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MountainGoat

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So, as your man on the inside of the ammo industry, I have to tell you we are raising pricing A LOT.
  • First, if we undercut our competitors, our competitors will buy up our inventory, sell it to you, and put us out of business. Everyone fears this, so no one wants to be bargain-priced.
  • The cost is going up! We need to sell the ammo we bought yesterday at a margin that will allow us to buy ammo at tomorrow's cost.
  • Supply is going down as the demand is going up. The manufacturers are telling us that commercial production is being throttled/stopped to ramp up for government contracts.
  • We need to stop the hemorrhaging! We are selling ammo faster than we can restock it, and we don't know when we will be able to restock. If we sell out of our complete inventory or don't have any inventory to list, it's terrible for the company on soooooooo many levels. So, prices are raised a little more to slow the burn rate.
With all of this in mind, I think you might be surprised to learn that many of us in the industry are seeing prices where they SHOULD BE! And what I mean is that over the past couple of years, the wholesale price of ammo has increased significantly. It's been across the board - the raw materials have gone up, the shipping has gone up, labor rates have gone up ridiculously, and the manufacturers are charging us an arm and a leg. So while you were paying more for ammo a month ago, you weren't really paying a "fair" retail value for your already seemingly overpriced ammo. I hate to say "fair," but read on!

Ammunition retailers have been "in a race to the bottom" to stay competitive. Two weeks ago, the margin was so low on ammo that we covered credit card fees and shipping costs. We saw decent revenue but ZERO profit. And people were still complaining they weren't seeing 2018 pricing. A lot of retailers of ammunition were making zero to negative profit on ammunition.

The current situation has been bad. At first, we saw revenue and PROFIT jump through the roof, but it quickly set in that today's profit will cover tomorrow's wholesale pricing from the manufacturer if they have any ammo to sell us.

Okay - flame away.?? I feel like you're my peeps, so I can take it!
But ammo was dropping until the latest panic...

Even primers have been dipping.

I see how .223/5.56 is up, I heard about lake city. But 9mm and 22 was almost down to precovid levels.
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9zero1790

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part of the plan, no need to get rid of guns if ammo is scarce or too expensive for the avg jane / joe. no need to force e cars if fuel is too expensive etc. and now i return to the darkened room lined with tin foil...
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KJRR

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So, as your man on the inside of the ammo industry, I have to tell you we are raising pricing A LOT.
  • First, if we undercut our competitors, our competitors will buy up our inventory, sell it to you, and put us out of business. Everyone fears this, so no one wants to be bargain-priced.
  • The cost is going up! We need to sell the ammo we bought yesterday at a margin that will allow us to buy ammo at tomorrow's cost.
  • Supply is going down as the demand is going up. The manufacturers are telling us that commercial production is being throttled/stopped to ramp up for government contracts.
  • We need to stop the hemorrhaging! We are selling ammo faster than we can restock it, and we don't know when we will be able to restock. If we sell out of our complete inventory or don't have any inventory to list, it's terrible for the company on soooooooo many levels. So, prices are raised a little more to slow the burn rate.
With all of this in mind, I think you might be surprised to learn that many of us in the industry are seeing prices where they SHOULD BE! And what I mean is that over the past couple of years, the wholesale price of ammo has increased significantly. It's been across the board - the raw materials have gone up, the shipping has gone up, labor rates have gone up ridiculously, and the manufacturers are charging us an arm and a leg. So while you were paying more for ammo a month ago, you weren't really paying a "fair" retail value for your already seemingly overpriced ammo. I hate to say "fair," but read on!

Ammunition retailers have been "in a race to the bottom" to stay competitive. Two weeks ago, the margin was so low on ammo that we covered credit card fees and shipping costs. We saw decent revenue but ZERO profit. And people were still complaining they weren't seeing 2018 pricing. A lot of retailers of ammunition were making zero to negative profit on ammunition.

The current situation has been bad. At first, we saw revenue and PROFIT jump through the roof, but it quickly set in that today's profit will cover tomorrow's wholesale pricing from the manufacturer if they have any ammo to sell us.

Okay - flame away.?? I feel like you're my peeps, so I can take it!
Well nothing personal but that sounds like a lot of marketing crap to me.
 

Glocker

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Well nothing personal but that sounds like a lot of marketing crap to me.
Take it how you want. But, it boils down to basic economics. I see the numbers every day. You can either believe me or not - I don't care and have nothing to gain here from you guys. I was just sharing some insight.

But I do work in the marketing group!
 

KJRR

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Take it how you want. But, it boils down to basic economics. I see the numbers every day. You can either believe me or not - I don't care and have nothing to gain here from you guys. I was just sharing some insight.

But I do work in the marketing group!
Again, nothing personal.
I hope you aren't one of the guys complaining about gas prices. Going by points 2 and 4, replace ammo with gas and reread it.
Point 1, that's only a problem if you are selling your product at a loss consistently, and that is just stupid business.

Right now, the costs of a lot of things are crazy and nothing is priced at 2018 levels and never will be again. Simple economics tells me if I want it bad enough, I'll pay for it regardless of the reason for the cost.
As far as marketing goes, it's goal is to convince us that we NEED something through whatever means possible, to make someone a profit. How well can we spin this story to make money

Anyway, it's Friday and time to get this thing called work started and overnight as quickly as possible.
?
 


Glocker

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Again, nothing personal.
I hope you aren't one of the guys complaining about gas prices. Going by points 2 and 4, replace ammo with gas and reread it.
Point 1, that's only a problem if you are selling your product at a loss consistently, and that is just stupid business.

Right now, the costs of a lot of things are crazy and nothing is priced at 2018 levels and never will be again. Simple economics tells me if I want it bad enough, I'll pay for it regardless of the reason for the cost.
As far as marketing goes, it's goal is to convince us that we NEED something through whatever means possible, to make someone a profit. How well can we spin this story to make money

Anyway, it's Friday and time to get this thing called work started and overnight as quickly as possible.
?
HAHAHA I complain about gas prices AND ammo prices. And I get a healthy discount. And you're right - demand seems to rule all.

The funny thing is, we went from a terrible slump through the summer with almost no demand. We were in a true race to the bottom with everyone lowering prices. We weren't selling at a loss, but at low margins that gave us a break-even state. Basically, we were keeping the lights on and the employees paid through the summer. This was mainly to encourage growth.

And now, we don't have to market ammo! There is no spinning the story. Our marketing efforts have cut back with the situation in Israel because the ammo is flying off the shelf so fast, stuff we thought we stocked up on badly (bad price & too much inventory) has run out of stock.

What I'm dreading is when we hit the other side of this and people stop buying because they have garages full of ammo stockpiled. We're going to go back to that race to the bottom again.

Enjoy your Friday! I know for sure there is bourbon in my future for this evening!?
?
 

MountainGoat

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HAHAHA I complain about gas prices AND ammo prices. And I get a healthy discount. And you're right - demand seems to rule all.

The funny thing is, we went from a terrible slump through the summer with almost no demand. We were in a true race to the bottom with everyone lowering prices. We weren't selling at a loss, but at low margins that gave us a break-even state. Basically, we were keeping the lights on and the employees paid through the summer. This was mainly to encourage growth.

And now, we don't have to market ammo! There is no spinning the story. Our marketing efforts have cut back with the situation in Israel because the ammo is flying off the shelf so fast, stuff we thought we stocked up on badly (bad price & too much inventory) has run out of stock.

What I'm dreading is when we hit the other side of this and people stop buying because they have garages full of ammo stockpiled. We're going to go back to that race to the bottom again.

Enjoy your Friday! I know for sure there is bourbon in my future for this evening!?
?
Those low IQ panic buyers always piss me off. The same ones always talk about SHTF when you know they won't ever do shit. I hope when it really kicks off they all get raided.
 

Glocker

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Those low IQ panic buyers always piss me off. The same ones always talk about SHTF when you know they won't ever do shit. I hope when it really kicks off they all get raided.
Right! It's TP all over again.
I mean, I get it - some efforts are being reallocated by the manufacturers for government contracts and that would cause some concern. But with what was in the stream already, and projected commercial orders being re-fired up for late November and December, the inventory level was sitting pretty, except for the panic buying.
 

Glocker

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Picked up a hi point c9 today, paid all of $45 for it, plans for it include one hell of a torture test.
20231021_111559.jpg
Ha! I luterally just sat down from 100% deep cleaning the C9 I picked up for $41!

This is my first ever SNS that I picked up a couple months ago for forty-one bucks on gunbroker.com (plus shipping). It was described as rusty! When it arrived I found no rust, but instead it was filled with red clay dirt and goo! I just finished a deep cleaning where I fully dissambled it, ran all the parts through the ultrasonic cleaner, re-oiled everything, and reassembled it. The last time I was at the range I found it was functioning great with 124 gr S&B, but had a lot of trouble with 115 gr Winchester white box. When I reassembled it, I put in new striker, recoil, and extractor springs, a new striker, new extractor, and new guid rod. I also put rubberized grip tape on the grips too, and that is a huge improvement! I also touched up the slide with alumablack to clean up all of the chips in the finish.
20231021_155259.webp

20231021_155311.webp
 

Crow_of_judgement

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Ha! I luterally just sat down from 100% deep cleaning the C9 I picked up for $41!

This is my first ever SNS that I picked up a couple months ago for forty-one bucks on gunbroker.com (plus shipping). It was described as rusty! When it arrived I found no rust, but instead it was filled with red clay dirt and goo! I just finished a deep cleaning where I fully dissambled it, ran all the parts through the ultrasonic cleaner, re-oiled everything, and reassembled it. The last time I was at the range I found it was functioning great with 124 gr S&B, but had a lot of trouble with 115 gr Winchester white box. When I reassembled it, I put in new striker, recoil, and extractor springs, a new striker, new extractor, and new guid rod. I also put rubberized grip tape on the grips too, and that is a huge improvement! I also touched up the slide with alumablack to clean up all of the chips in the finish.
20231021_155259.jpg

20231021_155311.jpg
I'm about to do a deep clean on mine, it doesn't look like it's ever been cleaned before. Of course once mines clean it's getting tossed in my deep freezer for a week so I can see how it runs literally frozen next weekend
 

underwhelmed

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Picked up a hi point c9 today, paid all of $45 for it, plans for it include one hell of a torture test.
20231021_111559.jpg
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