I would have that same mentality if I were saving a dollar by buying online instead of in-store. Unfortunately the disparity is closer to $80 per case. A ten precent markup I would bear for a neighbor, but 35 percent or more and I'm acting outside of my financial responsibility to myself and my family.
The problem with online Ammo stores / websites
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I would have that same mentality if I were saving a dollar by buying online instead of in-store. Unfortunately the disparity is closer to $80 per case. A ten precent markup I would bear for a neighbor, but 35 percent or more and I'm acting outside of my financial responsibility to myself and my family.
GunnyUSMC
Member
You should never pass on a good deal. When you already have a few thousand rounds of 22 ammo, a few thousand more won’t hurt.
GunnyUSMC
Member
Hey Bull. If you are low on any ammo, just come by the house. 
jeff-10
Member
IMO ordering online is the best, selection and price wise. I hardly ever order ammo online in lots that cost less than $300 because of shipping. It doesn't make sense normally to order a single box of 50 rounds no matter what the price is set at. Also, I am not a huge fan of what I consider second tier ammo like Barnaul, Armscor, Aquila, Magpul and such. The local gun stores here all sell that as the target ammo. I would have to head to Basspro to buy Winchester USA and Remington UMC, which I don't really like doing.
cougar1717
Member
This is the same, tired, old complaint of rimfire shooters who just want to order two bricks and then complain that the shipping cost is the same as if they placed an order for more. Anyone who has frequently bought online should know that small orders have a disproportionately high shipping cost, BUT there is an economy of scale where shipping cost per unit decreases until it hits a typical threshold limit of case quantities or weight per package.
Using some generic numbers, shipping two boxes may cost $15, while shipping a case of 10 boxes may cost $25. However, shipping a case, plus two boxes of ammo (12 units) requires two packages and $35, for instance. Shipping two cases would cost $40.
In our day of fast, free shipping, I think that people have been conditioned to think that shipping doesn't cost anything. Mail order and online retailers have always promoted sales price without shipping and handling, insurance, confirmation signature fee, or sales taxes. Caveat emptor!
Anymore with web and every stores apps which generally show prices i can purchase for convenience for me. I check ammo prices online vs locally with shipping, tax, etc just as I do the price of beans at walmart vs dillons. It all comes down to what I need now or replacing current stock of an item. The later saves me.
mcb
Member
How do we determine the difference between having a sufficient stock to get through difficult times and hording? That is going to be different depending on the person and their needs/activities is it not?
ie 10 cases of pistol ammo might be a decade worth of shooting for one shooter and only half a season of competitive shooting and practice for another shooter.
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Define "hoarding".
Phaedrus/69
Member
Here's how I personally differential the two. Stockpiling is building up a stock of something when supplies are good and prices are low. This is often done a little at a time but it might be a full UPS truck at a time. Hoarding is buying everything you can find in a time of shortage, regardless of how little that leaves for others. Stockpiling has almost no effect on the supply or price while hoarding causes rapid inflation and broad shortages. JMOHO.
Eddietruett
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I hear complaints about not having the time to reload all the time. My time is limited as well. Here's a suggestion. Buy a decent progressive press. You can find some good used ones at times on Cragslist or buy a New One. Lee has several very good presses for not a lot of money. Buy your projectiles a couple of K at a time. Pick up primers and powder at a gun show or locally to save the hazmat fees and brass is basically free. You can buy 1k once fired brass cheap and reuse many times. Set up the press for the one bullet you like to shoot. Anytime you get a half hour or an hour, go load up a hundred or so. It doesn't take much time and it won't be long before you will overcome the initial cost of machinery and you will have ammo all the time. By the time you can sit down at a computer and compare prices at 3-4 box stores, figure who has the best deal after calculating shipping, place an order etc, you can load 100 rounds of ammo. I keep a Dillon 650 set up for .38 wadcutters. Anytime I have a few minutes or maybe an hour, I go load a couple hundred. Its paid for itself many times over, I get better ammo than the cheap stuff off the shelf, have plenty when I decide to go shooting, don't have to worry about who has it in stock and who has the best deal. On top of all of that, I'm getting top notch ammo for 1/3 of what it cost off the shelf and last but not least, I find it is a good way to unwind after a hard days work. I'm by myself, no phone or anyone bothering me and all I have to think about is the next time I'm going shooting and burn up what I'm loading.
Great way to explain it.
I have neither the time or inclination to do it but perhaps someday. I used to do it with my dad as a kid and never enjoyed it and now with toddler kids I'm just too busy. We'll see what the future holds.
First, you made a good find.
Second if you can only buy a couple, use local. Third, use only places that offer free shipping for over X purchase price when possible.
Bill460
Member
Bill460
Member
Not really. It just depends when you make your purchases. Ammunition, magazines, and guns have all been plentiful and cheap ever since Trump won the 2016 election. Gun grabbing fears ceased, (no matter if they were real or imagined). The stuff was everywhere for cheap, because most did not have the foresight to stock up. Because they saw no threat.
It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Not so much a virus, but the threat of gun control brought on by a mass shooting somewhere. Or else the election of an anti gun politician. Then much like Lemmings, the idiots all run to the gun shops and pick the racks and shelves clean.
These are the same people who bellyache when they can't get it now at any price. Too bad. People are always going to act the same. Now they're fighting over paper towels and toilet paper. They always want what they can't have...... When they can't have it.
I can all but guarantee you, these same people who are running around now, trying to get this stuff, are the same ones who drive around on an EMPTY tank all the time. They are either too busy, or too cheap to stop and fill up.
There is no reason for ANY of this nonsense. Anyone who now wants ammo or guns, could have had it months ago. All they could have possibly wanted, and on sale too boot. But they didn't care. Now they do. So now they will either do without it, or else stand in line to get it at a ridiculous price..... If they can get it at all. This was all brought on by bad choices they chose to make. Now they can pay the price..... Literally. These people are all nothing but victims of their own creation.
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danez71
Member
PSA:
If y'all want to have the thread closed then keep talking about hording. Hording is not a THR topic.
The thread is about buying ammo online vs locally.
If y'all want to have the thread closed then keep talking about hording. Hording is not a THR topic.
The thread is about buying ammo online vs locally.
FROGO207
Member
Yeah it is getting to the point that buying on line will soon be the only option again. I will just stop shooting rimfire and reload more 38 SPL. It worked well the last time.
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