Who were making the big $$$ when ARs were in short supply? Manufacturers, distributors or retailers?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Solomonson

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2017
Messages
765
Location
God's Country
Just who were making the big $$$ when ARs were in short supply? Manufacturers, distributors and/or retailers?

If manufacturers cranked up their prices (above any actual cost increases) during a time of unreal demand, it might have been a good short-term strategy to puff-up profits, but in the longer term it can certainly cause some bad will on the longer term I remember Daniel Defense announcing that they would hold their pricing (which is already on the premium end) which sort of impressed me as they seemed to be taking a longer view of things.

I rather doubt it was the distributors but it might have been. I'm sure a great many retailers were charging every bit the market would bear, but I can't believe they were alone in their actions?
 
I don't remember hearing about manufacturers racking their prices up; they made their profit through volume alone.
Betting the distributors raised their prices--at least once it became obvious they couldn't keep enough stock--and retailers obviously did. Slightly higher supply and vastly higher demand. As a business, they had no reason not to.
 
I figured it was the retailers. Personally I don't blame them. If you've got 10 bottles of water and 100 buyers at $1 it makes no sense to sell for $1. It makes sense to sell the 10 bottles of water, or rifles, at whatever price the market will bear. If you sell the rifles at regular price, the scalpers and profiteers will come it and buy everything they can and turn around and sell them at the market price.

I remember people complaining the whole time the .22 shortage was going on about scalpers. I wish the retailers would have doubled the prices so everything wouldn't sell out immediately create a sense of panic
 
When were ARs in short supply? Not arguing, not even disagreeing. Just curious because I only remember when a few years back, they were selling like hotcakes. Yet even then, around these parts it seems like the retailers had plenty of ARs in stock. Then again, I haven't paid much attention to the AR market since Clinton 1.
 
For most of 2013 AR's were hard to find. I can't remember exactly when they became easy to find again but it took a while.
 
For most of 2013 AR's were hard to find. I can't remember exactly when they became easy to find again but it took a while.
Thanks for answering my question, reddog81. As I said, I hadn't paid much attention to the AR market since Clinton 1. I bought an AR last year when I was afraid Clinton 2 was going to be elected, but I haven't shot it yet. It just stands in the safe, loosing me money everyday.:)
 
I don't remember hearing about manufacturers racking their prices up; they made their profit through volume alone.
Betting the distributors raised their prices--at least once it became obvious they couldn't keep enough stock--and retailers obviously did. Slightly higher supply and vastly higher demand. As a business, they had no reason not to.

That's not true. Charging the most the market will bear can create bad will. There's at least one large manufacturer that I won't do business with because their MSRPs continually rose through the days of intense demand. That was truly a turn-off. Their MSRPs are now dropping -- more than most it seems, but they'll have to drop a great deal more for me to become interested enough to begin considering their wares once more.
 
When were ARs in short supply? Not arguing, not even disagreeing. Just curious because I only remember when a few years back, they were selling like hotcakes. Yet even then, around these parts it seems like the retailers had plenty of ARs in stock. Then again, I haven't paid much attention to the AR market since Clinton 1.

Supply is relative to demand. ARs were most certainly in short supply with respect to the demand for them.
 
I figured it was the retailers. Personally I don't blame them. If you've got 10 bottles of water and 100 buyers at $1 it makes no sense to sell for $1. It makes sense to sell the 10 bottles of water, or rifles, at whatever price the market will bear. If you sell the rifles at regular price, the scalpers and profiteers will come it and buy everything they can and turn around and sell them at the market price.

I remember people complaining the whole time the .22 shortage was going on about scalpers. I wish the retailers would have doubled the prices so everything wouldn't sell out immediately create a sense of panic
it would have been better if they doubled the price of 22 ammo being that they tripled it
 
From the middle of summer through election day I had a difficult time restocking at a reasonable price AR15 rifles I had sold. Up to election day my main local wholesale distributor had zero (0) S&W M&P15 Sport II (dealer cost $561) and zero (0) Ruger AR-556 (dealer cost $541) rifles showing available in stock - I ended up buying 7 or 8 off of GunBroker instead.

By the end of the week following the election that same distributor showed over 1,000 of the two combined rifles available in stock at those prices. Was the distributor or each manufacturer sitting on those AR15s anticipating a big payday with the first woman president?

I do not know which source was playing that capitalist game. From none in stock to over a thousand in one week - it was not the retailers sandbagging on the inventory listings. Price is nearly meaningless when you cannot get your hands on something to sell, and competition from myriad internet firearm sellers keeps local dealer margins quite low anyway..
 
I figured it was the retailers. Personally I don't blame them. If you've got 10 bottles of water and 100 buyers at $1 it makes no sense to sell for $1. It makes sense to sell the 10 bottles of water, or rifles, at whatever price the market will bear. If you sell the rifles at regular price, the scalpers and profiteers will come it and buy everything they can and turn around and sell them at the market price.

I remember people complaining the whole time the .22 shortage was going on about scalpers. I wish the retailers would have doubled the prices so everything wouldn't sell out immediately create a sense of panic

If the opportunity exists, it might make a great deal more sense to sell the ARs at a reasonable price to known customers who won't flip them and can be counted on for repeat business. That's taking a longer term view however.
 
Just before Sandy Hook a dealer friend had ARs from $650 to $1200. Just after Sandy Hook the same rifles were $1800 to $2500. I asked him about it and he told me his replacement prices about tripled so if he didn't go up in price he wouldn't be able to restock.
 
There were always plenty of AR's on shelves around here. For a brief period prices on the secondary market were insanely high. It was people selling in FTF transactions that were making the big bucks. People were willing to pay double the price in order to buy a rifle from an individual. I don't recall ever seeing prices spike in stores, at least not here. Ammo was spotty for a short time.
 
Some parts were tough to find for awhile, and crazy priced when you did. Some people bought stuff, some people sold everything AR they had and bought it again when things settled down.
 
That's not true. Charging the most the market will bear can create bad will. There's at least one large manufacturer that I won't do business with because their MSRPs continually rose through the days of intense demand. That was truly a turn-off. Their MSRPs are now dropping -- more than most it seems, but they'll have to drop a great deal more for me to become interested enough to begin considering their wares once more.


You might be too kind to name them, but I'm not. CTD will never get another cent from me. $100 for a used AR mag a few panics ago. I promptly unsubscribed from their mailing list when I saw that. . :fire:
 
I remember people complaining the whole time the .22 shortage was going on about scalpers. I wish the retailers would have doubled the prices so everything wouldn't sell out immediately create a sense of panic

Many of them did and the panic continued. We were in a market bubble. Like housing in 2004-2007, or the Dutch Tulip Craze (a well-studied historical bubble without any regulatory distortions/drivers... just a pure market-driven bubble).

Rationing - limiting rates of consumption by buyers to amounts below what made scalping scalable enough to be economically meaningful - was a technique that a few retailers used to maintain some kind of ability to keep a larger number of customers happy.
 
Isn't the free market wonderful?

If sellers raise their prices beyond what buyers believe is reasonable then they can choose not to patronize them.

If enough buyers don't patronize them they might lower their prices. If they don't lower their prices then possibly someone else will meet the need.

Eventually it comes into equilibrium.
 
I love seeing people so upset after retailers jack their prices up whenever there's an event that causes panic buying. It's like you love freedom but apparently hate capitalism. They throw around the term gouging as if AR15s and ammo are necessities for life.
 
I love seeing people so upset after retailers jack their prices up whenever there's an event that causes panic buying. It's like you love freedom but apparently hate capitalism. They throw around the term gouging as if AR15s and ammo are necessities for life.

There is a helluva lot more to "capialism" than price gouging during tough times (for the consumer.)
 
I love seeing people so upset after retailers jack their prices up whenever there's an event that causes panic buying. It's like you love freedom but apparently hate capitalism. They throw around the term gouging as if AR15s and ammo are necessities for life.

Ummm, you're the one in the thread that started using the word "gouging." Nothing in this thread describes "gouging," properly defined.

And there is nothing wrong with critiquing vendors who raise prices in anticipation of a flurry in demand (mind you, not in response to, but in anticipation of ... or more to the point, those who play with prices to create false scarcities). That actually is NOT a free market.

Many folks confuse "capitalism" with a "free market". A free market system is based solely on demand and supply, and with there is little or no government regulation or intervention. Capitalism is the CREATION of wealth and ownership of capital and production. A free market is the EXCHANGE of wealth, or goods and services.

I am all for modern capitalism, and the creation of wealth.

I am all for a free market, and reserve the right to critique any player - seller, buyer or interventionist (government) who seeks to unreasonably distort that market.

The right to critique falls under the free market of ideas.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top