- Treat every gun as loaded
- Point the muzzle in a safe direction
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot
- Know your target and what’s beyond
Quick answer: Used guns on this page are pulled live from Guns.com (about 11,200 listings), Classic Firearms surplus and police trade-ins, and a handful of other retailers we track. Average prices land near $394 for police trade-ins, $594 for military surplus, and $927 across the broader used market. Filters on the left narrow by condition, brand, retailer, and price. Every card links direct to the retailer shipping the gun. No middlemen.
I built this page because the used market is the best value in firearms right now and the existing options for shopping it are either dead forum classifieds or one-retailer-at-a-time. Pulling everything into a single search saves the eight tabs and the guesswork.
Top Used Gun Deals
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Jennings 48 380 ACP Police Trade-In Pistol (No Magazine)
Bryco Jennings Nine-CA 9mm Police Trade-In Pistol
Cdm CDM 22 Short Police Trade-In Revolver
Heritage Rough Rider 22LR Police Trade-In Revolver
H Schmidt 22LR Police Trade-In Revolver
Lorcin L380 380 ACP Police Trade-In Pistol
Jennings J22 22LR Police Trade-In Pistol
Hi Point C9 9mm Police Trade-In Pistol
Hi Point C9 9mm Police Trade-In Pistol
Hi Point C9 9mm Police Trade-In Pistol
Jennings J-22 22LR Police Trade-In Pistol
Heritage Rough Rider 22LR Police Trade-In Revolver
Jennings 38 380 ACP Police Trade-In Pistol with Original Box and 2 Magazines
Phoenix Arms HP22 22LR Police Trade-In Pistol
Jennings 38 380 ACP Police Trade-In Pistol with Original Box and 2 Magazines
Charles Daly Field 12GA Police Trade-In Semi-Auto Shotgun
Kimel Western Six 22 LR Police Trade-In Revolver
-17%Ruger LCP, 380 ACP, 2.75\" Barrel, 6+1 Capacity, Black Finish - Law Enforcement Used - Good to Very Good Condition
Why Buy Used?
The math on used has always been simple. A Beretta 92S Italian police trade-in for $479 shoots the same 9mm as a $700 retail M9. A Mosin-Nagant pulled from a Russian arsenal in 1948 still puts rounds where you point them. A factory-refurbished Glock 19 with a fresh finish is mechanically identical to a new one, just $150 cheaper.
The used channel is also where you find guns that aren’t being made anymore. Original Belgian-mfg Browning Hi-Powers, Italian-built M1 Garands, Yugo M48 Mausers, CMP-released 1911s.
If you want the actual article and not a modern reissue, used and surplus are the only paths.
And the inventory is bigger than people think. Guns.com alone moves through 11,000+ used listings at any given moment, with new arrivals daily as dealer trade-ins land. Add Classic Firearms surplus and a few other indexed retailers and the pool is large enough that “I want a used compact 9mm under $400” almost always has an answer that ships this week.
Police Trade-Ins: The Best Value in the Used Market
When a department upgrades its sidearm fleet, the old guns go to wholesalers who clean them up, inspect them, and resell them at a discount. Trade-ins are almost always in good mechanical condition because officers carry their duty weapons constantly but actually shoot them rarely. Holster wear is normal. Internals are usually still tight.
The current sweet spot:
- Beretta 92S / 92SB Italian police trade-ins — $429 to $499. Made in Italy, 15-round mags, mechanically excellent. The 92S is the immediate predecessor to the M9.
- Glock LEO trade-ins — $319 to $549 depending on generation and condition. Most common: Glock 17 Gen 2 (around $319), Glock 23 Gen 3 in .40 S&W ($339), Glock 43 sub-compact ($329).
- Beretta 84 / 85 Cheetah series — $299 to $399. Compact .380 ACP, Italian LEO surplus, DA/SA.
- S&W .38 Special revolvers — $249 to $429. Model 10, Model 64, Model 686 — the workhorses of pre-Glock American policing.
The catch: police trade-ins ship as-is from law enforcement use. Expect honest holster rub, finish wear, and occasionally a chipped grip or worn magwell edge. The bores and the lockwork are what count, and on duty pistols those are excellent because cops shoot maybe 200 rounds a year on the qual range.
Military Surplus: Where You Buy History
Surplus is the deep end of the used pool. These aren’t reproductions or new-production imports labeled “milsurp style”. They’re the actual guns soldiers carried, then sat in cosmoline for 50+ years, then got pulled and inspected.
What’s available right now in our index:
- Bulgarian Makarov 9×18 — $349 to $419. Arsenal-marked, factory-new condition under a layer of preservative.
- Polish Radom P64 9x18mm — around $359. Smaller and lighter than the Makarov, similar Cold War vintage.
- Tula Mosin-Nagant M91/30 — around $429. Russian arsenal refurbs from the 1940s-50s production runs.
- Yugo M48 / M48A Mauser 8mm — around $499. Czech BRNO-contracted Yugoslavian production, very good condition.
- Italian-built M1 Garand sniper variants — $4,999+. Genuine arsenal-built, not a parts-build reproduction.
Condition grading on surplus varies wildly by source country and arsenal. “Good” usually means functional with honest wear. “Very Good” means the bore is bright and the finish is mostly intact. Read the seller’s grading scale before clicking buy.
Classic Firearms is the biggest surplus operator in our index right now. Their grading skews conservative, which is the way you want it. If they call a rifle “Good”, expect “Very Good” when it lands. If they call it “Very Good”, expect a gun that looks better than your range rifle.
For collector-grade surplus, the Civilian Marksmanship Program remains the gold standard for Garands, 1903 Springfields, and the M1 Carbine. The CMP is congressionally chartered, sells direct, and ships through their own program. Pricing and inventory move with their annual release schedule rather than the live market we track here.
Factory Refurbs and Certified Pre-Owned
Factory refurbs are guns the manufacturer took back, replaced the worn parts on, refinished, and resold with a fresh warranty. Beretta does this with police trade-ins. Sig does it with returns and dealer demos. Glock occasionally releases lots of agency-trade-in pistols that have been factory-rebuilt and re-finished.
Mechanically they’re new with a small cosmetic discount. Price savings versus new run 15 to 25 percent. The Beretta 92S “Refurbished Excellent Condition, New DuraCoat Finish” listings on Classic Firearms are a current example: $479 for a 9mm full-size with a fresh finish, vs $699 for the new-production M9A1.
Certified pre-owned is one tier down. A retailer (not the manufacturer) has inspected, function-tested, and graded the gun. It comes with the retailer’s warranty rather than the factory’s.
Guns.com runs the largest certified pre-owned operation we track. Their used inventory rotates fast and a lot of it is dealer demos, estate sales, or trade-ups that never saw much actual shooting.
What to Watch For Before You Buy
Used guns ship as-is. Read the seller’s return policy before checkout. Most reputable used dealers accept returns for non-disclosed defects, usually within 3 to 5 days of receipt. Functional defects you noticed at the range are on you to surface fast.
Get the gun to a gunsmith for a pre-shoot inspection if you’re spending real money. A $40 inspection on a $1,200 used rifle is cheap insurance. Look for:
- Excessive headspace on bolt actions (a no-go gauge tells you in seconds)
- Peening or galling on slide rails for semi-autos
- Pitting in the bore that wasn’t disclosed in the listing
- Timing issues on revolvers (cylinder lock-up at full cock)
- Cracked frame in polymer pistols at the rail stress points
A used gun is still a regulated transfer. It ships to your local FFL, you fill out a 4473, and you pass the same NICS check as a new gun purchase. There’s no shortcut just because the gun is pre-owned. Federal transfer rules are documented at the ATF firearms portal.
State-specific rules can also apply to used purchases. California has its handgun roster. New York has the SAFE Act. New Jersey requires a permit to purchase. If your state has restrictions on private transfers or used handguns specifically, the listing usually won’t tell you. Check our state gun law guides before you click buy.
How We Curate This List
The catalog above isn’t a static editorial pick. It’s a database of every used firearm listing currently in stock across the retailers we index through AvantLink and direct retailer feeds. Guns.com tags its inventory with “used guns” keywords in its datafeed. Classic Firearms identifies surplus and police trade-ins in product names that our importer pattern-matches.
The system runs a fresh import overnight every day. New trade-ins, surplus arrivals, and sold-out listings update automatically. If you see something listed at a price that looks too good, click through — the retailer’s site is the live source of truth, and an in-stock item at the listed price is the only thing we’ll surface on this page.
I built the filtering logic to be conservative about what gets called a “firearm” versus an “accessory”. Holsters, scope mounts, reloading dies, and gun-cleaning kits get rejected at import time even when they happen to include “Pistol” or “Rifle” in the product name. The result is a used-guns search that returns used guns, not used gun accessories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are used guns safe to buy online?
Yes, when you buy from licensed retailers who inspect and warranty their stock. Avoid anonymous classifieds and private peer-to-peer sales unless you know the seller. Every listing on this page is from a federally licensed retailer who ships to your FFL and stands behind the transaction.
What’s the difference between “used”, “police trade-in”, and “surplus”?
Used is a generic catch-all for pre-owned firearms: dealer trade-ups or consignment guns. Police trade-in specifically means a duty firearm retired by a law enforcement agency, often carried daily but shot rarely. Surplus means military or government inventory released to the civilian market, usually decades after the original service period.
Do I still need an FFL to buy a used gun?
Yes. Every used firearm sold by a licensed retailer ships to your local FFL dealer. You complete a 4473 and pass a NICS background check before you take possession, exactly the same as a new gun purchase. The “used” designation has no bearing on the transfer paperwork.
How much can I save buying used vs new?
Police trade-ins average around $394 in our index versus $600 to $800 for the same models new. That’s roughly 30 to 50 percent off. Surplus guns can be cheaper still on a per-historical-significance basis, though many are no longer available new at any price. Factory refurbs run 15 to 25 percent below retail.
What used handgun is the best entry-level value right now?
Police trade-in Glock 17 Gen 2 pistols at $319 are the strongest value play in our current index. They include the original 17-round magazines, ship in mechanically functional condition, and have proven duty-pistol reliability. Beretta 92S Italian trade-ins at $429 are the comparable full-size DA/SA option for shooters who prefer hammer-fired actions.
What should I avoid in the used market?
Avoid heavily modified guns from individual sellers. Custom triggers, aftermarket barrels, and unknown internal work all introduce reliability risk that the original maker won’t warranty. Also avoid surplus guns with no provenance from sources that can’t tell you the arsenal of origin. Cheap “shooter grade” rifles with no history are usually cheap for a reason.
Can I return a used gun if I don’t like it?
Most reputable used dealers accept returns for defects not disclosed in the listing, usually within 3 to 5 days of FFL receipt. “Buyer’s remorse” returns are rare but some retailers honor them within a 24-hour window if the gun hasn’t been fired. Read each retailer’s policy before buying. Classic Firearms and Guns.com both publish their return windows on each product page.
How often does this catalog update?
Daily overnight imports refresh every listing on this page. In-stock status, prices, and new arrivals all update automatically. If a listing here shows out of stock at the retailer when you click through, that’s the retailer’s site catching a stock change between our import and your visit. The retailer’s page is always the live source of truth.
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