Originally Posted by
OlongJohnson
I have never had an issue with what I received when buying used or new semi-autos online.
I have tried to buy four revolvers online, one used and three new. The used one and one new S&W were returned to the sellers as unserviceable. As reported elsewhere on this site, the seller of the new S&W had their in-house gunsmith inspect a a few more from their inventory, and said they were all the same. It appears from the outside that they returned a significant quantity of J frames to S&W soon after.
One new S&W I kept, but the trigger is crunchy and it will need the attentions of someone knowledgeable and skilled to approach the smoothness of the ones at the local Gander Mountain that got me excited about trying it in the first place (and were priced ~$300 higher than I paid, which I suppose should about cover the work).
The last one was a Ruger. I wasn't able to identify the show stopper issue until I got it home. Ruger paid to ship it back to themselves, reworked it, and returned it. It's quite a bit nicer, with some extra hand detailing that most don't have, but it's also now cosmetically imperfect due to their work. And the biggest piss-off about it is something fundamental that they weren't able to correct. It doesn't seem to be a functional problem, but is enough of a cosmetic issue that I wouldn't have bought it at normal brick & mortar price if inspecting it in a local shop's inventory (for hundreds more, so I live with it).
Unfortunately, based on the reports of other knowledgeable people here, it's not just S&W's regular production that's variable. Even the result of sending their product back for a Performance Center action job is likely to vary noticeably from unit to unit.
Just a note - if you read the reviews at the JG Sales link above, they range from being very happy to receiving something that was basically in need of a rebuild.
FWIW, I'm personally at the point of not buying a revolver unless I can inspect it in person before making any kind of commitment or having any skin in the game (like non-refundable shipping or freight insurance), or have a comfort level with the knowledge and character of the individual seller. That requires resetting expectations about how much things cost, which will likely make further revolver purchases far less interesting.
Essentially, the online-shopping benefit of being able to find something unusual without waiting months or years for a local shop to actually get it in, or being able to get it at a substantially better (~20-30%) price, seems to be at best a much lower-odds lottery with revolvers than with semis.
Writing both as an observer and based on my experiences outlined above, it seems the people with the best revolver experiences have a working relationship with a trusted revolversmith or two, or some level of skill themselves. It may not be required on every unit, but it seems wise to budget a reserve for some additional work beyond the purchase price if you want to take a trip down Revolver Road.