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I only have one AR-15, I assembled it as a project. I mostly reload 9 mm and plan on getting into 7.5 Swiss. However, having small rifle primers means I can load .223 for 30 cents a round as opposed to factory ammo prices of maybe a buck a round. Friends trying to buy primers from me want them for the sale price from last year. Why would I take $30/1000 (a price that I can get at any time for them) when there is the potential to save $500-700 in costs by keeping them? There are multiple reasons for the primer shortage but one is that some buyers do not recognize the value they have to current owners. They are worth more than 3 cents each right now by every rational measure.

So buyers still want them for pre shortage prices, owners like me are not willing to risk running out of supplies for the small amount of money people want to pay for them. Thus the shortage.
 
Buy low and sell high. When they hit $200 per thousand I will unload all ten thousand that I have.
I agree with you on theory, but that does not match my experience. I was called a gouger for offering them to a friend of my son for $55/1000, a bargain these days. Buyers still want pre shortage prices.
 
I just let go of10k
Why you ask? not like I needed the money, but I had zero plans to use them. Just had them because, will, i thought i needed them. Like every other person thay stock piles. These young bucks need people like me and ever other person stock piling to cut them a brake.

Sharing is caring.
 
Cards on the table, if for whatever reason they were valued at .50/primer, I'd be convinced to sell a few hundred but I'm keeping my thousands until they're $2/ea. You want to pay me 2 Grand for a brick, I have bricks to sell. I didn't buy them as an investment, I bought them to use and use them I do
 
I just let go of10k
Why you ask? not like I needed the money, but I had zero plans to use them. Just had them because, will, i thought i needed them. Like every other person thay stock piles. These young bucks need people like me and ever other person stock piling to cut them a brake.

Sharing is caring.
I donate to charities of all kinds. Reloading is not a charity.
 
Cards on the table, if for whatever reason they were valued at .50/primer, I'd be convinced to sell a few hundred but I'm keeping my thousands until they're $2/ea. You want to pay me 2 Grand for a brick, I have bricks to sell. I didn't buy them as an investment, I bought them to use and use them I do
They are worth at least .50 per primer as we sit. Look at ammo prices, the only thing you can't buy is primers. My mother bought a painting for $5 years ago, it is worth $20,000 now. She is not going to sell it for $5. Things change in value, it is called a free market. Nothing changes gun owners into socialists faster than higher ammo and component prices.
 
I have done some trading. But that is about it. I also don't appreciate gougers who intentionally inflate it beyond market values at current price. If I needed primers desperately, 150 a thousand is 15 cents around. Is that higher than at good times? Yes. And that might curb me making some rounds. It might influence me to put those primers into more expensive rounds. Were you to offer them at 500 a thousand, I would consider that true gouging as it is well over the current market value.
 
I didn't buy them as an investment, I bought them to use
This!

There was a discussion some time back about reloading, and one person who's an adamant anti-reloader said that the advantage of factory ammo over reloads is that you can sell factory ammo as an investment.
True, but so what? I don't load ammo to sell. I load it to shoot.

I admit I can be a bit stingy with ammo. When I go to the range I enjoy the day, and shoot as much as I want, but I don't burn through piles of ammo just to make noise. I have given (or sold cheap) ammo to friends over the years, only to see them blast through it ten times faster than I ever would.

Many years ago, I took a co-worker shooting. He went a little nuts with blasting away as fast as he could. I asked him to slow down but he was like a puppy with a new toy. I finally started taking the ammo off the bench and putting it away. He asked what's the deal? As nicely as I could, I told him that he had just burned through $30 worth of ammo, and I rarely even spend that much (at the time) taking my wife out to dinner.

Another time, I think at the start of the Obama years, I sold a sealed tin of Chinese AK ammo to a friend. He had been complaining that ammo for his AK had gone up in price so much. Against my better judgement I sold him the tin for cheap, not realizing that steel core was desirable and valuable to some. I had been holding onto it for many years, just something to have, sealed ammo in the back of the closet so I'd never be without.

A couple weeks later he was complaining again. He had taken it out over the weekend and burned it all up in an afternoon, and hadn't cleaned it (like I told him he HAD to because it was corrosive) and his rifle rusted. So, I had sacrificed something that was important to me, just so he could have an afternoon of fun wasting ammo in a way that I never would myself, and he never even appreciated it. I was a fool.

On a similar note, an acquaintance once told me a story of how a friend of his passed away, and he gave the widow some money. He's a saver and a worker so he has money, but he's careful how he spends it. His friends were constantly broke. He gave the widow a thousand dollars to help her get by, as did lots of other people who felt sorry for her. The next time he saw her, she was blowing money like a drunken sailor, buying drinks for everyone in the bar and such. He felt like a fool; he had sacrificed by giving her money, but hadn't actually helped her at all.

In our society of plenty, how do you really help people? I have no problem helping people, but if they're just going to blow it and be broke again (money or ammo), what's the point?
 
I have done some trading. But that is about it. I also don't appreciate gougers who intentionally inflate it beyond market values at current price. If I needed primers desperately, 150 a thousand is 15 cents around. Is that higher than at good times? Yes. And that might curb me making some rounds. It might influence me to put those primers into more expensive rounds. Were you to offer them at 500 a thousand, I would consider that true gouging as it is well over the current market value.
Good idea about using them in more expensive rounds during lean times and wait for prices to come back down before putting them in plinking ammo.
 
So what you're saying is, right now, the going rate is greater than $500/brick? Dubious.
I would say it is $300 per brick after you add hazmat, shipping and taxes. That is a bargain in my opinion, if you look at ammo prices actually value is $500 per brick. Look on auction sites if you don't believe me.
 
I have done some trading. But that is about it. I also don't appreciate gougers who intentionally inflate it beyond market values at current price. If I needed primers desperately, 150 a thousand is 15 cents around. Is that higher than at good times? Yes. And that might curb me making some rounds. It might influence me to put those primers into more expensive rounds. Were you to offer them at 500 a thousand, I would consider that true gouging as it is well over the current market value.
Nothing turns gun owners into socialists faster than high ammo and component prices. If someone is willing to pay X, then it is not gouging. It is called capitalism. Gouging is limited to things like raising prices on food and water during an earthquake or hurricane, primers are not a necessity. There is no set price for an item in a non socialist nation.
 
I agree withe the OP.
Primers are not an essential commodity. They are a nice-to-have non-essential consumable commodity.
If you need ammo, there are options like Bi-mart or the classifieds here. Options are available.
If you didn't buy before this last years bout of craziness, (bummer), be prepared to pay more. How much much more, is up to your discretion and a willing seller. If a seller sells at pre-pandemic prices there is a decent chance someone will be flipping your items for profit.

It sucks but times are not normal, nor are the prices to guarantee you have what you want.

Stay safe out there, I think this roller coaster ride is going to continue for months to come. January will likely be quite exciting to see where prices go with the new administration being sworn in.:s0092:

That said... take care of close friends and family. Hopefully they'll do the same for you.
 
I have to admit. I've been paying $100.00-$200.00 a brick for primers for the past three months. I'm going t get all I can. And then when the price hits $400.00-$500.00 a brick guys will have to pay ME that big money!! Because I will have them AAALLLLLL!!! :s0087:











not really.
 
I have to admit. I've been paying $100.00-$200.00 a brick for primers for the past three months. I'm going t get all I can. And then when the price hits $400.00-$500.00 a brick guys will have to pay ME that big money!! Because I will have them AAALLLLLL!!! :s0087:











not really.
I can't find the ones I buy for less the $300 per brick once I add hazmat, taxes and shipping. I am glad I stocked up.
 

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