OMG!

[flashhole]

Went into the resident gun shop looking for a brick of 22 rimfire. All they had were packs of 100 for $20 each. The guy said he would sell me 5 packs for $100 ... no thanks.

I'm looking for Retumbo powder do you have any ... yes ... I have two pounds ... $49.99 per pound.

That was my last visit ever to that shop. Looks like I'll have to conserve my stock a bit longer.

[madmo44mag]

here is your powder
http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/s...6418/cat100151

[Dan Newberry]

Hopefully these gougers will go out of business once things get more back to normal (and they are getting more back to normal here in Virginia)... so there's some light at the end of the tunnel.

Too, there are the ubiquitous apologists for these gouging vendors, who like to say things like "get over it, buy it if you want, don't buy it if you don't... quit your whining"

And this group of miscreants are honestly just as bad as the gougers themselves...

Pipe-wrench sandwiches for the lot of them, I say.

[Slamfire]

As long as people pay it, they will charge it.

While I don't understand all of the business, I don't think the consolidation of ammunition companies, powder companies, bullet companies, and firearm manufacturers under ATK has saved me any money.

Corporations don’t like competition, they strive to be monopolies, and I would like to know if we have a competitive marketplace when it comes to ammunition and firearms.


I don't think so, but maybe someone out there really knows.

[silvrjeepr]

Things are getting better. I stumbled across a 1600 round pack of 22lr with a dandy ammo box for $100 yesterday and ended up splitting it with a buddy who was also out of 22lr. I'm waiting to start hearing stories of poor gun shop owners who have to close their doors from lack of business... Only to find out that they were gouging the mess out of everyone they could during the great ammo recession of '12/'13.

[musher]

Ah quit yer whining Dan..

[BigD_in_FL]

Hopefully these gougers will go out of business

Yep, cause when you have ZERO places to buy stuff, that makes it all better.....

The OP is NY and they are going to be restricting sales and internet sales of powder dramatically, so no local source and he is SOL........there's that brilliance for ya

OP, don't like his pricing? (and I agree you shouldn't), you did the right thing by walking away. Eventually, he will need to move his inventory and he will need to adjust his asking price to whatever the market will bear - in this case, downwards. When his replacement cost comes down, and supplies loosen, I bet his current price also comes down

[AllenJ]

I guess I've been lucky as I've not seen any of this price gouging locally. I agree with what's been said above, don't do business with them now and don't ever give them your business again. When times get like this and greedy people raise the price only to increase their profit margin they are no better than any other thief in my book.

[chiefr]

I figured out one way to attain powder. I bring in 2 boxes of 22LR that the person is selling for $10 per box and trade them for a Lb of powder. Sometimes I may have to kick in a little cash, but the orginal price I paid for the 22 ammo was around $2 per box.

[mmb713]

I went to my LGS a week ago and they had a few powders in stock. I picked up a pound of Clays. $18.95, pre-panic pricing. I will be back. They will make more money in the long run by not gouging.

[BigD_in_FL]

There is NO gouging - it is impossible. If you WILLINGLY pay his asking price, it is not gouging. If you walk away, there is no gouging going on. Retailers have to keep the doors open and they have to rice their inventory based on their replacement cost. If his replacement cost as gone up, or he can't get any more at all, he needs to price his inventory so that those who really need that product will buy it. When the pricing/buying panic originally hit, those who did not adjust their pricing were cleaned out and then saw their inventories being sold for 2-3X their pricing on the internet; PLUS they were unable to get any more product - so now they had ZERO customers coming. Hard to keep the doors open with no cash flow.

Retail is a little more involved than most here seem to understand

[David Bachelder]

"Retail is a little more involved than most here seem to understand"

Sheese ......

You must understand a whole lot more than us stupid little simple folks.

[Colorado Redneck]

They had a shopping cart of 22 LR ammo. Lots of 100 round boxes of MiniMags and some 500 rd boxes of Remington Thunderbolt. Bought a box of the Thunderbolts for a friend--$24.00.

[spacecoast]

There is NO gouging - it is impossible. If you WILLINGLY pay his asking price, it is not gouging.

Nobody is WILLINGLY paying $50 a lb for powder - at best it is grudgingly, perhaps out of fear that it will be another 6 months before you see it again (at any price). When you are forced to pay significantly more than what you believe (and know) is a fair price, with a decent profit built in, it is GOUGING.

[45_auto]

Originally Posted by spacecoast

When you are forced to pay significantly more than what you believe (and know) is a fair price, with a decent profit built in, it is GOUGING.

My guns include S&W and Colt revolvers, Colt and Ruger pistols, Remington 870 shotgun, Henry and Marlin .22LR rifles, Hi-Point 9mm carbine and Lancaster Arms AK. I reload handgun rounds with a Lee hand press, over 18K rounds since Nov. 2009 with nary a squib nor kaboom.

I believe and know that a fair price with a decent profit built in for S&W and Colt revolvers, Colt and Ruger pistols, Remington 870 shotguns, Henry and Marlin .22LR rifles, Hi-Point 9mm carbines and Lancaster Arms AKs is $1 each. I have full confidence that you will not gouge me. Please PM me your contact info.

[BigD_in_FL]

Nobody is WILLINGLY paying $50 a lb for powder - at best it is grudgingly, perhaps out of fear that it will be another 6 months before you see it again (at any price). When you are forced to pay significantly more than what you believe (and know) is a fair price, with a decent profit built in, it is GOUGING.

Unless the store owner held a gun to your head and demanded you buy his product -you WILLINGLY paid his asking price, grudgingly or not. You could have (and should have) walked away and gone to another source. You do not "know" what a fair price is, as you have no idea what his cost is, his overhead/taxes/insurance/payroll/other liabilities, let alone his profit margin.

Go complain about Microsoft - they charge a lot for mere electrons and if you buy a PC, you don't get a choice

Sheese ......

You must understand a whole lot more than us stupid little simple folks.

Nice insult, but then, maybe I do - at least as far as you are concerned....

[spacecoast]

I believe and know that a fair price with a decent profit built in for S&W and Colt revolvers, Colt and Ruger pistols, Remington 870 shotguns, Henry and Marlin .22LR rifles, Hi-Point 9mm carbines and Lancaster Arms AKs is $1 each. I have full confidence that you will not gouge me. Please PM me your contact info.

Now you're just being silly, I only paid 50 cents for my Hi-Point

Come to think of it... make that a 1855-D Indian princess $1 gold coin in EF40 or better and you can have your pick.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Gouging again!?

Will we never learn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QEkw6_O6w

[spacecoast]

I'm all for letting supply and demand set the price in a FREE market. Unfortunately, with all the restrictions* put in place on the purchase and sale of firearms, ammunition and supplies, the market can hardly be called free.

* - not only federal, state and local government restrictions, and shipping costs dictated by shippers (of which there are but a few, forming an oligarchy) but restrictions some of us face in having to go to work and not being able to line up at Wal-Mart in the early morning to buy at a "fair" price.

[musher]

Engaging video Brian.

Dan is probably making you a sandwich right now.

[Brian Pfleuger]

SpaceCoast,

Everything you describe there except .gov restrictions/regulations is part of a free market.

No one would be standing in line at WalMart buying up all the components and hoarding or reselling them if the free market didn't create the conditions that cause them to do it.

Besides that, ALL of those things that you mention were in place 1, 2, 5, 10 years ago and the prices were much, much lower.

What has changed? The market. Demand has sky-rocketed. Supply can't keep up. The free market is at work to correct it.

Ridiculously high list prices should be applauded... and then walk away. It's the first step in a free market correction.

[musher]

The thing I've never understood about the price gouging argument is the basis a person has to make a claim on property belonging to someone else at any price.

If I own something (even if it is a necessity like food, water, or shelter), on what basis can you force me to part with it, regardless of the price?

Once you go down the path of claiming I must sell my property at a particular price, you have destroyed the concept of private property.

Those who make accusations of gouging stand on shaky moral ground.

[schmellba99]

Nobody is WILLINGLY paying $50 a lb for powder - at best it is grudgingly, perhaps out of fear that it will be another 6 months before you see it again (at any price). When you are forced to pay significantly more than what you believe (and know) is a fair price, with a decent profit built in, it is GOUGING.

That isn't even close to gouging. You really should look up the definition of what constitutes gouging - $50 asking price by a retailer for a high demand item that you think should be half of that is not gouging. That is the retailer asking what the market says the price should be for that item.

There is a rather large gap between gouging and market dictation of prices.

Gouging would be a retailer knowing they are the only place within reasonable distance carrying fresh water after a hurricane hits the coast and destroys everything - and charging $500 a gallon for that water. That is gouging - because the consumer has no other alternative and the item is a necessity and the retailer is knowingly overcharging because of these two factors.

Powder, much as we wish it were, is not a necessity, and even with the scarcity of powder on the market, you as the consumer still have other options to purchase it from.

So, while you may not like the price, you are not being coerced into buying because you have no other choice, and the product is not something you require to survive.

And a funny thing about the free market system - if $50 is too high for that pound of powder right now, the market will let the store owner know about it. The powder won't sell. The store owner will continually lower the price until it reaches a point that it does sell. You have the option of dictating that $50 is the price point, or that the price point is too high.

[spacecoast]

Gouging would be a retailer knowing they are the only place within reasonable distance carrying fresh water after a hurricane hits the coast and destroys everything - and charging $500 a gallon for that water. That is gouging

I beg to differ, that sounds like free market supply/demand according to what I've read above. The market conditions are just skewed by the immediate circumstances, much like we have now. The retailer might be forced to hire armed security to guard those gallons of water at $500 apiece. If you want it bad enough you will pay it, find a substitute or go to whatever means you need to get one, or learn to do without.

By the way, having been through a few, there is little excuse for not having potable water after a hurricane. If it was bad enough to totally destroy your infrastructure and carry away all your containers, then you shouldn't be there in the first place. Now ICE (after a week with no power) is another story, but then again ice isn't really a necessity, even in sweltering post-hurricane heat, right?

[JimDandy]

Nobody is WILLINGLY paying $50 a lb for powder - at best it is grudgingly, perhaps out of fear that it will be another 6 months before you see it again (at any price). When you are forced to pay significantly more than what you believe (and know) is a fair price, with a decent profit built in, it is GOUGING.

You bring up an interesting point.. This retailer has to make enough money to keep the doors open, and the kid running the register paid. As you just pointed out, it could be 6 months before they get powder in again.

They have to pay rent for that square foot of retail space their powder sits on whether there's powder on the shelf or not. Without knowing when they can get more in, they have to charge enough to pay that rent on the powder they do have.