Amazon and eBay slowly banning gun parts?

[TGS]

Between the rampant counterfeits on Amazon and eBay, and the thriving online firearms business, I haven't even thought to buy anything gun related off either of those websites in a decade. Whatever minimal, insignificant penny-pinching that can be accomplished with Amazon isn't worth it, IMO.

On the first part, seriously...I fucking hate buying anything from Amazon to begin with. It's all counterfeit. I buy fuzzy, soft, cheap shit for my wife on Amazon as "filler" presents....like cheap socks with owls on them, stupid shit like that. Literally anything of value I ever buy (like quality socks, wool or alpaca sweaters, etc), I purposely buy from elsewhere.

I honestly couldn't give less of a shit if Amazon stopped carrying gun stuff, and would have never noticed. Why, when places like Brownell's, Midway, SKD Tactical, etc exist.

[EPF]

Between the rampant counterfeits on Amazon.

I’ve bought dozens of rifle accessories from Amazon during this pandemic to upgrade guns out of boredom. I got my first counterfeit ever. A Geissele mount that was advertised as from G and shipped from Amazon services was an obvious fake. Like, it would have been funny if I didn’t have to hassle with returning. So I hadn’t experienced this before but I agree it’s a problem.

[That Guy]

eBay has had some cuntastic policies in place for years. When I first tried to buy a Safariland 6005 for my PX4 the seller had described it as a "tactical holster". I kept getting a mysterious error code when I tried to buy it, and contacting eBay they didn't seem to know what it was at first, either. Then I started getting absurd claims like "you can't buy this holster because it would be illegal in your country". In the end it turns out that eBay blocks the sale of anything described as "tactical" to outside the US.

(So I contacted the seller, explained the situation, they re-listed the holster as a duty holster, and there were no more problems buying it. )

Despite its issues eBay can sometimes be a godsend for things one has difficulty finding, especially for a penny-pinching foreigner like myself. Like for example I paid about $30 for a like-new US M12 holster, including shipping. I didn't pay much more than that for a used but perfectly serviceable Safariland SLS duty holster for my girlfriend's Walther P99. Lots of perfectly serviceable "last gen" gear like that is available there, that would be really time-consuming and prohibitively expensive to order as new from official, in-country sources (like trying to get the local importer for Safariland to sell me an UM84 would have cost a helluva lot more than $30...).

[archangel]

In the end it turns out that eBay blocks the sale of anything described as "tactical" to outside the US.

That sounds like they are trying to avoid any ITAR liabilities.

[That Guy]

Possibly, but that is a weird way to go about it.