Gun sales finally begin to decline a little

Sportsman’s Warehouse sent me a 10% off coupon and amazingly guns weren’t excluded. I used it on the Sig P365xl that has been seducing me for a long time now. Both it and the regular version were in stock. That seems like an encouraging sign.

 

I'm looking for a Miroku 92. Same deal, my gun safe is full, but I'll squeeze it in someplace. They're slowly starting to reappear so shouldn't be long before I can buy one without getting jacked by the get-rich-quick dealers on the internet.

 

It’s not a problem for me. I’ve been stocked for years and reload everything I shoot.

It’s other I’m worried for. Call it, god forbid, empathy?

 

I hate that argument. It's such a strawman.

 

Do you always pay the market price for ammo? Why do you think people buy more than they use when it's cheap and available. Maybe they think having some in reserve for market fluctuations is a good idea. Ammo and components are not a perishable item. They don't need refrigeration nor do they have expiration dates.

 

Lets all hold hands and sing the Kumbaya song. If it bothers you maybe you should set up an ammo bank so people can come in and get free ammo.

 

Thought this thread was about gun sales, not the prices and availability of ammo.

 

They are somewhat linked. Assuming one is not a well stocked reloader, would you buy a gun at inflated (market) prices and pay inflated (market) prices for ammo? I’d venture to say that the vast majority of us on here don’t buy a firearm because we need it. We buy them because we want them and justify it by minuscule gains or find a small niche they can fill. But we also know what is happening right now. We’ve seen it before. Some of us have seen it several times.

Ok here’s an example. A Glock 19. Paying $800-$900 for a 19 right now when you have a perfectly good 17 doesn't make sense. Just wait til the market comes down and pay $550 for the 19 in a few months and save the $300+.

Remember after Sandy Hook, plain Jane AR’s were $1500+. Then the market flooded, corrected, and people found themselves holding $1500 ($400) rifles. It wasn’t that bad this time. But prices still went up. And now they are beginning to correct.

Hopefully those new shooters will learn their lesson after the correction. Some will. Many new members here will. Most however, won’t.

 

I agree that prices have gotten a bit out of hand, but with the inflationary pressures that are being seen in both labor cost and raw materials, I think we may see a portion of these eleveted prices stick.

 

Is that your first full gunsafe?

 

Yeah I'll get another safe so I can "spread out the guns and give'm some breathing room". Soon things start to croud in again though. I'll never learn!

 

Ha ha .... yeeeup, it's only my first.

 

Ahh to be young again. I remember when I bought my first safe. Thought there was no way I’d ever fill up a 24 long gun safe. Then I bought a 48. Then a 60. Now I’m looking for a 4th. Should have just built a vault.

 

Trouble with a vault is having to move it around if you have to do that. Then safes are easier to deal with.

 

At 65 I'm not exactly "young" ....... but I appreciate the thought.

 

I understand supply and demand and such but sometimes I'm perplexed at how gun dealers decide what something is worth and case in point is the Colt Anaconda. So now Colt has a new one out but on gunbroker sellers raised the price of old ones by $1000. Two years ago they were going for $2000 and under and now I'm seeing average prices of $3000 for a older used one. I'm confused, there is a new one out to give old ones competition, Colt Anaconda was never a panic buy type gun in the last year, but now sellers decided to raise it $1000?

 

Yes a Smith Wesson 617 I was bidding on sold for $810, just a few dollars more than I am willing to pay, but it's better than the close to $900 they have been selling for, msrp is $850 something, and used ones are dang near msrp, I refuse to pay msrp for a truck, dang if I will for a revolver. I will just keep watching and bidding until they drop back to more normal times. I expect normal times will be a little more expensive than 2019, just hope not too much more. Lionking, hang in there, Anaconda's will come back too.

 

Well I got started pretty early in life. Besides, age and time are man made construct that I have chosen not to subscribe to. Now I get to live as long as I want.

 

Sellers can charge whatever they want. Doesn’t mean you have to buy. There could be several factors causing the increase in price. “Maybe” it’s because they just think that because there are new ones, that makes the older ones more valuable. We’ve seen this over the years in the auto industry. Maybe it’s because people have been paying inflated prices so the sellers think “why not?”. And maybe it’s because some jackwagon saw a rare one and thought his was just as valuable and marked his up. And others followed suit. I saw that in the bass boat industry around 2001 or so. Out of the blue Champion raised their prices on their bass boats by $20k and didn’t change anything. But they had a loyal customer base that paid it. The next year, every major bass boat manufacturer had raised their prices as well. And now, we have $90k bass boats. SMH.

 

Two LGS here told me yesterday that gun sales and demand have dropped off substantially. Both said (1) the newbies have bought their gun, (2) difficulty finding ammo has affected demand and (3) people are out of money.

 

I agree wgp, but my LGS and in my business, the people that still have money, seem to have boatloads of it, and price doesn't seem to matter yet. He says that the pandemic was kind to some people, or so it seems, that were in a position to make even more money, than before the lockdowns. It helps that the riots and much, aren't making as many headlines either.

 

I was referring to the whole concept of reloading being cheaper than factory, when all factors are considered, not to mention the ever constant dig against those who don't reload, as if reloading is a magical tasliman warding off the evil specter of ammo prices or shortages.

 

I'm curious about #3, only in the fact that one of the actual benefits of this whole 14+ month scam is, we've saved a substantial amount of $$$ in recurring costs. I can only posit that, those who are bad with their money when poor, do just as badly when they're less poor. That's not to say i'm "rich"... firmly middle class here, but with commuting (and related) costs tanked, things aren't as tight as they were 2 years ago.

 

To expand on my earlier comment about LGS telling me people are out of money, I have also been told by a boat dealer I have used here that he has had people buy a $50K boat and then return in a few months asking for help selling it because their stimulus checks stopped coming. He said his friends in the RV business are telling him the same stories. What to believe?

 

Maybe those of us registering now for our —First Social Security— checks will use a tiny Bit of this “stimulus money” to buy just one gun..


Or wait for ammo prices to decrease.