Rant incoming...
I've been on record in the past raging about gun owners trying to shamelessly profiteer off fellow gun owners. I get all sorts of grief...free market blah blah blah. Now we have outright profiteering going on. Primers that people bought for $30 being sold for $150, $200, $300.
This is how we treat fellow gun owners in a tough bind? People in the trenches with us fighting the tyranny of firearm laws. As soon as there's a glitch we try to make a few bucks off them. I shake my head in disgust, free market or not. This is the same as jerk offs selling water and generators for sky high money after a hurricane. It turns my stomach.
Yeah except that nobody is going to die or fail to escape the hurricane by not getting primers or whatever. Even with the current shit market in play, I can't see the morality play
here. Who gets to define the difference between what should be "fair market price" and "profiteering? "
I also don't see the people selling stuff at that rate as per se "fellow shooters" at that kind of rape level. They're just market opportunists, goaded into existence by all these get rich quick TV shows etc. "Flipper Culture". I think as gun enthusiasts we make the mistake of thinking that everyone that owns guns, sells them or whatever is trying to be your buddy or have your best interests at heart. Etc. They don't. It's business. Not to mention a huge # of gun owners don't give a shit about RKBA or preserving it, etc. It's a sad, but true reality on the ground. Flippers dont even shoot guns that much to begin with. If at all, in some cases. Most of these people are not your friends, they add no value, etc, like at least some
gun shops and dealers do. Ranting about them will not make them go away. Refusing to buy shit from them certainly does, though.
ETA: Also, I think its flawed to take shit prices personally. Nobody is FORCING you to pay the price! just opt out!
That's the most powerful thing you can do in a free market, is not buy something, believe it or not.
The fact remains though, to some degree, these prices wouldn't get retarded if there weren't retards willing to pay that..... there is a silver lining to this cloud, though, too.... and that is, that people selling stuff at shit prices are pillaging the wallets/bank accounts of impatient morons willing to pay too much for shit. Eventually this model is not sustainable and will destroy the resources of the arm flapping retarded types. The sooner their wallets are drained the sooner those idiots are now not a part of the market anymore... and the sooner that prices will recede to something that isn't complete shit. Prices only can drop when enough people opt out of the market or supply rises dramatically enough to at least meet and exceed demand. If the worst flippers are sucking more cash out of the dumbest part of the market at a higher rate of speed, that means things might return to normal, faster. I don't lose any sleep at night knowing a flipper fled someone who didn't do their homework, a gallon of Cosby's barbecue sauce. Like we told the newbs to watch out for that kind of thing. But some literally do not
care, they run around flapping their arms going "OBERYEDOFDIDEN GUNNA BAN EVERWERYEDTHING!" can't reason with them at that point. So let them pay $200 for a box of
primers. They richly deserve that $200 box of primers.
Someone asks me what I would tell some new guy...... sometimes you need to give them tough love.
"Listen, sorry you got to the party late, but now you get to go through the rite of suffering like myself and everyone else has at least once before, before they learn, that is. Buy enough ammo to get by and have fun waiting things out. I might be able to help you score a few boxes here and there and ill let you know, but that's about all I can do. Learn how to dry fire. Running around overpaying for stuff isn't helping. Let the other rubes do that stuff. In the meantime you can keep your eyes peeled for stuff that enters the market at non shit prices, you will see it here and there, and grab it if you can, but don't kill yourself doing it. "
I also write this as a guy who has sent like at least two fairly large ammo care packages to friends that just got into guns different states so that they would have something to
shoot. Selling them stuff at prices below market, frankly. If you want to help out fellow gun owners (that you think are worthy of helping out) you have to do it in a direct action sort of sense.