Ya know, I was rustling around in my reloading stuff the other day. I found a thousand pack of primers with a $6.99 price tag on them, and a full sleeve of 10,000 with a price of 8.99. Those crooks at the gun show tables are asking over $30. for them now!
I heard a guy at the show yesterday who was looking at a pretty decent looking M10. Nothing real special. But it was priced at $410, no box just the darn gun. The guy said they were only about $250 a while back. The seller didn't blink. He told the guy he should have bought that one. Back when Carter was president.
If you put fuel in the tank to get to the gun show, you didn't pay $1.699 for it. You paid $382.9 (or at least that's what it cost me on Friday.) I remember as a kid when the deposit on pop bottles jumped from $.02 way to $.05. For me, it was a mixed blessing. I sure got a lot more out of the ones I found along the road, but fewer folks were pitching them.
Lots of our posters need a lesson in economics. Prices are rising in fits an starts, but they are going up. Buy the things that haven't jumped yet.
And some posters come into these threads and tell you to sell your precious collection for the prices you think are reasonable. But then our complaining members won't do that. They want to enjoy the increased value of their own guns, but still want to add to the collection buy purchasing at 20 year old prices. And they get upset when its not happening.
Times are getting harder. If you want another gun, go buy it at the LGS. Except he doesn't have more than a few worn and battered old S&Ws, maybe a Colt, and a few Tauri. He's got some semi-autos. With names we can't pronounce and in calibers that we've never heard of.
I was lucky yesterday. Both of my sons came along. And they each were burdened down with their own stuff, not my purchases for a change. And I have no doubt the junk they bought was cheaper and probably unavailable around home. They're happy, I'm happy, and we had a very good day. We saw a lot of friends, and we even saw a bunch of pretty rare guns. Most probably priced fairly at today's levels. Some pretty cheap. Read Charlie's comments in his gun show post. His son did pretty well judging by the smile on his face. Scored some pretty rare ammo, I think he said French .30 Carbine in small boxes. To me it held no value, but he seems to think he can double or triple his money. The things I think are junk, others love.
I'm getting the idea that the complainers don't really know what they're looking at and conclude its trash at high prices.
I only bought one gun, but I was loaded up with cash to buy a few special things, then got cold feet and didn't. And I didn't buy any beef jerky. I did blow $20 on lunch, but it fed me and both my sons.
