Yep, and if you want to get your "price" down to the lowest you can manage, you've got to by ALL of your three components (other than brass) in the biggest bulk you can financially justify.
Don't mistake my words as some manner of an argument AGAINST reloading. Not at all what I'm saying. I
love reloading, probably more than most do. (no, really!) But if you wish to approach reloading as a method of lowering your costs associated with ammo, the best way to do that (by
FAR) is to spend as much
possible money as you can purchasing components.
Handloaders are extremely familiar with this, but folks who've never reloaded are not. And when handloaders on discussion forums (or at a range) wanna try to impress non-reloaders, they
love to flip out a silly-low number on a box of 50 rounds.
It's very misleading. It reminds me of the "spin" that mainstream media outlets process on an hourly basis. It's crap, and often times, it's extremely unhelpful - even when "techincally", the number that is flipped out is true. And it's worth noting that
jimbob86's example is -NOT- what I'm talking about, so I really hope he doesn't take my post as yelling at him. (my plated .38 target loads?! $4.50 per box of 50rds.)
Do the non-reloaders realize that my most recent bullet purchase was $240? And frankly, that was a
very good deal here in the summer of 2013.