The best way to lower ammo prices is to stop buying.

Correct. I lower ammo prices for me by casting and reloading. Buying just costs too much, especially right now.

Agree, if you stop buying then as demand decreases, prices will in turn decease. But don't forget supply. High prices spur more supply. As supply increases it also drives decreases in prices. So high prices in turn can also lower prices as others join the market.

Just stop buying ammo to lower prices?

While correct in theory, the concept is useless in reality.

Yes, y'all all need to immediately quit buying ammo...

The country is at its most unstable point in at least 50 years, and we know we are about to have a disputed election that will almost certainly degenerate into widespread civil unrest. I think I am probably gonna keep buying ammo when I find it, but y'all go ahead and stop.

I'm doing my part. No reason to buy given nearly a decade of salad days with better pricing than I've seen in my lifetime.

Easy to not buy if you have what you want / need, but in fact not everybody does.

I suspect the buying what is driving prices higher is not the folks on gun boards, or at least not the seasoned ones. Good luck convincing the folks doing the buying, they're not going to listen.

If you want to test the theory, ask someone here to sell you their "excess" ammo. The market is tight and nothing is going to loosen it until demand falls or supply rises. Supply is not going up without makers committing large amounts of capital investment, which I doubt they are going to do anytime soon. Demand is apparently far in excess of supply right now, and that isn't likely to ease off either.

dh1633pm said:

Agree, if you stop buying then as demand decreases, prices will in turn decease. But don't forget supply. High prices spur more supply. As supply increases it also drives decreases in prices. So high prices in turn can also lower prices as others join the market.

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There is no way for supply to out pace demand at this point. There is no production increase because everyone is running at max capacity and using every available resource, primer, powder and bullets. Everyone is running at 10. You cannot turn it up to 11. It is time and cost prohibitive to put new production in place.

I agree to an extent with the OP that the only way for the price of ammo to come back down to earth is for people to stop buying but that is easy for someone to say if they are sitting on a ton of ammo. If you are new to shooting or simply got caught without a chair what are you supposed to do. Now I think people are panicking and over buying but if you need ammo on this market you have to pay the piper. For me the only part that is tight is projectiles but I have enough to keep me shooting for 2 years and as long as I keep dollar cost averaging them as I shoot I will not run out. Pricing on bullets has gone up but no where near as much as ammo, primers and powder.

I cannot say it enough times. We are in a perfect storm. COVID-19, perceived civil unrest plus an election year. All of these things have come together to drive 9mm ammo that was selling for $169 a 10000 to $550+ per 1000. I personally do not see the demand going down. All of the factors driving demand are not going to be resolved for a while. From what I have heard most retailers are planning on this continuing through most of 2021 if not further depending on the election. If Biden were to win I see it spiking even more right after the election.

daniel craig said:

The idea being that much of the demand comes from people who already have decent supply and they’re competing with the faction of demand that has limited to no supply. If we left the buying up to the latter for a while and the former ceased for a while, things would even out dramatically.

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Then you stop those who already have plenty by raising prices even higher so only those who truly need to get some ammo will have the ability to do so.

Only rounds I buy are .22lr, and I stocked up when the prices were low. I reload all the rest of my calibers. Except for some specialty loads I'm ok for a while. Primers seem to be the hardest thing to find right now.

George P said:

Then you stop those who already have plenty by raising prices even higher so only those who truly need to get some ammo will have the ability to do so.

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This is already happening to an extent. We are up to $500-$550 for a case of 9mm. It lasts hours now instead of minutes. There are retailers selling 9mm at $.82 a round. It stays in stock for weeks but eventually it gets sold because people cannot find other sources. The return to normal prices always takes longer than the climb to high prices.

Ammo is now being priced the way gas is priced at the pump. It is not based on what they paid. It is based on the price they will have to pay to replace the gas. It keeps going up in terms of ammo. Retailers also have to replace the volume with higher margins to keep the doors open. Too many people do not understand this and scream about gouging and price fixing but really it is just the semi free market adjusting to the current market.

Pudge said:

Correct. I lower ammo prices for me by casting and reloading. Buying just costs too much, especially right now.

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People who don't handload jest ain't right.

gonoles_1980 said:

Only rounds I buy are .22lr, and I stocked up when the prices were low. I reload all the rest of my calibers. Except for some specialty loads I'm ok for a while. Primers seem to be the hardest thing to find right now.

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Almost every small pistol primer that is currently being produced is going into factory loaded ammo and they still can't keep up.

When did wash your hand and stay out of crowds become let us hoard toilet paper and ammo?

daniel craig said:

They’re people who don’t shoot enough to justify the cost of components.

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Also the cost of space in your home, cost of equipment and the time it takes to reload. I did not do it for years. I do it now but honestly I shot more factory ammo in 2018-early 2020 than I had in years because pricing was insanely cheap. People have short term memory loss to that fact. In 2019-early 2020 ammo resellers were making 6-10% NET on ammo because there was a surplus in the market. The Govt was buying less people were shooting more but still the production out paced demand so prices dropped to rates not seen since the 1970s when adjusted for inflation. Guns were the same way. Volume was king and the consumer benefited. Some people recognized that and benefited from it. Others did not.

bikerdoc said:

When did wash your hand and stay out of crowds become let us hoard toilet paper and ammo?

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It didn't but COVID 19 slowed production of all sorts of products. Ammo and TP rely on raw materials and the production of those raw materials was halted or at least restricted. This lead to shortages. Shortages create a sense of scarcity. Scarcity creates a run on the bank and hoarding. It is human nature. Nothing sells product like the take back.

If people would buy what they plan to shoot it would even out. Or even buy what you will shoot in a lifetime. Id bet a good percentage of the ammo sold in the last 12 years will be sold in at least one estate auction.

daniel craig said:

Which is what they are doing. But a lot of companies are afraid of the risk of doing that because if you go too high then people stop buying and the company loses out. It’s delicate.

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Look at ammoseek and you will see the vast majority of retailers are doing exactly that. Only the top 4-5 lines change. Anything under $.40 sells in minutes. $.50-$.55 holds for longer. When you get to $.70-$.80 it stays for a long time.

https://ammoseek.com/ammo/9mm-luger

crestoncowboy said:

If people would buy what they plan to shoot it would even out. Or even buy what you will shoot in a lifetime. Id bet a good percentage of the ammo sold in the last 12 years will be sold in at least one estate auction.

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I disagree. Most people buying now "need" the ammo to shoot. If they didn't they would not be paying the current prices. Why on earth would you buy at the height of the market to hoard. Its like buying stocks when the market is at its all time high. People who actually "hoard" ammo buy it when it is cheap and stack it deep so they can sit out these kinds of markets. The person leaving tons of ammo to their estate are not the ones buying right now. If anything they are the ones selling.