Just my rant towards West Coast Pawn & Gun

Gun stores etc. do that all the time. Don't buy ammo from those guys.

I would probably buy it at Wal*Mart then and save myself this drama.

Actually, I think they might just want to make money. Being a business and all.

But look, there's a magic trick to "sticking it to them" for this kind of behavior -- DON'T BUY FROM THEM. That will really show them!

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The long and the short of it is, if folks will walk in the door and pay the money they're asking, they'll sell and they'll keep doing it. If no one will spend that kind of money, they won't sell any and they'll lower the price. When they stop being able to sell all they can get at the price they're asking, the market will correct their oh-so-naughty behavior.

Until then? Well, some folks are willingly parting with money they have to spend for ammo they want or need. Guess I really can't get upset about how much profit someone else is making.

It's a pawn shop... what do you expect? I'm not saying that they're all low-lifes, but in general they are content ripping people off on both sides of the sale.

EDIT: I suppose "ripping off" would be better stated as "taking advantage of low-information buyers and sellers".

Vote with your feet. They are free to charge whatever they want to. You are free to laugh and walk away.

I have encountered businesses like that rarely but often enough to share your outrage.

Most gunshops I know are run by sportsmen, military vets, police equipment suppliers who share our interest almost on a hobbist rather than business level. Some retailers tho' treat ammo as a consumer item and us as sheep to be sheared, so charge what they think the market will bear, rather than cost plus reasonable profit.

To me it is unethical for a retailer to resale ammo bought from a retailer period, like retailers who clean out a WalMart store as soon as it receives its ammo allotment.

During one of the recent gas shortages, when everyone was jacking their prices, the gas station associated with the local Food City held their gas prices at the original price they charged when their storage tank was topped off, and changed the price only based on what they paid to top off the next time. My son and I have made a point of patronizing them for showing some ethics.

tjoe20 said:

I understand supply and demand...

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I'm not so sure that you do...

A 1 or 2 dollar markup I ignore.

If something is DOUBLED or TRIPLED in price, I make sure to let out an audible LAUGH that the owner can hear. I then giggle to myself as I walk out of the store shaking my head. Seems to send a message.

Doesn't Walmart put its hard-to-remove stickers on their ammo boxes (at least they did for a while in my area).

If you are really incensed about that that shop is doing, I suppose you could let your local Walmart manager know, they could put up a "don't sell to these guys" sign. They had one at my local Walmart in 2009 - I guess one store got a little too aggressive in buying in reselling even for Walmart's comfort level.

You can buy your own sticker/price gun.. put it over the/a old price.

It is what it is.

You have three choices.

1. Pay (what you consider to be) a confiscatory price for the convenience
2. Shop around (I haven't paid more than $15/50 for 9MM FMJ since the panic began)
3. Shoot/Hoard less.

#3 will get us back to more reasonable pricing the quickest.

The gun community is a tight group and tend to stick together

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Obviously someone that doesn't visit many gun shops or gun shows.

It's a pawn shop - they're charging well over 500% APR on loans. It surprises you that they're marking up ammo a few hundred percent?

My experience has been that the vast majority of people involved in the gun/ammo business are in it to make money. They're not investing their money to benefit the "gun community".

Certaindeaf said:

You can buy your own sticker/price gun.. put it over the/a old price.

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Obviously. My point was wasn't about concealing stickers from consumers, but rather that Walmart would put a non-removable sticker on a product is a pretty clear indication that they want it to be known where the product came from. And maybe, just maybe, they might care about resale of such product. Then again, maybe not...

Your dealing with a Pawn shop, the words themselves tell you your going to get ripped off doing a transaction in there. In Fl many Pawn shops are gun stores, but I don't shop for anything in pawn shops, unless it's the very reare pistol that's been sitting so long that they just want to move it. And that almost never happens to me, anyway. Buy ammo at the range or at Wallmart.

Just remember who gouges because like the rest this shortage will end, then you know who to avoid on principal.