Price gouging handgun sales

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You have 8 pounds of gold, traveling across the desert and are dying of thirst. You run into someone who has an 8# gallon of water which he will trade you for ounce for ounce... Fair trade? Is it worth $2000/oz in order to not die? Some here would say the water guy was gouging.......was he?

The only folks here whinging about high prices are the ones who didn't get in ahead of the curve so they could make a profit.
 
I am reminded of a story from the days before "survivalists" were called "preppers". Has to do with the relative value of things.

One fellow does the "smart" thing, and invests in gold. Buys all the Krugeraands he can. Then the big crash comes...and he's hungry.

He finds a farmer who still has some chickens, and wants one. Farmer says, "what do you got to trade?" Guy says "I got Krugerrands, each one is an ounce of gold!"

Farmer says "ok, you give me half a dozen, I'll give you A chicken." Guys says "that's insane. each of these is an ounce of gold!!"

Farmer replies, "well, just consider it an expensive chicken!"

Same story goes on, another guy shows up, wanting a chicken....
Farmer says "what you got to trade?"
Guy says, "I got half a box of shells that fit your .30-30 rifle.."
Farmer says, "how many chickens do you want??"

Point here is that while you can put any price tag on anything you want, its VALUE is dependent on the situation.

And, the seller and potential buyer can be in very different situations.
 
Point here is that while you can put any price tag on anything you want, its VALUE is dependent on the situation.
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I know of a woman prepper/survivalist who stocks fine Kentucky bourbon as her medium of exchange. :)

I'm in the camp that thinks it is technically not "gouging" if the price of a non-essential product is increased quite a bit during a panic, disaster, etc. But, I do keep track of those who tremendously increase the price on the non-essential items and I usually don't do business with them in the futre. I feel the same way if a company is within their legal rights, but still screws me.

Customer service, which includes fair pricing, breeds customer loyalty. The American automobile manufacturers forgot about this decades ago, opening the door for Japanese and German imports in the 1970s and 80s for the everyday person. That doesn't mean prices don't legitimately rise because of increased demand, but some businesses let profiteering guide their practices. It may be good in the short run, but not so good in the long run.
 
Question:
if the current high demand & limited supply is price gouging,
what was it called just before the China-flu arrived when the supply exceed demand and prices were depressed?

I just call them “sellers’ markets” and “buyers’ markets”.
 
cc-hangfire said:
Question:
if the current high demand & limited supply is price gouging,
what was it called just before the China-flu arrived when the supply exceed demand and prices were depressed?

I just call them “sellers’ markets” and “buyers’ markets”.
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I call it "free enterprise", where the market adapted and the sellers provided product to the best of their abilities, and a price that was decided by buyers willing to pay for the goods and services.
 
KyJim said:
I'm in the camp that thinks it is technically not "gouging" if the price of a non-essential product is increased quite a bit during a panic, disaster, etc. But, I do keep track of those who tremendously increase the price on the non-essential items and I usually don't do business with them in the futre. I feel the same way if a company is within their legal rights, but still screws me.
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When the last large batch of Makarov pistols was imported I made a deal with one of the importers and hand picked a number of them for $100/ea
I have been selling them as of late for $550/ea*

Would that be considered "screwing" to you?
Would you "keep track" of me?
Do tell...
 
KyJim
..... I do keep track of those who tremendously increase the price on the non-essential items and I usually don't do business with them in the futre. I feel the same way if a company is within their legal rights, but still screws me.
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Huh?
You can't be screwed if you JUST DON'T BUY FROM THEM!!!
"Screwing" usually means a seller sold you a defective or misrepresented product or forced you to buy.

Buyers remorse for overpaying? That's not the same as being screwed.




Customer service, which includes fair pricing, breeds customer loyalty.
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"fair pricing"? Who are you to determine whats "fair pricing?:rolleyes: You don't know what the sellers wholesale cost was, you don't know what price he needs to turn a profit, nor do you in short you are wholly and totally ignorant of what "fair pricing" really means.

You equate fair pricing with what price you are willing to pay, with what the item may have sold for in the past or what others are selling the same item for.

WalMart often sells ammunition cheaper than my wholesale cost at a distributor. I expect to make a profit, so if my price is higher the WalMart......am I screwing the buyer? NO I'M NOT.



The American automobile manufacturers forgot about this decades ago, opening the door for Japanese and German imports in the 1970s and 80s for the everyday person.
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Fair pricing had less to do with the decline of American automobiles than the decrease in quality. Frankly, the Japanese did everything better.



That doesn't mean prices don't legitimately rise because of increased demand, but some businesses let profiteering guide their practices. It may be good in the short run, but not so good in the long run.
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Now we've gone from "gouging" to "profiteering".:rolleyes:
Name the businesses that let profiteering guide their practices. Waiting for a pandemic, election panic, rioting in the streets panic to sell your product? DOES NOT HAPPEN. It doesn't happen because those events don't happen with regularity.

Businesses are in business to make a profit. That's what guides a business. When it doesn't, it won't be in business for long.
 
Bartholomew Roberts I propose KyJim be immediately banned for the crime of interjecting common sense into an otherwise good Internet fight,
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Sorry, all I read was complaining based on emotion, feels and absolutely no business sense.
 
Quote:
The American automobile manufacturers forgot about this decades ago, opening the door for Japanese and German imports in the 1970s and 80s for the everyday person.
Fair pricing had less to do with the decline of American automobiles than the decrease in quality. Frankly, the Japanese did everything better.
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Why did the Japanese do so well after WWII? An American: Deming- they listened, the US auto unions did not
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
 
You can't be screwed if you JUST DON'T BUY FROM THEM!!!
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Exactly. And if I find their business practices ridiculous, like say CTD, I’ll continue not to buy from them even when prices return to normal. Which is the point I understood KyJim to be making.

But CTD can afford to think like that because they aren’t trying to build customer loyalty so they don’t care. Same with Botach. Both of them build their business model on volume and discount and expect to replace any angry customers with new ones.

However, IIRC even CTD went crying when their storefront in Plano got ran out of business and they wanted the same customers they’d been vigorously hosing to rise up and defend them.
 
Bartholomew Roberts
....However, IIRC even CTD went crying when their storefront in Plano got ran out of business and they wanted the same customers they’d been vigorously hosing to rise up and defend them.
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You might want to check your facts.;)
I've lived in Plano since 1999 and CTD has never had a store here.
They've had stores in Ft Worth, Austin and the closest to me was in McKinney.
I don't recall CTD "being run out of business" or asking anyone, anywhere to defend them. They went out of business for the same reason most retail brick and mortar gun shops go out of business:
Poor understanding of the marketplace.
Terrible store location.
Pricing unable to compete with the internet.


Cheaper Than Dirt Guns were retail stores that had little to do with the CTD mail order/web order business. Two different owners.
 
Meh, everything north of Richardson is basically Plano now until you get to Melissa ;). We’ll compromise and call it McPlanallen.

As I recall, they tried to reach out to customers on their blog to protest either a refusal to renew their lease or some code issue with McKinney and were roundly mocked; but I could be mixing them up with someone else.

The point remains, customer loyalty is not the branding strategy they are pursuing. And I won’t deal with them for that reason alone, just like I won’t buy from Botach or any one of a dozen places that pursue that strategy.
 
Bartholomew Roberts Meh, everything north of Richardson is basically Plano now until you get to Melissa . We’ll compromise and call it McPlanallen.
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Sure. Meh. Whatever.:rolleyes:

As I recall, they tried to reach out to customers on their blog to protest either a refusal to renew their lease or some code issue with McKinney and were roundly mocked; but I could be mixing them up with someone else.
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The same McKinney code that has another gun store 80yds away? Sure it was.



The point remains, customer loyalty is not the branding strategy they are pursuing. And I won’t deal with them for that reason alone, just like I won’t buy from Botach or any one of a dozen places that pursue that strategy.
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Customer loyalty will cause a business to fail faster than anything. Just ask Circuit City, Best Buy, JC Penney, Sears and every other brick and mortar retailer that pinned hopes on retaining customer "loyalty". Low pricing just to get your business may not keep you in business.

When you base your "loyalty" on pricing alone without any understanding of the business involved you get Amazon.

And I find it odd that you would mention Botach........consistently one of the cheaper places to buy firearm accessories and exactly opposite of the pricing schemes at Cheaper Than Dirt. Their problem is fulfilling orders.
 
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