Venting... (hopefully not violating the rules)

Status
Not open for further replies.
ZeviB

ZeviB

Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
28
Location
Michigan
Greetings,

Apologies in advance - not-too-technical post in a mostly-technical forum; hopefully I'm not in violation of any rule... :(

Together with my son I recently decided to revive the old hobby of reloading. It's been over a month that we've been shopping for supplies (of course while constantly monitoring THIS thread), and so far our efforts can be summarized with one big fat zero. Zilch. Nada.

And then I stumbled across this "wonderful" source, for example powder and primers. Asking price between 4 and over 10 times the item's original price.

Now, I fully understand the concepts of supply and demand, the free market, etc. But I also know what greed is. And that is greed. Yes, these hard times may force people who are in a dire situation to make the most with what they can. Not my place to judge. But I doubt that this is the typical case here. I'm not a big believer of conspiracy theories, but I can only hope that the usual suppliers out there are not part of this. A few stores I called around to ask about stock have expressed a similar frustration.

Anyhow - sorry if I took too much time with this rambling and thank you for your patience. I just had to vent somehow. Back to work now.

All the best, and may the stock be with us!
 
Welcome back to THR. I see you joined in 2015 but have only posted twice.

2 things. First you picked a rough time to get back into reloading. Ammo shortage started first then people are trying to get back into reloading and expect vast amounts of powder, primers and material but that's not the case.

Second, its called supply and demand. If folks need it, others will sell if the price is right. Right now the market is dictating the price so I'm not sure I'd call it greed. Same goes for the price of ammo. The market is based on what the consumer is willing to pay. Others are willing to pay more than you so that's affecting the price.

Be patient, it will pass.
 
Not much else to say other than this too shall pass, one way or another (looks like others beat me to the punch).

Yes prices and availability suck something fierce right now but I think much of the anxiety surrounding our feelings comes from being told "no". No, you can't buy primers on a whim right now. No, you can't find the exact bullets you need to complete your testing right now. No, you can't load up your annual lots of ammo during the colder times for warmer weather shooting right now.

Stay the course, remain positive, help where you can, and sooner or later all our questions will be answered (whether we like them or not).
 
If the prices were not massively inflated .....someone else would already have bought the components you're looking at.

So you have the option to pay a higher price and get something that otherwise would be sitting on someone else's reloading bench. Your choice.
 
Here we go again...

What are those suppliers supposed to sell when they sell their powder inventory at 2018 prices? They just supposed to go out of business, due to bare shelves?

This is the reality of their situation. They (the supplier in question) don't know when they will be able to have inventory to replace it. So what are they to do? They raise prices to cover the risk of not being able to fill the store shelves.

I don't like the situation, they don't like the situation; but that is the reality.

This is another thread bemoaning stores for their pricing, like they should have bought extra inventory (risk) in good times so they can sell to those of us who didn't plan ahead (took no inventory risk); all the while cutting the throat of the employees and owners of said store.
 
Last edited:
This same frustration is had in many industries. I can just imagine the frustration of trying to buy a new bicycle 6 months ago. Or an RV. Or any other outdoor sporting equipment. Home remodeling is booming now too and building supplies are scarce.

The locusts have worked their way through the ammo system and landed on reloading components. Reloading is more of a niche market and quick changes in demand can affect it. Even just a few months ago things were tight but not this bad. I bought projectiles, powder and primers in October. Powder was readily available. It took a week to land primers. Projectiles took 8 weeks on backorder. Now just a few months later it is even harder to find necessary items.

As people have already said, stock will come back eventually. When it does, there will be sales and the hoarders will need to move their stock or be stuck with it. That is the time to buy it cheap and stack it deep.
 
Also don't forget that a lot of people have already saturated their personal supplies. Products that normally would have sat in a warehouse for a year have been bought. People who normally would have bought ammo and used it have just bought it and put it on a shelf. Factories that were close to going under in 2019 are working 24/7 right now.

In 2013 availability was equal in ammo/reloading supplies and worse in guns/accessories. By mid-2014 I was doing lots of restocking when demand for full priced products at brick-and-mortar stores was falling off a cliff.

And in 2013, when almost all backordering wasn't allowed due to lessons learned in 2008, the people who missed the boat accepted their situation. Lots of those people did end up finding a tray of primers and a pound of powder to start getting into reloading. Very few of them became well equiped, high volume reloaders.
 
Shooting and reloading are interesting hobbies where most of the material needed to enjoy the hobby is consumable. You can compare powder and primers to crack cocaine. Once you use it up, you need to buy more to enjoy the hobby and will be willing to pay the going price to get more!
 
NWcityguy2 said:
For three years sellers were literally offering free HAZMAT just to sell reloading components.

Whatever you were spending your excess income on for those three years, go enjoy that. Come back to reloading in late 2021 when supplies can at least by had for full retail.
Click to expand...
This one made me smile.
It's like people complaining about running out of firewood.
Winter comes every year. Be prepared.

New guys can be excluded from this because they are starting out and haven't learned yet.
 
Well the above paints a picture for you that is not good. I have been through sevetal of these "times" before. After a fashion things have always come back in stock eventually. This time many more people are new purchasers of firearms and ammo. They think the higher prices are "normal" and pay them. Couple this with new "leaders" that have openly stated months ago that they want to take this away from us and the perfect storm of supply not even helping demand. It sucks! BIGTIME!! If you haunt the net and LGS things show up here and there. Primets are the Achilles heal of reloading and probably will be the last thing to come back. We all will just have to wait it out and hope for the best. Then plan for a next time as it will surely happen.
 
when i was a young guy a friend of mine 30 years my elder brought a bunch of reloading stuff for my 44 mag rifle to work one day .He explained the whole process and i was hooked .I relied on his wisdom many times til his passing .He always told me if you can get your hands on it stock up on it.This was a time when you never had to worry about getting supplies .I am fairly stocked up but just won't shoot a lot until this bullcrap passes.
 
Bfh_auto said:
This one made me smile.
It's like people complaining about running out of firewood.
Winter comes every year. Be prepared.
Click to expand...

Many folks are on tight budgets and simply didn’t have the resources to stock-up.
As a reminder, not everyone has disposable income.
 
Whether you stock up or don't is really a matter of priorities. I don't go out to movies, supper and never fast food or boutique expensive coffee. These are luxuries, in my opinion, and I would rather spend the saved money on reloading components. I hear many people complain about not having enough money as I watch the drink bottled water or St*rbuck's coffee. It is always a matter of priorities and the choices you make. I would rather stock up than go to a movie or out for supper. To each his own, but don't complain after you have not prioritized your spending.....it makes you sound like fool!
 
kerreckt said:
Whether you stock up or don't is really a matter of priorities. I don't go out to movies, supper and never fast food or boutique expensive coffee. These are luxuries, in my opinion, and I would rather spend the saved money on reloading components. I hear many people complain about not having enough money as I watch the drink bottled water or St*rbuck's coffee. It is always a matter of priorities and the choices you make. I would rather stock up than go to a movie or out for supper. To each his own, but don't complain after you have not prioritized your spending.....it makes you sound like fool!
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound very "High Road" to me.

Can we do our best to support each other?
 
Yeah, I know how you feel. I decided to get back into the stock market last week and discovered that I could no longer buy IBM stock for $20 a share. Bummer.
 
Buying up all available supplies at whatever price and then reselling at greatly increased prices is certainly a time honored strategy for many commodities. Bunkey Hunt made a pretty good run at both Silver and soybeans at different times. And yes, it is greed. Maybe for a store owner marking the price up way high just so he can keep some on the shelf for a day or too is not an all a bad thing. Then he can "discount" them if you buy a gun from him, for instance.

"Just in time supply" was the big think a few years back, But it sure does not work well for reloading right now. Probably not for a lot of other things too.

If people are not allowed to "vent" here then there would be a lot fewer posts.

I hate it that the "preppers" are looking so good right now.
 
Last edited:
higgite said:
Yeah, I know how you feel. I decided to get back into the stock market last week and discovered that I could no longer buy IBM stock for $20 a share. Bummer.
Click to expand...

My stock broker saved me some IBM stock he bought in the late 80's that I bought from him for $20/share, nice chap!
 
Otto said:
Many folks are on tight budgets and simply didn’t have the resources to stock-up.
As a reminder, not everyone has disposable income.
Click to expand...

Logic says there are very few people who didn't have the income to buy reloading supplies barely above cost less than a year ago but now have the income to buy into the market today.
 
Not a case of just income, I think. I have not seem many pistol primers for sale at any price for a while. All I see is a whole lot of empty shelves with the old price tags still on them. Or "out of stock, no backorder". And have a little bit of worry that it will not end any time soon. Some of that worry is based on the political climate and what might happen with component manufacturers and sellers.

I finally looked at the site the OP listed for primers. That is an impressively high price. Makes the $29 for shipping look pretty small though. I did not order any. Not shooting is a lot cheaper option for me right now.
 
Last edited:
Otto said:
Many folks are on tight budgets and simply didn’t have the resources to stock-up.
As a reminder, not everyone has disposable income.
Click to expand...

Not disputing the fact that some don't have excess money every month. But your statement makes it seem like now they would have money to stock up at normal prices. What changed? They got a better job since Covid hit?

$3 / 100 primers and $25 for a pound of powder (prices I saw for 2 years during DJT) here and there is not hard to budget even in the most meager means. And if one is that hard up on cashflow to be able to afford the aforementioned costs, then they really shouldn't be spending on a hobby but rather finding a better means of work or paying down debt to free oneself from the slavery of owing. I really don't mean to be harsh but that is reality, people need to be responsible to themselves.

This country is fast heading towards peoples problems being forced onto others, and in this is the end of the 'American Experiment'.
 
It’s a wild world we live in, but rest assured that there are still some decent folks out there with supplies. My best advice at this point in time is to be a hound. Learn to use search tools to your benefit and buy quickly when you find what you want at a palatable price.

.224 bullets are still on a bit of a run and aren’t easy to find in stock so I went to Gunbroker yesterday. Found a seller who had 90 boxes of bullets at $18 a box and shipping was on the high side of reasonable. Buy it now and immediate checkout. 400 bullets are now headed my way for $76.91. Those bullets are normally about $17 a box when they are in stock at Academy, and the money I paid in shipping while not cheap still isn’t bad. Same bullets are running at auction for $300 or more per thousand when the guys could do buy it now and get 10 boxes shipped for around 200 bucks. Search wisely my friends.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

MoreIsLess
  • Locked
Gun range vent
Replies
10
Views
609
Walkalong
Walkalong
Y
  • Locked
Rule four violation/ interesting walmart story
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
silverking
S
V
  • Locked
Looking to become a reloader. Don't know where to start.
2 3
Replies
53
Views
3K
altitude_19
A
G
  • Locked
Continuing Gas Pains
Replies
0
Views
264
ghschirtz
G
D
  • Locked
How I buy 22 LR
2 3
Replies
53
Views
3K
Robert
Robert
Back
Top