If you ever want to buy or sell a gun in Canada, Andre Perreault hopes you’ll use the website he developed as a Kijiji for firearms: GunPost.ca.
His aim in creating the site was to build something tailored to shooters in Canada, since Kijiji, EBay, Facebook and many other websites with classifieds prohibit guns, he said.
His service, started in October 2014, lists more than 220 firearms for sale across the country, mainly in Ontario, and he’s running a gun-giveaway contest to promote the website to potential buyers and sellers.
Can’t Get Kicked Out
“Canada needed a site that was well built, well maintained and well watched over, that is owned by a Canadian gun owner so that we can’t get kicked out of someone else’s service,” Perreault said today in a telephone interview from Lethbridge, Alberta.
I haven’t used the service, and during our conversation today, Perreault offered temporary unpaid ad space to TheGunBlog.ca. CanadianGunNutz’s Equipment Exchange and UsedFirearms.ca are also geared to Canadians who want to buy or sell guns online.
Basic “for sale” and “wanted” ads are free on GunPost.ca, and the site makes money if people pay to boost the visibility or details in their ads, similar to Kijiji. Perreault, who works as a self-employed renovator, also sells advertising space to companies and organizations geared to Canadian shooters.
Security, Inspections
The advantage of selling online instead of through a store is that the seller pockets the full amount without having to pay commission, Perreault said. He hired a developer to create a secure site, checks it twice a day to block any scammers, and encourages buyers to inspect equipment before they pay.
“I don’t like buying a gun I’ve never seen,” he said. “For a used gun, you need to see what it looks like, you need to cycle the action and hear what it sounds like, and look down the barrel.” The goal is to “eliminate the potential to get scammed, or of getting something that isn’t in as good shape as what you bargained for.”
© 2017 TheGunBlog.ca