Aluminum is the new gold

[DWalt]

IF BBA goes through, 7% inflation won't even be a start on where it will go.

 

[BC38]

One can only hope but the Rona changed a lot of things. Some things I've never seen in my lifetime and I've been around since 49. Expecting ammo prices roll back 3 years is a bit like expecting new construction and new car prices to roll back. For that to happen the fed needs to get inflation under control and I just don't see that happening any time soon. If anything it will get worse.

Here's a sobering thought.

Forbes

I think we all knew this was coming. If we didn't we should have. If you want to buy ammo, you should buy it NOW.

OK, I'm with you now.

So by "never be the same" you meant that the prices will never go back to the previous pre-inflation prices? That is like saying prices will never go back to what they were during the 1930's. That is a given, and of course I agree with that. The price of EVERYTHING will never go back to pre-inflation levels. Unless we have another Great Depression. That is about the only time we have actually seen significant deflation in our economy. Given a little time wages and interest rates will increase too - which offsets inflation. Heck, employers are already offering better wages and hiring bonuses to get people to go to work.

If I had realized exactly what you were saying then my statement would have been more along the lines of "when this pandemic induced shortage is past, the cost of ammo will return to normal prices after adjustment for inflation."

 

[reddog81]

The ammo market is in flux. Prices are dropping for the more common stuff but it's still real high or unobtainable for some rounds. Some retailers will get caught with stuff they ordered months ago at higher prices and now they have to compete with a market were some prices have dropped.

Six months or a year ago people would have still been buying up all the $42 boxes like crazed zombies in search of brains.

 

[BC38]

The ammo market is in flux. Prices are dropping for the more common stuff but it's still real high or unobtainable for some rounds. Some retailers will get caught with stuff they ordered months ago at higher prices and now they have to compete with a market were some prices have dropped.

Six months or a year ago people would have still been buying up all the $42 boxes like crazed zombies in search of brains.

Yup. Throughout the pandemic the manufacturers have been devoting all their production capacity to the common calibers and haven't been producing the less common stuff at all.

Funny thing is at the beginning of the run on ammo, the only thing you could still find on the shelves was the less common calibers (32 ACP, 38 S&W, 32 S&W Long, 40 S&W, uncommon rifle calibers etc.), and their prices weren't nearly as inflated as the high demand calibers (38 spl, 357 magnum, 44 spl & magnum, 22LR, 380 ACP, 9mm, etc.). And eventually the supply of the uncommon calibers was depleted too.

Now that the production of the common calibers is starting to catch up and the supply of uncommon calibers is very limited, because they haven't been producing any (so they could produce more of the common stuff). So now it is the uncommon calibers that are commanding the highest premium prices.

Ain't supply and demand a beautiful thing? You couldn't ask for a better or clearer example of exactly how the principle works.