Sharing some gossip

[5whiskey]

Stop operating based on fear, with the assumption that the whole world is the same as the narrow view that you've chosen to maintain.

I don’t operate on fear, I have enough components to carry me for at least a couple years. In fact I have increased my shooting as I recently came back from a deployment and vowed to take a little more time to enjoy myself than what I did before. I’m also not peddling fear... I personally think if all veteran gun owners would sit back, relax, don’t stress if you don’t have 5k rounds stocked up, and realize this will pass... well we would all be better off.

What I *AM* saying is that I know, first hand, that activities described by the OP do in fact occur. As a matter of fact, this activity is one of the primary reasons why sales are limited to only a few boxes at most big box stores. To address this is not fear mongering, it’s merely recounting what I have personally seen. Yes, my experience is anecdotal. I know that not all, or most, or even very many, gun shops do this. I believe the majority to be businesses that would choose not to participate in an ethically questionable behavior. The fact remains, some of them do.


Another discussion entirely is whether it is ethically wrong for a gun shop buying out cabelas, effectively taking inexpensive (relatively, at least) stock away from consumers, to resale at much higher prices. There is no law against it that I know of, and I personally don’t believe it’s ethically wrong. I believe it’s bad optics, and many others would question those ethics. Mostly because of the optics, I would like to say I would chose NOT to do that if I ran a gun store, but you know if times were tight and it kept the doors open...

For the guys who aren’t a gun shop owner that go out and buy up all the .22lr at academy trying to flip it on armslist because they’ve made a few good flips, I feel differently. They are “crisis” opportunists. I do not care for that.

 

[Unclenick]

The opportunity for speculators and resellers is always greatest in the early days of shortage cycles before prices rise. During the cycle, prices increase to cut demand to match supply rates, and the speculative resellers then have a harder time buying low and selling high. Also, the further into the cycle we get, the more risk those guys have of the shortage ending and finding themselves stuck with stock they paid too much for, so the smarter ones gradually tend to back off. No smart speculator will bulk buy at elevated prices for fear of getting caught in a speculation bubble.

The only thing that keeps the smarter speculators in business is vendors who refuse to raise prices, instead choosing to regulate stock flow entirely by purchase limits. Most stores do some of each as a compromise, so as not to appear too greedy to their established customers, but raising prices to regulate the product flow is the only thing that stops speculators when straw buyers are being used.

The fellow who didn't have the foresight or perhaps wasn't in a financial position to keep a few cases of primers and 22 LR ammunition laid in during better times is the one who gets hurt during these cycles, and I don't have an easy solution for that. I can only suggest that when times are better again, they get together with friends to bulk purchase so their limited funds stretch further. Even if they still have to ration that stock during a shortage, that will mitigate the pain a little.

 

[hounddawg]

For those that cannot for whatever reason keep a large stash I recommend getting to know the smaller shop owners in your area during times of plenty, give them your business and when times like the current situation arise they might be inclined to give you a call when something of interest shows up before it leaves the storage room

 

[reddog81]

The retailer needs to raise prices to discourage this behavior. If they moved the price closer to the actual market rate the pawn shops wouldn't have the incentive to pull these shenanigans. However if Cabela's raised the prices to where they should be, people would be whining about that also.

 

[zeke]

Perhaps it only happens in the walmarts where the supplies actually are made available to the public on the stores shelves?