profiteers of doom

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dave9969

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Am I the only person who can not help but wonder what in the world has happened to the people selling guns lately?

Seriously, post shooting the price of any "assault" rifle, has gone INSANE. A quick check of gunbroker has stripped lower AR-15s selling for 900 dollars.
Excuse me?
for a lower 900 bucks not even a Colt lower or a limited edition version of something worth putting in a safe and saving for a long time.
Do these people realize you are playing into their hands? The lawmakers will only pass laws to "control" these types of weapons if you allow them to.
IF they don't "Control" these weapons these prices are fantasy and more to the point gouging of the worst sort.
Nothing but a bunch of profiteering dogs in my opinion.
But you can of course pay these prices if you feel like suddenly a DPMS lower with a stock is now worth 900 bucks, when you could buy the whole damn gun for 800 30 days ago.
 
Yes, The prices are rediculous but it's still a free country and supply and demand still rule. I bought all my AR extras ....lowers, bcg's, high capacity magazines and ammunition the second I saw on tv that Obama had won for a second term. I don't feel a bit sorry for those that did not plan ahead. After hearing me talk on the subject for the last 4 years I have distant family members just now thinking of "stocking up". Too bad for them. While they were spending all their extra money on partying, going on vacations and acting like nothing was going wrong with this country I was doing otherwise. I wish them all good luck. And they think I'm crazy for gardening and canning a lot of my food.
 
Actually, there's nothing more American than the prices going up. Can't have freedoms without occasions of high prices
 
Sellers don't set prices, buyers do. Those prices wouldn't be listed if people weren't willing to pay them.

They're not "playing into" anyone's hands either. The prices don't make a new law more or less likely.

The "profiteering dogs", as you call them, are the basis of FREE enterprise, a FREE market, with the emphasis on free.

It's not as if they charging 2 gold wedding rings and your mothers diamond broach for a bottle of baby food that you can't get anywhere else. It's a "want" item and they're FREE to charge any price the BUYER WANTS to pay.

One of the more disturbing trends in our country is the demonization of wealth and profit making.
 
If you don't need one, don't buy one.

People are buying in anticipation of legislation. If that legislation doesn't pass, they still have a firearm they willingly purchased of their own free will. If it does, well, depending on that legislation they may have bought an appreciating asset.

Right now I'm looking to sell my Saiga 12... I haven't thus far because I couldn't recoup my initial investment, but right now looks like a great time to do exactly that. Does that make me despicable, for offering a product for sale at a price someone is willing to pay?

If so, what's that make you the moment you offer something for sale for more than you paid for it?

People complain about people selling guns for more than they went for a month ago, but I wonder just how many of these people ever bought stocks, bonds, or even precious metals as investment pieces. Same strategy, different item. Buy low, sell high.
 
People are perfectly justified selling for what others are willing to pay. Its a want item rather than a need item so I see no moral issues with it. I look forward to the flood of cheap AR's on the market in a few months if a ban isn't passed.
 
One of the more disturbing trends in our country is the demonization of wealth and profit making.
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Agreed. It goes hand in hand with the "socialismization" of American society. Capitalists are bad, workers are good (let alone that all those workers want a capitalist to make a job so they can expect to be paid for just showing up). Rich people are evil, poor people are exploited (even though poor people use 90% of the social services and emergency services provided in this country, thereby exploiting the rich who pay most of the taxes in this country). Broke-minded people who want everyone to feel sorry for them and give them what they want will fall under the control of whoever will give them anything. Remember, any government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take it all away (thank you, Thomas Jefferson). So let's all be capitalists and get rich and save the USA, instead of caving in and expecting the socialists to save us.

Ok, I'll come off the soap box now.
 
The alternative to a free market is a controlled economy..... and you'd have all the goods and services the .gov could manage to deliver and ration out to you ...... and none of them would be guns, unless you were conscripted into the armed forces.

Count your Bessings, friend.
 
For those who want, it's a question of degree. If I was in the AR business, and didn't snap to this, I might as well be a commie.
In this life, timing is everything. If you were caught snoozing, or didn't make your mind up in time to buy at the more reasonable rates, don't freak out.
I'm certain that my fellow capitalists are working on your very problem as we speak. In but a little while production will rise to meet increased demand.
I'm surprised we haven't seen a reverse fast and furious, with the Cartel applying for an FFL to sell ARs back to us! (humor)
 
Quit crying because you were on the fence too long. My only regret is not buying enough. Now I can either make a ton on hang on to what I have, but like other posters I stocked up on what I wanted with no intention of selling. However since the prices went up 10 times I cant help but think about pulling $10K out my $1K investment... just saying!

DASHZNT
 
I'm not crying
I have all the weapons I need to defend my home.

I just find it disappointing the way this trend looks for the country I grew up in. So it is now screw everybody its the American way. Interesting.
 
I know these things seem like gouging, but it's just a little micro-economics; demand is high, and supply increasingly low, so the price goes up both to turn a higher profit and to slow the rate of sales so inventory can catch up. I don't blame the companies, they are just doing what they have to to survive. For many of them, if their main product (ARs) were banned or heavily regulated soon they need to pull a quick profit because they are probably about to close their doors.
 
Smart sellers gauge demand and price accordingly. That isn't screwing anybody.

Bear in mind, too, that we are talking pure business transactions.

I may give friends and family a "buddy" price, but that does not in any way mean I owe such consideration to other potential buyers.

As a seller, all I owe a buyer is honesty about the condition of the product and any accessories it may have. After that, whether to pay my price is entirely the buyer's choice.

Interestingly, I have had potential buyers take offense when I turned down their "realistic offers." They thought I was overpriced, yet I ultimately sold those guns for much closer to what I was asking, and the buyers' feedback was excellent. They received guns that were as advertised, and in better shape than they would have demanded.

I am listing a few items for sale next week. I will assess what current market prices are for each one, before I detrmine a list price or starting bid. I would be stupid if I did not.
 
I just find it disappointing the way this trend looks for the country I grew up in. So it is now screw everybody its the American way. Interesting.
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It is interesting to me that people want freedom in some aspects (2nd amendment for example), and cry out against freedom in other instances (free market). Nobody is getting screwed, it's a matter of you (and many others) not understanding supply and demand. If people as a whole weren't panicky morons, prices wouldn't be so high. But since this is the case, people are paying these high prices and that is what drives the market. The mass consumer is the one "screwing" people, not the sellers.

I can't believe I was the only one who thought to myself, over the last year or so, that prices were probably as low as they were going to be for awhile:rolleyes:
 
So a smart business model would be to encourage crazy people to shoot up grade schools?

Mammon, ya gotta love em.

More seriously, I've been frequently told that an increase to the cost of firearms, due to government action/regulation, a direct threat to the 2nd amendment.
If that is the case then isn't market volatility just as much of a threat?
The prices that are spiraling out of control are for guns that would be most useful for a citizens revolution.
If access to these firearms is part of a constitutional right, then shouldn't there be price controls such as the ones on fuel and food?
 
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I just find it disappointing the way this trend looks for the country I grew up in. So it is now screw everybody its the American way. Interesting.
It is interesting to me that people want freedom in some aspects (2nd amendment for example), and cry out against freedom in other instances (free market). Nobody is getting screwed, it's a matter of you (and many others) not understanding supply and demand. If people as a whole weren't panicky morons, prices wouldn't be so high. But since this is the case, people are paying these high prices and that is what drives the market. The mass consumer is the one "screwing" people, not the sellers.

I can't believe I was the only one who thought to myself, over the last year or so, that prices were probably as low as they were going to be for awhile
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The free world would be a better place if everyone took a microeconomics coarse for sure. People assume they are getting "screwed" if they don't want to pay the price of an item. As a 25 year old and associate of many other young people I must say the ignorance of how the market works is endemic. Most people just don't care enough about how things work.
 
Recently, we had a small crisis here, gasoline was in short supply, and lines at the functioning gas stations were quite long. I was at a pump, after waiting in line for about an hour, filling up my car's tank and some cans I brought along. At that time, I watched a well dressed gentleman approach a man at the pump next to me.

The well dressed gentleman said quite clearly to the man at the pump, "Sir, if you can spare it, I'll gladly pay you $40 for that can full of gas." (The man and the pump was filling a rusty old beat up 2 gallon gas can.) He went on to say, "I just want to get home, my tank is empty, and my car is stuck way back there." He gestured to the BACK of the line, now an hour and half wait behind a long line of vehicles.

Gas was roughly $4 per gallon at the time, but the well dressed gentleman didn't care. To him, that 2 gallon can was worth $40 to save him the time, worry, and uncertainty if the gas would even still be flowing when he finally got up to the front of the line. The man at the pump nodded, pocketed a couple $20 dollar bills, and parted ways with his 2 gallon can of gas.

He smiled at me after the well dressed gentleman had left and said, "I would have sold it to him for $20."

He wasn't screwing anybody, nor was he profiteering. Both men were presented with an opportunity, born out of an unusual circumstance, and they made a mutually beneficial arrangement. Both men parted ways with a smile on their faces.
 
Supply and demand, the Laffer Curve, all taught to me in Free Enterprise in high school in the early 80s. Don't they teach that anymore?
Wanna see where this could go? Look at NFA firearms - supply tightened up yo "existing items only", ad look at the prices. Well, that's what the artificially constrained market will bear. If production resumed, those prices, (as artificial as on the homes that went ker-PLUNK when the housing bubble burst), would drop overnight to beggar the investments made.
I have a very good friend who asked me just yesterday, "What can I buy, I want a rifle like they ones they want to ban?" I said "You're three weeks too late. Try to find an SKS if it's less than $500"
He said he really liked my SA vz-58, and could he buy one of those? I bought mine years ago at a great price, and now they are $1,200, and even the Century version is up to $900. He couldn't quite grasp the reasons until we discussed supply and demand. The supply is low because demand is high. CzechpointUSA is working overtime to make more and more SA vz-58s to meet the incredible demand, but there is only so much they, or any other manufacturer can do in the face of such a voracious appetite.
 
As a 25 year old and associate of many other young people I must say the ignorance of how the market works is endemic. Most people just don't care enough about how things work.
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Supply and demand, the Laffer Curve, all taught to me in Free Enterprise in high school in the early 80s. Don't they teach that anymore?
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Funny you mention that! Last week, my kids told me they found this "cool old movie" (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and were going to watch it .... and I sat down and watched it with them ...... and there was the teacher talking about the Laffer Curve ...... I watched that movie when it came out, and the only thing I remembered Ben Stein for was, "Bueller? ...... Bueller? ....... Bueller?" ..... kids didn't generally care about the really important things, as they have never suffered for their ignorance...... the same can be said of today's ..... I was going to say youth, but there are quite a lot of adults (even octegenarians!) that never grew up, and they truly believe that the .gov will always take care of them, because they always have.

I think those folks are in for a rude shock, because the day is coming when the .gov will be unable to meet the needs of eveyone it has fostered "need" in: they have subsidized helplessness to the point that not enough of us are left to do the helping...... and when things don't go well for those who failed to look out for themselves, and the accustomed level of support is not forthcoming ...... LOOK OUT.
 
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