I was cruising Gunbroker and found an auction that was located in California. The description of the pistol for states “no sales to California “

How does that work? The dealer in California can be in possession of something that can not be sold in the state they are doing business in?

Yep. Off-roster guns can be sold by the California dealer to an out of state buyer, or to someone in state who is exempt (like a LEO).

But oftentimes, many dealers' listing on places like Gunbroker for readily available current production factory guns are just guns they have the ability to order through their distributor. So they'll list a gun for sale, then once they make a sale, they then order it from their distributor, and ship it to the buyer's receiving FFL. They get to pocket the difference between their wholesale price and the sale price, but they do not necessarily having that gun physically sitting on their shelves in the gun store. They're just the middleman to what is effectively drop shipping from the distributor's stock.

CA has a roster of "safe" handguns. A fee for "safety" testing must be paid to CA to have a handgun included on the roster. Any change in the handgun requires a new fee. Even a handgun with something as simple as a different finish requires a new submission and another fee. That's right, the exact same model in five different finishes requires five tests and five fees. Dealers are allowed to order and sell off roster guns to eligible buyers. You know who is eligible? Law enforcement. A LEO can buy an "unsafe" off roster gun for strictly personal use. Make that make sense. CA deems a gun "unsafe" for me but the magic of a badge allows another to buy it and depending on the department even use that "unsafe" gun on duty. LEOs can then sell that gun for a nice profit to any non prohibited person via private sale. Nice carve out for public "servants" so they can have their cake and eat it too. And they won't complain on the record about shit gun laws because they get their exemptions.