The Good Old Days

[whiskeybill]

I found these in the back of my primer drawer today. Bought them when I was in high school and never used them (yet).

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[sobo]

Less than a penny a piece! Mein Gott!

 

[po18guy]

Back when Osco Drug sold real stuff.

 

[TTSX]

Back when $2.30 was the minimum wage

 

[Yarome]

Wow! So expensive! Maybe because they are magnum primers??

I found these in one of my loading boxes a couple weeks ago. Hard to make out in pen but paid 57 cents. (We didn't live in the big rich city with all their fancy-shmancy individually printed price stickers) Couldn't begin to tell you how long ago that was though.

 

[Hueco]

Having no idea what year that was, I just popped 0.89 into an inflation calculator for 1960. Value today: $8.64.

If only.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Having no idea what year that was, I just popped 0.89 into an inflation calculator for 1960. Value today: $8.64.

If only.

And then there's the $100 neckbeard tax..

 

[whiskeybill]

I had a tray of CCI #200 primers from "Gibsons Discount Center" priced at .65 cents from the same time frame (1969 -1970). I loaded those up a few years ago. I had found a tray of Remington 9 1/2 primers in my Dad's plunder when he passed away, the tray was made of wood, no price. He probably paid a thin dime for those.

 

[Caveman Jim]

INFLATION…

 

[Longwalkhome]

Unfortunately these are the good old days for a lot of folks.

I remember $5 a brick for 22 lr.

 

[41mag]

Back when I started shooting 22LR nobody had heard of "a brick", we were all too poor to listen to such rumors.
I do recall a gallon of gas was about the same as 'a whole BOX of 50' 22 shells....
I knew about gas because I had to buy a gallon now & then for the lawnmower business I ran.

 

[solv3nt]

Back when I started shooting 22LR nobody had heard of "a brick"

 

[TTSX]

Having no idea what year that was, I just popped 0.89 into an inflation calculator for 1960. Value today: $8.64.

If only.

I saw a "76" at the top of the sticker so used that as my year guess to come up with a minimum wage. Point is, the price then was not really much different than the price today in real terms but you know... The good old days when the youngins would work for peanuts

 

[ajgunner]

July of 1994---$13.90 per brick of WSP. The shortage of primers in that era had me stocking up when I could. Must have done it right because I am currently still loading from my stockpile. Call me a hoarder if you want, but I am smiling every time I pull the handle or trigger.

 

[whiskeybill]

View attachment 1181006
July of 1994---$13.90 per brick of WSP. The shortage of primers in that era had me stocking up when I could. Must have done it right because I am currently still loading from my stockpile. Call me a hoarder if you want, but I am smiling every time I pull the handle or trigger.

Oh yes, the Clinton years and their primer fiasco! That's when I said "Never again"!

 

[RVTECH]

Man this brings back memories!

I remember primers at about .79 - .89/100 when I started reloading (1977),

I also remember them at about maybe $1.79 in about 2007/08 however when 2009 rolled around and Obama became elected they surpassed $2/100. It seems around this time .22 passed $10 a brick and went to like $12.99 overnight.

Then came Sandy Hook and prices of all reloading supplies & ammo climbed steadily and then disappeared for a long time (much like now).

By around '14-'15 stuff started re-appearing but much higher prices and I seem to remember primers averaging around $2.49/100 - depending on the brand/style. I believe some of the 'match grade' were closing in on $3/100.

 

[bionic knees]

about "78" or so a buddy and I went to the coast-to-coast store in Madras to get some primers [probably large rifle for the rock chuck guns] anyway they were marked .99 per hundred. the "new" clerk sold us the whole brick for .99. score of the day!

 

[bionic knees]

Unfortunately these are the good old days for a lot of folks.

I remember $5 a brick for 22 lr.

I remember getting them for $6 at the Monument store/gas my cousin and I would go through a brick a day in our bolt action rifles and if we could show his dad a big enough pile of dead sage rats he would get us another brick the next day. [the good old days]

 

[whiskeybill]

In 1995 (I had just retired from the Navy and was in Montana) I was in a Coast to Coast store in Laurel, and saw American Eagle .22 bricks, all marked at .99 cents. I bought ten of them. Whoever marked them was supposed to put the stickers on 50 round boxes. I left there in a hurry.

Last summer I was in Sportsmans browsing around, and I noticed they had some bullets I had been looking for, limited production Hornady 6.5 160 Gr Round Nose Interlocks. I picked up the only two boxes and headed for the checkout with a few other items. As I walked out the door, I realized they had only charged me $15 a box for the bullets. Saved me about $60 right there.

 

[whiskeybill]

Back when $2.30 was the minimum wage

Yes, but a bit of perspective. I was in high school, still living at home. Summers I did ranch work, and during the school year I pumped gas. Drove a '49 Chevy pickup that I paid $50 for. Aside from saving money for school, (and an occasional rifle here and there) that money was mine. Mom and Dad gave me a roof over my head, but never asked for anything but help around the house and yard. Back then, I never bought more than a tray of primers for anything. Matter of fact, I never saw a brick of primers in any stores back in the day. I am still stumped how that tray of primers wandered around with me all these years and never got used.