Frequently Asked Questions
Where did Ordnance.com get its inventory from?
Is this stuff legal to own? It looks dangerous.
Who buys this stuff / who are your customers?
Does Ordnance.com have a “such and such” for sale?
Does Ordnance.com wholesale inventory to dealers, or engage in bulk sales at lower price points?
Can Ordnance.com identify an item for me or give me an appraisal?
Does Ordnance.com ship to foreign customers internationally?
Where did Ordnance.com get its inventory from?
For a more in-depth explanation on how we came to have our amazing inventory, please visit the “About Us” tab on this website. A brief explanation is that the bulk of the inventory was acquired back in the 1950s through the 1990s directly from the US Government in surplus auctions. Over time, we have purchased these inventories from companies that were the original purchasers from the government. We have also acquired large amounts of inventory through the acquisition of private collections, museum deaccession sales, scrap yards and metal recyclers, movie prop company liquidations, private auctions, and defense contractors liquidating inventory that is surplus to their needs.
Is this stuff legal to own? It looks dangerous.
Looks can be deceiving! In our case, they are. People have assumed that, because a lot of our items look brand new, that they must be real weapons, and were stolen from the government/military. We always get a good chuckle at this. No, these items were not stolen from some military base, or obtained off the “black market” (whatever that is). These items were legally acquired, usually in bulk, as scrap metal, then shipped to our facility to be warehoused for future sale. At the time of sale, or right beforehand, items are pulled from warehouse storage, and they undergo a painstaking restoration process to make them look new again (often times better than new!). The restoration process includes sandblasting, disassembly, metal repair through welding/grinding/machining, making new parts through fabrication/machining/3D printing that are missing to complete an item, test-fitting, body work, painting, reassembly, then reproducing markings through ink transfer, stenciling, and the application of stickers/decals/data plates. We take extreme pride in the work that we do, and consider many of our finished pieces to be works of art. When these items were originally made, then were designed to be destroyed, so their process was a lot quicker/sloppier than ours. Our goal is obviously not destruction, but rather, preservation, so attention to detail during our restoration process is very important to us. Even though our items look as though they are ready to cause mass damage and destruction, in actuality, they are completely inert – meaning they do not contain explosives, they are empty, or are filled with an inert filler, such as wax, concrete, or plaster. State laws vary from state to state, but generally speaking, these items are legal in all 50 states. In a few states there are laws on the books that pertain to replica weapons, and some of these items might be prohibited in certain jurisdictions. It is up to the buyer to understand their own laws/ordinances/regulations as they pertain to owning this type of material in the areas in which they live. From a perspective of federal laws, these items are legal in all 50 states.
Who buys this stuff / who are your customers?
Ordnance.com has a surprisingly diverse customer base. Most of our customers fall into one of the following categories: museums, movie prop / TV production companies, video game development companies, historical societies, universities/colleges and other teaching institutions, veterans and veteran organizations (VFW, AMVETS, American Legion, etc), private collectors, military living history re-enactors, gun stores and firing ranges, testing laboratories, U.S. defense contractors, research & development facilities, and the U.S. Government purchasing training aids for various federal law-enforcement agencies, such as the BATFE, FBI, DHS, CBP, as well as military EOD units. We’ve even sold pieces to artists that used them in some of their works shown in galleries!
Does Ordnance.com have a “such and such” for sale?
We get emails and phone calls all the time from people that are looking for a particular item. If it is available for purchase from us, it will be listed on this website for sale. If you do not see what you are looking for on our website, please do not call us asking if we have one for sale. If it is available for purchase on the website, we have it. If it is not on the website, we don’t. We get a huge number of inquiries that take up a large amount of time. Please do not contact us with inquiries if you don’t see it on the website.
Does Ordnance.com wholesale inventory to dealers, or engage in bulk sales at lower price points?
In a typical supply chain, manufacturers make the items, then sell in bulk to distributors, which wholesale them to dealers, and the dealers retail the items to the end-user (consumer). Our inventory supply chain is/was definitely not the ordinary supply chain. Bottom line is, when we sell out of an item, we have no one to contact to buy more to replenish our inventory. Once we sell out of an item, we can never get more. Often times, we are the only seller in the country on a particular item. For these reasons, we only engage in retail sales, and do not wholesale or bulk sell items. As quantities in our inventory decrease, our prices increase. All prices are subject to change, without notice.
Can Ordnance.com identify an item for me or give me an appraisal?
We do not offer any identification or appraisal services. We do buy items; see below.
Does Ordnance.com buy items?
Yes, we do! Typically, we do not buy just one item, unless it is something in particular that we need, or it has a certain level of rarity. We are interested in buying collections and large groupings of items. No collection is too large! We have purchased inventories and collections that have required multiple truckloads to ship. We always pay for all the shipping/transportation costs to get the items from your location to ours. If you would like to discuss the sale of your items to us, please contact us at [email protected].
Does Ordnance.com ship to foreign customers internationally?
Due to the nature of the items that we sell, we do not ship our products outside of the United States. Please do not ask us to make an exception; we will not. Requests for shipment of items outside the U.S. will go unanswered. Orders placed with a shipping address located outside the U.S. will be canceled. Repeated requests for international orders/shipments will be forwarded to the appropriate federal law enforcement agencies for investigation.
Does Ordnance.com do restoration work for other people?
99% of the restoration work that we do is performed on our own products that we sell. On occasion, we will do restoration work for outside customers. This is decided on a case-by-case basis. If we opt to do the work/project, our shop rate is $125.00/hour, and all work is billed hourly. Due to the unpredictable nature of restoration work, we will not provide restoration quotes. We will provide good faith estimates on what we think it would take to complete your project. All shipping costs to and from our facility are the customer's responsibility. Customer’s projects will not be returned to the customer until all restoration bills have been paid in full.
What is Ordnance.com’s return policy?
For the most part, Ordnance.com does not accept returns for refunds. We are not Wal-Mart or Amazon. We sell a very specialized product, that most of the time, cannot be found elsewhere. We engage in restoration of many of the items that we sell, and cannot put the resources into a restoration, only to have an item returned for refund. We have also experienced some unscrupulous buyers in the past, who purchased an item to remove/swap parts, then try to return for refund. We have also had buyers that wanted to buy something, use it for a specific purpose, then try and return after their use was completed. This is unacceptable. We, on occasion, will rent items in our inventory for use in movies or television productions. If this is your intent, contact us prior to placing an order, and we will discuss drawing up a rental agreement/contract for the items that you are interested in using. We’ve also had buyers wanting to return items, due to “unhappy wives”. Discuss the transaction with your significant other, prior to purchase, not after. No refunds are given for buyer’s remorse. Be 100% sure that you want/need the item, prior to placing the order. If you are unsure of your purchase ahead of time, do not buy from us. We have limited staff, and we want to focus all our attention and energies on our serious customers, not people that have time to waste……. we do not. All our shipments are insured for shipment. We use quality packing materials and put a lot of effort into packaging items so that they will arrive to our customers in the same condition as when they leave our facility. In the unlikely event that your item is damaged during transit, keep all the packaging materials, and contact us immediately. We will file a claim with the carrier. The outcome of these situations are handled on a case by case basis, and there is no standard outcome, other than we will take care of our customer. We do our best to describe items as accurately as possible. In the unlikely event that an item was described incorrectly or misrepresented, we will make it right. We want our customers to be happy, but remember, we are not Wal-Mart / Amazon. If that is what you are expecting, please do not purchase from us, and go to Wal-Mart / Amazon to try and find the items that we sell. Our current return policy is an unfortunate result of past negative experiences with certain kinds of buyers. If our very strict no-return policy bothers you, please do not buy from us.