I spent some time working in a gun shop. I have seen every single type of buyer walk through the door. From the guy who haggles you to the point where you just do not give a shit whether he buys a firearm from you or not, or the guy who marches in with cash in hand and doesn’t care what the price is. He just wants what he wants and wants it now! Then you have the price battle douche, who comes in looks at every price then proceeds to tell you from what other shop or site he can get it cheaper from. Never with the intention of buying. He just wants to be a douchebag. I can tell you if you go to a big box store you can probably find THEE most popular ccw handgun at an extremely fair price if not lower than what most mom and pop gun shops even pay for them. However, If there is something that you want that wasn’t all the rage and super massed produced by a massive firearm manufacturer you are going to pay full MSRP at these big box stores and trying to talk the price down will be hard if not impossible because they just don’t give a shit.
so this is how I feel would be the most effective way in purchasing a factory new firearm. First, research!!!! One of the best tools you can use is GUNBROKER. There are a lot of stores pushing merch and firearms on this site at a competivie price. This will give you an idea of what a fair competitive price is for that firearm that you are dyiing to get. HOWEVER!!!!!! DO NOT FORGET! to add in shipping cost and transfer fee to that price.
Once you have established a ballpark price of what the firearm would cost. Head down to your local gun shop preferably a Mom and Pop brick and mortar store and talk to them. These people are reasonable and want your business. Simply saying, ” look, I can get this on gunbroker for $X w/shipping and your transfer fee. Can you get this for me and save me a few bucks?” 9 times out of 10 they will happily do this for you and You come out on top, saving a few bucks and getting the firearm you want.