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The problem will work itself out. Eventually.
Aloha, Mark
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Why 9mm so cheap now but others not?
- Thread Starter shibbershabber
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The problem will work itself out. Eventually.
Aloha, Mark
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The answer is simple economics. Supply and demand. When demand increased dramatically, prices skyrocketed, since supply of necessary components also was shrinking (supply chain issues). That is when 9mm prices more than doubled. Manufacturers cranked up production to meet increased demand (and take advantage of increased profits) to the point where supply now has (finally) exceeded the demand, so prices have returned to a more reasonable level. Given the current inflation, those prices will never return to pre pandemic levels, but they do appear to be heading to the $12.50 per box of 50 for Blazer brass 115 gr FMJ. I don't anticipate prices going lower than that.
As for primers, manufacturers make more profit off ammunition, so it will take longer before those prices fall, as demand still remains very strong and there is little motivation for manufacturers to increase production to reduce the prices (and profits).
Prices of ammo that isn't .223/5.56 or 9mm remain stubbornly high simply because the demand for those cartridges is not as high as the demand for the most popular cartridges, so supply of those "niche" ammo has not been ramped up.
There is another LARGE part of this that many never seen to be able to get their head around. People making this stuff do not have a switch on the wall they can flip on and double capacity to take advantage of the price jump. Plants tend to be made to run full out. To make a lot more means new plants and or equipment. If they do this its HUGE cost. Takes decades for the new stuff to actually pay for itself. If they build and then "catch up" the new stuff sits idle all of a sudden. Workers hired to make all that extra stuff are now laid off. Taxes are being paid for the place that is now sitting idle. Loans to buy the new place are still being paid while its idle. This is why panic shortages happen. If it was as simple as so many want to believe, that the people making this stuff are raking in huge profit, and are choosing to just not make more "stuff" someone else would jump in and make it. No one is going to build to double primer capacity only to have the market catch up and people stop buying them. It may "sound" great to keep saying the people making the stuff are "taking advantage" but the fact is this is not how it works. When any item goes through a panic buy the people making it can't just magically make twice as much. Supply chains are long tuned to run at full tilt and shutting them all down at the same time for a hoax, then trying to "turn them all back on" at the same time also creates the mess we have now. Most law makers have no clue how this works so they too were shocked to see what they did and now of course will never admit they screwed this up this bad.
As for primers, manufacturers make more profit off ammunition, so it will take longer before those prices fall, as demand still remains very strong and there is little motivation for manufacturers to increase production to reduce the prices (and profits).
Prices of ammo that isn't .223/5.56 or 9mm remain stubbornly high simply because the demand for those cartridges is not as high as the demand for the most popular cartridges, so supply of those "niche" ammo has not been ramped up.
There is another LARGE part of this that many never seen to be able to get their head around. People making this stuff do not have a switch on the wall they can flip on and double capacity to take advantage of the price jump. Plants tend to be made to run full out. To make a lot more means new plants and or equipment. If they do this its HUGE cost. Takes decades for the new stuff to actually pay for itself. If they build and then "catch up" the new stuff sits idle all of a sudden. Workers hired to make all that extra stuff are now laid off. Taxes are being paid for the place that is now sitting idle. Loans to buy the new place are still being paid while its idle. This is why panic shortages happen. If it was as simple as so many want to believe, that the people making this stuff are raking in huge profit, and are choosing to just not make more "stuff" someone else would jump in and make it. No one is going to build to double primer capacity only to have the market catch up and people stop buying them. It may "sound" great to keep saying the people making the stuff are "taking advantage" but the fact is this is not how it works. When any item goes through a panic buy the people making it can't just magically make twice as much. Supply chains are long tuned to run at full tilt and shutting them all down at the same time for a hoax, then trying to "turn them all back on" at the same time also creates the mess we have now. Most law makers have no clue how this works so they too were shocked to see what they did and now of course will never admit they screwed this up this bad.
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It always does. Memories are amazingly short though. Many of us have lived through multiple panic shortages and watch as people who also lived through them learned nothing.
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That's why I cast one .357 bullet, with, or with out an HP core. I load it in 9mm, or .38spl.
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Volume.
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Well, with any luck now the market has maxed at approx 7% ownership in the US, the planned and financed nationwide charging system was NOT built and a few vehicle mfgs. Have cancelled certain EV projects I'm thinking the EV market is being left to die a quiet death.
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My guess would be big overstocks. Massive shortage so massive production. Then it caught up so now overstocked. None of the other pistol calibers come close in popularity except .22. .22 is back down to 5-7 cpr now too. I can't imagine they ramped up production of the other calibers as much. All guessing though.
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cheaper if you load it and you get a lot more on hand.
Not sure where you're getting your 380acp but I just picked up some for $10.45 a box just a few weeks ago. Most I've paid even recently is $17 a box.I was thinking along those lines at the Outdoor Show a few weeks back. 50 round boxes: 9mm for $13 and .380 ACP for $22. That cheaper box sure seemed to weigh out like it had more materials involved. Fortunately, the only .380s in my gun safe have 7 or 8 shot magazines. That slows my people down.
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I think they (ammunition producers) learned from the previous shortage and demand spike. It took forever for them to catch up last time and .22 was crazy scarce. Seems like this time around they are leaving the machines set and running hell bent. Changing a machine over for less popular calibers is expensive I would imagine. 12 gage same story. It's interesting to say the least.
LOL. Look at the date of my post. That was last year's Outdoor Show at the Bi-Mart display. Unfortunately, I didn't make it there this year to see the current damage, but $10.45 a box does sound like a great deal. I bought a bunch off of a member of the forum last year, so I don't really need any more for the foreseeable future. I also have at least a thousand bullets, primers, powder and plenty of brass on hand, just in case.
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Yeah I noticed that after I posted it. LOL sadly that higher price is still around at a lot of stores still.
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Just for sh!ts&giggles I decided to enter current (March 2024) ammo prices into a database to see where we're at. Sharing the results. The data was derived from (1) eight online companies (2) using their lowest sale price for a particular type of ammo. Not exhaustive, but hopefully indicative.
With respect to 9mm specifically I came up with the following:
>> Average price per round at 48¢
>> Highest cost per round was $2 (Black Hills HoneyBadger Subsonic 125 grain using Lehigh Xtreme Defense bullets, 20-round box)
>> Lowest cost per round was 26¢ (Herter's Target Handgun 115 grain, 500 rounds)
Following is data for select cartridges in case anyone's interested. The column "data points" indicates how many different offerings were included in the calculations for that cartridge. Some cartridges were scarce and so only a few data points, but I included those anyway for reference.
Since the info is in a database queries by cartridge type and ammo brand can be run, as per the example below showing average cost per round for Hornady ammo in the 7mm-08 cartridge, so if any special requests please advise.
With respect to 9mm specifically I came up with the following:
>> Average price per round at 48¢
>> Highest cost per round was $2 (Black Hills HoneyBadger Subsonic 125 grain using Lehigh Xtreme Defense bullets, 20-round box)
>> Lowest cost per round was 26¢ (Herter's Target Handgun 115 grain, 500 rounds)
Following is data for select cartridges in case anyone's interested. The column "data points" indicates how many different offerings were included in the calculations for that cartridge. Some cartridges were scarce and so only a few data points, but I included those anyway for reference.
Since the info is in a database queries by cartridge type and ammo brand can be run, as per the example below showing average cost per round for Hornady ammo in the 7mm-08 cartridge, so if any special requests please advise.
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.48 per round for 9mm and .11 per round for .22 is incorrect in the way people use it. . No one is talking about sd rounds. It's about the cheapest fmj, usually brass cased. 9mm is about $.24-$.26 and .22 lr is about $.05-$.07 right now.
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Note that the data is not attempting to focus only on cheapest. It is just a compilation of what's in stock and for sale. You referenced 22LR. Shown below is a representative sample of 22LR data (not all of it) to show the wide range of what is currently available, at least from the online retailers that were included.
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None of that is needed at all. It takes seconds to look at gun deals or retailers who have good prices to see what 9 mm and 22lrammo costs.
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No argument from me. "Need" has nothing to do with it. Just sharing information for the sake of those who may find interest in the data. If not for you you're good to go. Enjoy either way.
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Yup, 9mm is a widely used police dept caliber.
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In manufacturing of anything, the more of it you make, the cheaper it gets per item to make. A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around this. A good example is something like .32 or .380. Smaller, uses less material to make, is often almost twice the price. Its because its not made in anything close to the same amount. When we have one of our panics and ammo is gone, the stuff that is sold the most of is of course where the factories will put the highest priority. So things like 9mm come back first.
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Yep. It's called 'economy of scale'.
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So what the hell happened in 2013? 9mm and 22LR were nowhere to be seen..for months. Anyone have the real scoop?
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