Small Rifle primers

Muleskinner · Feb 6, 2021

I went to Molly's yesterday and they had cases of primers... $150 a brick.. of course nothing had a price on it at the shelf. When she rang it up i told her she should be ashamed to gouge her customers and walked out.

lazarus · Feb 6, 2021

Muleskinner said:
I went to Molly's yesterday and they had cases of primers... $150 a brick.. of course nothing had a price on it at the shelf. When she rang it up i told her she should be ashamed to gouge her customers and walked out.

Upside, if smaller shops and dealers at the shows are starting to have decent stocks, means more likely than not prices are going to start coming down in the next couple or few months. They are only going to sell to the real desperate who have money to spare. Not a whole ton of those.

deerassassin22 · Feb 6, 2021

Muleskinner said:
I went to Molly's yesterday and they had cases of primers... $150 a brick.. of course nothing had a price on it at the shelf. When she rang it up i told her she should be ashamed to gouge her customers and walked out.

yep they are expensive but they have them Ill grab some tomorrow.

Melnic · Feb 6, 2021

lazarus said:
Upside, if smaller shops and dealers at the shows are starting to have decent stocks, means more likely than not prices are going to start coming down in the next couple or few months. They are only going to sell to the real desperate who have money to spare. Not a whole ton of those.

when they have more available stock, but don't sell it cause price is high, then they will not replace stock if more is available from distributor and they don't buy it, then it will be made available at other shops. Eventually they stock up and prices go down. Next, the places that want to sell for say $50/1000 will buy them, sell them and then the folks selling for $250/1000 will not sell anything and then eventually be without a seat when the music stops and the price goes back down.

Ever see the guy at the gun show with the silly high price on an item and you have seen that same thing on his table for past 4 years? He may not even really want to sell it and just put it on his table cause he would only sell it if he gets a silly high price for it. I think there is SOME of that going on. Like 25 cents a round for 22LR. For 8 cents a round, they'd rather just shoot it. So they put it up for 25 cents to find "that guy"

I did not see anyone at the HoCo show buying primers or more than say a 100 box of 22LR for $18 but I saw lots buying 9mm and 223 at the prices they had. 357/38 also. Saw that being sold every time I walked by an ammo table.

Pinecone · Feb 7, 2021

Muleskinner said:
I went to Molly's yesterday and they had cases of primers... $150 a brick.. of course nothing had a price on it at the shelf. When she rang it up i told her she should be ashamed to gouge her customers and walked out.

And do you know how much they paid for them?

If you KNOW they had them pre-panic and raised the prices on stuff they paid $20 - $25 per 1000, then yes, they are profittering.

But they may have found a source at $125 a brick, and got them as a service to their customers. So HAVE to sell them at the price to cover the cost, plus having cash tied up in them.

lazarus · Feb 7, 2021

Pinecone said:
And do you know how much they paid for them?

If you KNOW they had them pre-panic and raised the prices on stuff they paid $20 - $25 per 1000, then yes, they are profittering.

But they may have found a source at $125 a brick, and got them as a service to their customers. So HAVE to sell them at the price to cover the cost, plus having cash tied up in them.

It’s possible. If it was from a distributor though, they sure didn’t pay that. Or I should amend my statement. At least medium to large guys aren’t. I don’t know what small shops contract/supply situation is. But I know the manufacturers have not had any increases in price or they’ve been nominal. There are a lot of large resellers that haven’t touched their price. Now it’s possible small shops are getting them from a reseller instead. But if they are getting from from a wholesaler/distributor the only way they are paying $125 is if they get screwed by their supplier.

At least with Ammo I know most of the ammo manufacturers have increased prices about 15-25% above prepandemic, but that is as much that materials costs have gone up a lot (mostly copper and zinc, but lead prices have also gone up some). (Which of course most Ammo sellers have still significantly increased their margins right now).

GunBum · Feb 7, 2021

Pinecone said:
And do you know how much they paid for them?

If you KNOW they had them pre-panic and raised the prices on stuff they paid $20 - $25 per 1000, then yes, they are profittering.

But they may have found a source at $125 a brick, and got them as a service to their customers. So HAVE to sell them at the price to cover the cost, plus having cash tied up in them.

In retail, you don’t sell an item based upon for what you paid for it. You sell according to your wholesale replacement cost, or you’ll be out of business fast. “You only paid $xxx.xx” has nothing to do with it.

U.S.SFC_RET · Feb 7, 2021

If you KNOW they had them pre-panic and raised the prices on stuff they paid $20 - $25 per 1000, then yes, they are profittering.

I would think about your retail seller's replacement cost to sell to you.
If they initially buy at wholesale 1K primers for 28.00 and sell normally @36.00 thats an 8.00 profit minus overhead, labor business expenses ect.. If their supply raises then they have to raise the price. The cost of replacing of those 1K primer.
Now if they warehoused 5000 cases of 1K primers before the shortage hit then I would understand price gouging and profiteering.

Harrys · Feb 7, 2021

U.S.SFC_RET said:
I would think about your retail seller's replacement cost to sell to you.
If they initially buy at wholesale 1K primers for 28.00 and sell normally @36.00 thats an 8.00 profit minus overhead, labor business expenses ect.. If their supply raises then they have to raise the price. The cost of replacing of those 1K primer.
Now if they warehoused 5000 cases of 1K primers before the shortage hit then I would understand price gouging and profiteering.

The other thing that is added into the price of primers and powders is the HAZMAT shipping fees which also has gone up.

davsco · Feb 7, 2021

Harrys said:
The other thing that is added into the price of primers and powders is the HAZMAT shipping fees which also has gone up.

and when you're limited to a 1k of primers or 1# of powder, whether by store limits or not enough in stock, that can easily double your unit purchase cost. i've been pretty lucky in buying 5k pkgs of primers and 8# jugs of powder but not always.

Cuttyfunk · Feb 7, 2021

I was more upset that those primers weren't marked. I wonder how many times they have been picked up and walked to thr front counter then left.... i did.

85MikeTPI · Feb 7, 2021

Cuttyfunk said:
I was more upset that those primers weren't marked. I wonder how many times they have been picked up and walked to thr front counter then left.... i did.

I had the decency to carry them back to shelf.. sheesh.. :innocent0

lim144 · Feb 7, 2021

Cuttyfunk said:
I was more upset that those primers weren't marked. I wonder how many times they have been picked up and walked to thr front counter then left.... i did.

I was ready to buy at one store marked $5.99 per 100. I was told it is $7.99 at the counter. I still bought it. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Crazy times.

Pinecone · Feb 7, 2021

lazarus said:
It’s possible. If it was from a distributor though, they sure didn’t pay that. Or I should amend my statement. At least medium to large guys aren’t. I don’t know what small shops contract/supply situation is. But I know the manufacturers have not had any increases in price or they’ve been nominal. There are a lot of large resellers that haven’t touched their price. Now it’s possible small shops are getting them from a reseller instead. But if they are getting from from a wholesaler/distributor the only way they are paying $125 is if they get screwed by their supplier.

At least with Ammo I know most of the ammo manufacturers have increased prices about 15-25% above prepandemic, but that is as much that materials costs have gone up a lot (mostly copper and zinc, but lead prices have also gone up some). (Which of course most Ammo sellers have still significantly increased their margins right now).

How do you know that the manufacturers haven't raised prices?

The big companies, like Bass Pro/Cabelas have contracts for primers. X amount per 1000, no matter what the retail prices does.

Look at Ammo Jon. He buys large quantities of ammo. His costs have risen dramatically. His retail prices are up for that reason.

A small shop has several layers between manufacturer and their shelf.

Pinecone · Feb 7, 2021

GunBum said:
In retail, you don’t sell an item based upon for what you paid for it. You sell according to your wholesale replacement cost, or you’ll be out of business fast. “You only paid $xxx.xx” has nothing to do with it.

It depends on your model.

You can sell for cost + X. And when you order your next batch, at a higher price, your selling price goes up. A lot of retailers do this.

If the market price goes up, they may raise the price a bit. Some will raise it all the way. And that is profiteering.

Selling your way is nice, but that means I sell the primers I have for $200 per 1000, that I paid $10 for. And the next ones you buy at $150 per 1000, you sell at $300 since the prices are going up. Nice work if you can get it.

Pinecone · Feb 7, 2021

U.S.SFC_RET said:
I would think about your retail seller's replacement cost to sell to you.
If they initially buy at wholesale 1K primers for 28.00 and sell normally @36.00 thats an 8.00 profit minus overhead, labor business expenses ect.. If their supply raises then they have to raise the price. The cost of replacing of those 1K primer.
Now if they warehoused 5000 cases of 1K primers before the shortage hit then I would understand price gouging and profiteering.

Why would they not just sell the next batch at a price based on what they paid for them?

I pay $28, I sell at $36. I pay $100, I sell at $120.

Pinecone · Feb 7, 2021

davsco said:
and when you're limited to a 1k of primers or 1# of powder, whether by store limits or not enough in stock, that can easily double your unit purchase cost. i've been pretty lucky in buying 5k pkgs of primers and 8# jugs of powder but not always.

This has stopped me from buying some primers recently.

$40 per 1000 is not too bad. But limit to 1000, and HAZMAT and shipping is $30, so price in hand is $70 per 1000.

I don't need them that much.

GunBum · Feb 7, 2021

Pinecone said:
It depends on your model.

You can sell for cost + X. And when you order your next batch, at a higher price, your selling price goes up. A lot of retailers do this.

If the market price goes up, they may raise the price a bit. Some will raise it all the way. And that is profiteering.

Selling your way is nice, but that means I sell the primers I have for $200 per 1000, that I paid $10 for. And the next ones you buy at $150 per 1000, you sell at $300 since the prices are going up. Nice work if you can get it.

Only people who want to be bankrupt exclusively use cost + X without factoring replacement cost for their stock. If you don’t factor replacement cost in your retail price, you can make a healthy profit and not have enough money to replace your wares and end up out of business after making what you thought was a lot of money.

Pinecone · Feb 8, 2021

GunBum said:
Only people who want to be bankrupt exclusively use cost + X without factoring replacement cost for their stock. If you don’t factor replacement cost in your retail price, you can make a healthy profit and not have enough money to replace your wares and end up out of business after making what you thought was a lot of money.

It depends on how volatile the pricing on your product is.

But you have to strike a balance, yes.

dist1646 · Feb 8, 2021

Knew I should have bought a bass boat!

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