Surplus Ammo & Arms

[SGTDuffman]

This pic was originally posted up in this thread:  ...

$85 for a box of .22 and they aren't gouging people? Remington Golden is probably THE worst .22 ammo made too. If you can stumble across it at Cabelas, it's $24.

There is enough crude supply, high technology, and a supply of qualified workers that gasoline shouldn't cost more than $1.50 a gallon. Maybe we should be little children and bitch at Exxon Mobil for charging $4.00+ for a gallon of gas. 

Apples to oranges. If Exxon were the only one charging $5.31/gal (SAA is charging 3.54 times more than Cabelas. 3.54*1.50 = $5.31) while everyone else charged $1.50, I guarantee people would be claiming they're gouging. When you can look at almost every other retailer and see they aren't charging the same prices, any argument about supply and demand goes out the window. If everyone else can continue selling the product for prices at or near what they were before this hysteria, there is no justification for some companies to charge 3-10 times that price.

Pay it if you want to, I won't, and I would encourage others to support businesses that avoided resorting to such practices in the future. The fact that some business have resorted to such practices now tells me a few things about those businesses. They are either: a) poorly run, because they have no other sources of revenue or financial cushioning, b) the owners have no problem taking advantage of their customers and profiting off of and creating fear, c) they favor short term profits over their customers, or d) any combination of the above.

Companies that do this do as much to divide gun owners as anything else. They are effectively financially banning people from purchasing ammo. Instead of being able to shoot well over a thousand rounds, you now can only afford 500, maybe you can't afford it at all. I'm pretty sure one of the big selling points for why most people got a .22 was because ammunition was cheap and plentiful. Though it isn't as plentiful as it was a few months ago, it is still available to those willing to wait, and it isn't any more expensive than it used to be (the last 4 or 5 years or so anyways), unless you buy it from someone seeking to take advantage of you.

I'd rather sit on backorder with Brownells, Midway, Natchez, Cabelas, etc, or buy from an individual on Gunbroker than give my money to a company that thinks nothing of pricing new gun owners and the like out of their arms. It's a free market and people are free to pay or charge whatever they want, but don't act surprised if that leaves some people with a sour taste in their mouth and hurts those companies doing it in the long run. Other relatively small gun shops like Fed Way haven't resorted to such pricing, and last time I was there, they had .22 in stock. You can try to justify SAA's pricing any way you'd like, but you're only going to convince yourself. When 99 out of 100 other businesses haven't done it, there's no reason for them to do it either.

[Bean Counter]

Well it sounds like we both agree that it will ultimately be the "invisible hand" of the free market that sorts this all out--unless Uncle Joe has his way 

[h20hunter]

Here is an easy solution........don't buy it. Most of us don't HAVE to have extra ammo on hand. We may want to...but we don't HAVE to. Stop buying it and paying the prices and the stock will go up and the price will come down.

[grundy53]

I look at it like I look at free speech. They are welcome to say/charge what they want and I say more power to them. However, they must live with the consequences of their actions. Like I said I have NO problem with them pricing their product at whatever price point they choose. I don't find it evil or wrong. HOWEVER, they in turn should have no problem and understand when I never shop at their store again...

sent from my typewriter

[actionshooter]

I look at it like I look at free speech. They are welcome to say/charge what they want and I say more power to them. However, they must live with the consequences of their actions. Like I said I have NO problem with them pricing their product at whatever price point they choose. I don't find it evil or wrong. HOWEVER, they in turn should have no problem and understand when I never shop at their store again...

sent from my typewriter

I agree 100%
This is still America, they own it and they can do what they want with it.
In turn everyone else has the freedom to chose to shop where they want.

[thinkingman]

This pic was originally posted up in this thread:  ...

$85 for a box of .22 and they aren't gouging people? Remington Golden is probably THE worst .22 ammo made too. If you can stumble across it at Cabelas, it's $24.

There is enough crude supply, high technology, and a supply of qualified workers that gasoline shouldn't cost more than $1.50 a gallon. Maybe we should be little children and bitch at Exxon Mobil for charging $4.00+ for a gallon of gas.

XOM only charges about $2.50.
The rest is delivery/retail markup and taxes.

Vote with your dollars.

[Carl]

Here is an easy solution........don't buy it. Most of us don't HAVE to have extra ammo on hand. We may want to...but we don't HAVE to. Stop buying it and paying the prices and the stock will go up and the price will come down.

That's what I'm saying!