Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ammo price gouging sucks...

Good luck with that...



Travis

I don't need luck. I hoard 22lr at retail prices.

Ummm... If people could buy it for less, they would.



Travis

I'm not talking about individually. Individually, there are probably very few people with a real 22LR shortage on this website.

I'm talking about what would (in short order) cause supply to return to what we have always known.


Travis

Demand will drop.

Or not?

This is all guess work of some flavor.

I do think retail prices will go up. Not the 150%+ we see now, but it will go up.

Some day...




Travis

A previous post paints a pretty picture of times past. Let me relate a little less fairy-tale like version related to me by my parents who grew up during the depression...

My uncles provided meat for the family with their .22lr rifles. If they had enough money, they could buy .22lr by the 50-round pack. But they usually didn't, so they bought it by the round. This wasn't uncommon at the time, and tended to depress prices. Each round spent was expected to bring home meat, so no one would be burning through 500 rounds in an afternoon anyway.

When people can't afford or otherwise refuse to buy something - especially if that something is not a necessity - it drives prices down. That is the reality of times past. By the accounts of the elders (now passed) in my family, this idea that the economy was somehow driven by altruism is just plain nostalgic dreaming. The profit motive (greed, to some) was alive and well back then - although there was movement from government to interfere with that. In fact, this has historically always been the case. profit motive is king, until government interferes with it's own artificial devices - bringing with those, all the problems of socialism and statism.

It's not like 22lr was hard to come by before all this happened. Manufacturers crank out silly amounts of rimfire ammo.

I don't think there are that many new shooters either.

Do you see demand remaining at the current level? Do you think it is sustainable?

Anybody else notice how many rimfire AR-clones and other semi-auto rimfires were sold over the last year or so - especially the last six months? They went like hotcakes, and there is plenty of anecdotal info that a lot of those buyers were first-time gun owners. Of course - they needed ammo too.

I suspect that this is one of the major factors driving the rimfire shortage. Compound this with the fact that none of those first-time owners has a preconceived notion of what .22lr should cost, and you begin to see where this goes.

I suspect that at some point the newness will wear off, and a good majority of these people will reduce or even all but stop their consumption of .22lr. Hopefully the doomsday preppers will have met their storage limits by then as well. And then the demand and the price will level off. How long that will take is anybody's guess.

Well ya, but only if I need it too. (Which I don't, cause I only use H4831 in my 270)

The price of fuel has almost no effect on the box price of ammo. If it did, a small flat rate mailing box from the USPS would be $20, not $5.95.

I absolutely has an effect on it! Everything that is shipped is effected by fuel prices. Objects that are heavier for their size (lead) are effected even more. The raw components for manufacturing ammo (lead) are shipped in bulk - not by flat-rate USPS box. Shipping companies also charge a premium for ammo deliveries for this reason (weight). When was the last time you saw any ammo delivered in a flat-rate box?

This is a math comparison not shipping comparison. Gas was cheaper then and so was 22 ammo. With gas almost 5X the cost today, 22 ammo at 5X the cost today would be comparative. 22 ammo has raised in price at a rate below the norm and people are still bitching...

You have to think of bulk rate shipping contracts year-to-year instead of a consumer ordering a flat of 12ga ammo.

Anyone selling a can of soup for 20 bucks WTSHF better have a bunch of ammo and is well versed in its' dispersal.

I see a glaring opportunity to make money quickly. Which is what I've been stating in this thread.



Travis

People are mostly bitching because they can't find any. Are retailers charging $75 a brick ? If yes, which ones ?

Unless of course, the going rate is $40.00.



Travis

Cheaper than Dirt.

They have plenty of ammo to sell by the way. Might be a lesson there...



Travis