My end, things did work out and Dad and I went to the big Tulsa gun show. Where else you gonna see both new-packed survival foods and a 18th-century headsmans axe?
Not to mention all the usual "I need to win the lottery" stuff. Like some gorgeous Shiloh Sharps rifles, and some old S&W revolvers, and Mausers and MNs and- all the usual, to cut it short.
Big thing I was watching for(without much hope) was some powder and bullets. Powder, there was some, but nowhere near previous selection. Primers, well, a couple of dealers had them, and at normal to somewhat-elevated prices; they were mostly bought-out by people who paid for 'get in on Friday' tickets and other dealers; and the other dealers marked the damn things up. As in CCI primers, instead of around $35/brick, were $50.
Ammo: think of bricks of .22 and bulk-packs marked anywhere from $70 to $100. But the real prize was one dealer who had the 525-round bulk-packs of Remington Golden Bullets marked $209.95.
No, I am not kidding.
And no, they were not selling. Guess why?
One of the big ammo dealers I asked(they had no .22 of any kind) said they'd had a fair amount Friday; guess who bought most of it and marked it up? Same for everyone who'd had any marked at normal or near-normal prices. Yeah, some of them managed to sell a few at those prices, but what they mostly bought was ill-will, as in "I'm gonna remember who was gouging this way, and damned if they'll ever get ANY of my money again!" as one guy loudly put it. In somewhat less-polite language. Free market at work: you can charge whatever you want, but ought to remember both that you might sell less AND you might piss people off for a long time to come.
Speaking of ammo: those who did have 9mm ball were charging about $35/box, .45acp marked up about the same level; not-as-in-demand stuff was much closer to or at regular prices.
Firearms mostly seemed to be at or near prices you'd expect. And the elusive K-32 continues to elude; not only nothing of the type I want, not a single one even to be seen.
We will not return to normal bloggage.
3 comments:
Didn't make it this time, had to stay at home and fill in teaching a class. I'm looking forward to this November's show to see if the mania still holds full sway. Hope that works out; if I don't make the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of John Moses Browning at least once a year, his spirit starts to haunt me.
Sounds like the Kansas City gun show I went to a couple of weeks ago (we have one almost monthly at the KCI Expo Center, out by the airport). Prices on almost all ammo and anything remotely military-styled were through the roof.
Didn't see any .22 for $100 a brick, but I did see quite a bit marked up for anywhere from $45 to $80 - not selling at all - and 100-round packs of CCI Mini-Mags going for $20 apiece (which were).
Just foolish. Especially when some of those boxes still had the Wal-Mart tags on them...
--Wes S.
One of the big ammo dealers I asked(they had no .22 of any kind) said they'd had a fair amount Friday; guess who bought most of it and marked it up?
And thus that ammo was still for sale on Saturday to people who valued it enough to buy it at that price.
The alternative has it selling out to end-users on Friday, and thus there being no supply at all on Saturday for anyone, no matter how much they'd pay.
This is precisely the free market working correctly; price arbitrage correcting a too-low price on Friday and maintaining supply on Saturday for those willing to pay a market price.
As always - even when it's in a market that makes us personally sensitive - "price gouging" is really "keeping supply available".
(For that matter, higher prices? Means next time Joe Gun Guy is more likely to think "I should take that brick of .22 I have sitting idle at home and cash in to buy something else", thus helping correct the price back down and end this bubble.
Markets work.)
(And the guy with the $200 brick is losing out on any income because he's overpricing; eventually he'll get the idea and price like everyone else.)
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