Let's Not Forget...

[BigN]

Seems to me the bullet availability is starting to come back a bit although from what I can see, the powder and the primer situation is still lagging. When all this gun silliness and panic is over, when reloading supplies are stocked and available to reloaders at anytime, let's not forget the manufacturers/suppliers who stuck by us and didn't jack the prices up sky high. Also let's not forget the companies that took advantage of the short supply and started charging crazy prices just because the opportunity was there. I, for one, will not forget and will never return to buy from any of the suppliers who got stupid. Although my boycott will not put anyone out of business, it will make a small dent and will get my point across. A whole lot of small dents make one very large one.

 

[CB900F]

BigN;

In my experience none of the manufacturers gouged. I don't really think too many wholesalers did either. However, many retailers and individuals did. Those are the ones that need to be boycotted.

900F

 

[beatledog7]

I don't blame the sellers who asked silly prices. I blame the buyers who paid them.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

There are quite a few retailers in my neck of the woods that took great advantage over the ammo shortage. I will never darken their doorsteps ever again. Gunshow vendors included.

 

[Huskerguy]

I know and talked to several dealers and at first the wholesale prices did not increase. You even saw that at WM with their ammo prices staying pretty steady. The retailers were the ones who were jacking up prices. There probably were some middle guys doing the same but none of the dealers that these guys worked with.

Seems like several things will happen. Some people are pretty well stocked up and don't really need a lot of stuff. The guys who panicked are done as well. So things will find some kind of normal until the next scare. The sellers will have some to make a decision when they drop their prices to reflect that inventories are back and they can't go crazy with their prices.

 

[Sam1911]

I won't be boycotting anyone. If the price asked for something is an amount I'm willing to pay, I'll buy. If my money's worth more to me in my pocket than the item being sold, I won't.

Same as all through the "panic." Each time.

Supply and demand two sides of the same coin. Nothing is "worth" less than someone is WILLING to pay. Nothing is "worth" more than some buyer is WILLING to pay. No one is forced to buy ammo or guns. No one in the US today will starve if they can't buy a gun or some ammo this month or the next. No one is owed a gun or some ammo.

Merchants are in business to make money. Buy as low as possible. Sell as high as possible. (Or rather, sell at the balance point where you're moving as many units as possible at the highest price possible.) If a gun store is selling almost --but not quite-- every unit of product they have on hand during each shipment cycle then they've likely got their products priced correctly. If they're selling every unit out before resupply comes, their price is TOO LOW. If they their wares sit unsold on the shelfves, then their price is too high. Simple, really.

Begrudging a seller for pricing their wares near the upper level of what the market will pay is just foolish.

 

[Walkalong]

There are a couple of places I will not be doing business with unless they are the only ones that have something I really need, or they simply have a much better price on something, as in a sale or a closeout.

 

[BigBore44]

Sam and Walkalong nailed it. We learned who our friends are. But can we really begrudge a company or individual for selling their goods at "market value"? I didn't buy a thing during the panic because I thought my money was worth more in my pocket at the time. Now that ammo is coming back, I'll stock up. Heck there's another thread on here about a member wanting to pull money out of their 401K to stock up and make a good profit when the next panic hits. If that's what he wants to do, more power to him. And if you don't stock up now or when you can, then it's YOUR fault when the next one hits. If its a priority when there's a panic, it should be a priority when there isn't.

 

[12131]

There is just one place I've never bought from, long before the very first panic started, and I'm glad they won't ever get a penny from me, no matter how dirt cheap their prices might get.

 

[Twiki357]

If someone feels that the asking price of an item is to high, they should just walk away. In the last 8+ months of this panic, I walked away from a number of guns that I would really like to have. But, on the other hand, during this time I also picked up a pre model 10, a model 10 no dash, and a Model 29-3 at very good prices. A buyer just needs to be patient and keep looking.

Fortunately, my local gun shop is one that did not jack up their prices. Unfortunately, their shelves have been pretty bare until the last few weeks.

 

[Deus Machina]

Fair market. If you don't want to buy it, don't buy it. You're not buying from them because of the high prices, you wouldn't be buying it because they wouldn't have it at all if it was priced like normal. That said, it's still kind of a jerk move.

I won't give them my business if I can help it, but mostly because I can find better, cheaper, elsewhere.

As for the local shops, I won't begrudge them as long as their prices come back down. They could get the prices they asked for it and have no idea when they can get stock back in. Until then, they're not paying the electric bills from ammo if they can't get it to sell it.

 

[Lex Luthier]

1) The so called crisis was caused by the crazy people willing to overspend and let the retailers win. Mature, passive reaction to the initial media/ marketing/ salesman imposed crisis would have nullified the jerks trying to get more of our money.

2) I will not boycott any particular LGS either, but I will prefer one shop who stood up to the bs and never fed the circus. Other LGS that lowballed/ highballed me over the past year will get "B" grade status, and be used only for bargain shopping, if that opportunity even presents itself. They made their bed.

3) The lesson I learned was to stock up when you've got the extra money and just watch everybody else freak out. I have also learned to not feed the frenzy. Sometimes a newbie type shooter will engage me about ammo prices/ availability expecting me to respond with a thesis, and I like to just kind of shrug and let it go. Everyone has their own chance to be smart and a lot of folks do not pay enough attention to trends that affect their spending.