AR's stacked like cord wood

[eastbank]

go to the food store and buy a loaf of bread,do you think they only mark it up 10-15 % ? and what service to they provide after all they are only middle men. they buy it and just put it on a shelf and wait for the suckers who can,t grow their own food to come buy it,i guess they are leaches too. if your late to the game you must pay to play,i have been a hoarder,collector and reloader for over 50 years and would not have to buy a single shell the rest of my life for casual plinking and hunting. i have had factory sealed powder and primers stored in a old refrigarter in my celler that are over 40years and they went go off with no problems at all. my advice is to just sit back and let the panic driven prices go away and they will go away. eastbank.

 

[Ken70]

Word got out you can't find .223 ammo, or if you do, it's 2 or 3 times more than pre-panic. So why buy a gun you can't shoot? It also tells you how the gun companies and suppliers were working a 40 hour week (maybe less). They put on an additional shift and no more shortage.

 

[jrdolall]

Actually the gun companies probably played it just right. Why put on an additional shift to end a shortage that was in all likelihood going to be short lived? They would have met temporary demand and then had to cut back hours because sales dried up. There is no way they could have put in additional lines or hired a lot of qualified employees and justified it financially. The "shortage" lasted what? 6 months?
I think AR sales are going to fall off for a while as so many people have jumped into the platform in the past year. Gun sales will flatten for a while(not bad considering how high the sales have been) but will continue to climb in the long run. MOST people do not want or need more than a couple of guns. I just want some quality used guns, not ARs because I don't really want another, to start hitting the market at decent prices.

 

[Warp]

What you failed to understand is that the gun and ammo flippers are selling them at a very inflated price without doing anything.

When you flip a house or a car, you have to do some work to it to increase the value. You cannot expect to buy a run-down house or non-working car for cheap, then re-sell it for a big profit.

On the other hand, when the ammo and gun flippers do it, they just resell the ammo at a higher cost with no actual increased value added to it. For example, people will buy a brick of 22lr ammo from Walmart at $25/box and re-sell it for $75.

There is a big difference.

You are wrong.

You don't flip any product for a profit "without doing anything". If that were true, you would have done it and made money yourself, instead of just whining about the other people who did it.

And, believe it or not, there is still risk involved that they are taking on.

If the market price for a brick of .22lr is $75...it's $75. And it ISN'T $75 because people buy and resell. It's $75 because people buy AND KEEP IT.

If you really truly want to point fingers, get all mad and play the blame-game, point your fingers at the people shooting the ammo. They are the ones destroying the product and requiring more be produced, transported, and sold to fill the void. If nobody shot the ammo we would have more than enough.

Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it?

Not as stupid and getting so irate about "flippers", though.

 

[Prince Yamato]

Feeding off the gullible is a time-honored practice that is one of the cornerstones of American civilization. I didn't buy a single round of ammo at inflated prices during this "crisis", but I have nothing but admiration for those who did and still managed to make a profit off the stupid and weak-willed, of which we have a surfeit in our society. Anyone who buys into fear-mongering and confuses "wants" for "needs" deserves to be fleeced.

Preying on the weak and "stupid"? You know, there is a chance that you are "weak" and "stupid" in some areas. Does that mean you deserve to be treated like crap and taken advantage of? No. Not by ethical humans. What you're describing is not the cornerstone of America, it's the cornerstone of modern Satanism, "do what thou wilt".

We're lucky, in our country, to be able to fully exercise free will. What we need to think of is how we exercise that and how it best serves our common man. There's turning a profit and then there's greed. Consider how you treat others.

 

[frankenstein406]

I see lots of new ars and uppers but the used gun racks are cleared and I still don't see "used" lowers for sale at normal prices. seems like people are holding on to them and are still hungry lol

 

[eastbank]

the bitchen i hear about high prices for any thing is usely from people who were not prepared,i just sold a 500 round brick of .22 rf for 22.00 to a friend who didn,t have any. now i bought that brick(bought 40 bricks) several years ago for 9.99 at dicks, did i rip him off or not? after all i charged more than double what i paid for the brick. will i sell him any more?,no. he was not prepared and i used the sale to show him that by being prepared in the future he can avoid the panic buying. walmart just had 20 boxs of federal 100 bulk packs .223 fmj for about 35.00 a box and 50 bulk packs of 225 rounds of .22 lr for about 10.00 a pack. they also had russian .223 and 762x39 in 20 round boxs. and they still has some at 9.30am a full 2 hours after putting them up. so get up a little earlier and take a ride or have a friend go. eastbank.

 

[Beentown]

Must be some new shooters in this thread. If the 90's and 2008/9 didn't kick you in the butt enough to get prepared, then this recent shortage may not help you see the light either.

In 2010 I purchased an extra 10k rounds of 22lr. I sold it on GB this panic to pay for a new waterfowl shotgun which was more than double what I paid for the .22lr. Call me what you will but I am happy being the planner that I am.

I also buy and sell many items for profit. Many times when I flip that equipment or property I don't even touch it before I sell it. Being a cash buyer and doing the leg work to find the deal has its value...pays my bills.

I also sold off my extra AR's also. I had two I felt comfortable moving. Had $1600 in them and sold them for $3400. Paid for my new 6x12 enclosed trailer that I will use to make more profit. Then I will take some of that and buy some AR's to put back in the safe for another panic that will surely come.

If you are bad at reading tea leaves:

BUY SOME AMMO AND EBR's CHEAP AS YOU CAN FIND. BUY A LITTLE (or a lot) AT A TIME A BUILD A "SAVINGS".

START TO RELOAD IF YOU HAVE THE TIME/ABILITY. (Took this last panic for me to finally do it seriously.)

 

[jrdolall]

I am considering buying 5-10 ARs if I can get them in the $550-$600 range in the next few months. Just leave them in the box and wait. Worst case scenario would be for nothing to happen and I sell them for what I have in them. If we get another panic in a couple of years I might double my money.
Better than a $10k CD at .35% right now.
I have never been short on 22lr. If the current shortage lasts another year I might run out but I have always kept over 10k rounds just because it is always on sale somewhere, is relatively inexpensive and I can store it without taking up too much space. I have enough 9mm to ride out a year as well. Same deal in that it is always going on sale somewhere. 45 is a different story. I do not have enough to carry me very long on range ammo. I was able to get a couple of boxes at Walmart last week and hopefully that will start to be a little easier.

I think reloading equipment and components are going to remain a problem for a while. It seems to me that quite a few people, myself included, may decide that it is a good idea to avoid the next panic and reloading may be the answer. I would love to be able to reload 9mm and 45. Maybe 38 and 357 but I don't really shoot those guns that much.

 

[justice06rr]

So what. This is the fundamental expression of capitalism. Maximum return for minimum work. Every business or individual that sells ANYTHING is trying to get as close as they can to getting something for nothing.

I have owned my own business and provided services and products to consumers. For that business to run, I have invested thousands of $$ and hundreds of man hours.

You don't get something for nothing in business.

You are wrong.

You don't flip any product for a profit "without doing anything". If that were true, you would have done it and made money yourself, instead of just whining about the other people who did it.

And, believe it or not, there is still risk involved that they are taking on.

If the market price for a brick of .22lr is $75...it's $75. And it ISN'T $75 because people buy and resell. It's $75 because people buy AND KEEP IT.

If you really truly want to point fingers, get all mad and play the blame-game, point your fingers at the people shooting the ammo. They are the ones destroying the product and requiring more be produced, transported, and sold to fill the void. If nobody shot the ammo we would have more than enough.

Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it?

Not as stupid and getting so irate about "flippers", though.

I don't think so.

I'm not irate about flippers. I was prepared for the panic and had my own stash of ammo, had my AR's and AK's already even before this craziness went on, so I watched in comfort as I continued to shoot. Had thousands of rounds of 22lr to keep me busy.

I could've sold my $800 AR's for $3k or my $700AK for $2K; but I didn't. Why? because I shoot what I own and I'm not in it for the money.

If you are, good for you.

When people were selling bricks of 22lr for $100+, I sold some of my extra's for $50, because I paid less than half to begin with. I'm perfectly content with not ripping people off...

 

[Warp]

I'm not irate about flippers.

I'm perfectly content with not ripping people off...

Then you should have sold more of what you had. Clearly you possessed a quantity of items other people were paying an arm and a leg for, you could have sold for less than "ripping people off" prices, but you chose not to. Shame on you.

Sound pretty silly?

So does claiming that selling at market price is ripping people off while talking down/in a condescending manner to other people based on what you are guessing they may have done.

 

[justice06rr]

Sound pretty silly?

Not at all.

I had no intentions of participating in the panic that occured. If people were caught shorthanded or panicked due to the political climate, that is on them. I'm not ashamed not selling my guns for 300% or more profit.

Market price? It would be silly to pay for a firearm at the peak Market price.

A Colt6920, which is one of my to-buy AR, costs $1097 at Walmart--always has always been. I wanted one for a while even during the panic but would not pay $3k to a seller who was selling one for $3k in January.
Last week they finally had it at my local Walmart and I bought it at normal price.

Paying the "Market price" of $3k sounds sillier to me, instead of being patient and waiting for the panic to subside and picking one up for its normal price.

 

[nathan]

I got enough surplus 8 mm mauser to live with . I got them when Century were selling them for cheap. And i dont sell just for the sake of selling . I buy to keep and work for a living in order i can buy guns and ammo.

 

[jrdolall]

One of the reasons I don't have a real problem with "flippers" is what I am seeing today. Gunbroker lists bulk .22 and is receiving bids at $54 which is roughly $.11 per round. Cabelas has .22 at $49.99 which is $.10 per round and the price at major retailers has been steadily dropping over the past two weeks.
If people have enough internet savvy to use Gunbroker then they should be able to do a search and find internet sites with ammo prices. Instead they pay more which indicates to me that they aren't being all that smart.
Right now the flippers are still able to double their money which makes it worth their time. When the price of a brick gets down to $35 or so it will probably not be worth people's time and effort to buy 3 bricks from Walmart, list it online and only make $45 instead of the $100+ they have been making. Until then there will be people gullible enough to buy it and people savvy enough to sell it to them.

 

[Beach Nut]

I've got the itch to get my first AR but patience might be a good thing now! I'm
still going to keep looking around though and hopefully I can find myself a really
good deal. I haven't been to the LGS around where I live for about two weeks
but I noticed plenty of ARs on the shelves. AKs and SKSs were still scarce
however.

 

[whetrock]

Regardless, I'm just enamored to see AR 15s, and black rifles being sold at mainstream places like Wal-Mart. I was concerned that they would indefinitely pull them from the shelves in light of the tragedies that took place. The Academy I went to yesterday, had a good selection of Colts, as well as Windhams, and a couple of Sigs. All priced reasonable. No ammo though, aside from hunting stuff, and shotshells. Pmags were 19.99 though, too high for me, but still available nonetheless. They've always been high on Pmags. Maybe, just maybe these larger chain establishments with nominal prices, will help the smaller outfits, keep in check with their prices. Even at that my LGS has always had outlandish prices. So things will probably be back to square one. I think now, is the time for ARs if anybody wants to gain entry, at earthly prices.

 

[taliv]

Prices on pmags should come down soon now that the Colorado rush is over.

It is a good time to buy an AR. I would wait for 22lr to come back down a bit.

In any event I think this thread has run its course.