ammo reseller who makes daily trips to all of your area Wal Marts and sporting goods stores looking for 22LR at retail price. You get home and put it immediately for sale on Gunbroker, Armslist or at your local gun show at a 200-300% markup.
The “demand” is created when these sellers buy all of the 22LR at retail price from chain stores. These chain stores are the largest retailers of 22LR in the country. This creates the illusion that the ammo is scarce. When people think something is scarce, they feel they need to buy it even more so than normal. This is where the so called “demand” is coming from. Now, I do understand that there is a real demand increase due to market conditions that include tons of new gun owners in the last year as well as fear of future availability of ammo. However, we’ve already seen the centerfire ammo market more or less rebound in most areas of the country from the 2013 ammo panic, but the rimfire market seems to be getting worse. Why is this?
It’s pretty simple actually. It’s very economical for someone to walk into a department store and buy those three 550 round boxes of 22LR. It costs them less than $75 out of pocket. If they bring a friend or spouse along, they can probably clean out an ammo department’s daily shipment, even despite purchase limits. It’s much harder for your average joe off the street to do this with centerfire ammo. The retail cost is too high to purchase large amounts on a daily basis for most people. However, due to the low retail cost of rimfire, they can buy it all…
Saw lots of flippers at a gun show today and for the first time in a long time I did not see a lot of sales. Tables were full of overpriced rimfire ammo at the end of the day. Hopefully we’re seeing the end of this thing.
I simply do not buy rimfire at any flip price. I’ve walked into Cabelas and they’ll sell it limit 100 rounds. I’ll grab 100 there, but not from any of these flip ****tards.
I’ll buy it if I happen to be passing through some place that has normal retail prices, but not at any marked up price, especially if they’re an online douche trying to f–k consumers by flipping the item. X10 for gun shows.
I’ve only got around 700rds of .22lr oh hand and I haven’t bought any in over 2yrs and won’t until this sickness stops. I hope all these “flippers” choke on a tootsie pop and die.
My 6 year old daughter like to shoot.
I bought her a CMMG .22LR upper and built her a 80% lower.
Picked her up 5 mags but I only had a handful of .22LR.
Lucked out big time!
On a whim I stopped at Wal-Mart one morning after work.
A case of Winchester 555 was being unboxed!
I bought the maximum allowed.
Then I stopped at the Wal-Mart by my house.
They got the same shipment!
Again I bought the maximum allowed.
Scored my little Pickles over 3k of ammo.
She can shoot all summer long.
I will be buying any more I fall into at retail.
The flippers can go to hell, they ain’t getting my cash.
This is why panic happens. People don’t see their ammo in stock so they go straight to the online market places and goble the stuff up. The people flipping it see it goes fast and keep doing it. Then they tell a friend, so they do it to in order to make a quick buck. And these idiots keep buying.
I already have seen x39 ammo start doing the same thing.
There isn’t a panic. The stuff is being produced. It’s still available.
Although I will say some vendors are just as bad as the people buying the marked up ammo in perpetuating the whole deal.
Thanks to these douchbags (neckbeards) and now the “panic” on x39, my niece and her friend can’t continue to shoot on the cheep. Really wanted them to start on .22LR but for some damn reason can’t find it, and hell, some of the flipper prices I have seen, 5.45 is cheaper.
People need to start telling others don’t buy the overpriced stuff, and tell the social security old guy he is limiting new shooters when they buy and flip. (Someone should report them to the IRS for the extra income).
It’s stupid easy for people to create this sort of artificial scarcity demand.
If you look at the total .22LR manafacturing capacity claimed by the NSSF, break it down by 500rd bricks and then divide by just the number of MAJOR brick and mortar retailers (wal-mart, Bass pro, Academy, etc etc), it’s only like 12 bricks per store per day. You can see where that number goes when you add in mom and pop shops and online retailers. One estimate I saw was that it was only 2-3 bricks per retailer per day.
That’s part of the reason I refuse to buy at these elevated prices. I’ve got enough .22 stocked up to last for years so there’s no way I’m paying $50-$75 a brick. There are already indications that some manufacturers are bringing more capacity online so it’s only a matter of time before the “shortage” goes away.
I would say that demand would be the same regardless, and that people buying and flipping are giving an indication of the real market price of rimfire. Their higher prices actually increase the amount available to market because, if observations are correct, they are priced too high for more people to buy. They’re actually preventing gaps in supply by flipping. Eventually they’ll have to lower their prices to a point it’s no longer feasible, or the market supply/demand will shift so dramatically some may end up sitting on a large inventory they can not move. But I wouldn’t call it scarcity if it hasn’t been removed from the market. That really only occurs when capacity to produce something exists, but isn’t used. Think price caps disincentivizing .22lr manufacturers from producing so much because producing 9mm is more profitable.
This is called “hoarding.” Given that all of us are doing this (or attempting to do this), we can all look in the mirror to see who is to blame for the “shortage” of cheap .22lr ammo.
Amen to this. God bless the flippers (God bless free enterprise).
While I don’t disagree, to a certain extent buying everything on the shelf and creating the appearance of a shortage is a bit of psychological manipulation of the market. It’s really similar to the effect when a rumor goes around that there will be a gas shortage in a particular locale. People rush out to fill up their tanks because they fear not getting any, and lo and behold there’s a shortage, because the whole system is designed around the fact that in general everyone doesn’t have to fill up on exactly the same day. When everyone does try and fill up, the tanks run dry, there’s a shortage and suddenly people are willing to pay $10/gallon because they fear going without, even though their tank is half full and more tanker trucks will show up tomorrow.
To a certain extent I think .22 is the same way. People see bare shelves and are suddenly willing to pay many multiples of what they were before out of fear of going without. If there was even 1 brick on the shelf a lot of buyers would decide they really don’t need any right now.
Granted the end result is going to be the same. There will eventually be a production ramp up and as soon as there’s more than the flippers can buy, prices will collapse. They’re speculators just like with any other investment and in all probability they’ll end up holding the bag at some point. Not that that’s a terrible threat given the shelf price of .22.
Most of mine I bought slowly over the last 10 years so I never have to worry if I have any when I head to the range. I shoot .22 nearly every trip. Fact is the last .22 I bought was a few hundred rounds of stingers in 2007 for my P22 that won’t eat nearly anything else. If anything I’m a downward force on the price because I refuse to pay $50/brick
Why didn’t people stock up when the prices were low and the ammo abundant. Those who live out of the store are bound to go hungry when the store is closed so to say. The price is too high do not buy. Or be a total fool and buy Your choice don’t put the blame elsewhere.
Amen to foresight! People keep asking me at the range where am I finding all my ammo? I just smile and reply “My Closet!” Anyone who didn’t see the threat of the current Administration(?) were foolish. I realize no one could foresee the extent of the shortages, but should have been ready for at least 1-2 years of supplies. I’ve been “stocking” powder, primers, bullets and ammo since before Clinton. I do feel for the new shooters but let this be a lesson.
Remember: “Anyone who has less than me is just Unprepared and it’s their own fault for being caught out.On the other hand, anyone who has more than me is a filthy stinking hoarder and they are the reason for the shortage. I want my Fair Share!”
Grasshopper and the Ants:
That’s what I see in many similar threads about the .22lr shortage.
1+. People looked at me crazy every time I bought a brick of 22 at Walmart while grocery shopping. Still do the same thing whenever I find it or any other ammo. I don’t resell and try to rape people, but I’m also not going to change my habits cause others didn’t stock up and are now crying.
