Yellowhammer Trader is operated exclusively for residents of and businesses licensed within the State of Alabama, USA. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that:
We do not knowingly offer the service to persons outside Alabama. Listings, messages, and account features are restricted to geographically verified Alabama residents. We may suspend or terminate any account if we determine that you are not, in fact, an Alabama resident or licensee, or if the residency/license attestation you provided is false.
Consequence of false attestation. Because we ask you to attest under penalty of revocation that you are an Alabama resident (or licensed dealer), material misrepresentation at signup is grounds for immediate termination, forfeiture of any unused membership time, and — where applicable — referral to the Alabama Attorney General for investigation under Ala. Code § 8-19-5 (deceptive trade practices).
Yellowhammer Trader is an online community and listing service. The service consists of:
What YHT does not do:
This distinction — we are a marketplace for listings, not a firearms broker — is central to every other provision in these Terms. If a particular YHT feature ever seems to operate as an auction, escrow service, or payment processor for transactions between users, that is not the intent of these Terms and such use is prohibited.
YHT offers four membership tiers. Membership fees (never listing fees) are the only way YHT earns revenue from user-to-user activity, and they pay for the service and recognition features described in this section. They have nothing to do with the sale price of any item a user may post.
The "Verified", "Supporter", and "Platinum Dealer" badges are advertising and recognition labels. They do not constitute an endorsement by YHT of the user's fitness, legality, or reliability. Each user's badge means only that the user paid the fee and met the verification criteria described in §5; it does not imply that any item posted under that badge is safe, legal, or as described.
[SPONSORED] and
appear in advertising-specific regions of the page — they are
never presented as organic editorial content or
user listings.Yellowhammer Trader does not derive revenue from — and does not have any financial interest in — the sale of any firearm, ammunition, firearm accessory, optic, magazine, holster, suppressor, or any related item.
This §4 is a material representation of YHT's business model and is intended, among other things, to:
You acknowledge that the membership tier you choose is a payment for the platform services described in §3 regardless of whether you post any listing and regardless of whether any listing you post leads to a sale. The membership fee is not, and is not rebadable as, a transaction fee, listing fee, or commission.
Users who wish to be recognized on YHT as a dealer / firearms business must hold a valid, unexpired Federal Firearms License (FFL) issued by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under 18 U.S.C. § 923, as well as any Alabama-state-issued dealer license required by Alabama law (Ala. Code § 8-20-5 et seq.). YHT verifies the FFL and state license manually before activating Platinum/Dealer recognition and before issuing a YHT reserve number.
Upon successful verification, YHT assigns the dealer a
YHT-NNNN reserve number (for example,
YHT-0001). This reserve number is assigned by
Yellowhammer Trader solely as an internal marketplace identifier for
recognition, anti-impersonation, and audit purposes.
The YHT reserve number:
The reserve number is provided to help Alabama consumers quickly identify which marketplace users are YHT-verified dealers (notwithstanding that they still must independently confirm the dealer's license status prior to any sale). It does not transfer, and is not transferable, between businesses.
If a YHT-supporter user wishes to buy a firearm from a YHT-Platinum dealer, all federal and state transfer requirements apply to the dealer, not YHT. The dealer's FFL remains the controlling license for every transfer. YHT does not participate in the transfer, does not collect payment for the firearm, and does not receive any portion of the dealer's revenue from the sale.
By using YHT you agree to comply with all applicable Alabama firearms and consumer-protection statutes, including but not limited to:
YHT itself does not engage in any activity regulated under Title 8, Title 13A, or any other Alabama firearms statute. If you have a dispute about an Alabama firearms law, the Alabama Attorney General's office is the appropriate state authority.
You agree not to post any listing, message, image, or other content that:
We may, but are not obligated to, monitor listings and may remove or restrict any content in our sole discretion. To report suspected violations, email the address listed in §21.
Listings must be posted by the lawful owner or authorized agent of the lawful owner. The price displayed in any listing is a private-party asking price, not a YHT-quoted price, not a YHT-curated offer, and not a YHT-negotiated offer. Any agreement reached between users occurs entirely outside YHT and is solely between those users.
Any "BUY" button or contact link on YHT connects you directly to the listing user via YHT's private-message system. YHT does not act as an escrow agent or hold money.
You retain all ownership rights in the content you post. You grant YHT a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, distribute, and reproduce that content on the YHT service for operational, archival, and promotional purposes during the time the content is on the site.
DMCA notices (17 U.S.C. § 512) should be sent to the address in §21. Misuse of the DMCA process is itself actionable.
Membership payments are processed by a third-party payment-services provider selected by YHT. By submitting a payment you agree to that provider's terms in addition to these Terms. The payment-services provider's terms govern the payment mechanics; these Terms govern the relationship between you and YHT.
You are paying for the membership tier described in §3, which entitles you to a period of advertising-suppressed or recognition-enhanced use of the platform. You are not paying for: any firearms listing, any firearm-related transaction, any escrow service, any shipping, any consignment, or any buyer/seller matchmaking.
Verified (every 120 days), Supporter (yearly), and Platinum (yearly) memberships renew automatically at the then-current listed rate unless cancelled before the renewal date. You may cancel auto-renewal at any time from your account settings. It is your responsibility to cancel before the renewal date if you do not wish to be charged. Renewal charges are non-refundable once assessed, even if you fail to use the membership after renewal; see §10.4.
All membership fees are non-refundable. By submitting a payment you acknowledge and agree that:
Chargebacks filed in violation of this section constitute a breach of these Terms. We reserve the right to dispute any chargeback, suspend the associated account pending resolution, and seek recovery of our costs (including chargeback fees) and the underlying membership fee.
If a renewal payment fails, we will retry per our payment provider's standard retry schedule. If all retries fail, your account will be downgraded to the Free tier at the end of the paid period. No portion of a renewal payment will be returned for a failure unrelated to YHT's fault.
YHT offers an optional paid feature for users who post listings in the Classifieds forum: a listing bump. A bump raises your listing to the top of the Classifieds topic list, marks it visually with a "BUMPED" badge and bold title, and keeps it there for five (5) days (120 hours) from the time of purchase.
You are paying for placement and visibility within the Classifieds forum only. A bump does not:
The bump fee is $5.00 USD per listing per bump, charged once and covering a single five (5)-day (120-hour) window from the moment the payment is recorded as successful. Bumps are sold one at a time; there is no subscription or auto-renewal.
Bump fees are non-refundable. The same rule as §10.4 applies: the benefit (placement) is delivered immediately upon payment and is consumed continuously. No refund will be issued on the basis of:
The two narrow exceptions are: (i) YHT permanently ceases operating the Classifieds forum during your 5-day window, in which case the unused days will be credited to your account as a free bump on a future listing; and (ii) a law of competent jurisdiction compels a refund, in which case the minimum refund required by that law will be issued.
Chargebacks filed in violation of this section constitute a breach of these Terms and are handled as described in §10.4.
Bumped listings remain subject to all listing rules in §8. YHT may, at its sole discretion, demote or remove a bump if:
A demotion or removal under this section does not entitle you to a refund. The bump remains "used" once purchased.
YHT sells advertising and sponsored placements to third-party businesses whose products and services may be of interest to the YHT community. Advertising is a separate revenue stream from membership fees (§3) and listing bumps (§11). All advertising revenue is treated under the same non-refund rules in §10.4 and §11.4 unless this section states otherwise.
YHT is an advertising-funded community, but it is not a "free" community. Advertising pays for the server, the bandwidth, the moderation workload, and the founder's time. To preserve the user experience and the value of paid memberships, the following rules apply.
| Tier | Format | Price | Run length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | 728×90 leaderboard banner | $500 | 60 days |
| Gold | 728×90 leaderboard banner | $1,200 | 120 days |
| Platinum banner | 728×90 leaderboard banner | $2,400 | 365 days (1 year) |
| Platinum click (CPC) | Same leaderboard, billed per click | $0.50 per click, $200 minimum spend per 30-day window | While credits remain |
All banner tiers are served in a single 728×90 leaderboard position appearing at the top of:
When multiple advertisers are active at the same time, banners rotate in a round-robin sequence; higher tiers receive proportionally more impressions (Silver ≈ 1 unit, Gold ≈ 2 units, Platinum banner ≈ 4 units per rotation cycle). Rotation weights are set by YHT and may change with notice; advertisers are not guaranteed a specific position order.
CPC ads are billed only when the banner is clicked, as defined in §12.5 below. CPC ads and impression-based banner tiers share the same leaderboard position.
Users on the Verified, Supporter, or Platinum (Dealer) membership tiers see no ads at all on any YHT page, including the leaderboard described in §12.2. This is a material benefit of the paid tiers and is part of the value you receive for your membership fee (§3). Free-tier users see ads.
YHT reserves the right to reject any advertising creative and to refund only the unused, unspent portion of any CPC credits the rejected advertiser had on account. Banner fees are non-refundable once the campaign begins, consistent with §10.4. Rejected creatives do not entitle the advertiser to any other compensation.
The following categories of advertising are not accepted:
CPC ads are billed at $0.50 per click. A "click" is recorded when a user activates the leaderboard's outbound link. YHT applies the following controls to prevent click fraud:
YHT does not currently apply UA-fingerprinting or device-id tracking. We may add such controls in the future with notice to advertisers. Advertisers may dispute a click within fourteen (14) days of the click; disputes are reviewed manually and credited if upheld.
The general non-refund rule of §10.4 applies to all banner tiers. For CPC ads, an advertiser's account is credited for clicks that YHT later determines to be invalid (see §12.5 disputes); credits expire twelve (12) months after issuance if unused.
If YHT permanently ceases operating before the end of a paid banner run, the unrun portion of the run will be credited to the advertiser's account as a free banner on a future YHT campaign if YHT ever resumes operation, or, at the advertiser's option, refunded proportionally. This is the only exception to the general non-refund rule for banners.
The presence of an ad on YHT does not constitute endorsement of the advertiser, its products, or its services by YHT, the YHT founder, or the YHT community. YHT does not vet advertisers' products beyond the prohibited-content list in §12.4. Advertisers are solely responsible for the truth and accuracy of their claims.
Advertisers provide a billing name, business address, contact email, and payment-method identifiers. This data is used solely to process payment, deliver campaign reports, and satisfy tax recordkeeping. See §14 (Privacy) for the full data-handling policy.
Membership fees paid to YHT may be subject to Alabama state sales tax and any other applicable transaction taxes. YHT will collect applicable taxes on its membership revenue as required by law.
YHT does not issue Form 1099-K or 1099-MISC for sales between users, because YHT does not receive any portion of those sales (see §4). Users who conduct transactions through YHT-listed contact information are responsible for their own tax-reporting obligations.
YHT collects only the information needed to operate the service, verify Alabama residency and dealer licensure, and protect the safety of the community. Categories of data we collect, our use of cookies, and our data-retention practices are described in the YHT Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY OF DATA.
YHT DOES NOT WARRANT THAT:
You use YHT listings as a starting point for your own due diligence. You are solely responsible for verifying any dealer's license, any item's legal status, and any other relevant fact before completing a private-party transaction.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL YELLOWHAMMER TRADER, ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, OR PAYMENT-SERVICES PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ATTORNEY'S FEES, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) THE SERVICE, EVEN IF YHT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YHT'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE TOTAL FEES YOU HAVE ACTUALLY PAID YHT IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100.00).
NOTHING IN THIS §16 IS INTENDED TO LIMIT LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW (FOR EXAMPLE, LIABILITY FOR FRAUD OR FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE).
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Yellowhammer Trader, its owners, officers, employees, contractors, and payment-services providers from and against any third-party claim, demand, suit, action, fine, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to:
Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to file a lawsuit in court.
Before filing any formal action, you agree to contact YHT at the address in §21 and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. If we cannot resolve it, you or YHT may proceed under §18.2.
Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation, or validity thereof — including the determination of the scope or applicability of this agreement to arbitrate — will be determined by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator in Jefferson County, Alabama. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
YOU AND YHT AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A CLASS MEMBER OR IN A REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. If this class-action waiver is held unenforceable, the entire §18 (other than §18.1) will be void.
Either party may bring an individual action in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction in Alabama, provided the claim stays within that court's jurisdictional limit.
Either party may seek temporary or preliminary injunctive relief in court pending arbitration; doing so does not waive the agreement to arbitrate.
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Alabama, without giving effect to its conflict-of-laws principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Jefferson County, Alabama, for any action not subject to §18.2.
To the extent any provision of these Terms conflicts with a provision of federal firearms law or Alabama firearms law, the law controls and the conflicting provision is severed; the remaining provisions remain in effect.
YHT may modify these Terms. If the changes are material, we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email and by a banner on the site. Continued use after the effective date of the changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you may cancel your membership per §10 and stop using the service.
For all legal notices, account-deletion requests, and DMCA notifications:
Yellowhammer Trader — Legal
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Email:[email protected]
Mail: P.O. Box [TBD], Birmingham, AL 35203
To delete your account, log in → User Control Panel → Account Settings → Delete account, or email the address above from the address on file.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
Waiver. YHT's failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
Entire agreement. These Terms (plus the documents they incorporate by reference, including the Privacy Policy and any payment-services-provider terms) constitute the entire agreement between you and YHT with respect to the service.