I've always wondered why magazines for bolt action rifles... the AI mags in particular (granted I've never used one maybe it's Jesus in magazine form) seem overly expensive for a spring and some sheet metal. But even the mags for say a Savage DBM seems awful expensive to me when compared to how cheap things like AR mags and and pistol mags that don't say Wilson on them.
Magazine prices
- Thread starter Polinese
- Start date
A lot of it is basic supply and demand. If you set up and knock out a bajillion
AR mags, it offsets the tooling and setup expenses and the cost per unit is
relatively low. Do the tooling and setup for a short run of specialty mags,
and the cost per unit is higher. A high reject rate can also jack the price.
You want to see a REALLY expensive ((or maybe dirt cheap) magazine?
Buy yourself a cheap chunk of sheetmetal and some spring wire and make
one. Cheap or expensive depends on what you think your time is worth.
AR mags, it offsets the tooling and setup expenses and the cost per unit is
relatively low. Do the tooling and setup for a short run of specialty mags,
and the cost per unit is higher. A high reject rate can also jack the price.
You want to see a REALLY expensive ((or maybe dirt cheap) magazine?
Buy yourself a cheap chunk of sheetmetal and some spring wire and make
one. Cheap or expensive depends on what you think your time is worth.
Right. A company can have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in machinery, R&D, buildings etc just to set up to make a product. The actual materials to produce it may only cost pennies each. If they sell a million of them for $1 they are making a profit. If they are only going to sell a couple thousand, then they have to charge far more just to break even.