Midway vs. Grafs

[bfox]

Hi

I really like Midway , never ordered from Grafs .
Never ordered primers or powder before online .
Do I have this right ? Midway won't ship primers and
powder together . Charge $20 hazmat plus $9.99 handling fee
plus shipping .
Grafs charge $20 hazmat , shipping is in price and
can ship powder and primers together .

Do I have this right ?
Thanks , Bill

 

[ocabj]

Incorrect on Midway shipping costs. It is $20 hazmat and $9.99 flat rate shipping for powder only. If you add non-powder items to the order, then they add shipping. You can order up to 48lbs of powder with Midway and it will still be $20 hazmat + $9.99 flat rate shipping (handling). That's it.

As a regular customer, yes, the shipping for Graf's should be free (included in price). I can't tell you if they allow mixing powder and primers. If you have a dealer account with Grafs, then you have to pay shipping.

 

[sargenv]

Might also check on T&TB reloading.. If you spend $200, they pay half of hazmat, if you spend $400, they pay all of hazmat, however I did the numbers recently and it was slightly cheaper going to a different vendor. It came back to bite me on the rear end since the primer packages (Federal) are huge and it needed 2 boxes.. yep, they doubled hazmat on me.. Still worked out to less than $1.50 per k for hazmat and shipping.

Vince

 

[ReloaderFred]

Graf's will pay the hazmat fee if you order 32 pounds of in stock powder. I've made several orders from them that way. If you don't need that much, check with your reloading friends and perhaps go in together to make an order.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[1911user]

Midway doesn't seem like a very good deal for powder and primers since they won't ship them together and they can't ship other items with a powder or primer order. I understand they are shipping from 3 locations and have to charge seperate shipping/hazmat fees, but it's nice to order bullets, powder, and primers from one location with only 1 hazmat fee plus shipping on the order.

I know they can ship everything together since powder valley has been openly doing it for years. Maybe midway will move the powder and primer shipping to where they ship everything else; it would seem more competative that way.

 

[RustyFN]

So if they won't ship them together does that mean you have to pay hazmat on powder and also hazmat on primers?
Rusty

 

[Branspop]

www.powdervalleyinc.com

 

[DWARREN123]

For things like primers and powder it is cheaper to go to a local store if one is near.

 

[cloudcroft]

I'm not sure about that.

Seems like too many gunstores jack up the price on these HazMat items and make WAY too much profit off them. I'm sure they get much more off those sales then they should, i.e., getting back WAY more than THEY paid in HazMat fees when THEY ordered the stuff. Pure price-gouging.

You can't win.

-- John D.

 

[ocabj]

Seems like too many gunstores jack up the price on these HazMat items and make WAY too much profit off them. I'm sure they get much more off those sales then they should, i.e., getting back WAY more than THEY paid in HazMat fees when THEY ordered the stuff. Pure price-gouging.

You do realize that these gun stores have expenses. Employees and rent are big factors. Plus they do need to actually turn some sort of profit.

Yes, $25 a lb for powder is expensive, but that's what they need to do to cover their expenses and then some. Do I pay the retail prices? Rarely and only in a pinch. But does that mean they're gouging? Probably not.

You also realize that these stores can only keep a certain amount of powder and primers in their retail location, right? Some of the smaller stores can't afford to purchase enough in bulk from the distributors to make things cheaper for them to pass savings to the customer.

I agree that powder in retail is more expensive than online, but to say that it is simply price gouging is competely offbase.

 

[Tomekeuro85]

WHen I ordered powder from Midway, the box it came in was from Powder Valley, Inc. I checked their site, which is listed above, and their prices are way lower than midway's for powder and I think primers as well. Also, they dont have the 9.99 special handling charge.

I think it was something like $5 cheaper per pound than midway.

If i need powder, I'll go straight to powder valley. No need to go through midway and pay extra fees and get teh same powder anyways.

 

[Ndenway]

look at natchez also, they were having the $10 hazmat fee special last time I bought powder there.

 

[loadedround]

Bfox: I see you are from Pa also and as the others have said, it is much cheaper to buy from a local retailer than thru a catalog supply house like MidwayUSA. Pa seems to have a gun store in almost every small town and thats your best bet. Are you close to Cabelas?

 

[Clark]

I have bought from ~100 gun suppliers from the Internet and Shotgun News.

Midway is at the bottom of my list.

Graf and Sons is at the top of my list.


That said, one could get by with Midway, the problems are tolerable:
1) Those answering the phone do not know what a gun is.
2) Minimum order + handling + premium retail shipping rate + retail prices
3) Defective material is sold on sale without disclosing that it is defective.
4) Defective material? You pay to ship it back.
5) Constant "churn'em and burn'em" sales instead of constant low prices*


*The US has a median household income of $46k.
There may be people so poor, it pays for their time to read all the sales and shipping charges of Midway.
But if you bought 1000 shares of Microsoft stock in the early 1990's, just toss the Midway fliers in the recycling.

 

[cracked butt]

2) Minimum order + handling + premium retail shipping rate + retail prices

That I don't like about midway- there are items that cost $7-10 that I can't buy locally and would need to buy a bunch of other items to avoid the minimum order fees+ make the shipping costs somewhat worthwhile.

5) Constant "churn'em and burn'em" sales instead of constant low prices*

I throw midway flyers in the garbage myself. They have my C&R license on file so I get the sale price on everything, always I sent A C&R license to Grafs, they never responded to whether or not they received it despite several contact attempts, so I've never ordered from them.

 

[michael_aos]

I've ordered a lot from MidwayUSA over the years. I looked through my order-history at one time and was AMAZED how it all added up.

Anyway -- I do tend to shop around and I'll buy things elsewhere if they're less-expensive.

But overall, MidwayUSA is comparable in price to what I find locally. Shipping -vs- sales-tax is often a wash.

MidwayUSA prices aren't "bad". Their selection is good. They used be better about keeping items in-stock. They ship quickly. The site is easy to navigate, so I can find what I want without a lot of hassle.

I normally get my powder and primers a most of my bullets from Powder Valley, but now there's a Sportsmans Warehouse in town.

Mike

 

[NVMM]

Grafs = Great customer service.
Good people to deal with plus fast shipping.

cracked butt, if you need a small item, get it from Brownells.
Usually 3.95 shipping and its at my door in 3 days.

Sometimes price isn't everything. Customer service means alot.
I've been lucky I guess. No complaints.

The last thing that went wrong was a bullet order from Precision Delta, they sent the wrong weight. I called them and no hassel, 4 days latter my bullets were at my door and the next day UPS was picking up the mistake.
I like that!

 

[RustyFN]

Does anybody know if you can get a discount at Powder Valley with a C&R license? Powder Valley is $8 per pound less than the local store for Titegroup.
Rusty

 

[RexDart]

I just called them, and no, they don't offer a discount for any kind of FFL, C&R or otherwise. They do, however, require a copy of an FFL or DL for anyone they ship to.

 

[cloudcroft]

ocabj,

We have differing definitions of price-gouging.

Regardless, at MY local stores, that's what they do.

-- John D.

 

[Japle]

If my local reloading den has what I want, I'll buy it from them. I'll always give a small, local shop my business over a national, mail-order place.

It's worth it to me to support the local economy. WalMart, etc., has driven enough small businesses under already. Midway and Grafs are good people, but they have plenty of customers.

In fact, I just ordered some 7.62X54R brass from Grafs. Couldn't get them locally. But the powder, primers and bullets I'll get from Space Coast Bullets.

John
Cape Canaveral

 

[cloudcroft]

I support local stores, too. Sometimes.

But there's a difference between doing that and wearing a t-shirt saying "Please rip me off."

If they still insist on doing that, then the Internet nowadays is the second "Great Equalizer" when it comes to overcharging locals.

There's reasonable profit and then there's just plain greed.

Too bad you can't order gasoline over the Internet.

-- John D.

 

[callgood]

I use Powdervalley for bulk amounts. I try to use my local guy for trial purchases (powder I've never used). He's my gunsmith and runs a range as well. When he and his family pass on I don't know of an alternative in the area.

I've used Grafs in the past. Good experience. Brownells once or twice- do they still charge 15.00 for their catalog? I intend to use Grafs more in the future- it IS easy to log on and order at Midway, out of habit, I guess. I've spent a bundle at Sinclair, which has the best product mix - customer service out there, but an infuriating website. I have to scout the product # in the catalog and sometimes THAT doesn't get it. Wideners, good. AIM, good. CDDN, good. Lot of good companies out there.

 

[NVMM]

If you have an order with Brownells they will send a catalog at no charge.

 

[callgood]

If you have an order with Brownells they will send a catalog at no charge.

NEAT! There must be something I need....... That IS the one that's the size of the Los Angeles phone directory? I thought it was free to FFLs etc., but still a charge for peons. I think I got some Arisaka repro parts from them a couple of years ago. I'll check them out.