Ah the good ol’ days….

I've got a couple of 50 round boxes of 38 Super that I picked up somewhere with $12.99 price tags. Positively sure I paid more than that for them on the re-sell market.

Deleted. Dreaded double post.

I would keep them also to keep memories alive. They appear to be a bargain today but just remember what inflation has done to the dollar.

Based on inflation, that $12.99 in 1991 dollars is equivalent to $26.04 today. Still pretty decent.

I've a few boxes of WWB 55gr FMJ that I used the Midway Round-Up to buy them at $4.50 each.

Now I wonder if I have some boxes lurking about with the price tags still on them. It's a "probably not" as I have always tended to break ammo out of its commercial packaging to put into more uniform MTM boxes to stow away in ammo cans.

I have a few price tags and some “classic” ammunition boxes that surely make me wish for the prices paid in days of yore…



The Weatherby ammo is, I think, $27.70 but it’s pretty faded. The Federal .243 is 20.99, the Gemco box is a CCI .22 Maxi Mag for $3.29.

These don’t have tags anymore, but they were pretty inexpensive compared to today’s prices gif sure!



Not as memorable as the OP’s trip down memory lane, those boxes mean much more.

Stay safe.

@Riomouse911 I love that red and white Federal box. Still have a couple floating around from odd auction buys. Those just look like Deer Season to me. I dearly miss when Fed used the vivid colored boxes instead of the blah blue grey. Seemed to add something to the whole experience that is missing today.

Random 8 said:

@Riomouse911 I love that red and white Federal box. Still have a couple floating around from odd auction buys. Those just look like Deer Season to me. I dearly miss when Fed used the vivid colored boxes instead of the blah blue grey. Seemed to add something to the whole experience that is missing today.

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Same here. My Grandfather was smitten with Winchester 150 gr Silvertip ammo for his .30-30, he said the nose of the bullets didn’t ding up when loaded and unloaded a few times after trips to the deer blinds. I kind of liked the Federal offering because of the plastic belt slide they packed their ammo in. To a kid that just seemed cool, so I asked him to buy a box for me the next time we went to town. (This isn’t that box, but it’s from the same era.)

I remember slipping the red 10-cartridge carrier over my belt after getting dressed and making sure it was in a place on my right side where I could reach it. I can’t recall if I thought I’d miss with the first 6 in the gun as a deer stood there petrified, or if I would be in a running firefight with the ghosts of the Comanches who lived in the hill country previously, but to a kid I guess packing too much ammo is not enough.

I took the old 1894 out to the blind on the hill behind my Grandfathers house, it was situated at the end of an oak tree lined canyon with a small spring at its head. I didn’t get any shots, as I didn’t see a deer, but the memory of that first trip with “my” box of Federal .30-30 is still there.

Stay safe.

The "old" price looks good today, but how was disposable cash, at that time.

I remember Win .22LR for $0.50 a box, but we would buy shorts, to save that $0.08. Find a discarded "coke" bottle and have $0.10 for a soda.

A box of Federal Hi-Power shotshells was $2.50.

Get off work on Friday, after school, go to bank and cash check.
Stop and fill up. $5 for tank of gas, to get through the week. $14 leftover

SEEING the prices is amazing, though.

DR505 said:

Based on inflation, that $12.99 in 1991 dollars is equivalent to $26.04 today. Still pretty decent.

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$12.99 invested in Amazon during the 90's would be worth $1600 today.

Otto said:

$12.99 invested in Amazon during the 90's would be worth $1600 today.

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Lots of investments pay off big. The $105,000 I paid for my first house in 1992 turned into $400,000 when I sold it and bought my second in 2004. (The original owner paid $9,500 in 1958.)

That’s not even close to the same % increase as Amazon (or Apple or Microsoft, etc.) stock prices but the nice payoff back then put us where we are today.

Now if only my ammo stash was worth 1/10th that .

Stay safe.

Riomouse911 said:

Now if only my ammo stash was worth 1/10th that

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Have an auction in Amish country and it may be...

Purchased at a gun show in Lakeland from Florida Ammo Trader I can't remember the price but I'll bet this will fetch more than in the late 1990s.

Well my post disappeared into nothingness

More or less I was saying that some of the bargain priced ammo from 20+
years ago sometimes wasn't much of a
bargain

TEKoken813 said:

I was grabbing a couple boxes of ammo so I can take the wife to the range for a refresher & was reminded that ammo wasn’t always so coveted. Located a couple boxes my dad bought with me in the early 90s from Discount Guns in Tampa. It isn’t even around anymore, R.I.P.. $12.99 for 20 Federal Hydro-Shok 230 grain 45ACP. THE UMC box wasn’t marked but I’m sure they were giving them away. They’re also 45ACP 230 grain. I miss those prices but not as much as I miss my dad. I will never shoot these, the memories of hanging out with my dad are priceless.View attachment 1023150 View attachment 1023151

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Adjusted for inflation and the devalued dollar, $12.99 in 1992 dollars is $25.33 today's funny money.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Adjusted for inflation and the devalued dollar, $12.99 in 1992 dollars is $25.33 today's funny money.

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I have Rem SRP from 1992, marked $1.23.
At pre- DEM panic pricing of $3.50-$4.00 and then today's ridiculous pricing; makes those '92 primers, a real bargain.

Seedy Character said:

I have Rem SRP from 1992, marked $1.23.
At pre- DEM panic pricing of $3.50-$4.00 and then today's ridiculous pricing; makes those '92 primers, a real bargain.

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Those were a bargain even then. I'm on my last pack of Federal GMM/SRP's and they were $2.50/100 in 1996. =

I'm not that old. I remember the good ol' days of 2019, where the ammo aisles stretched as far as the eye can see, and the bottom shelf always had TulAmmo 100 round boxes for $20. The memory brings a tear to my eye.

gobsauce said:

I'm not that old. I remember the good ol' days of 2019, where the ammo aisles stretched as far as the eye can see, and the bottom shelf always had TulAmmo 100 round boxes for $20. The memory brings a tear to my eye.

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I started reloading in the late 70's, stopped in the mid-80's when I had to move for work, started up again in the early 90's then stopped again in the mid-90's until around Y2K, and haven't stopped since. I've added a couple of calibers - 9mmMak and .357Max - and deleted a few too - .32ACP, 7.62Tok., .25ACP, .22Hornet - but it's been a pretty constant thing. I stopped casting in the mid-80's and didn't pick it up again. I never was very good at it. Too little patience.

I've given away, sold, and traded off more reloading gear than I have now over that time - and I even sold all of my guns at one point - but hunting and shooting have just always been there for me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.

A friend of mine was going to throw this vintage ammo out when I told him I would take it, even though I don't have any .32 caliber guns. Just thought the old boxes were cool. The UMC box of .32 S&W (lower left), is marked in pencil with a price of 55 cents!

I found some shotshells boxes when cleaning out Grandmother's house.

Posted pics on ebay. 1 EMPTY box sold for $25, another for $16. Several $5-$8 range.

From the 50s and 60s

You never know what some people will collect.

bannockburn said:

A friend of mine was going to throw this vintage ammo out when I told him I would take it, even though I don't have any .32 caliber guns. Just thought the old boxes were cool. The UMC box of .32 S&W (lower left), is marked in pencil with a price of 55 cents!
View attachment 1024198

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On the UMC box, "10gr. powder" and "88gr. bullet"

Yup, going through some of the old ammo stash makes me want to cry!

1000 rounds of Wolf 45ACP with a $120 price tag and a 1000 rounds of 9mm 115 gr FMJ CCI Blazer for $78 from Academy.

I have part of a pound of powder that has a sticker price of $4.95. It sounds good now but I also remember what my income was when I bought it.