Do you think that the dealers in ammo are being up charged?

Are dealers gouging on ammo?

  • Yes they are taking advantage of the panic

    Votes: 33 63.5%
  • No the manufactures are upping prices to the dealers and they are just passing them on

    Votes: 19 36.5%

  • Total voters
    52
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castile

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Or do you think they are just gouging. I am not sure if they are passing along the hit or if they are gouging due to shortages. Its not just one dealer its most all of the them.
 
My local is being charged much more for ammo and certain firearms (mostly pistols and AR type rifles) from their distributor in MD. I am very friendly with the owners and they are seriously upset about it, but what can they do?
 
If you have guaranteed price contracts (with a small amount of pricing tolerance), like the big boys- Cabela's, Walmart, Academy, Midway, then you are seeing a ~25% increase. If you are buying on the open market, like SG or your LGS, then it's at the current market rate. I am not sure where the extra profit is being extracted- probably upper level wholesale.
 
I may be a sucker for saying this, but I really trust SGAmmo. They seem to be honest when it comes to how they price things and how much mark they add. When the owner of the site is saying that the ammo they're getting in is WAY more $$ than it was this time last year, I believe it.

The gouging always starts at first, but soon the manufacturers get in on it and raise their prices...then (if ever), it takes years for the prices to come back down due to lack of demand.
 
I doubt very much that dealers are getting ammo at the same price they were 14 months ago. Yes, they're being upcharged which reflects higher demand in the market.

People who disagree, what leads you to believe that the actual cost of ammo is the same in light of supply disruptions and skyrocketing demand with millions of new consumers?
 
IIRC there was a 10% increase across the board back in April to cover commodities rising, prices after that are demand driven.

Justified ? Depends on the day, today I‘m thinking it’s gouging
 
Remember that “gouging” can only occur if an item is purchased; the markup on a retail item is usually calculated as a gross margin (calculated to cover all costs plus a residual profit) in a percentage term - as we know, a fixed percentage on a larger base number is always a larger amount of raw dollars - that happens thru the entire ammo process and wallah!!!!!, much higher prices - everyone is in on the game, everyone - but they cannot play the game if they do not have inventory - so it continuously feeds on itself as ever increasing costs. If any item is selling just as fast as you can get it (like ice water in Hell), then you can charge any price you wish.
 
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Simple answer in my opinion is, it’s both.

Stands to reason that manufacturers are running overtime shifts to try and satisfy the demands. Overtime costs have to get justified somehow, namely in increased product costs to maintain margins.

Now I will say I do think that retailers are marking up ammo over what their COGS increase was, but do you blame them? They have to sell something and with 50%+ less product getting delivered to them what are they supposed to do? They raise the price to counteract the shortage.

Don’t like the price, don’t buy. I’m not.

Life isn’t fair and life is not always normal, we are in far from normal times, thus my shooting hobby takes a back seat to my reloading hobby.
 
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Poll choices are too limiting.

Yes, some dealers might be gouging. Many, maybe most, are not, they are simply passing on their increased costs.

Without looking at their books, no way to really know.
 
I have seen the same box of ammo vary greatly in price from one dealer to the next. My go-to gun guy will, for example, sell me a box of 20 hollow point defensive loads in .45 LC for a little over $15 while another vendor out of town has the same stuff for $38.
 
No one is gouging anyone. No one is forcing anyone to buy anything. In these times of huge demand, and massive panic and uncertain political future regarding guns, supplies are not even close to meeting demand. If you do not like the price, you do not buy, hence you did not get gouged. If you do buy, then you agree that the asking price is worth it for the goods. Have wholesale costs gone up? yep, but not as high as retail. International sales, sales to gov't and LEO are still about the same price. Most retailers do not know how long they can remain in business or even IF they will remain in business; selling everything on one day at normal prices doesn't keep the doors open or the customers coming back
 
Let us not think that everyone selling ammo in the pipeline is pure of heart. Every one of them, up and down the line, wants to make money, and lots of it. They are not your buddies. They see what is happening in Washington and fear for their economic future. No need to debate gouging or not gouging, you will just pay for what you need.

Although CTD is in a class by itself.

Now that gun owners are under siege, get out your wallet.
 
I can't cast a vote as the choices given are too narrow. I see online ammo pricing where the prices are a definite gouge. At my local stores the prices have gone up a little and I consider that to be passing along their price increase from their distributor that is in turn passing along an increase from the maker that's just passing along his increased materials cost. Don't forget the inflation of our money caused by the profligate spending of our federal government adding to the increased prices we are seeing.
 
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I can't cast a vote as the choices given are two narrow. I see online ammo priceing where the prices are a definite gouge. At my local stores the prices have gone up a little and I consider that to be passing along their price increase from their distributor that is in turn passing along an increase from the maker that's just passing along his increased materials cost. Don't forget the inflation of our money caused by the profligate spending of our federal government adding to the increased prices we are seeing.
Did you buy any of that online ammo? If no, you did not get gouged. If yes, you thought it was worth the exchange of money for product. Are there folks trying to make as much as they can as fast as they can? Yep; and if I was in this business, not knowing whether I was going to be able to remain in business, I'd be grabbing every nickel I could so I could start up something else when the axe falls - and it IS going to fall, just a question of when.
 
Gouging is when someone charges me more that I think I should pay

Free enterprise and being a smart capitalist is when I charge someone else more than they think they should pay

If the wholesaler or retailer charges pre-panic prices, some a-hole will clear off the shelves, then put it on Gunbroker for 3x what they paid. If the wholesaler/retailer mark it up themselves, they are gouging.

How many of you whiners had sympathy for dealers that were dumping AR’s below cost after The Hildebeast got defeated by Trump?
 
Its an odd situation. I have a very small store near me. Last time i bought 9mm from him it was a 100rd count of Blazer for $39. The store I goto to shoot which is considerably larger they wanted $35 for a box of 50. Both stores are in the same county and about 25 minutes apart
 
Its an odd situation. I have a very small store near me. Last time i bought 9mm from him it was a 100rd count of Blazer for $39. The store I goto to shoot which is considerably larger they wanted $35 for a box of 50. Both stores are in the same county and about 25 minutes apart
SO? That proved nothing. Do you know each one's costs and expenses? Your small guy figured out what he needed to sell at to make his margin - as did the other store. My small town guy has 3 boxes of 38 short Colt he special orders for a guy; otherwise he has nothing ammo-wise to sell.
 
Its an odd situation. I have a very small store near me. Last time i bought 9mm from him it was a 100rd count of Blazer for $39. The store I goto to shoot which is considerably larger they wanted $35 for a box of 50. Both stores are in the same county and about 25 minutes apart

For a company to sell goods or services to one entity (a store) at a higher price than another store in the same marketplace, is illegal and a violation of Robinson-Patman. If this happened the higher priced guy, with a good lawyer, could make a lot of money for him. This shows that both stores were making money, one a lot more money than the other.
 
For a company to sell goods or services to one entity (a store) at a higher price than another store in the same marketplace, is illegal and a violation of Robinson-Patman. If this happened the higher priced guy, with a good lawyer, could make a lot of money for him. This shows that both stores were making money, one a lot more money than the other.
Really? You don't think P&G sells to Walmart cheaper than they do your local grocery store?
 
At my local Bi-Mart, they are pricing it fairly, maybe more so then many others. I can't imagine buying CCI Mini Mags of 100 count for less then $8.00, and yesterday having Remington 9mm Range Pack of 250 rounds for $60 seems like a steal in today's prices.
 
For a company to sell goods or services to one entity (a store) at a higher price than another store in the same marketplace, is illegal and a violation of Robinson-Patman. If this happened the higher priced guy, with a good lawyer, could make a lot of money for him. This shows that both stores were making money, one a lot more money than the other.

Robinson-Patman was established to control the minimum pricing stores can sell at, not the maximum. It's to prevent a large corporation from loss-leadering or adding extras onto a product in order to drive out the small mom and pop store. Not relevant to what we are talking about with stores selling for higher prices.

The consumer can not buy from the high priced store and travel to the store that is lower priced. Robinson-Patman was established because there would be no reason for a consumer to buy a higher priced item from a mom and pop store when the big chain store is selling products at a loss in order to drive out competition.
 
I don't go by the BS of some here who put out a fake definition of price gouging. There is a clear definition and its going on in ammo and guns right now.
Everyone is wanting to get in on the gouging so IMO everyone in the supply line is causing it. I can see limiting ammo sales to one box per person per what ever as long as supplies are low. But the cost to produce ammo did not suddenly go up. Its the same or close to what it was a year ago. So its pure gouging. If it were not why is it when I do see Walmart or Orchlans get ammo in they are the same price they were this time last year? Its because the manufactures are not gouging. Missouri Bullet Co is having hard time filling orders but their prices did not suddenly go through the roof. Anyone who says its capitalism is an out of touch ignorant person. We can not live under a Laissez-Fjaire Capitalism the Gov would let company's have monopoly's, let them do what ever it is they want. Just like when companies let workers health go. I.E. The Radium Girls, Coal Miners, the Triangle Shirt Factory ect. Price gouging is one example. Ammo is not a needed thing so its not gov watched. But next time there is a disaster and your local gas station trys to spike the gas 10 bucks a gal, or your super market wants 25 dollars for a banana lets see how many so call fools who support unregulated capitalism fits into your utopian ideology. My guess is it would be like those idiots who think national health care is evil but once they are on Medicare its keep your darn hands off my medicare. LMAO Reminds me of the old farts who get drunk on scotch or PBR calling someone using Marijuana a looser. Some dogs you can not teach.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/price-gouging
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging
 
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