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22LR price in 2006
- Thread Starter Fish rite
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Tease!
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Mercy, mercy me... Things just aren't what they used to be.
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and you can't buy a bottle of pop for 15cents either
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In 9 years we've seen the price of ammunition increase by 200% so that it now costs three times as much. I'm pretty sure that the average American family has not seen a 2x increase in their incomes.
Keep printing dollars Obama, soon it'll take an entire paycheck to buy a brick of 22lr.
Keep printing dollars Obama, soon it'll take an entire paycheck to buy a brick of 22lr.
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Have several boxes of mini mags from bimart priced at 2.79 each. Yep just before BO.
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Really? Guess bimart pricing last week of 6.79 for mini mags limit 1 was a great price!
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I think he was talking about the $7.99 for 525 rounds in 2006 and not your $2.79
Not if you start buying it today, when you can. And when the time comes that a brick of 22lr really does cost an entire paycheck, well, you'll have something to bargain with then, won't you?
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Fairly priced 22lr right now beats gold and silver. Anytime I find it I buy it. For future currency.
I still chuckle at seeing 22lr generic ammo a couple months back with INDIVIDUAL price stickers on them for .25 cents - at Wal-Mart?. (Pic was posted here).
For instance, if I see CCI Mini Mags/100 for $6 - sold. No need to think about whether it is a good deal or not. Better than money in the bank.
I still chuckle at seeing 22lr generic ammo a couple months back with INDIVIDUAL price stickers on them for .25 cents - at Wal-Mart?. (Pic was posted here).
For instance, if I see CCI Mini Mags/100 for $6 - sold. No need to think about whether it is a good deal or not. Better than money in the bank.
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haha, what's the point of posting price back in 2006? I can post price of gas price back in 2006.
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I've heard people say the reasons for the price increase are inflation and cost of metals.
Inflation, as shown in post 8, is of fairly minimal effect.
The result from the cost of metals is actually fairly minimal also. If the cost of lead goes up 50 cents per pound, that's a big jump. If copper goes up a dollar a pound, that's a big jump. How many pounds of lead and copper in a box of ammo? Not many, and it's pretty easy to calculate. The increase due to inflation and metals can really only account for two or three dollars per brick, not the massive increase we've seen in recent times.
All of which lead me to believe it's all about demand, simple as that. I had one seller at a gun show try to tell me that this is the new normal- .22 lr will never be cheap again, and $30 and up for a brick is just how it will be. Gas is no longer a dollar a gallon, and bread is no longer a quarter a loaf.
I say BS. The factories are cranking out more ammo than ever, and especially with increased volume the cost of production is likely cheap as ever. The higher prices (even the $25 bricks when Bimart and Walmart have them) are artificial due to sky-high demand. When and if the time comes when supply caches up to and outpaces demand, prices will drop.
When everyone has a basement full, the factories are still cranking them out, and shelves are full, they will go on sale. This may not happen for some time, and who knows what could happen next that could trigger panic buying, but unless they ban .22 ammo or tax it crazy (not going to happen, IMO), it will come back down again.
Inflation, as shown in post 8, is of fairly minimal effect.
The result from the cost of metals is actually fairly minimal also. If the cost of lead goes up 50 cents per pound, that's a big jump. If copper goes up a dollar a pound, that's a big jump. How many pounds of lead and copper in a box of ammo? Not many, and it's pretty easy to calculate. The increase due to inflation and metals can really only account for two or three dollars per brick, not the massive increase we've seen in recent times.
All of which lead me to believe it's all about demand, simple as that. I had one seller at a gun show try to tell me that this is the new normal- .22 lr will never be cheap again, and $30 and up for a brick is just how it will be. Gas is no longer a dollar a gallon, and bread is no longer a quarter a loaf.
I say BS. The factories are cranking out more ammo than ever, and especially with increased volume the cost of production is likely cheap as ever. The higher prices (even the $25 bricks when Bimart and Walmart have them) are artificial due to sky-high demand. When and if the time comes when supply caches up to and outpaces demand, prices will drop.
When everyone has a basement full, the factories are still cranking them out, and shelves are full, they will go on sale. This may not happen for some time, and who knows what could happen next that could trigger panic buying, but unless they ban .22 ammo or tax it crazy (not going to happen, IMO), it will come back down again.
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For kicks, I looked up some historical charts (Kitco - Spot Copper Historical Charts and Graphs - Copper charts - Industrial metals) for copper, lead and zinc, and calculated the weight of each in a 500 rnd brick of 40gr .22lr ammo.
In the past five years, copper and lead have more than doubled in price, and zinc nearly doubled. In 2008, the spot value of the metal in said brick was $2.14.
The current spot value of the same metal is about $4.50. That's a real-world increase of $2.36. Add another dollar for inflation, and that $10 brick of .22s in '08 should be about $13 now, all else being equal.
Of course all else is not equal, because the cheapest you can find now, if you show up at Walmart and wait in line half a day, is about double that price. BUT, if the factories keep making them, and people stop buying them, there is plenty of room for the price to drop, realistically.
In the past five years, copper and lead have more than doubled in price, and zinc nearly doubled. In 2008, the spot value of the metal in said brick was $2.14.
The current spot value of the same metal is about $4.50. That's a real-world increase of $2.36. Add another dollar for inflation, and that $10 brick of .22s in '08 should be about $13 now, all else being equal.
Of course all else is not equal, because the cheapest you can find now, if you show up at Walmart and wait in line half a day, is about double that price. BUT, if the factories keep making them, and people stop buying them, there is plenty of room for the price to drop, realistically.
Wow, that's impressive. Before I even got to your second post here I was remembering a conversation I had with a fellow who rubbed shoulders with some higher ups at Nosler. He was telling me how the base metal prices have been climbing faster than the retail cost of the ammunition for the last three decades or more. The hypothesis was that at some point, possibly with the help of a destabilizing event like the election of a democratic president or mass shooting, the relative costs of the ammunition and the components they are made of need to catch up to one another. You just showed what would happen if they caught up for the last 5 years, but what if you consider going back another 25 years? Of course we've had a number of potential destabilizing events over the last 30 years so this hypothesis has probably been coming up in conversation for a while.
So I wonder what else was contributing to that $13 dollar box of ammo being $16-18 this time last year. That and the fact that Burt's frighteningly right about .22. What else can you buy in quantity and store away which also doubles in value in 6 years?
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I'm inclined to think that demand and therefore price never really fell back to pre-'08 election levels.
I've wondered about that too. I remember people talking about how much a box of ammo cost in the '50s, and you can go back and find old ads going back as far as you want with the price of arms and ammo. When you factor in inflation, I don't think it's ever really been cheaper than it was in recent years. I think people shoot a lot more (volume) than they used to, on average. Modern manufacturing is capable of producing a better product for less cost.
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You guys have pretty much predicted exactly what I've been saying - prices are going to drop at some point. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Later they'll stabilize at a price lower than today and higher than 2006. Meanwhile, I bought a case of .22LR (5000 rounds) earlier this year for $350 because I had less than a case left. It has turned out to be a good decision. I'd probably do it again right now if the opportunity presented itself. I really miss the Cabella's 4200 rounds of Federal with the free ammo box and free shipping. I think it came out to 3.4 cents per round the last time they ran that special. Still got the ammo boxes...
