I was on a popular online gun dealers site and noticed they were selling Blazer Brass 9mm for $50 a box (50 round box). This is a brand I'm used to buying locally for $9 on sale and $11 at full price. So this has me wondering now, have wholesale prices gone up so much that dealers are now forced to sell at these prices?

I'm pretty sure the days of dealers paying $5 for a box are out the door. Supply and demand would dictate higher wholesale costs too, not just retail.

The profit margin of selling 10 boxes at $11 each has to be made up with just one box now...

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aka "Mooncat"

You're not being shafted if you don't buy any.

I'd honestly prefer to see what I want on a dealer's shelf at a higher price than to see an empty shelf with a cheaper price on the sticker.

A perfect example of the demand component.

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aka "Mooncat"

When I stopped in Cabela's last week, they had just gotten a truckload of ammo, primer and powder in. The were controlling people and had a limit but I picked up ten 100 packs of small pistol primers for $4.49 a sleeve. They did not raise their prices from before the shortage hit.

I believe that it was Vista Outdoors that went on record announcing a 15% increase. However, $38-40 definitely isn't 15%, even with New Math and Common Core Math!

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Judge control not gun control!

It costs extra to get the shipments to arrive before dawn for the Academy lurkers.

I can tell you that the price of copper has skyrocketed since the 1st of the year.

1/2 type L copper is going for 40% more than it was last year.

I'm sure this has impacted Romex wire as well.

Add in the massive amounts of damage in Texas and you're going to see shortages and allocations.

I suppose that this will impact the price of wholesale ammo eventually. Right now it's the gougers and gullible who are driving up the prices.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

Buy only what you can't do without. The less bought at inflated prices, the sooner this will stop. JMHO-YMMV.......

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Remember when a quart of ice cream was the industry standard? Check out how much ice cream is in what used to pass for a quart, its less...for more money.

Manufacturers suggested retail price is one thing. Wholesale price is another thing. Preferred contract pricing for large volume orders is something else.

In today's market the only things that really matter are how badly do I need it or want it, and who has it right now?

In a free market people get to buy and sell as they see fit. I like that. As long as there is no collusion I have no trouble with someone selling for what the market will bear regardless of what the seller paid.

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

Me too...........

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

One thing that has not been mentioned is the Covid issue. The price of lumber has spiked mainly due to the Covid issue. One guy at the mill gets covid and they have to shut down the mill for two weeks. I expect the same thing applies to ammo.
I thnk the prudent thing for me at least, is just not to buy anything unless I HAVE to. I've put off a home renovation due to this as it increased the cost around 20% with the increase if materials cost.

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Forum consigliere

I am right there with you. Building materials are just crazy around here right now. I can wait - and hope for a better day. As for shooting and ammo/components, I’ve cut back by about 50% the number of rounds fired whenever I visit the range. When what I’ve got is gone, I’ll be done. I’m pretty sure I’ll not be paying $300-$500 for 1,000 primers.

For now, I’ve been able to buy small amounts of reloading supplies here and there of things I can actually use, and I’ll continue doing that, but only as long as the prices are within reason.

Being shafted alright....

was a (dreaded) Field & Stream yesterday just to stick my nose in, no expectations.

There they had it:

Massive tables set up stuffed full with all kinds of ammo.

You could get 2 boxes each of any caliber.

Picked 2 x 50 rounds agila 22: $3.99 per box

Aguila 124 gr 9mm 50 rounds: $17.99 per box


That tell me that everyone else is just screwing us

I'd like to buy a coupla boxes of that 9mm but there are none of their stores here..........

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Yes and yes.

I'd say we're being gouged right now.

There was a point where supply got tight and everyone was panicking and buying everything they could, and that drove prices up. But then human nature kicked in, and sellers realized they could turn a bigger profit because demand was so high, and the prices went up more.

I say that, because I'm starting to get multiple emails from stores, pushing "we've got ammo!" at high prices. Funny, I get the same email or even more urgent ones, the next day, from the same places. So their $700 cases of 9mm didn't sell out yesterday or the day before, and they have to push me again, because it really might today.

Thanks, no thanks. I've got enough to last awhile, I think I'll hold off for now. If the dire warnings come true, I'll probably sell off most of my handguns and keep just a couple of what I feel I need, and ammo for those.

I'm glad they are not selling out at any price. That is how it has to start............

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Even during this panDUMBic, anything over $20 for plain old 9mm ball ammo is pure price gouging and I'm done buying anything from those charging $50 or more a box. While it is sparse and infrequent, and they have a one box limit now, I've been buying 9mm ball for $12-15 for 50 rounds for the last year at a chain store (CalRanch) in my area. We don't go that often and I'm sure we have missed many opportunities.

My wife and I have found:

Fiocchi 115 and 124gr. for $14.99
Blazer brass 147gr. for $14.99 (2 months ago)
Tula steel cased 115 for $12.99 (3 days ago)
Aguila 115gr. in 300 round boxes for $74.99 (spring 2020)
Browning 115gr. in 200 round boxes for $49.95 (summer 2020)

Don't pay $50 (or more) for a 50 round box of 9mm ball and they will stop charging that much.

I found what is apparently Federal's current wholesale price list for retailers, published by the moderator of another gun forum (rhymes with BIGWalk) in its ammo section. Their wholesale prices are about 60% higher than retail prices from 2019. No wonder we're getting hosed.

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What, me worry?

Is there some rule here about not about not referring to GlockTalk, SigTalk, RimfireCentral, etc. by their real name? I see quite a few posts about threads on other forums that do not spell out the name or provide a link.

I am not trying to be sarcastic or funny with that question. I have mentioned GlockTalk, SigTalk, and a few others in the past and might have even posted a link from time to time. As long as you do not copy content from a different forum and post it here it would not be a copyright violation so I never worried about it. But if there is such I rule I'll quit.

Our little bit of everything store had Blazer too, same prices. Now when they do get it, last time was $12.97 per 50 rd. box, limit 2. That was a couple weeks ago. So wholesale must not be real high. These guys jacking the price, $60.00 a box, must be making lots.

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No baby we aint

A 'pound' of bacon is now 12 oz.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Depends. They may have already have a contracted price for a certain amount of time. Ammo would often be ordered a year out, at a discount price. X amount of cases per month for 12 months.

My memory may be imperfect here, but I recall that there used to be a rule about not linking to other gun forums. I don't believe there is a rule about mentioning other forums, so I was erring on the side of caution and being a bit cheeky as well. The closest rule I can find in the current rules is this one:

"9. Do not advertise, promote, or attempt to generate traffic for other internet forums, or blogs, or websites, or YouTube channels, or similar sites without prior permission. This applies whether the site is yours or someone else's.
Do not try to circumvent this rule."

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What, me worry?

A box of handgun ammo used to be 50 - now it's often only 20.

The price of ammo is what you pay.

LGS has .556 and 9mm for better than online, Still too high for me but I’m not in need.

I sold some to friends for less than 1/2 of some online prices but still more than I paid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Let's face it. The arms and ammunition industry is tiny compared to the economy at large. Market forces and movements blow the arms industry around like a dry leaf. The difference for the arms industry is the passionate and visceral possessive and protective instincts that enthusiasts have. These traits turn to fear and panic buying when one of the periodic shortages hit us.

I heard a promising development today at a LGS. Many ammunition and component manufacturers have been impacted by copper and other semi-precious metal prices. It seems that many metal importers have been waiting for tariff quotas to reset, creating more supply at old prices. There might be something to it. I bought two boxes of brass case .223 Tula ammunition at Academy yesterday. They had a fair bit of it, limited to two boxes per purchase. Maybe the scalpers have gotten saturated.

ANYBODY who buys their ammo during a shortage is getting shafted.

Wait until we return to normalcy again (Yes, Chicken Littles - it’ll happen) and then stock up.

If you want to pay realistic prices, don’t buy during a panic. It’s really that simple.

"This too shall pass".

Yes, wholesale prices are up............

Yes we're being shafted...........

Do not buy anything you can do without. The supply will catch up. The manufacturers are slowly ramping up and they will make as much as they can because it is they're chance to catch up and get ahead. Prices would have went up for the new year, anyway.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

As noted by others, copper prices are waaaaaaaay up & since its in the brass case make up and definitely in the jacket material prices will stay up until that material stabilizes - IMO.

Wholesale may have gone up a little but local SW had CCI primers the other day for $31 and change per brick... They have to put it behind the counter to keep the re-sellers from grabbing it. Even with a max of 2 per customer, these guys would take more, hide it in the store, check out with what they have and immediately go back and get the hidden items and check out with another clerk. Have a buddy that followed one guy and saw him go down fishing aisle and come out without his extras. Buddy shopped the aisle, found the stash and took it to the checkout himself!

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S&W factory revolver armorer

Scalpers getting scammed. Got to love it.

An LGS near me still has 50 boxes of Blazer 22lr out of the 1000 boxes they received three weeks ago. Price $4.99/bx

.10 a rnd is still high but at least it gidn't sell out in a day..........

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

Id's say a bit of both, and maybe an unknown 3rd factor. Wholesale prices have definitely risen due to covid complications and unprecedented demand, a perfect storm for a supply and demand market economy.
That said, however, we still see great disparity between certain dealers, which suggests another factor at play (besides how large of a wholesale bulk purchase they can make). Of that disparity, there are two sides, local and Internet sales.
While ammo has gone up at my local gun shop, they're nowhere near as high as Internet offerings, most of whom I assume are exploiting the situation and gouging; but I was shocked to see MidwayUSA and WilsonCombat prices only slightly lower than "Cheaper than Dirt"'s record high prices. Both Midway and WC have stellar, well-earned reputations so I have to figure there's a 3rd unknown component at work regarding Internet sales, I just don't (want to) believe they would exploit their customers where Cabela's and Academy don't.
In any case, being badly in need of ammo for newly encountered calibers, I paid some of the more ridiculous prices, but now that I'm satisfied with my inventory (still probably pathetic by some people's standards) I'm holding off buying any more until prices drop or I run way too low again.

Something that I am not seeing mentioned in these type of discussions is the idea of overhead for the LGS. If it costs $500/day for rent, payroll, insurance, utilities, etc, and the LGS can sell 100 boxes of ammo a day (completely made up numbers, but you get the idea), they only need a $5 mark up plus profit on each box. Now in the time of shortages, they have only 1 box a day to sell, overhead is the same, so that single box has to sell for a $500 markup just for the LGS to not lose money.

This is why the big box stores are able to hold steady on prices even with spotty ammo availability because they are spreading the costs over apparel, fishing, and all the other departments. The LGS has sold all their guns and all their ammo, so every little bit that trickles in has to carry more and more of the overhead in order for the LGS to keep the doors open. Fortunately I have enough stockpiled so that I don't have to buy at the current LGS pricing, but I don't begrudge the LGS at all for charging all the market will bear because they have to get cash flowing somehow.

Now the big online folks like Midway, well they have the product diversity, so I am thinking they are just profiteering on ammo right now, but I would have to see how much the short supply stuff (ammo and guns) are of their total sales volume have a real opinion about them.

I go to the local police supply store, being retired LE they still sell to retires like were still on the Job.
Last week winchster 50 rd boxes 147 gr 9mm T series JHP $19.50
Limit 100 rds per day.
Use to be able to get cases at a time till one idiot decided to buy cases and sell at the gun show at 3 times what he paid and fot caught.
All prices of all the ammo is in line
9mm FMJ 12.99
38 FMJ 18.99
And so on.

I have 5 main distributors and several dealer direct accounts. Some prices did go up indeed, some didn't. The main squeeze comes from retailers and, of course, private sellers.

I recommend to hold on to what you have and buy what you can afford if you really need it. I have zero clue when production numbers will be back to pre covid times and neither do the distributors.

But a lot of states have opened up so we have to think positive and that common sense will prevail.

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Jorge

The shaft is out, and it would appear that many are bending over, backing up, and allowing insertion.
Gotta have it, gotta have it now!
BOHICA!
Best,
Gary

Anyone care to trade their ammo for some toilet paper?

John