That's the thing though, if you don't like how someone is conducting their business than you don't have to shop there.
That's the thing though, if you don't like how someone is conducting their business than you don't have to shop there.
right, the issue is all the new people getting into the market who are literally purchasing their first firearm and ammo purchases.
these people are paying whatever. especially younger buyers who have been waiting to hit 18/21. they don't have any other choice. which is why imo the smart owners are encouraging those crowds to buy right now and inducing panic amongst them.
these people are paying whatever. especially younger buyers who have been waiting to hit 18/21. they don't have any other choice. which is why imo the smart owners are encouraging those crowds to buy right now and inducing panic amongst them.
A fair point, vote with your wallet. I haven't bought ammo brick-and-mortar in years though, online ammo stores are just better even when you have to pay shipping. I used to use SGammo a lot since they are an Oklahoma business but they need to fix their prices. They have corrosive primer 7.62x39 for around 50cpr and the normal non-corrosive stuff is going for 27-30cpr everywhere else. Insanity. I want to support local businesses but I rarely see any deals worth taking in brick and mortar stores. I know margins are thin but I just can't imagine they get enough business from people who don't use the internet for gun stuff to justify losing the business of those of us who do. But I'm just a customer in this market, not an FFL.
in my opinion (which they tell me ain't even worth two cents anymore, but i tell them inflation means it has to be near a dollar!) the combloc market, unlike the ammo market, is more of a result of actual scarcity and not business induced panic.
there are actual bans in place to prevent the $300 ak from ever being a thing ever again. same with the $50 mosin. there's literally no reason why a single round of brass 9mm cost .15c just two years ago and now it's .35c or .50c other than panic. yes, i know supply yada yada, the point is the stuff is being made. of course, more people buying, some going to law enforcement, i get it. more ammo is spread around than russian ak's, yes.
but holy crap the panic is the main driver and anyone who argues otherwise misses me. this whole covid bs is just that; it's literally just bs. we could say "it's over" and it would be over tomorrow. it's just panic. that's not the same as an import ban that is straight up making import of certain things illegal.
while there is constant legislation to do just this with ammo and other firearms, the fact we're seeing the results of an import ban from almost a decade ago at this point is really pushing that market into off the charts. and it ain't gonna get any better. imo, if you want an sks, you should most likely pay the $600 or $700 asking price. there was an absolute beauty on here just a week or so ago, it might still be available. i do NOT expect them to get any cheaper.
also the left/right dynamic once more. we are seeing more left aligned people purchase firearms than ever, in fact they are pushing the "most gun sales ever" stats we keep seeing. we've always been buying guns, but now they are too. and these people can't overthrow the capitalist bourgie state with black plastic rifles, oh no, they have to have to combloc. they NEED it.
i sold a tokarev to one on armslists. pretty sure she would have considered herself antifa. not like i saw her before the sale, just assumed she was a girl. that's when i realized what was happening.
Agreed on that front. I think that there is some actual scarcity-based price fluctuation occurring in the combloc market. I think it is exasperated by PSA and KUSA bringing the combloc market back into view a bit with their firearms - it is less arcane/mysterious to get into when you can buy one made in America. Add to this the big panic about Biden issuing another Obama style import ban and you have a ramped up combloc market. It is a real shame that I missed the heyday of combloc surplus by just a few years and now that I have the means and ability to really start collecting the market is on fire. I can't bring myself to pay $500 for a basic garbage rod Mosin or $650+ for a chicom SKS. At those prices I might as well shell out another couple hundred bucks and either get a rarer example of the rifle or just something new. You can't even recommend an SKS/Mosin and a spam can of ammo to the newbies anymore, there are better new-production bolt actions in the $300-400 range and you can have a budget AR for $650-700.
absolutely. it's not too much unlike the used car market, and i will clue you in on something i think *will* occur that also mirrors that market.
while right now the prices between crap rifles that sold for $50 and rifles that were always considered of value have equalized, that's no different than say a 25 year old 300zx selling for the same amount as a 25 year old maita. even tho the 300zx likely sold for upwards of $50k NEW BACK THEN, while the miata was likely under $15 brand new.
however; if you had one of both in good condition, EVENTUALLY the market returns as now you enter a phase wherein the buyers a more straight collectors and the main driver of demand isn't "it's a cheap thing" it becomes "it's a collector thing". once this occurs, you see those once considered not a big deal differences in quality make a huge difference. you see classic cars that were base models selling for good prices now, yes, but nothing compared to the unicorns that were already more rare.
longwinded, but basically saying i think you are very much correct in that if you can spend just a bit more now to get something that you know isn't a literal trench carried doorstopper (but hey, if you are into that, get one!), then it will definitely be worth it later.
the newer buyers value things differently than we did. like it or not, they gamify things. things must have a hierarchy, this gun must be better than that one. we didn't care it if was an AMD-65 or a WASR or a SAIGA, they were all about $400 ak's. well that's changing QUICK with the russian stuff already double the price of the others and going up.
and yeah, what's really wild is when i could and did buy $50 mosins and $350 saigas, i wasn't buying ar's because the cheapest you could get to enter that market was $800-$1000. back then getting two aks, plus 1080 spam cans of 7.62 or that sweet, sweet 7n6 was more than worth the cost of one what i considered crappy ar.
and imo the main driver of the price drop is PSA. i've got a bunch of them, i've shot colt ar's, daniel defense, i dunno how many others. to be completely honest, i don't really see much difference. PSA got the prices of your basic b ar down to below $400. that's absurd to me.
i have a K-USA KP9 and so far it rocks. it doesn't seem any different quality was than my saigas (which i paid considerably less for back then, as they were the "ew cheap ak get a wasr lol"). if PSA and KUSA can drive down the cost of american ak's i would totally be in favor of that.
but i do believe the imports will ALWAYS carry that value. even if the american stuff hits the below $500 point, i don't see that affecting the import stuff if the ban is still in place.
Inverse for me. When I finally could buy guns I immediately nabbed an AR and gear for it since I figured I'd rather have an AR if we got another AWB. Then I was gone overseas and stuff. When I got back the AK market was already super inflated and I had other priorities. Now I am in the position to collect and paying out the nose for everything. One of my biggest regrets is not just grabbing an unconverted saiga in each caliber and throwing them in my dad's safe before I deployed to convert later on. I have some 7.62x39 AKs but getting into 5.45 just doesn't make as much sense as it used to. 5.45 rifles are double or triple what 7.62x39 rifles go for, mags are 20-50% more expensive, ammo is the same price as 7.62x39 if not higher... etc etc. And with the price of 5.56 I don't have any interest in an AK556 either.
yeah, fwiw i got in and bought saigas, but I DIDN'T BUY ENOUGH. lol, i can still hear my girlfriend at the time "YOU BOUGHT ANOTHER AK?! YOU WILL NEVER SELL THEM" and because of her i actually did sell a 7.62 converted saiga for $600 because i thought "heck that's double what i paid!" >_<
i, like you, literally told myself to get at least one of each caliber. i didn't, but i've learned you can only kick yourself so much. wait til i tell ya about the junky who was offering me these things called "bitcoins" for a bag of plants, a beer, and a cheeseburger.
i, like you, literally told myself to get at least one of each caliber. i didn't, but i've learned you can only kick yourself so much. wait til i tell ya about the junky who was offering me these things called "bitcoins" for a bag of plants, a beer, and a cheeseburger.
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