Why not name names?

Really, it'd save us the waste of stopping a car there.

Quoted: I was driving around with the girlfriend, and realized I was close to a gun store I hadnt been to before...decided to stop and check it out... Im not going to give the name of the store out, as I dont want to degrade anyone Nice guys working thing, but their prices were THROUGH THE ROOF $1600 for a Type 56 Preban AK47 Depending on condition... although I agree, high $1000+ for regular Norinco Preban AK47s In NYS, this is pretty much market $40 for a East German Converted Bakelite .223 AK mag High, but .223 mags are a rarer breed than 5.45x39 $10 for G3 mags (aluminum) There was a time these were selling for $5-$6 per, $10 is not unreasonable.  Just because Tapco recently dumped their's doesn't mean everyone will be selling them at those prices if they purchased them originally for more. $40 for 140rnds South African .308 ammo Should be around $30 in my opinion, but sealed battle packs are pricey compared to say linked surplus $4+ for a box of wolf 7.62x39 FMJ ammo Deal with it, the stuff is selling through mail order at $150 a case IF you can find it Minimum $900 for ARs (RRA), up to $1600 for some. And?  Once again, a little high, but RRA recently pushed through an across the board price increase of 20-25% I believe $1600-1700ish for preban ARs, I think some were actually over $2k mark Definitely high for used pre-bans, some Colts if NIB can easily fetch this.  I know B&J had three the other day priced under $1,000 - SGW, a PWA and can't remember the other $175 for M44 Mosin Nagant UGGGGGGGGGGGGH! $300 for a No4Mk1 Enfield Not experienced with these, but have seen them up there depending on condition... guessing this wasn't a pristine example? I was shocked by the prices, they were much higher than I had expected for even a retail store to have.....how anyone would be able to afford to actually SHOOT with those prices, I dont know..

The problem is, and I suffer from it too, we all have a little too much knowledge thanks to the Internet.  Just because a guy who deals on the EE and sells hundreds... if not thousands... of stripped receivers a year for $99, we expect the local shop too as well.  Problem is, the local shop might sell 50 stripped lowers a year.  Instead of dealing directly with RRA, they are going through a wholesaler and paying more than the EE dealer.  In addition, they have a storefront to maintain, insurance to pay, utilities, employee costs.

There are a minimum of three employees in B&J Guns at a time, sometimes 4 or 5.  They are making around $10 an hour or more.  They are open 11 hours a day.  Lets assume three and hour, 33 man hours a day, $350 roughly in salary.  Lets say an average day is $7,500 in sales.  That is likely on $5,000 worth of merchandice., leaving $2,500 in "profit."  But wait, that's not really profit.  Subtract employee wages of $350.  $2,150 per day left on average for 6 days a week, call it $12,500 or $50,000 a month.  Now Brian owns the building where his shop is, but he still has a mortgage payment on it, insurance. utilities, maintenance, security service.  Subtract say another $10,000.  Cool, that leaves $40,000 left!

Wait, he maintains an inventory of well in excess of $1 million in firearms.  Unlike many dealers, his inventory is paid in full... well at least 90% of it is.  Some shops are mortgaged to the hilt, its another matter to pour your money back into the shop and have 30-40 gun safes in stock, $15,000 sporting clay guns, $6,000 precision rifles, more than 500 handguns...  You get the idea.

But it gets better.  Say you have some government entanglements.  It isn't cheap to fight the government, it is even more expensive to fight them and win!  I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills dealers often incur over enforcement actions that aren't justified.  Hell, when Brian and his partner split-up under less than desireable circumstances, the legal bills were pushing into the 6 figures.

So while we complain about prices, we aren't forced to buy these products.  Nobody needs a $1,000 pre-ban AK when a $500 Arsenal will work just as well.  If you want the evil features in a ban state, you have to pay.  When I put out a solicitation here to get pre-bans into the store by trading three new receivers for one used pre-ban receiver, I was told by a lot of folks that we were thieves trying to trade $300 or less in receivers for a rare pre-ban that was worth more.  No, just because somebody paid more during a ban doesn't mean it is worth any more... except for us poor folks stuck here.  Your fellow gun owners are more than happy to shove it up your ass for their benefit.  These are the same folks that shops deal with.  And these folks expect shops to pay them retail for their pre-bans, and then others wonder why the prices are so high.

I don't know... with your examples there were a few that were out of line, but most are pretty consistant with what I would expect to see them at.  Also, just because the sticker says one thing... doesn't mean the final price will be.  I know many shops price guns for strangers and good/repeat customers will often see a discount.  I haven't paid sticker price on a gun at B&J's in more than 5 years.