Ammo Sales

[llowry61]

A couple of thoughts about the price paid for ammo and losing money on it.

Let's say I am a gun store and I buy 10,000 rounds of 9MM wholesale for 300.00 per 1000/case and mark it to sell for 600 per 1000/case.

I have a total investment of 3000 dollars. For arguments sake, I sell 6 cases at 600 so I am close to even now. Maybe the number is 7 or even 8 cases it is the concept I am trying to highlight,

If the market starts to soften and you have 4,3 or 2 (take your pick) cases left do you hold out for the 600 or start to mark the price down and turn the ammo into profit? Honestly, you could sell it for less than you paid and not "lose" money. Right?

Now, let's take that example and magnify it a little. If you are a giant retailer and have purchased thousands of cases or even hundreds of thousands of cases and financed the purchases, you will move even faster to take the profit and align with market conditions.

In small local gun stores the one-to-one thinking works, but that may not be the case for the major retailers.

Once you recoup your investment on the lot purchased the rest is profit but it is sitting in the form of inventory until it sells.

Now, if you have pallets of ammo sitting another consideration is the space it is taking up. That space has value and could be filled with other items that are selling faster.

I am not looking to debate the future pricing just thinking about the overall market in a little different way and how large inventories could lead to lower prices without sellers "losing" money.

I get it that I used a large margin, but there are other ways to work the pricing model that end in the same place.

 

[RWPBR]

They will over produce and the prices will come down. Play the long game...buy it cheap and stack it deep. We have seen the drought/glut cycle too much over the past few years for anybody to be surprised and caught short.

 

[BC38]

I spent today traveling around to 5 LGS's. There was ammo everywhere! I saw all kinds including 30-30 and 30-06. Plenty of 38 special. The smaller shops all had 9's and 223's. At one of the larger shops they had pallets of all kinds of ammo. I even saw cases of 45-70. It was hard to move around in the shop there was so much. The manager said they actually had to slow down the deliveries because they were running out of room to store it. It is the most availability I've seen in two years. Primers? I couldn't find one box at any price. Hopefully, we don't end up with some kind of trucker slowdown to send everything back to square one.

Anything in 32 caliber? 32 S&W Long, 32acp, 32 H&R magnum, 327 magnum. These are what I've been searching for - especially the two flavors of magnums.
None to be had anywhere locally, not much online either (ammoseek included) and what there is is priced sky high.

 

[Chady734]

I ran across some last week, the price was really crazy but i had to purchase some since i need them .

 

[Narragansett]

Anything in 32 caliber? 32 S&W Long, 32acp, 32 H&R magnum, 327 magnum. These are what I've been searching for - especially the two flavors of magnums.
None to be had anywhere locally, not much online either (ammoseek included) and what there is is priced sky high.

Production will be low on these calibers. These do not have the demand and volume turnover, and hence will be the least and last to be produced, and in marginal quantities. Same thing for the less popular or new rifle calibers.

Not only is the ammo more expensive and harder to find, IMO it makes the firearms that shoot them less valuable on the resale market

 

[Greyman50]

Show this weekend had same ammo “ dealers” with High prices, although not quite as high as last year. Couple new “ dealers” set up selling reloads. One with his big Dillon set on his table left real early on Sunday. Really didn't pay attention to how much ammo sold as looking for certain pieces.

 

[cmj8591]

A couple of thoughts about the price paid for ammo and losing money on it.



If the market starts to soften and you have 4,3 or 2 (take your pick) cases left do you hold out for the 600 or start to mark the price down and turn the ammo into profit? Honestly, you could sell it for less than you paid and not "lose" money. Right?

If you own a business and ignore the market forces, you won't be in business very long. You are going to sell what you have on hand for as much as you can get for it. Once in a while, you might have a loss. The idea is to keep the losses smaller than the profits over time. The other thing is that it is about the profit over the whole investment. If you make your profit on the first 10 cases of ammo lets say, then you can afford to sell some at less of a profit or even at a loss. If you are running your business properly, you can weather a loss once in a while. The problem with a lot of gun shops is that they live day to day so taking a hit on just one bad investment can put them over the edge.

 

[Goblin]

My local general store told me they had lots of ammo last Saturday and sold about $8k worth, including 38 Special and 357. Those were gone, but they still had about 30 boxes of 380 FMJ for $18.99. So yes, as it starts to free up, the price comes down.

 

[biku324]

If you own a business and ignore the market forces, you won't be in business very long. You are going to sell what you have on hand for as much as you can get for it. Once in a while, you might have a loss. The idea is to keep the losses smaller than the profits over time. The other thing is that it is about the profit over the whole investment. If you make your profit on the first 10 cases of ammo lets say, then you can afford to sell some at less of a profit or even at a loss. If you are running your business properly, you can weather a loss once in a while. The problem with a lot of gun shops is that they live day to day so taking a hit on just one bad investment can put them over the edge.

If you have everything your customers want and no one has to wait, you'll go broke from too much inventory and too many employees.

 

[cmj8591]

If you have everything your customers want and no one has to wait, you'll go broke from too much inventory and too many employees.

There's a lot to be said for that but the problem you run into if you don't have inventory is that people will go online or someplace else to buy. Lets say I need a box of 12 ga., turkey loads. I get in my car, drive to the shop and they tell me that they don't have the ones I want but they can order some and they will be there next week. Next week comes and now I have to drive back and hope that they came. Why would I do that when I can sit on my couch and with a couple of keystrokes, have them brought to my front door? So not only don't the LGS sell me the ammo but I also don't buy that new gun that catches my eye when I was in the shop. The shops that do best it seems are the one where I can go in and find what I want and at the same time, find something I didn't know I wanted. Keeping a robust inventory should be part of any retail business plan.

 

[quikdraw67]

Anything in 32 caliber? 32 S&W Long, 32acp, 32 H&R magnum, 327 magnum. These are what I've been searching for - especially the two flavors of magnums.
None to be had anywhere locally, not much online either (ammoseek included) and what there is is priced sky high.

One LGS had the 327 Magnum, he also had 7.62x25 Tokarev.

But zilch on .38 Spl./.357 Mag.

Go figure

 

[Nevada Ed]

I just got back from Cabela's for some fishing gear.

I walked over to the ammo department and was not too excited at what I saw and their prices on the ammo boxs.

I know that you don't have to pay shipping but...............
I think they added that in, also ??

 

[ME94]

I just got back from Cabela's for some fishing gear.

I walked over to the ammo department and was not too excited at what I saw and their prices on the ammo boxs.

I know that you don't have to pay shipping but...............
I think they added that in, also ??

Yes ever since Bass pro bought Cabelas, there prices were going up at a steady pace, but now bass pro seems to accelerated their price gouging. All I can say is I will remember the stores that are raising their prices when this is over. Luckily I do not need much.

 

[BC38]

I just got back from Cabela's for some fishing gear.

I walked over to the ammo department and was not too excited at what I saw and their prices on the ammo boxs.

I know that you don't have to pay shipping but...............
I think they added that in, also ??

...and then some...

BUT, at least we're starting to actually SEE some ammo on their shelves, which is a good sign - even if the price for it is still 3x what it was pre-pandemic.

 

[llowry61]

Went to Cabela's yesterday to pick up an FN Tactical .45 I bought to set up with my suppressors. While waiting on the NICS check I wandered the ammo aisles. They had just about every caliber and good supplies of all of them. Prices were still 2-3 x pre-pandemic levels. No limits on anything except primers, but of course that shelf was empty. There were 3 - 8LB jugs of powder in the 250.00 range and I didn't even recognize it.
No interest at that price.

The sales guy who did my 4473 said that people are still walking in and buying at these prices without question, but he believes they are new gun owners that have no frame of reference and no inventory at home.

I am still in the wait and see camp, I do not believe the market will sustain this pricing.

 

[alwslate]

I bought 500 rds of the polymer coated steel cased 230 gr .45 acp yesterday for $19.50 a box shipped to my front porch with no CC fee. Not too far from pre pandemic prices.

 

[alwslate]

Some sellers are selling ammo on GB with no reserve. Good buys can be had by being vigilant. I bought 500 Russian .45 acps yesterday for 19.50 a box shipped. Today I got another 500 from the same seller for 17.00 a box shipped to my door.

 

[Greyman50]

Really bad time for anyone to get into “ guns” as far as ammo goes. Seems many firearms prices are better than a year ago. Useless without ammo and new reloaders, don’t even want to go there.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Want to buy my car?
It’s a 2020 RAV4.
The Dealer I bought it from recently offered me more than I paid for it.
So I sell my RAV, get some money.
But - But - then I don’t have a car to drive!
So I’ll keep my car and pay the current price for Ammo.

 

[Greyman50]

On the road today, stoped in Palmetto State Armory, Sportsman Warehouse and an Academy Sports. Same high prices and there was quite a lot of 9 mm on all the shelves. Same Stupid price for 7.62 Win. ball about $28-29 a box when wally world has same for $21. 22 RF also stupid prices when wally world has plenty at almost half their prices??????