Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Latest speculation on the .22 Long Rifle drought.

22LR Ammo Market at a Tipping Point

7 comments:

CzarChasmIII said...

From the link:

"This shifting of demand away from gun-show price gougers will force them to drop their prices (which I’ve been observing in my area). If this continues, their profit margins will become too slim for it to be worthwhile and they’ll cease their operation, which will help eliminate the artificially driven price increases."

If lowering their prices caused their operations to be shut down, isn't that proof positive that demand out-paces supply? And isn't that exactly how and why inflated prices occur in a "free" market?

This stinks of AmmoLand slandering gun show vendors as "gougers" when what they're really trying to do is garner more market-share for themselves. If there were any freedom left in the market, pure mathematics would dictate a very narrow range of prices when comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges, ie: "plinking" ammo to plinking ammo and premium to premium ammo. In a free market, there would never be any such thing as a "gouger," and I'm not convinced that there is such a thing even in this highly-manipulated environment, unless the allegation is that the last seller in the chain, the gun show vendors, are the ones doing the manipulation(s), which doesn't make a lick of sense on its face.

If I owned .22s that I wanted to shoot all the time, I would certainly be frustrated with the current market, but I'll be damned if I'm going to scapegoat the lowliest earners in the chain just because that writer and his website/business has a vested interest in making them look like the bad guys.

CzarChasmIII

Rhodes said...

I noticed this over a year ago so it's nothing new.

Changed my focus from CCI and Win to RWS and other imports while the price was higher one at least gets better ammo that clover leafs at 50m. So my stores now consist of better ammo than those blasted buckets of Rem that I wouldn't buy anyway. This is the first I have mentioned of this, well because it doesn't pay to advertise certain matters.

Yeah BTW have plenty of it and shoot when we like just at a lot slower rate.

Anonymous said...

Go to ammoseek.com. It's a search engine for ammo of all calibers. Do a search for 22LR rimfire. Price per round is listed right there. They had some for 8 cents per round, sometimes less. If you can afford case prices, you can get all the ammo you want. I accumulated more than my boys could shoot up over several years. Most of the good deal are from Mexico, (Aquila), but if it goes 'bang' and spits a bullet, it'll work for plinking and training.

Anonymous said...

Prices in my area have been fairly stable for the past 6 months or so, availability has been hit and miss. I've paid $2.99/box for low grade plinking stuff to $4.75/box for 'good' stuff. That sure beats at least double that, if any one even had any, a few months back. Don't even get me started on .22WMR though!
We have to remember that any and all manufacturers of .22 are operating on a very thin profit margin. Were they to sell it for the prices we would 'like' to see, they would be out of business in short order.

Merle said...

So the czar doesn't think there are gougers at gunshows? Makes me wonder how many he has attended in the last couple of years.

Merle

Anonymous said...

Hardly.
People would buy ammo just as much or more than the last few years IF they had the money to do so. But they don't. Put plinking ammo on the shelf right next to premium ammo and I am solidly confident what would happen. The folks would snatch the cheap ammo up but leave the premium. THATS what is happening (except the cheap ammo isn't being placed there in the first place!

And it IS about PROFIT. But not the gun show rapists....that is small time. it is the manufacturers who are at the root of the greed. This article rationalizes away the obvious - that they are DELIBERATELY withholding plinking supply, almost forcing people to buy their premium ammo. And what they are finding out is that folks are choosing to just let it lay.

So, I predict this - As the premium continues to set, and profits wain, they will THEN feed the market with plinking (affordable) ammo. And it will be wickedly snatched up thus making the last round of hoarding look miniscule.

Here is a thought, forget about the profits.....they will come regardless, fro one direction or the other if you just stop trying to "maximize" them (read micromanage them). As it stands, manufacturers are pissing people off to the point I have observed people offloading or just putting away their 22 rifles and pistols for now because they just are tired of even thinking about this DRAMA.

Stabilizing the market is HOGWASH. Sellers and distributors and manufacturers CANT DO THAT - only the BUYER can! SO knock off the horseshit ok? As it has been from the start - the FLEECING....and the lying in attempt to avoid admitting it.....continues. How about trying the TRUTH instead?

CzarChasmIII said...

Merle Morrison said:
"So the czar doesn't think there are gougers at gunshows? Makes me wonder how many he has attended in the last couple of years."

"The Czar" is highly skeptical of any amorphous, tenebrous terminology such as "gouger" in a capitalist market, regardless of how many gun shows I attend. Of the shows I have attended since Sandy Hook, I bought what I could afford and passed on stuff that I thought was over-priced, but I didn't slander the sellers of over-priced gear as "gougers" or "greedy" because when a seller puts something up that he/she owns, it's theirs to price as they see fit. It's called "capitalism," and any anti "gouging" laws that ensue only serve to further inhibit, and eventually destroy, the minuscule amount of freedom that's left in our once-great capitalist economy. Capitalism is the vehicle, freedom is the fuel. I make no apologies for defending a vendor's right to price his own merchandise as he sees fit.

CzarChasmIII