How are "allocated" guns allocated?

G

geetarman

New member
Almost two years ago, I got the opportunity to shoot a Springfield Loaded 1911 9mm, model PI9134LP. I was really impressed with the gun and went about trying to buy one.

The Springfield Armory web site said, at the time, the gun was allocated to dealers because of demand.

I checked Bud's Guns and saw a review of the gun where one consumer placed his order at the beginning of December 2012 and had the gun two weeks later.

To reserve a price and place in line, I ordered and paid for one of those guns in January, 2013 and the gun has yet to be delivered.

Here is the kicker, Springfield tells me they hope to fill existing orders before the end of the year yet they only produce this gun in batches throughout the year.

When I check the online auctions, it seems no one has them for sale.

Now I come across Able Ammo and I ask to be notified when one of the guns shows up. Three weeks ago, I get an email notice at 11 AM that the gun has been made available. I get on the web site at 11:15 and they are sold out.

I make another request to be notified, and sure enough, within a week, I get a new notification that an order has been received and I jump on it.

I buy the gun and within a few minutes, the gun is sold out.

I check with Bud's and no gun is available.

Just for kicks, I ping the Able web page and sure enough, they get another order in and raise the price.

I was able to order the gun from Bud's at a guaranteed delivery price of $822.

The gun that I was actually able to get, cost me $958 delivered to my local FFL.

Now that gun is $999.99 plus delivery and insurance.

Bud's Guns moves a lot of guns and apparently Able's Ammo does too.

I am wondering why Able's was able to secure at least three shipments of a very popular gun and Bud's has yet to deliver? What is up with that?

I will give the second gun to my son, if I ever get it. I would hate to cancel now and find that Bud's has raised the price again. They have already done that once.

Can anyone explain why certain dealers are apparently given such preference in gun allocation?
 
ever notice that when you go to a car dealership, the salesmans wife, neice, nephew, kid, the dealership owners wife kid nephew neiece mother inlaw never has to wait three days for the same part you need, even though it was ordered the same tiem yours was?
 
I think the manufacturers try to "feed" their best dealers while continuing to expand by having other dealers carry their line. My bet is that on a hot item there is quite a bit of jockying going on by the manufacturer's reps as to who gets supplied. This is just a guess.
 
Skans,

You may be right. My indoor range is also a dealer and I asked them more than a year ago to see if they could find this particular model. They have not been able to come up with one. They DID however call me when they got a Smith and Wesson Pro Series 9mm in and asked me if I was interested.

I bought it on the spot. It shoots every bit a good as a Dan Wesson PM9.

As for Bud's, I ordered a Ruger M77-22 from them when they were out of stock and they took the back order and let me know when the rifle came in.

It is a pretty good shooter, however the CZ 452 Trainer is quite a bit better.

I will get some work done on the Ruger to improve it. I do like the model 77s.

I will probably wait until the end of the year and if Bud's can't deliver the gun, then ask for a refund. I don't need two of them, but for the right price, I would have two. If the gun from Bud's comes in, I will give my son a Christmas present.

I expect he will enjoy it.
 
It's probably not as organized and predictable as just build them, sell them, ship them.
No more than any other industry.
Maybe someone canceled an order or went out of business, making a bunch of them suddenly available.
Or someone misread an order to build something else and now there's a pile of them fresh off the line.
And other stuff like that.
 
geetarman ....Can anyone explain why certain dealers are apparently given such preference in gun allocation?
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Manufacturers and distributors give preference to their most valuable accounts.

When I check a distributors website and instead of showing how many are in stock it shows "allocated" it means that those items are in short supply or being rationed out to the salesmens best accounts as a reward.
 
Most manufacturers sell only to distributors (or very high volume dealers like Cabela's). From the distributor, the firearms get rationed out to dealers, by whatever means they see fit.

Sometimes, as has been mentioned, that means sending the majority of your stock to your highest volume dealers, because you can't risk losing their business. It's a bit of a self-defeating process, in times of increased demand, though. The little guys don't have a chance to increase their sales, if you won't ship them anything. And, in turn, they take their business elsewhere. :rolleyes:
 
You may be assuming that you are "next in line" at Buds but the truth may be that there is a good number of the same gun "promised" to the employees before they sell them to the retail backorder. If I worked at a Buds type of store and I wanted a limited edition gun I'm sure that I would get one before some stranger on the net did. It should be one of the few benefits you get for working at a certain company that costs the owners nothing. You wouldn't see them listed for sale, either. They come in, get sold to an employee and life goes on.
 
You may be assuming that you are "next in line" at Buds but the truth may be that there is a good number of the same gun "promised" to the employees
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I think that may be exactly what is going on. The report on fast delivery could have been posted by an employee. I will never know. I do have one of those guns now and took it to the indoor range this morning and ran 100 rounds through it. No problems at all. Shot both 115 and 124 gr. through it.

I will keep the order open for a while longer and if Bud's cannot come up with the gun, I will ask for a refund.

I hope it does pan out as I know my son will like it.
 
Well, there is the employee factor too....

I have heard from a reliable source that many dealers/distributers will order a gun they have taken money on, then when it arrives, a salesman or special customer buys it. So, for your gun they order again, and again, and again....

Frankly, no gun takes a year to make or schedule production on. On some level, your gun is not being allocated to where it was sold first. I find this criminally wrong, but it is probably legal...
 
You are also assuming that Bud's actually maintains inventory (which they do not on many guns), whereas Able's DOES; therefore they will most likely get preference
 
You are also assuming that Bud's actually maintains inventory
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Another good point. Bud's does say that they are notified when guns are received into their warehouse and that is when they notify the end user.

I have had good dealings with them, but this long time is getting old. . .
 
i have issues with buds on several levels. they price a gun you want to get rid of at x, but when you say "hey just trade you my unwanted gun for this gun you have at the same price" all they want to do is send you a check, no actual trade of gun for gun.

you paid the 15 or 25 dolalrs to be on the special 'waiting list" with buds?
 
Bezoar i have issues with buds on several levels. they price a gun you want to get rid of at x, but when you say "hey just trade you my unwanted gun for this gun you have at the same price" all they want to do is send you a check, no actual trade of gun for gun.
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Whats the problem?
If Bud's offers you $500 for your Glockchester XDM666 magnum and sends you a check, YOU can spend that $500 anywhere on the planet.

If Bud's only offered you an even swap you would be complaining that it was cheaper elsewhere.

Unbelievable.
 
Regarding Bud's guns, I queried their FB page and asked them flat out why Able's guns was able to receive at least three orders of the Springfield Loaded 1911-A1 model PI9134LP and sell them while I had a gun paid for since January and still have not received it. I got an email from them this morning that someone from Bud's would get back with me and let me know what was going on.

This afternoon I got another email from Buds that my order was changed from reserve order to "shipping."

Don't know if I just got lost in the shuffle or what but the gun should be at my local FFL by the weekend and my son is going to have a great time with it.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. . .occasionally the shaft. . .
 
Heres a question

If you were in business with the ability to make a thousand guns a month and that is all you have to send out, would you send them to those who sell one or two a year, or to those who sell hundreds per month.

The buyers sit on the phone calling and wheeling and dealing. He who is willing to pay the highest price for the most guns gets them. He who refuses to pay the highest price and only orders twos and threes all year, doesn't get them until there is a surplus. It is that simple.
 
Well the saga is over. The errant gun was delivered to the LGS this morning and I paid the transfer fee and filled out the 4473.

The gun is perfect and I took it home and fieldstripped and cleaned it.

Greased up the rails and cycled the gun 100 times and stripped the lube and re-greased. Cycled the action another 250 times and cleaned up the gun and re-lubed.

The gun is running smooth with just a little "hum" from the last endmill that touched the slide.

Gave it to my son this afternoon along with two boxes of ammo and then we adjourned to a local restaurant for happy hour.

He will give it a trial tomorrow and let me know how it does. I am betting he will have a grin from ear to ear. I asked him to replace the factory magazines with Wilson 9+1 and gave him one to try out. I will let you all know how this works out.
 
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