Biggest rip-off seen in past year

Well, it’s a fact that sellers will conspire when they corner a market.

Things like basic transportation, communications, oil, water, food... are not optional purchases. “Free markets” are not the same as unregulated markets.

It’s an interesting ethical proposition. If I have 100 bricks of .22 ammo, is it ethical to sell them on an auction site and let buyers run the price up to crazy?

Is it unethical to simply demand that crazy price in your brick and mortar store?

Is it ethical to sell at auction and not supply your brick and mortar store at any price?

This too shall pass. I was talking to a guy that imports high end bicycles. He says bikes are sold out, that renting a container has gone from $35 to $200 if you can find one, and people have containers piled up at the dock as shipping is backed up six months. Supply chain is interesting stuff, not just our sport, it’s everything.
 
Well, it’s a fact that sellers will conspire when they corner a market.
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Do you mean the Wal Mart employees who call their friends when an ammo shipment is arriving?
Where do you think the GunBroker supply comes from?
 
NobodyJones:
A funny story though is the other day I told my wife I was going to go out and shoot one of my .22's. I had 75 rounds. With all seriousness she looks at me and says can we afford for you to do that? I said of course dear, 75 rounds of .22 is a mere drop in the bucket and I need to keep my skills sharp. She was in tune with the situation and concerned.
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She's a keeper!!
 
stinkeypete said:
It’s an interesting ethical proposition. If I have 100 bricks of .22 ammo, is it ethical to sell them on an auction site and let buyers run the price up to crazy?
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Yes, it is 100% ethical. If it is unethical, who is committing the ethical violation? You, for offering the product for sale? That's crazy. The buyer, for offering to pay a certain price? Why would that be unethical? It's their money.

stinkeypete said:
Is it unethical to simply demand that crazy price in your brick and mortar store?
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No, it's not.... no more than it is unethical for the potential buyer to refuse to pay your price. It's your choice as the seller... sell things for a price people will pay or don't sell things and therefore go out of business. Your choice.
Whether the price people are willing to pay is "X" or "100X", you are not unethical to charge it... in fact you are *foolish* to *not* charge it.

stinkeypete said:
Is it ethical to sell at auction and not supply your brick and mortar store at any price?
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I assume you mean that a brick and mortar store also sells on Gunbroker or similar.
There is no ethical consideration in this scenario whatsoever. What is the ethical reason why "locals" to the store should be served first and/or for lower prices?
You have a product, you can choose to offer it for sale in any way which is legal to sell it.... or you can choose to NOT offer it for sale. That's what it means to OWN something. Keep it for yourself if you want. Give it away. Sell it for 10% or 100% or 1000% profit, or whatever someone will pay.

stinkeypete said:
Things like basic transportation, communications, oil, water, food... are not optional purchases. “Free markets” are not the same as unregulated markets.
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There are more complex issues and lines that can be drawn, but that is not what we're talking about here. Whether or not you can buy 22LR for $8 or $500 is not for government to dictate and the price that buyers are willing to pay is not an ethical dilemma.

If everyone (or even almost everyone) just refused to pay inflated prices for a week or two, the whole thing would be over. Since they don't, the sellers are wisely continuing to offer items up for sale for the best prices they can get.
 
Two days ago, I went to WalMart for something. I went to the sporting goods section and they only had a few boxes of 28-guage shotgun shells, and 6 boxes of .350 Legend for about $17 each. I passed since I didn't have a gun that used them. Yesterday, after seeing a reasonably-priced rifle in .350 Legend in the town we're moving to, I thought about those boxes at WalMart. My wife and I went back to WalMart for something else, and sure enough, those .350 rounds were still there. But so were 2 boxes of 12-guage shells (25 rounds each for $6.97!!!) and 6 boxes of 30-06 for a rifle I bought my wife just last weekend! I left the .350 ammo and bought 5 30-06 for $17 each! SCORE!!!!!
Patience and serendipity!
 
There's wildly outrageous and then there's ludicrous. An easy example is the emails I get from Gunbroker and their comments about "stocking up" on affordable ammo. That is until you see some of the starting prices on the auctions. I know it's hard times, but sheesh. Pretty easy to stay off of Gunbroker nowadays.
 
seanc:

She's a keeper!!
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Indeed she is. Our first Christmas together she wanted a Beretta Neos so I bought it for her. She loved it. Then she began shooting my 1911 and suddenly that was HER pistol. Then we were in a sporting Goods store one day and she was looking at pistols and picked out a 9mm for herself. She bought me a GSG StG 44/22 because I had been eyeballing one for a while. Yes, she is a keeper.
 
Tired of seeing guns that list for $XXXX selling for $XXXX+40% because nobody else has them in stock.

Does the store have the right to charge what they want? Yes, of course. Just as we have the right to either get ripped off or pass on the sale.
 
Rockrivr1 said:
Pretty easy to stay off of Gunbroker nowadays.
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On the other hand... I just ordered 5 boxes of 6mm ARC ammo on Gunbroker for basically the same price as MidWay, except Midway doesn't have it in stock.

Oddly enough, the guy lists over 100 boxes available and is selling at 2/3 the price of every one else and it's been sitting there for over a week.

(Totally legit too, a friend already received his, mine shipped within a couple hours of purchase and the seller has tens of thousands of A+ reviews)
 
I don't think what has been said (about buyers setting the price on their own property and sellers setting the price they will pay )......

I don't think thats shocking news to anyone. I think most of the population knows that idea.

But there are many who approach life eager to put on their "Victim suit"

"The Big Boys are picking on me!" (sniff,sniff")

Playing the victim comes with excuses to explain being a loser.

Whiners have to whine.

We all miss the bus occasionally !! Most know how to say "Dang. I got here late ,so I missed the bus" Next time,I'll be a little early.

Folks boarding up their businesses have run up the price of plywood.
 
Prices on guns will drop when demand drops off. No gun dealer wants stock sitting so when people stop paying the exorbitant prices those prices will drop. Probably not back to what they were but they will slowly drop.

Right now demand is out racing supply and that is driving prices.

My local rural king has finally started getting some ammunition back in stock. They have probably 50 boxes of 7.62x39 and a couple dozen boxes of 12 gauge shells. I asked about .45acp and he said it sold out the day it came in. this is after months of them having nothing at all.
 
I wonder what percentage of the commercial ammunition manufactured in a year worldwide goes to:

US Military
US government agencies including federal agencies, local LE, etc.
Foreign military/government contracts
US civilian market
 
FITASC said:
If no one buys someone's offering at whatever price they ask, then they did not get ripped off; if they did buy it, then they thought the asking price was fair and again, they did not get ripped off.

Basic Econ 101
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And what if they're new gun owners who bought their first gun last year and they didn't know $2 a round for .223 is about double the price what most others were asking for and selling it for?

No matter what industry, every salesman loves a customer who hasn't got a clue what they're buying. Whether it's the LGS with the $2/round for .223 or the used car salesman selling an mid 00s F150 5.4L with 150k on the odometer and has never had the spark plugs changed to a 19 year old.
 
Currently the best things to buy aren't guns and ammo, it's mags and accessories. Why? Prices are still cheap and if a mag ban comes down the demand and prices for those mags is going to go into orbit faster than a rocket made by Space X.

Basically, buy all the Magpul AR and Glock pmags you can, lol. You'll never see a spring and 3 pieces of plastic go up so much in value in your entire life!

Because of the price of ammo and shortage of ammo, I think the demand in guns is naturally going to drop. Other than a Ruger P89 or Beretta Px4 that I want before my state passes laws banning mags over 10 rounds, I won't put money out for anything in 9mm cuz I'm not willing to pay $40 for a box.

I reload, but I'm down to my last few thousand primers and when primers can be bought for something closer to $50-60 a thousand, heck, I'm buying 10k primers immediately and gonna go enjoy shooting again.
 
TruthTellers said:
Currently the best things to buy aren't guns and ammo, it's mags and accessories. Why? Prices are still cheap and if a mag ban comes down the demand and prices for those mags is going to go into orbit faster than a rocket made by Space X.

Basically, buy all the Magpul AR and Glock pmags you can, lol. You'll never see a spring and 3 pieces of plastic go up so much in value in your entire life!
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A magazine ban/restriction will likely go into effect sometime within the next 4 years or so :) I would also suspect the gun show loophole (aka private sales) will pass that would require all gun transfers to go through a FFL. I would be surprised if onerous ammunition regulations didn't include stuff like having ammunition required to be shipped to an FFL and ammunition required to be lead free.
 
ATN082268 said:
A magazine ban/restriction will likely go into effect sometime within the next 4 years or so :) I would also suspect the gun show loophole (aka private sales) will pass that would require all gun transfers to go through a FFL. I would be surprised if onerous ammunition regulations didn't include stuff like having ammunition required to be shipped to an FFL and ammunition required to be lead free.
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IDK about mag bans will happen at the national level, it could, but yeah, I don't see private sales holding up, but apparently there are certain states that are lining up to tell the Feds they're not going to enforce that law, but if local/state police were federalized and answer to the powers in DC then basically it could be enforced. I just suggest people buy mags for the most popular guns cheap and stack them deep. Always good to have a few dozen Glock 9mm mags and AR mags.
 
TruthTellers said:
I don't see private sales holding up, but apparently there are certain states that are lining up to tell the Feds they're not going to enforce that law, but if local/state police were federalized and answer to the powers in DC then basically it could be enforced.
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I do see a lot of state and local resistance to closing the "gun show" loophole (aka private sales). Really though, it doesn't matter if the states go along with the law or not, it still will be Federal law if it passes. Initially the Feds will see who voluntarily goes along with it, then hold federal funding from states that don't go along with it and send some people from high profile cases to prison. Over time, more and more people will comply.


I am curious about what the Feds are going to do with the 300-400 million guns already sold which won't, in practice, be covered by closing the "gun show" loophole.
 
Capitalism built this country and if a buyer and seller get together and make a deal with the seller accurately representing his/her product, then I agree, the term rip off is not legitimate. However, when I see someone trying to sell small 5000 small pistol primers for $700 plus shipping, I have to admit the term does cross my mind! LOL
 
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