ammo prices: then and now question

[John G C 1]

Last night, I went to some of the large ammo sellers' websites to get an idea of what different 9mm ammo used to sell for.

I wanted a sort of baseline to measure how inflated the prices would be at a local show coming up, and I remembered looking at those websites a few months ago and finding they had per box prices posted .

OK, so I went to those sites to check what Federal FMJ 111 used to sell for. They had a bunch of different 9mm in stock but the prices were 40-60 dollars PER BOX.

Are these stores just finally getting in a few boxes and now hiking the price to an extreme or is this indicative of new pricing?

 

[Warren Sear]

Pricing will remain relatively high until hoarders stop hoarding.

 

[hobby-gunsmith]

ammo prices

supply & demand will boost the prices. Most ammunition suppliers sites are charging over 200% over the price of what that same ammo sold before the hording. I refuse to pay those inflated prices and will not pay $31.00-$35.00 for a box of remanufactured ammo plus shipping for .40 cal reloads. I am talking about Blazer or PMB. One site, 9mm ammo,com is rediculous in their prices. I will continue to dry fire every day and not be a victim of the high prices. I usually shoot 150 rounds a month at a local outdoor range but I sure cannot afford these prices at the present time.

Nick

 

[John G C 1]

I called a small sport/gun/fishing shop down the road from me and the guy said that the little ammo he is getting in is not costing him any more than it did four months ago. His prices are still what they were four months ago.

I was relieved to hear that the ammo manufacturers have not raised the prices on what they are sending out. I do not object to people making money but I was shocked by the "new" prices I found on some of the big websites. No wonder some people get scared.

 

[Johnnyblaze]

Welcome to the new normal. If you can find ammo on the net for less than 40 cents a round if you leave that site and come back in an hour I guarantee it will be gone . It's unusual to see less than 80 cents a round right now. So if you find a box of 50 at the show that is 20 or so consider it a good deal for the current climate. It sucks..... But it is what it is

 

[GF]

The high price of ammo will drive a significant number of gun owners out of the hobbie.
I've already had friends say that if this goes on much longer they would sell down thier firearms to a few guns for self defense and move on to something else.
Not everybody wants the hassel of hunting for ammo and then paying a dollar a round for it when they do find some.

I wonder if this was the intended consequence of all the hype to start with.

GF

 

[scooter123]

What your are seeing is the implementation of Inventory Control.

Walmart does this by limiting how many boxes of ammunition a walk in customer can purchase. By doing this they can hold to the older prices while servicing a wider customer base.

Now consider an internet retailer. If he sells is ammunition at cost and limits how many boxes each customer can purchase it won't do a bit of good in controlling his inventory levels. Because his customer pool is every person in the continental USA with a credit or debit card. If he puts 9mm ammo up for sale at 12.99 per box he'll be totally sold out in about 2 to 3 minutes. Yeah, it'll probably take his employees 2 or 3 weeks to fill all those orders but what are the going to do for the following 2 or 3 months that they are waiting on a new order to show up. Would you want to pay the rent and utilities for a warehouse that is empty for 2 or 3 months after just 10 minutes of actual selling? I'll bet you wouldn't.

So, the online retailers are doing the only thing they can to maintain an inventory to sell. That is they raise their prices until shipments going out basically match shipments coming in. Everyone wants to blame the retailers for these prices and they are wrong to do this. The people they should be blaming are the Brain Dead MORONS who insist on paying 50 dollars or more for a 50 round box of plain old range ammo.

Personally I haven't purchased one single box of ammunition since Newtown. I saw the writing on the wall and starting purchasing components and got into reloading. Once things settle down I'll probably get a few more boxes of premium SD ammo but for range ammo from now on I'll only be shooting reloads.

 

[alwslate]

Before the panic buying and hoarding started 9mm FMJ could be bought
in case lots,1,000 rds, for $10 or slightly less a box. Last fall I bought
1,000 rds from one on-line seller and 500 rds from another for just
slightly over $10 per box shipped.

 

[J. R. WEEMS]

Todays price for Federal 9MM, maroon box was $13.95. I picked up 3 boxes just because I wanted to compare some factory stuff to my reloads. Went through one box with two different guns and have to say mine are as good or better than the factory stuff. I picked up a NIB 639 a couple weeks ago and am still breaking it in.

 

[minimalheight]

I liked what they said on Colbert, the government is buying it all up so you have nothing to put in your guns, LMAO. Another form of gun control? I almost scored a box of 250 180/FMJ .40 Magtech for $103 shipped from Midway, needed some target ammo

 

[Warren Sear]

...
I wonder if this was the intended consequence of all the hype to start with.

GF

I wonder what color the sky is in your world.

 

[John G C 1]

Wow, ten bucks a box for 9 mm. That was a great deal. I am new to anything other than 22. and so the 13-16 dollars a box is all I have every seen.

Probably some people who are new to this do not know how reasonable the prices used to be.

There are several people around here loading "new ammunition" in their gun shops and selling it, but they are getting $30 a box for 38 special. I was hoping one of these store brands would be lower priced.

My Walmart had some Federal maroon box for around $14. I keep stopping by and hoping I can luck into some.

 

[desi2358]

Even if the panic dies down I don't expect things to get better quickly. Many distributors are far behind on orders (one I talked with a few days ago said they were 15,000 orders behind). As they slowly get caught up prices will settle down bought I really doubt they will go back to what they were before the rush. After the last big panic (2008 election) things eventually settled down but prices were still higher than before. Kind of like gasoline but on a slower schedule...goes way up, drops back down but never quite gets to were it started at.

Also, with the current administration no opportunity will be missed to push their anti-gun agenda. That opens up the possibility of more panic buying, more shortages and only the bad economy and the shrinking value of the dollar to slow down sales. After all, many people who are new to guns are seeing this situation now, how will they react to the next crisis?

 

[scattershot]

Before the last Obamascare I bought a case of Blazer Brass 9mm for $7.00 a box.

 

[chief38]

For those not into re-loading, I would imagine this would be a good reason to consider it now.

 

[Pointshoot]

That would be true if you could find primers and powder. In my neck of the woods thats harder to find than ammo - and ammo is very scarce, though improving a tiny bit in some local stores.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

They can charge anything they want but if we all refuse to buy at those prices the prices will drop. If you're willing to pay $40/box for 9mm ammo that will be the price. If you refuse to buy until the price drops to $9/box that's what the price will be.

I miss the days of $6/box 9mm and $9.99/brick of 22LR and those days were not long ago at all. If everyone would use their head we would be much better off but it seems shooters are their own worst enemy. Supply and demand works both ways. We have the power to get prices down but there are always those who will mess everything up for the others. Shame on all of this...

 

[glowe]

I have to give kudos to Dunhams. I stopped by my local store last week and ask about ammo. The clerk said that I should come by the store before it opens at 9am on Friday, since they get their ammo shipment on Thursday evening. I am just about out of 22 LR and refuse to pay Gun Show prices of $80 for a brick, so stopped by just before the store opened. I was 5th in line. The clerks paraded out 4 cardboard boxes full of ammo. They had bulk packs of 22 LR in Remington and Winchester (limit one per customer) and several single boxes (limit 4 boxes per customer). Paid $18.00 for 333 bulk pack ($2.70 per 50). They also had 9mm and 38 Special for under $20 per box, a dozen 40 cal boxes, and other assorted rifle and pistol ammo.

Needless to say, I will stop by next Friday for more 22 ammo.

 

[old&slow]

A customer at the LGS a few weeks ago was boosting about picking up the last 3 boxes of 9mm at the local Walmart. Then he said, ' And I don't even own a 9mm gun.'

People buying 9mm for $19.99 a box and complaining about being limited to 3 boxes per customer.

A store puts out a skip of 22's at $31 a brick , limit one per customer and it's gone by the end of the day..

A guy buying 308 ammo at $40 a box, limit 5 boxes and getting his buddy to buy an additional 5 boxes for him.

People that normally by a box or two of ammo every year or two,,buying cases and cases of ammo.

It's a government made shortage,,, It's a suppliers / LGS made storage,, it's price gouging,, it's global warming,,I don't think so.

I think it's a self inflicted wound created by un-informed panic buyers.

Probably some of the same 51% that were uninformed 7 months ago..

JMO <<<

 

[Robotech]

I have to give kudos to Dunhams. I stopped by my local store last week and ask about ammo. The clerk said that I should come by the store before it opens at 9am on Friday, since they get their ammo shipment on Thursday evening. I am just about out of 22 LR and refuse to pay Gun Show prices of $80 for a brick, so stopped by just before the store opened. I was 5th in line. The clerks paraded out 4 cardboard boxes full of ammo. They had bulk packs of 22 LR in Remington and Winchester (limit one per customer) and several single boxes (limit 4 boxes per customer). Paid $18.00 for 333 bulk pack ($2.70 per 50). They also had 9mm and 38 Special for under $20 per box, a dozen 40 cal boxes, and other assorted rifle and pistol ammo.

Needless to say, I will stop by next Friday for more 22 ammo.

Yes, I've been happy with Dunham's through this. The last few weeks have seen more Mega Packs of various calibers, as well as bulk packs of .22LR. Not necessarily the "best" list prices, but if you have their coupons for 10% or 15% off specifically on ammo, it's not at all unreasonable. ($90.09 total, or $.36/rnd for a .40S&W UMC Mega Pack after a 15% coupon + sales tax. )

Their deliveries locally have started arriving on various days and at different times, so it's difficult to predict when it's best to show up. I've gotten in the habit of stopping by when I'm in the area on the "most likely" days and times. The "story" I'm getting is that the employees don't know more than an hour in advance of when a truck is going to arrive, though they can usually predict the day based on recent deliveries. They also don't know what is going to be on the truck until it gets there.

Actually, as a marketing strategy, you might consider this a stroke of genius if it hadn't happened purely by chance. This obviously increases traffic through the doors, with the potential for other sales. Adding that you get more coupons for later sales of both general merchandise AND ammo specific coupons with each sale, this encourages other sales as well.

BTW, they also have more ARs back on the shelf now, including a couple M&P15 ORs at my local store for $1,049. Hopefully, all this is giving the local Dick's Sporting Goods headaches!

Anyway, I have enough .40 again so I can get back to serious practicing. I'd gotten down to the point that I didn't want to run through more than a mag or two each week, even for my new Shield, and I was feeling seriously deprived.