GunBroker Pay

Looking for safe, easy credit card payments on GunBroker? GunBroker Pay is gone. The best replacement is probably GunTab because it's safer and easier.

Don't want the history? You can skip to how to handle payments on GunBroker in 2024.

What was GunBroker Pay?

GunBroker Pay was a payment service for GunBroker transactions. It focused on cryptocurrency transactions, and described itself as "a convenient way to buy your favorite gear on GunBroker". It shut down near the end of 2022.

GunBroker Pay with FreedomCoin logo

Logo from the GunBroker Pay website
(prior to shutdown)

How was GunBroker Pay useful?

On its homepage, GunBroker Pay listed its 3 top benefits as:

For sellers, it said: "Make it easy to accept payments online by offering GunBroker Pay as your payment method. GunBroker Pay can help you reduce the risk of fraud, additional expenses, and delays to your business that can be caused by using checks and money orders."

How to use GunBroker Pay?

When creating a GunBroker listing, in the "Payment Methods" options, sellers could click a checkbox to say they accepted payment via GunBroker Pay. That would allow buyers to choose GunBroker Pay when paying for an auction or "buy now" listing on GunBroker.

However, most sellers want to maximize their chances of a sale by accepting multiple payment methods. Most sellers that accepted payment via GunBroker Pay would also accept payment multiple other ways, like credit card and escrow.

How did GunBroker Pay work?

Instead of using US dollars, GunBroker Pay used a proprietary cryptocurrency called "FreedomCoin". Buyers would purchase this cryptocurrency by entering their bank account information. Once they had received some cryptocurrency in their "digital wallet", they could use it to buy things on GunBroker.

For sellers who wanted a way to accept payment by cryptocurrency, GunBroker Pay was an easy way to get started. Although FreedomCoin isn't a mainstream cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum, it was clearly better than not being able to accept any cryptocurrency at all.

One drawback of this approach was there was no "guest checkout" with GunBroker Pay. A buyer needed a GunBroker Pay account before being able to pay on GunBroker.

Was there a GunBroker Pay credit card option?

No, GunBroker Pay did not accept credit cards. It only allowed buyers to pay via bank account.

Bank account payments tend to be slow but inexpensive, so they help keep fees low.

What were the GunBroker Pay fees?

GunBroker Pay's fees were "1.9% of transaction". It said this was "lower compared to average credit card fees".

That is true. Credit card fees are usually around 2.9%. These fees tend to be higher for gun-related transactions because the financial industry considers them "high risk".

Did GunBroker Pay have buyer protection?

No, GunBroker Pay did not include buyer protection. However, because it was only available for GunBroker transactions, it said an "additional resource that is available for you is the Gunbroker.com Buyer's Protection Program".

It should be noted the GunBroker.com Buyer's Protection Program is not comprehensive. In fact, buyers always lose money to scammers. So even with that program, buyers should only pay sellers they are certain they can trust. Otherwise, they should use a gun-friendly escrow service.

What happened to GunBroker Pay?

GunBroker Pay was taken offline around November 2022. (The last snapshot by Wayback Machine was September 2022.) It did not explain why it was shutting down, but the reason seems fairly clear.

At the time, GunBroker.com announced: "GunBroker.com has suspended the use of the term GunBroker Pay. We have removed all references to GunBroker Pay from listings on the platform." It seems this occurred because GunBroker.com was acquired and changed its trademark licensing.

GunBroker.com is actually a separate company from GunBroker Pay. GunBroker Pay was licensing the "GunBroker" trademark from GunBroker.com. (The GunBroker Pay website even said, "GunBroker Pay is a registered trademark ... used under license.") That was possible while these two companies had the same owners. Things changed when GunBroker.com was purchased by AMMO, Inc. in 2021.

GunBroker Pay likely shut down when its license on the "GunBroker" trademark expired and AMMO, Inc. declined to renew it.

What is the best replacement for GunBroker Pay?

If you are looking for a solution to replace GunBroker Pay, the best option seems to be GunTab, because it specializes in gun-related transactions (which payment platforms prohibit), and has features to support GunBroker transactions specifically. Although GunTab doesn't support cryptocurrency, the side-by-side comparison seemed to favor GunTab even before GunBroker Pay shut down.

GunTab is described as "the PayPal for guns", because it is easy like PayPal, but gun-friendly in a way PayPal and others are not.

GunTab has been unique since in launched in 2015. Nobody else empowers both professionals and private individuals with safe, easy credit card and bank account payments. Nobody else offers full buyer and seller protection for gun-related transactions. Nobody else offers step-by-step guidance for regulated shipments. Plus, the customer reviews speak for themselves.

You easily can add "Pay with GunTab" buttons to your GunBroker listings by copy-pasting your unique HTML snippet. GunTab will automatically collect sales tax and buyer fee from the buyer as required by GunBroker. You can just sit back and wait for GunTab to send you shipping instructions.

How to handle payments on GunBroker in 2024

Here are the best answers to the most common questions about payments on GunBroker these days: