a WTF moment: small gun stores that screw you

TL;DR

You're screwed no matter what.

Look at the PS5 launch last week. Turns out that thru the PS store, Walmart, Tar-Jay, Gamestop, Amazamz and WorstBuy, the #1 buyer of PS5 consoles were - reseller bots. GO FIGURE!!! So if you really want a PS5 for Christmas for Jr, it's gonna cost you a grand or more.

The alternative - put some sort of CAPTCHA on the check-out pages to ensure humans are checking out. And you'll STILL get no systems and scads of them being sold on Ebay for $1,000 or more.

Everyone could sell ammo retail for the correct price. Then chumps like us could step in, buy it ALL up and then re-sell it to people on NES for 2x-3x the price.


And I'd argue that $17 for a box of 40 is still crazy-high. How about $9-11???? I liked it best when it was $7. LOL
 
I think a little empathy is in order for small gun shops.

They sell guns, ammo and accessories. Accessory sales are driven by gun purchases. And at the moment they can't get guns or ammo to sell.

Rent on the shop is still due. Payroll too. Insurance and taxes need to be paid. But there's little product for them to sell.

At the moment it's a really shitty business to own...
 
stern arms 40 S&W conversion unit for my colt a2; cheaper than buying a whole new rifle but not a hi point

Stern Defense was at the Big Daddy Epic Shoot 2020 at my local range last weekend. In fact, I RO'd for them last year, and again this year. For demo purposes, they provide AR's with giggle switches on their converted units in 9mm and 45ACP.

I shot their guns last year, and again this year. Nice people, nice product. The company is out of Missouri, two sisters, their dad and their grandfather own it.
 
35 dollars for 50 rounds is the new normal, get used to it.

As to Cabela's, they may have had a ten year contract with a manufacturer to make their store brand ammo, and the manufacturer is now getting the sh*t end of the stick selling to them at 10 dollars a box when their manufacturing cost all in is double that
Economically speaking, Id be interested to hear more about your supposition on mfg cost. I cant readily see factors causing a rise in manufacturing costs here. In fact the spot price of one component, lead, over the last 5 years has been generally downward, and the price today is less than it was a year ago.

 
Let's put it this way with the volume of (everything) moved by deli ticket emporium they have offsite storage somewhere. All of the "bigs" usually do.
he alludes to a warehouse location somewhere on the website.

back to topic, i often wonder why small local gun shops don't enter into an ammo co-op to see if they can increase their buying power and bring in ammo probably cheaper than the prices they were getting for ordering individually. i would expect them to enter into an agreement that every shop would sell the product at the same pricing but i doubt that would happen, capitalism being what it is. wishful thinking is all.
 
Everyone could sell ammo retail for the correct price. Then chumps like us could step in, buy it ALL up and then re-sell it to people on NES for 2x-3x the price.
I could name quite a few NES members that purchased cheap ammo at Walmart then tried to dump it here for more than 2x the cost.

Some of them I have seen them crying about ammo prices. It is hard to not call them out, but so far I managed to not be a d*ck.
 
The alternative - put some sort of CAPTCHA on the check-out pages to ensure humans are checking out
Captchas can be faked, even ones that require human interaction.

Take the Captcha, redirect it to a frequently visited site, and require confirmation on that site to enter. Relay that confirmation back to the site originally presenting the Captcha. How do you get people to willingly click on a Captcha to enter a site? Offer high quality porn, and be up front about the fact that they are paying for it via their service to validate the Captcha.
 
he alludes to a warehouse location somewhere on the website.

back to topic, i often wonder why small local gun shops don't enter into an ammo co-op to see if they can increase their buying power and bring in ammo probably cheaper than the prices they were getting for ordering individually. i would expect them to enter into an agreement that every shop would sell the product at the same pricing but i doubt that would happen, capitalism being what it is. wishful thinking is all.

They already have this (minus the price agreements lol) it's called "buyer groups". Problem is you're not getting into one for anything less than 5, 6, maybe sometimes 7 figures. Small shops do not have the capital to swing that. So they have to use distributors.

If you ran it as a nonprofit you would have too much fighting over who gets what allocation, favoritism, etc. You'd also have to pay people to run it. Sounds like.... you know.... paying for a
distributor. [laugh]
 
Dude its called supply & demand.

In capitalist economic structures, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It postulates that in a perfectly competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at the current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at the current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.

The basic laws of supply and demand, as described by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam, are the following four:

  • If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
  • If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
 
In capitalist economic structures, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It postulates that in a perfectly competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at the current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at the current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.

The basic laws of supply and demand, as described by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam, are the following four:

  • If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
  • If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.

And there's nothing in this theory that makes exceptions for hurricanes and other natural disasters. There is a VERY good reason for that. Every time politicians fix prices, they hurt the people they're pretending to help. Especially for an incipient hurricane.
 
othere charging $35 box of 50 is price gouging
Unless the suppliers are colluding to fix the pricing or artificially limit supply then the price is simply market demand.
There is no such thing as gouging in a free market transaction - the item is worth the asking price or not.
 
othere charging $35 box of 50 is price gouging

Unless it's some exotic ammo. How close did he look at the box. My dealer had some 9mm for $30 and I said no thanks, then he said what he paid for it and it was some special ammo not clear at first look. They are having to buy stuff like that to have some ammo for their customers.
 
In capitalist economic structures, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It postulates that in a perfectly competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at the current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at the current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.

The basic laws of supply and demand, as described by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam, are the following four:

  • If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
  • If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
  • If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
Or.....if a lot of people want stuff it costs more. Some shit on the other hand you can't give away.
 
I've been tempted a few times to buy ANOTHER pre-ban AR lower. There was one on here a few weeks ago for $1,400. Way too high for an overall no-name PB, but, I mean, it's not like they're making more.

But I've got 2 already. Do I REALLY need another???? Probably not. LOL. So I've held.

My SIL picked up a Colt for $1600 all in at his local gun shop in Missouri a few weeks ago. Preban for his trip back East. He should stock up on them. LOL. (No, he is NOT going to do that, so don't ask. ROFL!!)
 
Everything sold by a business is done so for a profit.
Think about everything you buy on a daily basis.

Buy something at a price you can reason with.
No one is forcing you to buy it and is it a necessity?

How much would you pay for food if there was none available?

I sold quite a lot on here in the last couple of months and someone is going to make a profit on my purchases when I spend it.

No supply and high demand=higher cost to purchase or replace!

Pretty simple everyone!
 
And he’s also free to communicate his findings on prices.

Absolutely. As long as OP knows that most people are libertarian/free market on here, and will take a "screwing you on price" thread with little sympathy.

Saying "I got a great deal on gun food at Cabela's!" then saying it beat LGS by x% would have communicated the facts, but in a better way, IMO.

OP is free to post what they want..but you gotta know how to read a room and know your audience.
 
Economically speaking, Id be interested to hear more about your supposition on mfg cost. I cant readily see factors causing a rise in manufacturing costs here. In fact the spot price of one component, lead, over the last 5 years has been generally downward, and the price today is less than it was a year ago.


There are many factors that are invisible to people outside an industry. The company I work at uses pill bottles - they're more expensive and harder to get, because the plastics companies are making more money on bottles for hand sanitizer. For all I know, the companies that make the chemicals from which the powder is made, have decided that they can be better served by making stuff for vaccine makers....

Most manufacturers source their supplies from outside companies. Every company has the same issues with Covid shutdowns, people out sick (one of our vendors had 75% of their help out for Covid - either sick or "don't come in because you live with someone with it"). All this reduces supplies, and boosts costs. Yeah, your primer's material components may still have the same cost, but if you have to pay overtime for an operator to cover for an absent co-worker, then the price goes up.

Hell, when this sh!t started, air freight went up 30-40%, because there were fewer flights, and space on the planes demanded more $.
 
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