Cheaper than....

F

FilthyHarry

Moderator
Dirt.

Today I went in the Round Rock, TX store for the first time. Let me tell you... It is impressive. People are helpful. Store is organized. Prices are good. Amazing selection of things I can't afford, you know, like Purdy shotguns! I have never seen a bunch of guns that cost more than our house before! Lots of just about everything. I have to go back and spend some money. Wow.
 

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After reading your post, I have to ask, do you work for Cheaper Than Dirt or affiliated with them in any way? That sounded a lot like a commercial.

I have always easily found companies with better prices than Cheaper Than Dirt even before the panic buying started. Also, far better ethics and reputation as well.

If your not familiar with Cheaper Than Dirt, do a search and see what others think of them. They are not a well respected company.
 
We're done

I was a good customer for CTD.

Then in 2008, they became the first supplier I dealt with to gouge on prices.

Haven't bought a thing from them in over 6 years.

Never will again.
 
I don't work for CTD

I said the prices were good. Cheaper than some. More than some.

I know everybody is hating on their past practices, but I was never affected by that. And, let's see... The consumer has the choice to shop there or not.

What would you have them do? Charge less when supply is low and demand is high?

Go buy some ammo today... Somehow it never adjusted back to pre-scare prices... Have we just come to accept a long, slow gyp job? Everyday I see guns that are in demand advertised at the lowest price... Until you see the OUT OF STOCK. I almost hate that worse. Nah, I DO hate that worse.

If I decide to pay more because it's IN STOCK, because I can feel THE ACTUAL GUN I'd be buying and because I WANT IT NOW.

I think they have an awesome well-stocked store and it is different than any I've ever seen. I think their model for retail is pointing to the future.
 
I have ordered a few surplus items from CTD.For those items,they had what I wanted,and I thought the price was acceptable.As I recall,I was not impressed by shipping and handling costs...but I HAD MY OPTIONS.

I've never been inside a CTD store.Some folks have similar opinion of Cabelas and Sportsman's Warehouse.

I guess I have my Big Boy pants on.If someone told me a 6 pak of plain domestic beer was $21 I likely would get squinty eyed,call it robbery,and get an iced tea.

But then,sit me down at the local pub,a pretty smile brings me one of those same beers,I'll pay 3.50 plus a tip!!So two beers and a $4 tip is $11,or $33 a 6 pak.In both cases,I'm making my own free choices with no complaint.


Our OP was just saying he enjoyed seeing a Purdy shotgun.That would be a pleasure,IMO.Neither one of us is buying.
FWWIW,If it occurred to me to spend $95,000 on a shotgun,I would be at Purdey,and they would build that shotgun around me!!I would not buy one made for someone else,unless I had it refitted to me.IMO,that is the point of the fine British shotgun.
 
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I bought from CTD even after all the complaints about gouging. They had what I was wanting at a price I was willing to pay.

Some people don't understand supply and demand... that as demand rises, prices will as well. Or that large companies may use pricing strategies that automatically increase prices based on inventory and how many people are looking for something. And they'll boycott in the future. And that's their right.

If they have what I want at a competitive price, I'll buy from them again. I've not had them do me wrong. They said they'd sell me X for Y dollars. And it was X that arrived, in the condition stated and in a reasonable time span. For me, that counts more than the time they had their prices higher than I was willing to pay... the places with the items in stock either had significantly increased prices and those who kept the price down didn't have any to sell.
 
For years i bought stuff from CTD: After their price gouging scam i stopped and will never buy another thing from them.
 
I order from CTD about 2 or 3 times a year , use to be about every Month when they had lots of surplus . Price Gougeing was some places way to stay instock and in business with empty shelfs . In my opinion most LGS's gouged during the shortage and still are on hard to find items . When you have a patroll and utilities and can not get some of your basic items tuff decisions will be made .
 
Basic laws of economics, while I may not agree with their pricing of items in the past, I cannot hold it against them.

There was a demand, and the supply wasn't able to keep up. Basic rules of inflation. There were plenty of other stores that I could shop that potentially had better prices. If I don't like the price, I look elsewhere.

My wallet and actions speak louder than any verbal complaint when it comes to a companies profit margin. They charge what people are willing to pay, and apparently, there were people willing to pay the price for something they offerred. Like it or not, they are selling something we want, and will price it at what they believe it is worth selling for.

On the flip side, we, as consumers, can go on and say "No, flintlock, way am I paying that". Value is whatever we belive it to be.

Some folks believed buying that brick of .22LR was worth spending $100+ on.

Needless to say, I'm not innocent of spewing the "price gouge" line as well. As I've searched and educated myself on the fundamentals of economics however, I've become a little more understanding.

Doesn't make it suck any less though, especially when I've been having the itch to go plug holes into paper down range.
 
I think people understand supply and demand, but it is obvious plenty of people are not too forgiving of CTD...including me. Just like the gas station that was selling ice for $15 bag after hurricane Andrew, CTD won't get my dollar again.
 
Even when they don't totally price gouge, I find their prices to only be so so. Once thing is certain, they really whack you hard with shipping charges. I remember an order I tried to place online where I tried to buy a pistol case and some ammo. It came to a bit less than $50 and the shipping charges were something like $19. I figured that maybe if I ordered more than $50 it might help so I added another box of ammo. That didn't work because the shipping charges jumped to $24. For grins I upped the order to over $100 and sure enough the charges jumped drastically, I can't remember the exact amount now but it was about 50% of the order, enough for me to stop and call their customer service.
I got this woman on the phone and I asked her if the charges were correct and that I thought they were really high. She I told me that the charges were indeed correct and was because the items were being shipped from different warehouses. This was several years ago and I don't know if they have changed their shipping policies but I have not even bothered.
 
I had ordered stuff from them and was pretty happy, but this last year it seems like everything I want to order is out of stock when I am trying to order it.
 
I've always been happy with CTD. In fact I bought 3 handguns from them last year and my son bought one also. I found their prices fair and they were easy to deal with. Shipping on the guns were free, now I see they charge a flat $10. Still reasonable in my opinion.
 
I just went onto their web site and put 2 boxes of ammo, a Tactical Hardside pistol case and a Swiss Gel M1 stove kit into my shopping cart. The items came to $71.31. I then typed in my zip code to get the shipping and handling charge and it came up as $49.46 to get my order to my door! Not exactly Cheaper than Dirt! I just can't believe anyone orders from these clowns, maybe their retail stores are OK. If you don't believe me, go ahead and try it for yourself.
 
Just went there and ordered a rear adjustable sight for about $56. The $10 shipping seems a bitmuch for something that small, but the $2.99 "handling fee" iritates me. However, if that's the worse thing that happens to me this year, I'm happy.
 
I'm struggling with this one myself. I understand supply and demand...., but I also understand selling water after a hurricane at $10 per bottle is gouging.

Frankly, I'm still looking past CTD. I would like to see them continue to suffer an artificially low demand for longer like they artificially adjusted prices for high demand.

This is especially relevant when I consider how most kept prices under some level of control during the ammo crisis!
 
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