What are vendors paying for ammo?

[BAZOOKa]

I know we all like to gripe about ammo prices these days, but it got me wondering. Are the inflated prices all on the vendor side, or have the prices from manufacturers jumped as well? I would have to figure it is soley on the vendor side due to places like Wal-Mart still selling at close to normal prices.
Anybody know for sure though?

 

[mertbl]

Distributors have raised their prices. Shops have to pass that along. Nobody is big enough to pull that with Walmart though.

 

[42769vette]

Its defintally a the distributors who has raised their prices. Most dealers charge x percent over what they pay.

 

[Que]

I doubt if any retailer is going to post what they actually pay for ammo. I have been told that prices have gone up, but how much I'm not sure.

 

[M67]

Have to factor in manufactures raising costs as well. Remington has raised their ammo prices on average about 3% a year for a while, Hornady increases 5-10% a year, and Federal raises their prices, their 22 and bulk 223 raised about 15% for this year while most popular handgun calibers were around 7-9%.

It should be an accepted fact of life now, ammo prices this year will be more that what they were last year, but they will be cheaper that what they will be next year.

 

[armedindy]

Have to factor in manufactures raising costs as well. Remington has raised their ammo prices on average about 3% a year for a while, Hornady increases 5-10% a year, and Federal raises their prices, their 22 and bulk 223 raised about 15% for this year while most popular handgun calibers were around 7-9%.

It should be an accepted fact of life now, ammo prices this year will be more that what they were last year, but they will be cheaper that what they will be next year.

i do not accept this fact

 

[M67]

i do not accept this fact

What's hard to accept about that? It's a commodity bought and sold by millions of people, ammo will always be a steady to high demand item so why would prices ever decrease?

Hell, just the increases in the price of lead should make many think it's a natural rise in the cost of ammo.

I'd love to be buying 5.56 and 7.62x39 for $100 a case and a case of 22 for $75, but those days are LONG gone

 

[BogWalker]

I'd love to be buying 7.62x39 for $200 a case again. I don't see that as out of possibility.

 

[Sajer]

3 to 5% from manufactures......the rest is all middlemen getting their fair share of what they see going on in the market.

 

[GarandTeed]

Prices have increased at each link in the chain. The question is how much is passing along expenses and how much is just flat out gouging? Two months ago PMC Bronze .223 started showing up on shelves in Northern Indiana. One LGS had it for $13.99 and another 20 miles away had it for $9.70 for a box of 20. You be the judge. I tend to have a short memory these days but I won't in gun shops.

GarandTeed

 

[TAT7]

Its definitely a the distributors who has raised their prices. Most dealers charge x percent over what they pay.

I cant speak for anyone else but us of course, but I can tell you that manufacturers have raised their prices (I understand its due to costs which is understandable) a little.

The distributers are the ones that have price jumped us. I quoted 42769vette because what he says is true, we have a percent that we mark up that is "X" amount. This is why for example, in our store you have never seen 5.56 over $0.50 a round, we wont purchase it from our distributers if our mark up of "X" will cause it to exceed that. We have dropped our margin of "X" to keep it under that just so we can offer it to our customers at a reasonable price given the times. The same with AK's, we can get them all day long if we wanted, but will not pay what our current distributers want us to pay, its absurd. On the other hand, this same distributer might have other firearms that are a good deal for us, its kinda weird actually the way they operate. So we can not just "ban" using this distributer per say because not all items are this way.

The distributers prices fluctuate as well. This is why you can see prices go down or even up and down by a small amount at a time.

Another example is this; We have some distributers that we get better pricing from, for example: We pay $10 for a box of ammo, but the next week that distributer is out of said boxes of ammo. So I go to one of my other distributers, they sell it to me for $11. I need it for my customers, so I pay it. Depending on the item and how many of said items we will be forced to pass the cost on, or we eat it because its not a end of the world thing.

These are just examples and are by no means the only factors going into whats going on with todays market. Maybe this will help some understand.

 

[shooter521]

The distributers are the ones that have price jumped us. I quoted 42769vette because what he says is true, we have a percent that we mark up that is "X" amount. This is why for example, in our store you have never seen 5.56 over $0.50 a round, we wont purchase it from our distributers if our mark up of "X" will cause it to exceed that. We have dropped our margin of "X" to keep it under that just so we can offer it to our customers at a reasonable price given the times. The same with AK's, we can get them all day long if we wanted, but will not pay what our current distributers want us to pay, its absurd. On the other hand, this same distributer might have other firearms that are a good deal for us, its kinda weird actually the way they operate. So we can not just "ban" using this distributer per say because not all items are this way.

The distributers prices fluctuate as well. This is why you can see prices go down or even up and down by a small amount at a time.

Another example is this; We have some distributers that we get better pricing from, for example: We pay $10 for a box of ammo, but the next week that distributer is out of said boxes of ammo. So I go to one of my other distributers, they sell it to me for $11. I need it for my customers, so I pay it. Depending on the item and how many of said items we will be forced to pass the cost on, or we eat it because its not a end of the world thing.

These are just examples and are by no means the only factors going into whats going on with todays market. Maybe this will help some understand.

All of this jives with my experience, as well.

 

[TAT7]

Prices have increased at each link in the chain. The question is how much is passing along expenses and how much is just flat out gouging? Two months ago PMC Bronze .223 started showing up on shelves in Northern Indiana. One LGS had it for $13.99 and another 20 miles away had it for $9.70 for a box of 20. You be the judge. I tend to have a short memory these days but I won't in gun shops.

GarandTeed

Not saying this is what happened up there cause I have no idea but I wouldn't jump ship straight away because something like this could have happened....the store selling at $13.99 had paid a different distributor a higher price/or he didn't buy in bulk which made his cost go up....then his mark up is say for example 7% vs the other guys 4% because ammo is not their main focus. Add all that up and maybe thats where the price swing is.....maybe I'm completely wrong and they marked it up 50%, I don't know. I personally would look around at other items to make an educated guess...

 

[Cameramonkey]

Prices have increased at each link in the chain. The question is how much is passing along expenses and how much is just flat out gouging? Two months ago PMC Bronze .223 started showing up on shelves in Northern Indiana. One LGS had it for $13.99 and another 20 miles away had it for $9.70 for a box of 20. You be the judge. I tend to have a short memory these days but I won't in gun shops.

GarandTeed

There is also the VERY remote chance that the lower cost LGS gets less traffic for that caliber, didnt sell out of his pre-panic stock, and decided to not to be a dick and raise prices "just because he could". I doubt it, but thats another explanation.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I saw a springfield XD9 16-round mag for over $30 from a distrubutor. I emailed them and said I can buy it for like $23 on Midway as a consumer so they probably have a typo in their system. They said that the manufacturer raised the price and that's what they have to charge. Hrm. Our other distributor is cheaper than Midway and has been for months since this "manufacturer price increase" took place.