Midway in trouble ?

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Just went and looked for some shotgun primers.

Looks like they got their foot slammed in the door jam and are
trying to get their money back, via, us.

Federal 209 a few years back went for $3 a 100.
They are now asking 17 cents each, for $16.99 before shipping cost. :eek:

At least they have Cheddite at only 7 cents each, for those in a bind for primers, if they really need to load some shells.

5.6X the price for Federal 209's is crazy.
 
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I don't have access to Midway's books so I don't know their financial condition.

Prices are going up everywhere though. It's costs more to transport good. The prices of the goods have gone up. In my area, utilities and taxes have gone up.

Inflation is effecting a lot of things.
 
My Nevada Ed decoder ring says that Ed probably wasn't remarking about Midway's financial health but how he feels, rightfully so, how high most are charging us for reloading components nowadays. I fear that this is the "new normal" (I dislike that term) in our hobby and feel things may keep going up…particularly with all the demand…and when that normalizes, who knows what those in charge will do next (that's a topic for elsewhere, I'm not getting into here).
 
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As long as the price for loaded ammo stays high I don't think that the price of primers will come down. There's a finite limit on capacity and if people continue to gobble up the end product i.e. loaded ammo the manufacturers will go with the ammo and the small excess[primers] will go to the open market with demand driving the price.
 
Don't like capitalism's law of supply and demand? What's the alternative? Anyway, the good news is that one new American primer manufacturer is just now coming on line with production, and Fiocchi also just announced that they are building a new primer factory in Little Rock Arkansas.
 
When I got back into reloading a few years ago, after a 40 year break, I just bought components at my LGS as needed. Primers and bullets 500 at a time, powder a pound at a time. I did not stock up or prepare for a shortage. Looking back, of course I wish I had done that. But I don't beat myself up over it. I look around the house, and see all kinds of consumables I buy as needed. Anybody remember the toilet paper shortage? How many had prepared for that by stocking up with a year's supply of toilet paper? Apples and oranges, I know. But I don't see how we can stock up with several years supply of everything we consume, just in case there's a shortage.
 
The specific reason that the Federal primers are so high is because they CAN NOT be purchased from Federal. What Midway is doing to get this primer is by purchasing them on the Commodities Market (think Gunbroker). When you purchase via these sources you have to pay "market price" and you are seeing the current market price for Federal 209 primers. Personally have have never found Federal primers to be at all superior and certainly NOT superior enough to make up for that piss poor sideways packaging that mandates hand placing every single primer in the primer feed one primer at a time. Yeah, I loathe Federal primers in any size, which is why I have two boxes of the LP primers in my stash.

I will also note that I have one remaining try in my 10th 1000 count sleeve of Cheddite CX209 primers used this year. So why am I using more that 10K primers a year, I shoot 4 gun Skeet in competition and that requires practice. In terms of practice I'm a lightweight, the world champions can shoot 100K rounds a year. So I'll never be a world champion but it's fun and Shotgun people are consistently the finest people you will ever meet. So I have a lot of experience with Cheddite primers, it's about the only primer that is currently available. A friend had 20,000 Winchester primers on order from a large distributor for a full year and it was cancelled due to a "lack of availability". I've been using Cheddites since 2018 and in all that time I have had a total of just 9 misfires.
 
Have you been living under a rock?;) You can't be picky about brands these days. I just bought come Cheddite primers for $6/100. I've never had any trouble with them in the past.
 
Ya, a few cents on some primers is going to save them if they are in trouble.

Perhaps you need ask what their total cost is for those primers, not what they sold then for. The other option is to not buy them.

A friend who has a retail store showed me his cost in some magnum primers and I was amazed. He hates to gouge people so he posted a copy of his receipt from a wholesaler right by the primers.

Looking back to how things used to be isn't reality as well. Gas used to be 19 cents in my day but I am not finding and stations selling it for that right now.
 
Midway's prices have always been higher than most online retailers. Their shipping costs were also higher than most. I think they lost enough business with the shipping prices that they started charging less.

Midway lost me a long time ago after I started comparing their prices and shipping with a few other large online companies.
 
I really can't complain on todays prices, since

all my large amount of shooting rifle, ATA Trap and pistols
was back in the 70 to 90's when the prices were dirt cheap
and reloading ammo kept prices down to a minimum.

Now, I just "Puts around" with some tests and shooting with the kids, when they feel the urge.

Today I went to a major sporting goods store that stated that they had primers on the net
and when I got there they said that they have been out of stock for two days.

I finally used up their year old gift card on bore brushes and patches.
 
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Larry is not shy about sharing stories about his high dollar hunts
Who do you think pays for them
Back in the 1980s the Midway catalog had stories about their prairie dog hunts and all the ammo they blasted. Larry's hunts have gotten much more costly
 
Midway in trouble?? Hardly. They are simply "cashing in" on the shortages. Those ridiculously high priced primers seem to sell fast. Does anyone anywhere see primers for the same price they were a few years ago?

Dan

Or Eggs? Or Gasoline? Or a sandwich? A can of Coke? A quart of half and half? A flashlight?

All are up more than those primers, yet somehow everyone who shoot thinks this is the only thing that has risen.

Don't buy them. Or maybe try "Cheaper than dirt"- they traditionally have very low prices.
 
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