GOP Senate = prices start falling? question from the 90's

I advise caution. The Republicans get skittish when the media and a Democrat president start a temper tantrum about guns. Many of them want to "work with their friends across the aisle" usually to our detriment. They do some stupid things and should know better.

The 90's had the 10 year AWB and magazine size limit. If I remember prices on some items stayed high for a long time.

We still have a shortage of .22lr and unless the shortage is resolved, I don't expect prices to fall on 22lr. Some prices have fallen with the other ammo. I'm not expecting much in the next two years.

But it would be a good time to stock up on ammo, buy a few boxes here and there when out and about. Just be ready for the next time there is a panic...whatever and whenever that may be. Stock up now so next time we won't see the endless threads of "I can't find ammo" and "Internet Gougers" and the like.
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The 1994 Republican "wave" election was partly in response to the AWB. Yet the Republicans, once elected, did nothing to repeal the AWB. It simply expired on its own, 10 years later. In fact, President Bush said that if Congress extended the AWB, he would sign it.

The lesson for today is to expect nothing pro-gun from the new Congress. At best, it will simply be harder to enact new antigun measures. The pro-gun side is still playing defense, not offense.

I don't see any major effect on gun prices from all this. A new "panic" has been averted, for now.

In my memory, it did nothing in the 90's to impact gun and firearm related product pricing. I don't believe it will do so now. I do think it could reduce the chance of panic buying in the near future but I think most of the worried folks are probably just about out of pantry space by now.

I have a rather pragmatic approach to pricing on this stuff. It is the same as my philosophy about buying a home. You buy the house you need when you need it at the current price (As long as it is well within your budget) and forget all of the rhetoric about it being an investment etc.

For me, firearms are the same. The prices rise and fall and I buy what I want/need with the complete understanding that I am never going to take a profit/loss because I never treat them as financial assets.

Interesting question. Hopefully the thread wont get closed when it inevitably drifts deeper into politics .

I don't see much of anything changing. There has been too much change in the overall landscape.

My concern is this will set up Hillary and a swing back to the left in two years. That can prove much more damaging to gun rights than two years of GOP control in both of the legislative branches would be beneficial.

We get what we want and still there are naysayers .
What are you afraid of ?

I think prices are already pretty much dropped as far as their gonna go. Except 22lr, hopefully.

The only market wide pricing impacts of the 90's happened as the result of the Brady Law implementation, when preban rifles and 10+ capacity magazine prices were artificially inflated due to imposed scarcity. When the House flipped in 94 and the Senate flipped in 96 there wasn't an impact on market prices that I can recall.

Until the NICS system was implemented there was an artificial inflation of private party handgun prices at gun shows because that was the only way you could buy one at a show. Dealers couldn't sell you a handgun because of the waiting period. But that had nothing to do with the shift in power.

I believe (like Frankie in 1953 ) that everything will remain about the same.

akarguy said:

Just wondering for those of you were were around in the 90's when republicans took both the house and senate with a Democrat president. Did you see prices on certain types of firearms and ammo fall? If so, by how much, how quickly, and on what types of goods? The spectre of new regulations is all but gone now, we already do not have an AWB like then, and its already a buyers market in some respects. How did the buying climate change in the 90's?

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Prices on firearms will continue to drop because demand has dropped. Gun makers are now actually having to compete for business and a primary way to take your competition's business is to lower prices.

The GOP Senate was expected. Now is something that could be perceived as anti-gun happened -- say the Democrats took control of the House, THEN politics in this context would have had a real impact.

GAF said:

We get what we want and still there are naysayers .
What are you afraid of ?

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GREAT question.

The problem we have now, is that most people are in prepper mode. And for good reason. Resale value on guns have never been higher, and most people wish the value of their 401K performed as well as the value of their ARs in 2012 and 2013.

Anytime i come across a deal I snatch it up. The other day I bought three ARs and ten mags for a $1,000. Not an awesome deal but dang near close. Two older Colt LE6920s and an Olympic Arms Plinker. It may take ten years to make fifty percent (in 2012 and 2013 I was making over 100% on some resales) on my investment, but how many stocks, IRAs, and mutual funds are going to do that.

Also, if things got to pot, I've got over five thousand rounds of ammo, so they won't exactly be poorly chosen clubs if you get my drift.

What else would I spend the money. I don't enjoy cars (give me a pickup truck any day of the week), I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't go to sports games. There's only so much I can spend on recreational power lifting, and I'm lucky enough to have found a woman who likes to shoot and sees things the way I do.

Oh I could get another dog.

Pricing on firearms will have more to do with inventory at the distributor.

Distributors are the way mfg's sell their guns. Some large chains will purchase directly from S&W, Ruger, & Colt, but most of the stock of guns are sold to major distributors.

If they have an excess of one model or another you will find it on sale. If the firearm is in high demand and they need to order 5,000 of them from the mfg, you will see that model selling at a premium over MSRP just to insure they have covered the high cost of stocking up on that item in-case they all do not sell.

Sorry but that is how it works.

Jim

With the slowdown in gun purchases recently, I would estimate you will see some very nice deals coming out for Christmas on models that have been sitting on their shelves over 6 months that they want to move out their doors. On almost all guns I have purchased that were on sale, they all were one or two years old when purchased (purchased as new).

GOP Senate = prices start falling? question from the 90's

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Just wondering for those of you were were around in the 90's when republicans took both the house and senate with a Democrat president. Did you see prices on certain types of firearms and ammo fall? If so, by how much, how quickly, and on what types of goods? The spectre of new regulations is all but gone now, we already do not have an AWB like then, and its already a buyers market in some respects. How did the buying climate change in the 90's?

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As others noted prices did not fall back in the 90's after the house change. In the early 90's there was a lot Chinese imports which were really putting a squeeze on domestic manufacturers and prices were coming down. Once those were stopped by executive action, prices rose somewhat. Passing the ban further increased prices on the rifles and magazines covered by the law but otherwise seemed like things pretty much stayed the same on existing *non-scary* guns. Prices only started dropping again as C&R imports and ammo started showing up from russia and former communist block countries in the late 90s followed by the sunset of the ban in 04. So... other than the specific rifles and handguns that were caught up in the legislation, they rest seemed to be simple supply/demand with cheap foreign competition like other manufacturing industries. I expect the same again.

3 AR's and 10 magazines for $1,000

And you only think that's a good deal.

GAF said:

We get what we want and still there are naysayers .
What are you afraid of ?

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Not afraid of anything...I stand ready to see sweeping changes and an end to a grid locked and do nothing Congress and Senate. Some of us have seen this before....I don't think yer gonna see anything remarkable happen in the gun rights world or in gun prices/ammo prices etc.

I'd love to be wrong but the last time I saw this kind of thing in the '90's it was "same as it ever was"....wake me up when they get it fixed and I'll give them a Republican President in 2016 to help out!

VooDoo

The 1994 Republican "wave" election was partly in response to the AWB. Yet the Republicans, once elected, did nothing to repeal the AWB.

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Who is telling you this nonsense? Is this something you heard at a gun shop?

It is rubbish. The Republican House voted to repeal the AWB in 1995.

MagnumDweeb said:

The problem we have now, is that most people are in prepper mode. And for good reason. Resale value on guns have never been higher, and most people wish the value of their 401K performed as well as the value of their ARs in 2012 and 2013.

Anytime i come across a deal I snatch it up. The other day I bought three ARs and ten mags for a $1,000. Not an awesome deal but dang near close. Two older Colt LE6920s and an Olympic Arms Plinker. It may take ten years to make fifty percent (in 2012 and 2013 I was making over 100% on some resales) on my investment, but how many stocks, IRAs, and mutual funds are going to do that.

Also, if things got to pot, I've got over five thousand rounds of ammo, so they won't exactly be poorly chosen clubs if you get my drift.

What else would I spend the money. I don't enjoy cars (give me a pickup truck any day of the week), I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't go to sports games. There's only so much I can spend on recreational power lifting, and I'm lucky enough to have found a woman who likes to shoot and sees things the way I do.

Oh I could get another dog.

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Most of what "people?" All US citizens? No way. All gun owners? Nope.

jim243 said:

Pricing on firearms will have more to do with inventory at the distributor.

Distributors are the way mfg's sell their guns. Some large chains will purchase directly from S&W, Ruger, & Colt, but most of the stock of guns are sold to major distributors.

If they have an excess of one model or another you will find it on sale. If the firearm is in high demand and they need to order 5,000 of them from the mfg, you will see that model selling at a premium over MSRP just to insure they have covered the high cost of stocking up on that item in-case they all do not sell.

Sorry but that is how it works.

Jim

With the slowdown in gun purchases recently, I would estimate you will see some very nice deals coming out for Christmas on models that have been sitting on their shelves over 6 months that they want to move out their doors. On almost all guns I have purchased that were on sale, they all were one or two years old when purchased (purchased as new).

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Pricing on firearms these days is about what the different manufacturers will do now that it's a buyer's market. Will they cut prices in an attempt to take market share from their competitors? Will they be content will pre-scare sales levels?

Most large distributors don't willy-nilly place orders for firearms. They sit-down with a manufacturer at least a year in advance to plan what they will be buying in the future. That plan continues to be modified and at some point in the process, x-months before the expected need, the orders are actually booked. Even then, distributors can cancel or push out delivery dates within agreed upon guidelines.

Distributors don't raise prices over MSRP -- retailers do and they do it because of supply/demand/greed and not as a contingency for having big orders with manufacturers.

MagnumDweeb said:

The problem we have now, is that most people are in prepper mode. And for good reason. Resale value on guns have never been higher, and most people wish the value of their 401K performed as well as the value of their ARs in 2012 and 2013.

Anytime i come across a deal I snatch it up. The other day I bought three ARs and ten mags for a $1,000. Not an awesome deal but dang near close. Two older Colt LE6920s and an Olympic Arms Plinker. It may take ten years to make fifty percent (in 2012 and 2013 I was making over 100% on some resales) on my investment, but how many stocks, IRAs, and mutual funds are going to do that.

Also, if things got to pot, I've got over five thousand rounds of ammo, so they won't exactly be poorly chosen clubs if you get my drift.

What else would I spend the money. I don't enjoy cars (give me a pickup truck any day of the week), I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't go to sports games. There's only so much I can spend on recreational power lifting, and I'm lucky enough to have found a woman who likes to shoot and sees things the way I do.

Oh I could get another dog.

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Supporting worthwhile charities. Travel -- see the world or at least the US. Creating a legacy.

<*(((>< said:

3 AR's and 10 magazines for $1,000

And you only think that's a good deal.

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Yeah really.

I'm not an AR fan, but even I would have scooped them up.

Will another sociopath or psychopath go ballistic in the worst place, prompting politicians' threats about bans and suddenly...panic?

If the threat really is still out there, the only ones who suspect it are family/friends/mental health staff, and they never seem to accept the fact that some will convert their hatred into action. It could be caused by an ISIS wannabe with a lower profile (Ottawa Canada).

The point? Don't base ammo/gun acquisitions (if you have cash) only on political election dates. Never postpone a purchase.