNS.NET marketplace gets to where CALGUNS.NET once was, when they were at the top of their game, they'll have accomplished much, but interaction between the participants within the various sub forums, over at the Twilight Zone, many smaller items and weapon specific ammo changed hands or were bartered away. The regs screwed up the ammo except once you mad a friend, you still did what you did, same with Cash & Carry. It's much harder to build trust, PAX

 

[Hit Factor]

Those who value their time, truly value it, aren’t even on the internet.

Unless you’re watching a firearm disassembly/assembly, installation, or how-to video on YouTube. I can’t tell you how much time and money some of those have saved me.