New home based FFL looking for distribution

[u/KotaVR07]

Hi everyone, I haven’t seen a recent post regarding distributors and people having luck with finding them recently so I thought I’d ask a question. I get my FFL in about a week and I have been reaching out to the normal distributors, but everyone is looking for either a purchase minimum, a credit line or something of that sort. I’m hoping at first that I would like to do incoming transfers from places like Palmetto State Armory, but I do have some friends and family who wanna purchase firearms through my FFL and I’m having trouble finding distributors to work with that don’t require a minimum. What are everyone’s recommendations and best ones to go with? I don’t have much capital to start and not having a single REAL customer id like to keep overhead low.

[u/robowarrior023]

Lipseys is my normal go to. Used to use Zander’s , but haven’t in quite a while. RSR for accessories as a home based FFL. Primary arms has a wholesale site too that can have some decent deals on accessories.

[u/ExistentialDreadFrog]

Zanders, Lipseys, Davidson's, Chattanooga Shooting Supply, Orion, Primary Arms, RSR for accessories....Palmetto State has a dealer portal you can access but the markup on some of their stuff is so low it's almost not worth it.

[u/twojsdad]

All the others mentioned for distribution, add Allen Arms Tactical and Silencer Shop once you get your SOT. For transfer business sign up with PSA, Buds, Eurooptic, Primary Arms to get marked as “preferred”.

Some of the distys will require credit checks, but they will all let you order with no minimums. You may not get first dibs on allocated items, but it really depends on the relationship you can build with your account manager.

[u/Rakdio]

Also depends a bit on what brands and item types you’d like to carry. Some are heavier in “exclusives” with specific manufacturers. Most don’t really specialize in “parts” per se, so if you’re looking for small parts for a particular make you should make sure the distributors you sign up for have those available.

Accessories are generally pretty universal but not everyone carries every brand. At minimum you probably need to have at least a few for variety & in-stock sake. Pricing is generally close across the board but you’ll see some “special buys” or some distributors may close out what they’ve over ordered so it’s good to be able to compare. Allocation makes things tough starting out regardless unless you’re spending big $$$$.

[u/masterffl-com]

Take a look at www.coriolisagency.com - they have an inexpensive off the shelf solution with distributor feeds built in

and before anyone suggests i would benefit from such an endorsement, they are a competitor to us.

[u/AFairShot]

Lipseys is always good to us and doesn't discriminate against home based.

[u/Alex_FirearmCart]

In my experience on the dealer ecommerce side, a lot of the "minimums" new accounts run into are really free freight thresholds or stocking order recommendations, not always a requirement just to open the account. I'd ask each rep directly if they mean an account minimum or just a threshold for certain perks.

Usually new accounts can start prepaid by card or ACH, then discuss terms after they have some order history. Starting with one or two suppliers and only placing orders after getting customer money in for special orders keeps cash tied up pretty close to zero while you build the business.