When is a primer too expensive?

To the thread subject, a primer is too expensive when it drives the cost of an assembled round higher than the cost of purchasing equivalent factory ammo. ymmv
 
That is probably a good general rule. Guys shooting 9 mm will reach that point first. People shooting rare obsolete rounds will probably never get there. Of course, if your gun only shoots to the potential you want to achieve with some special loading you developed, that's another matter.
 
I thought I overpaid at $500 for 5k primers for small pistol primers.

Then I looked up prices for ammo and found 9mm going for $.28+/rnd.
 
I bought 4000 primers today at a local gun show. 2000 small pistol and 2000 large pistol. $380. It was very painful. Very. Add to that 1500 bullets for $165, and I'm going to have to put in some overtime at work.
 
Wow! $0.205/round before powder. Of course, shotgun shells have been this way for a long time. It's often the case that you can get the seasonally discounted field loads for less by the case at Wally World than you can reload them for. Perhaps the industry is hoping to bring that situation to metallic cartridges. Time will tell.
 
15 cents for primers and 6 cents for powder in 9mm? The most i spent for primers is 9 cents and powder runs about 2.5 cents a round. Coated lead costs about 7 cents in bulk plus I enjoy reloading. I too would have to take a hard look if my 9mm reloads cost 30 cents apiece.
 
My apologies if someone already said this (didn't read all posts), but there is a very simple and accurate answer to this question:

When is something priced too high? When nobody is willing to pay the asking price.

If anyone is willing to pay, it's not too expensive. That's just simple economics. If we keep paying inflated primer prices, then sellers will keep selling them for more and more. It's capitalism.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

As long as people are buying them fast enough to keep them scarce, they are obviously not too expensive.

As long as people stay panicked when the supply is scarce and buy large quantities of them at virtually any price, the price will keep going up.
To the thread subject, a primer is too expensive when it drives the cost of an assembled round higher than the cost of purchasing equivalent factory ammo.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of primer buyers:

1. See reloading as a hobby in itself and while they justify it as a cost saver, would reload even if the resulting product cost more than factory.

2. See the ability to reload as a hedge against TSHTF type events and/or legislative restriction and would buy the supplies to keep that hedge in place even if it's not cost effective.

Which means, IMO, that there are a significant number of buyers out there who will continue buying components even if it doesn't make good sense when viewed as a simple comparison between the cost of the reloads vs. the cost of factory ammo.
 
small pistol primers at $0.10/primer are a deal.

Don't believe it? Look at the price of factory 9mm. $0.28/rnd is the cheapest I see anywhere.

So, even at a dime/primer, it is still way cheaper to reload 9mm.

This is the new norm folks. Settle in.
 
Yes. Uncle Nick, I was referring to post #3. I don't know how to quote a post, but I should have been more specific.
 
This is the new norm folks. Settle in.
Click to expand...
To me that just sounds like an excuse to go buy the expensive primers ;) :) . Anyway, not my 'new' normal. I've pretty much stopped buying gun anything now... Almost ... I did pick up (in the mail) percussion #10 and a #11 primer makers from https://22lrreloader.com/ for kicks... And some priming compound. Get back to the basics :) .
 
After 3 years, it is quite clear to me that, along with everything else, primers are more expensive than they used to be.

The prices we were used to are never coming back. With factory 9mm going for 30cents a round, 10cent primers are still a deal.

I haven't bought any components in 3 years. I'm done waiting. I'll pay what I have to to get back to shooting.
 
I only buy Large Rifle primers, and will go shoot 50 rds a session to practice.

Gone are the days me and a buddy blowing thru 500 to 1000 rds of 9mm or 45 acp a range session.

Im in stocking mode . I haven’t shot factory ammo in almost 4 years all goes in the coffers when I buy some.

They will eventually come down when the supply out weighs the demand. now will we see 3 cents a primer again…. uh no , but we could see. 5 to 6 cents and that would reasonable.

Its hard to fathom a 300 to 500% increase isnt it.
 
I enjoy reloading simple as that, so in this current state of affairs I just stopped looking at what it cost me to reload. Otherwise I just might stop :(
 
The guy who started me into reloading always told me, “ Will you will never save money reloading.” 24 calibers later and over 34 dies and 5 presses later he was absolutely correct
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top