So... it looks as though the sole FFL in DC, may indeed be barely scraping out a living on this. I'd say his future looks bright, as long as the legal pressure stays on DC to relax their onerous process, and he remains the only FFL in town. He's not exactly living large on it though. If he's got a family, I'm guessing they both work other jobs, or they eat a lot of Raman noodles!
First off let's get the story straight. Mr. Sykes is NOT the only FFL in DC that does transfers. He is the only FFL who has agreed to do transfers for CITIZENS. There are at least three other FFLs in DC, but they ONLY do business with corporations, the military, and various LEAs.
Second, Mr Syke's business i NOT limited ONLY to sales to individuals--he ALSO does transfers and sales for LEAs and security companies. The transfers he does for individual citizens are a TINY fraction of his business, and the REAL reason he charges $125 is as an "annoyance fee"--just like ANY business owner who doesn't REALLY want to be bothered with trifling, small, low-margin sales, but is too greedy to pass up a single sale.
Essentially, he'd rather make a few bucks on annoying low-volume individual sales, than pass them up, so he makes it "worth his time" by ass-raping citizens on the fees--I've done the same thing as a freelance graphic designer with clients who I didn't really want to work with, but who I knew had deep pockets...
If Mr. Sykes was genuinely interested in offering his service to the People of DC for 1) Contitutional reasons, and 2) because he REALLY wanted to be in the individual sales business, then he would charge $20 for transfers, and people would be lined up around the block for his services.
He's in it for the money, and not even really for that...
Plus, "TFred", you are working under the assumption that Mr. Sykes ONLY makes profit on his transfer fees, and does not realize any income from the actual sale of firearms. And he's doing an awful lot of those for LEAs and security companies...
A $`25 transfer fee is egregious, serves only to discourage people making purchases, and is short-sited on Mr. Sykes' part. If he charged $20 each, he would do a LOT more, and see more overall profit int he long run. Like the vanity plates in VA--they are super-cheap and they make MILLIONS on them--whereas, vanity plates in MD and DC are much more expensive, and those locations don't see nearly as much profit from their programs--DESPITE the fact that they charge more per unit...
