So after reading these boards for a few months I decided to buy my first AR-15. I dont have much money to spare so I thought I would build it myself. I have ordered a forged Olympic Arms lower and want to build a 16" with A2 stock. Since I dont have much money I thought I would go ahead and buy the lower reciver parts kit and stock, put them together so it would be ready when I got an upper later. I priced the parts, about $55 for lower parts kit, $55 for complete buttstock assembly, $385 for complete upper with bolt and charging handle, for a total of about $500 dollars. I then saw I could buy a kit from the same company for $400. Why does it cost so much more to buy the parts separately? Is there any way to buy the parts separatly for the same price as a kit? I have looked at both Olympic and Model 1 kits.

I think the idea is like a package, they make up a standard package and give the buyer a package price discount.  It's a lot more expensive to sell individual parts, packaging and handling of the parts, you might relate it to building a car by ordering the parts, the individual parts for a $20,000 car would probably cost $40-50,000.

What is really surprising is that we can build a rifle for about $500 that would easily cost $700 to $900 already assembled.

If you add up the smiths time to build, then test fire the weapon, and the FFL tax on a completed weapon that must be payed, the kit with receiver price would be the same price as if you bought a complete rifle.