I always need something or other from ammo/reloading supply sites, so when the right rimfire ammo is for sale I order a couple of the other items, which reduces the shipping costs per item, since they can all go into the same package. As an example, I found some Federal Auto Match on-line at $15 for 325 a month ago, and needed a couple of other small items from the same company (an RCBS bullet-puller collet and a new dial caliper), and the total shipping came to $7. Which means the shipping for the ammo was around $3, less than a gallon of gasoline.
The mail-order companies didn't sell a lot of lower-priced .22 ammo before the Obama panic, because so much was available in stores. Instead they mostly dealt in match .22 ammo, which stores don't sell much. But after the panic started, shooters started looking for rimfire ammo wherever they could find it, and the mail-order companies started moving enough to make it worthwhile to order bigger batches of the lower-priced stuff.
