Projectile costs much higher now?

[HOWARD J]

My biggest cost increase is shipping.
I used to buy all my bullets in a gun shop---today they don't have any & I have to buy on the web---Frt is expensive.
Yesterday a 16 oz. bottle of hopes & 3 ----1/2 oz tubes of oil---cost of shipping $15.00--OUCHHHHHH

 

[LiveLife]

Many bullet vendors offer free shipping like Rocky Mountain Reloading (on all orders), TJ Conevera (over $50 orders), Berry's MFG (over $75 orders), Widener's (on some bullet packages) and other vendors offer discounted shipping like Graf & Sons with free shipping + $6.95 processing on any order.

 

[BullfrogKen]

Prepare to be unhappy . . . I was waxing nostalgic here myself . . .

I have been buying from MidwayUSA since they had the newspaper monthly catalogue, free shipping, and you could send in a check with your order on the last day of the month and - so long as the envelope was postmarked with that last day - they'd honor your order at that month's sale price.

Who uses checks anymore, right?


Anyway, Midway has the order history for my account available for me to pull on -line going back for quite some time, back to 2000. So, just for giggles I looked up my order history for you. It'll make you sick.


Back in Nov of 2010 I ordered these at $85.49 per 1k. They're $102.99 now.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/10...mm-355-diameter-124-grain-plated-hollow-point

In Aug of 2004 I ordered these at $24.83 / 500. They are now $67.99 per 500.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/38...tal-jacket-flat-base-box-of-500-5-bags-of-100

I ordered Winchester 38 Super brass with that order at $9.86 / 100 as well. Look at it now . . . $20.99 / 100
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/499400/winchester-reloading-brass-38-super-p-bag-of-100

Mar 2005 I bought these at 46.99 / 1k. Now they're $129.99 per thousand.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/63...l-jacket-flat-base-box-of-1000-10-bags-of-100

June of 2001 I got 1k 30 caliber gas checks for $14.29. Now they're $31.99 / thousand!
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/253287/hornady-gas-checks-30-caliber-box-of-1000

Lest you think it's all inflation, I bought a lb of casting flux at the same time for $9.29, I can get it today for $9.99.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/593033/frankford-arsenal-cleancast-lead-fluxing-compound-1-lb


It all brought me back to when I could buy - at my local gun shop - Winchester 9mm pistol bullets in 100ct factory- sealed bags at $5.00 each. And sometimes I did, just because. Those were the days of $14.00/lb powder, primers for $1.79/100ct tray or the full 1k box for $13.99.

Those days are gone forever. The FFL I started buying my reloading components from doesn't even stock components anymore. He hasn't for 5-6 years now. And selling components at shows was his gun business back then. Selling guns was almost a side business compared to his reloading supply side of the shop.


Now I'm feeling kinda depressed.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

A lot of that has to do with commodities prices. In the wall street today they talked about copper prices tanking as demand drops off and the hoarding that was occurring by the middleman is now turning to dumping. The same is true of lead for batteries and such.

No the prices will never go back to the levels you (and I) remember well. I feel mostly because the fed and their quantitative easing and the stimulus. Look at the price of gold or oil as a benchmark of the buying power of the us dollar. I used to be happy when oil was at $20 a barrel and gold was in the $400 range. Now I get concerned when oil is less than $80 a barrel and now gold is dropping back to $1300 or so. Basically one can argue that the fundamental buying power of the dollar is one fourth what it was during the say the late 80's. So, what used to be a gripe about $8 a pound for powder is about the same gripe I have at $32 a pound for today.

We really are quite blessed to have $20 a pound powder today. That is roughly equal to $5 a pound powder in the 80's.

I am fortunate to say that due to my performance at work and working for an energy company, my salary has gone up by more than a factor of 4 and even with paying all of the massive taxes I still am doing better than I did when I hired on. Not a lot, but good enough to not whine too much about the prices we pay.

But, I am also fortunate enough to read the writing on the wall and stock pile when the time is right.

 

[HOWARD J]

When I started reloading I was buying IMI 9MM FMJ bullets for 3 cents each--I cost me about 5 cents max to reload a 9 MM cartridge.
Chinese 7.62 X 39 for 7-8 cents each.
I will not go on>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[rajbcpa]

The price of lead has DECREASED 8% and 7% in March and April of 2013, respectively! Cooper prices are also down significantly.

LEAD Prices:
Month Price Change
Nov 2012 2,181.97 -
Dec 2012 2,279.80 4.48 %
Jan 2013 2,334.47 2.40 %
Feb 2013 2,365.79 1.34 %
Mar 2013 2,173.35 -8.13 %
Apr 2013 2,024.37 -6.85 %
May 2013 2,031.89 0.37 %

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Agreed it has come down over the short time but go long.

I went to a mining school and I remember copper was 69 cents a pound when I graduated. Now it is $3.04 a pound. So the price of copper has gone up about 6 times in about 25 years.

Again, if you assume that copper is a base metal that can be used as a global measure of value (some what stretched over say sliver, oil or gold but close). If you compare the buying power of a dollar then to today then you can see that the prices have gone up by a factor of 4 to 6 depending on your measure of the dollar.

So when I think of buying $10/100 168 HPBT Sierra's like I used to, then the $30/100 price of today does not look so bad.