Visualizing change in ammo prices during covid

[tirwin1]

Interesting. The chart provides historical price activity for various calibers in the past 12 months. The good news is prices seem to have fallen from their peak. The bad news is they are still above the pre-covid prices.


Full story here:

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[RomanRider]

Yesterday I bought a 150 round range box of Federal 5.56 NATO at Utica Bass Pro for $100.00 + tax so about $0.66/round before tax which is pretty close to that chart. Better than $1.00/round I paid mail order a few months back. I also learned about Lake City - I had never seen cartridges without the caliber stamped in the brass, just says LC 21. So I asked a more experienced friend of mine last night & he told me about Lake City being where the military ammo comes from. Learn something new every day.

 

[ManrisFrack]

I don't like how there seems to be convergence of several calibers at current prices. Most of them are still in a downtrend but 22 is already pretty level.

 

[MikeyCNY]

Extremely interesting, thanks for sharing. I didn't realize .380 had gotten so high - higher than even 223/556. Wow. I only have one 380 gun (Ruger LCP) but I had gotten enough ammo for it years ago and only shoot it a couple of times a year.

Even /r/gundeals is starting to see ammo prices return to normal - glad I didn't buy too much during the past year.

 

[Acer-m14]

funny there is no ammo on the shelfs .. or components to make ammo ..

 

[dsdmmat]

Yeah that says 2.99 for 22WMR. Of course this was well before Sandy Hook and Pre 9/11 but prices no a days are 10 times higher when you can find it.

 

[Acer-m14]

bottom left .,.. there marked 99cents a box .. all 22LR ...

 

[nortatoga]

The last time I know CCI-SV went up to $50.00+ a 500rd brick When it came back down to $38.00 I bought a case, Then the price kept dropping back to $24.99 a brick same price it was before!! So I think with time things will get back to or close to what they were. (except for inflation!)

 

[dsdmmat]

I just ordered 500 rounds of 22Mag straight from CCI 17.99 for 50, that is around 2-3 dollars more a box of 50 than it was a couple of years ago. considering the interesting times we live in it is not bad at all.

 

[MikeyCNY]

I just ordered 500 rounds of 22Mag straight from CCI 17.99 for 50, that is around 2-3 dollars more a box of 50 than it was a couple of years ago. considering the interesting times we live in it is not bad at all.

I thought they wouldn't ship to NYS? Or at least to non-FFL.

 

[dsdmmat]

I thought they wouldn't ship to NYS? Or at least to non-FFL.

I no longer live in the PRNY, haven’t for a year.

 

[nortatoga]

I just ordered 500 rounds of 22Mag straight from CCI 17.99 for 50, that is around 2-3 dollars more a box of 50 than it was a couple of years ago. considering the interesting times we live in it is not bad at all.

Yeah the good old days when you could get deals at Gun Shows, I don't remember how long ago I picked these up ( Still 5 full boxes ) at the Saratoga Show....

 

[tc556guy]

I don't see prices going back to pre-Covid for a very long time, at least while Dems are in office. There have been multiple price increases to FFLs from the distributor level this year alone. Some of the stuff I got in this last month went up 3 or 4 dollars a BOX from the last time I got the same stuff in. With those kinds of price spikes we'll never see pre-Biden pricing until the next Republican is in the White House.

As a small but long term FFL the most frustrating thing for me is that the online places seem to get unlimited amounts of ammo to sell.
I take in ammo orders from on-line vendors for my regulars and the more regular shooters have finally resolved themselves to not getting bulk plinking ammo from me and resorting to ordering it online and shipping it to me. I'm glad that my guys can get it, but for instance I haven't been resupplied on any CCI product since the beginning of the panic. Meanwhile CCI is selling their stuff directly off their own website at retail pricing. Where is the incentive for them to send anything through the distribution system as long as they're able to do that......

For the last year and more I've been playing the allocation game with my sales reps. I place extensive back orders, and they call up a couple of times a week telling me what I can have off the back order list. I have no control over it except by making the original order and declining what gets offered to me. If I decline the offer, I seem to get less offered to me the next time they call.

I personally think that the bottom has fallen out of the ammo market; the stimulus money has dried up, the refund money has dried up, some of the broader ammo panic has stopped. Now the demand is much more focused on certain calibers. For instance, 380 ACP always sat on the shelf, so I traditionally carry little of it. Once my available inventory dried up and I couldn't get more suddenly everyone wanted it.

I think the distributors know that the bottom has fallen out, because the sales reps seem to get testy with me if I cancel stuff. I don't care of I back-ordered something last summer that wont sell now; the ammo market today is entirely different than what it was when I placed the order. And some of those items are significantly higher priced today than what they were last summer. I just got in a few cases of 12 gauge Federal TSS....I know the stuff has a loyal following, but who is going to buy a ton of the stuff when its more than $10 every time the shooter pulls the trigger now? If they call me wanting to send me more of that I'll surely decline the order at those prices.

I generally try to have an 80/20 split in what's on the shelf; 80% the typical low priced stuff that everyone shoots and 20 % the higher end specialty stuff. Once my stashes of the regular stuff dried up over the winter its become 80% high end stuff and I get maybe 20% of my shipments being the lower priced stuff, and that goes fast. Guys will snap it up immediately if I don't put a box limit on it, which I hate to do. Had a case of 6.5 Creedmoor come in this week, first guy came through the door an out the door the case went, before it even went on the shelf. And I wont get any more 6.5 Creedmoor of any type offered to me from my extensive back-order list at the distributors for a month or more.

I know, too long, didn't read. Just some of my thinking on the state of the ammo market today...

 

[tirwin1]

I've gotten a number of emails advertising "all ammo in stock" in the past couple of weeks. So it would seem the worst may be over. Prices are still higher than before the covid nonsense however. I doubt prices get much cheaper as long as Biden is in office or the Dems rule congress.

 

[gun_slinger_boy]

I've gotten a number of emails advertising "all ammo in stock" in the past couple of weeks. So it would seem the worst may be over. Prices are still higher than before the covid nonsense however. I doubt prices get much cheaper as long as Biden is in office or the Dems rule congress.

I don't know where the "all ammo in stock" comes from. It's really always been there but just at outrageous prices.

 

[tirwin1]

I don't know where the "all ammo in stock" comes from. It's really always been there but just at outrageous prices.

For a while even some of the online retailers did not have certain calibers in stock.