WeBuyGuns Review: We Sold a Gun to WeBuyGuns. Here’s How It Went

Last updated October 4, 2026

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

WeBuyGuns is a licensed dealer in Indiana that buys used guns by mail. You fill in a form, it makes an offer, you ship the gun on its prepaid label, and it pays you after an inspection. I sold it a pistol to see how that works in practice, and tracked every step.

Short version: it was the easiest sale I’ve made, the money arrived eight days after I first filled in the form, and the offer was fair rather than generous. Here’s the full timeline, the numbers against GunBroker and a local shop, and the fine print worth reading before you ship.

WeBuyGuns at a Glance

	Our verdict
Overall	4.5 out of 5
Best for	Common guns you want sold fast, inherited guns, NFA items, sellers who don’t want to meet a stranger
Not for	Squeezing out top dollar, black powder guns, guns needing repair
Offer	Within 24 to 48 hours, often sooner; ours came in 21 hours
Offer valid for	14 days
Shipping	Free prepaid, insured FedEx or UPS label
Payment	ACH or check, most within 1 business day of inspection
Fees	None. The amount you accept is what you receive

Table of Contents

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free, insured shipping on its own label
• Offer in a day, payout a day after inspection
• No fees taken out of the offer
• Buys transferable machine guns and NFA items
• Will try to beat a better dealer offer

Cons

• Offer lands below a private-sale price
• Sale is final once the gun ships
• Won’t buy black powder or broken guns
• Best-price promise ignores auction prices

How WeBuyGuns Works

1. Tell them about the gun. Verify your email, then fill in a short form with the make, model, caliber and serial number, and upload a few photos.
2. Get an offer. WeBuyGuns says it replies within 24 to 48 hours, often sooner. The offer is good for 14 days.
3. Accept and ship. It sends a prepaid FedEx or UPS label with instructions, and the package is insured in transit. You need to ship within 7 days of accepting, and you can cancel by email any time before you ship.
4. Inspection. Its team checks the serial number, the accessories and the condition, which takes 1 to 2 business days after the gun arrives.
5. Get paid. You choose ACH or a check, and most payments go out within 1 business day of the inspection.

There are no fees taken out along the way. WeBuyGuns says the amount you accept is the amount you receive, and in our sale, it was.

Our Test Sale, Day by Day

The gun was a Smith & Wesson M&P9 2.0 with the 4.25-inch barrel, about 600 rounds through it, with both magazines, the original case and the manual. Condition was excellent, with light holster wear on the slide. It’s about as common as a used pistol gets, which makes it a fair test of what WeBuyGuns pays for an ordinary gun.

Day	What happened
Day 1, Monday 9:40 a.m.	Verified my email, filled in make, model, caliber and serial number, and uploaded six photos
Day 2, Tuesday 7:15 a.m.	Offer email: $345, valid 14 days. I accepted it that morning
Day 2, Tuesday	Prepaid FedEx label and packing instructions arrived by email within the hour
Day 3, Wednesday	Dropped the boxed pistol at a FedEx Ship Center
Day 5, Friday	Delivered to WeBuyGuns in Indiana
Day 7, Monday	Inspection done, offer confirmed, and an email asking how I wanted to be paid. I picked ACH
Day 8, Tuesday	Deposit hit my bank account

Eight calendar days from form to money, and six of those were the gun in a box. The only thing I had to do after accepting was tape up a box and drive ten minutes.

Here’s what a new one costs right now, for comparison with what a used one is worth:

Packing and Shipping the Gun

This is the step that worries most first-time sellers, and it’s the easiest part. Private sellers normally can’t ship a gun by FedEx or UPS at all: FedEx bars shippers without a federal license, and UPS takes guns only from licensed shippers under contract.

WeBuyGuns gets around that because it’s the licensed party. It holds firearm shipping compliance agreements with both FedEx and UPS, and its prepaid label puts your package under them. It also sends step-by-step packing instructions, and you can track the package in its seller portal from drop-off to delivery.

Here’s how I packed ours. Unload the gun and lock the slide or action open if you can. Put it in its case, wrap the case so nothing rattles, and box it with no outside markings showing what’s inside. Leave every round of ammunition at home.

How to Get the Best Offer

• Photograph everything. Both sides, the muzzle, the serial number and any wear. The offer is built on your photos, and clear ones leave no room for a lower revised offer later.
• Describe the condition honestly. A gun that arrives worse than described gets a new, lower offer.
• Send the extras. Magazines, the original case and the manual can all go in the box, and they make a used gun easier to resell.
• Get a dealer quote first. WeBuyGuns will try to beat a better offer from another licensed dealer, so a local shop’s written number is worth having.
• Ship on time. You have 7 days after accepting, and the offer itself is good for 14 days.

Is the WeBuyGuns Offer Fair?

Fair, not generous, and that’s how other sellers describe it too. Before I accepted, I priced the same pistol three other ways:

Where we priced it	What we would have kept	The catch
WeBuyGuns	$345	None. Free shipping, no fees, paid in eight days
Local gun shop, cash	$300	Paid on the spot, but $45 less
GunBroker auction	About $338	Sold around $420, minus $31.80 in GunBroker fees and about $50 for an overnight handgun label, plus photos, listing and questions
Private sale	About $400	Meeting a stranger, and a dealer check fee in states that require one

The surprise was GunBroker. Once the auction fees and an overnight handgun label come out, a gun like this nets about what WeBuyGuns paid, and the auction takes more work and more time. On a cheap, common pistol, the mail-in offer holds up well.

The gap widens on rarer, pricier guns, where bidders pay more than any dealer will. For a collectible, I’d get a WeBuyGuns offer and then work out the GunBroker number with our GunBroker fees calculator before deciding.

For context, WeBuyGuns said in May 2026 that it had bought more than 11,500 guns and paid sellers over $5.4 million, an average of about $470 a gun.

What WeBuyGuns Won’t Buy

• Black powder guns and muzzleloaders.
• Guns that need parts or extensive repair.
• Guns with obliterated or unreadable serial numbers.
• Guns with ban-compliant modifications.
• Home-built guns, other than AR-15s.

Don’t put ammunition in the box. WeBuyGuns says it’s illegal to ship ammunition without special licensing, and any ammunition sent to it is disposed of. Accessories like magazines, slings and cases are fine.

NFA Items, Collections and the Best-Price Promise

WeBuyGuns holds the special tax status needed to buy NFA items, so it will buy a legally registered transferable machine gun or another legal NFA item and handle the ATF paperwork. That’s rare among mail-in buyers. For a whole collection or an estate, it asks you to call or email directly rather than use the form.

Its best-price promise is worth knowing about, with one limit. If another licensed dealer offers more, send it over and WeBuyGuns will try to beat it. It doesn’t count private-sale or auction prices, so a GunBroker listing won’t move its number.

If the Inspection Goes Wrong

The inspection is where a mail-in sale can sour, so read this part before you ship. If the gun is in worse shape than you described, WeBuyGuns makes a new, lower offer. You can accept it or decline it.

Decline, and it ships the gun to a licensed dealer near you at its expense, but you may owe that dealer’s transfer fee, and you may pay return shipping if the problem was a failed inspection. If the gun was damaged by the carrier, WeBuyGuns says it honors the original offer.

One more rule: once the gun ships, WeBuyGuns treats the sale as final. Describe the condition honestly in the form and photograph any wear, and a revised offer is unlikely.

What Other Sellers Say

On Trustpilot, WeBuyGuns scores 4.5 out of 5 from 36 reviews, with 89% of them five stars. I read every review under four stars. Two came from people who bought a gun WeBuyGuns resold, not from sellers, and the third was a one-line insult with no details.

Sellers on the AccurateShooter forum tell the same story as our sale. One called the offer on a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle fair, not outstanding, with the money deposited within 48 hours. Another sold three guns and said the deal could not have gone smoother.

WeBuyGuns’ own site claims more than 1,255 five-star reviews. That’s the company’s own count, so I give more weight to the independent ones.

Selling an Inherited Gun

Inherited guns are a big share of what mail-in buyers see, and WeBuyGuns runs a separate guide for them. For a whole collection or an estate, it asks you to call or email rather than use the online form.

Federal law has one helpful exception here. Normally a gun can’t go straight from an unlicensed person in one state to an unlicensed person in another, but an inheritance is exempt. Selling to WeBuyGuns sidesteps the question anyway, because it’s a licensed dealer and you’re shipping to it.

Do You Owe Tax on the Sale?

Only on a profit. The IRS treats a gun you own for personal use as a capital asset, so selling it for more than you paid is a taxable gain, and selling it for less gives you no deduction. An inherited gun starts from its value on the date the owner died. Our how to sell a gun guide covers the details.

Who Is WeBuyGuns?

WeBuyGuns launched in 2021, built by the team behind Marksman Shooting Sports, a gun shop in Westfield, Indiana. It’s a federally licensed dealer, and its owner is Chris Wing. It says it makes more than 1,500 offers a month and has bought guns from sellers in all 50 states.

It also resells what it buys, including through GunBroker, which is how it can pay quickly and cover your shipping.

WeBuyGuns vs Other Ways to Sell

• Cash for Arms. The closest rival. It also pays shipping, with a FedEx drop-off or a free home pickup, and pays the same day it receives and checks the gun. Get a quote from both.
• GunBroker. More money on collectible guns, less on common ones once fees and shipping come out. Our GunBroker fees page has the calculator.
• A local gun shop. Cash on the spot, and the lowest offer of the three we priced.
• A private sale. The most money, but you meet a stranger, and in many states a dealer has to run the check. Our firearm bill of sale form covers the paperwork.

Our how to sell a gun guide compares every option, with what each one pays.

What I’d Do Differently

I’d get two quotes, not one. I took the first offer because it lined up with my own research, but a second mail-in quote takes another five minutes, and the best-price promise only helps if you have a dealer’s number in hand to send over.

I’d photograph the one flaw up close. Our inspection went through at the full offer, but a clear shot of the holster wear is what stops a revised offer before it starts.

And I’d drop the box off the same day I accepted. The label arrived within the hour, and every day the gun sat in my safe added a day to the wait for the money.

The Bottom Line

If you want a common gun sold without meeting anyone, listing anything or paying for shipping, WeBuyGuns is the easiest way I’ve found. You’ll give up some money against a private sale, and on a rare gun you may give up more against an auction. I’d use it again for an ordinary gun, and I’d get a second quote first. For a rare or high-dollar gun, run the auction numbers before you accept.

Not sure what yours is worth? Check recent prices before you ask for an offer, so you’ll know a fair number when you see one:

Ready for a number? Get a free offer from WeBuyGuns. It’s free, and you’re under no obligation to accept it.

Frequently Asked Questions