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Posted: 3/17/2013 7:05:33 AM EDT
| In a few short weeks it will be spring break where the wife takes the kids to their Grandma's for a while, I stay home and reload. Given the current market I am contemplating just selling off my stash as I can get double and sometimes even triple what I paid for it. Just curious what anyone else thought? |
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In a few short weeks it will be spring break where the wife takes the kids to their Grandma's for a while, I stay home and reload. Given the current market I am contemplating just selling off my stash as I can get double and sometimes even triple what I paid for it. Just curious what anyone else thought? WOW! With the way things are going the last thing I would ever do is sell the only things that will allow me to defend myself and my country from the up and coming SHTF. That said, I think if money is more important to you then self preservation, then by all means, sell it. |
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Im sorta in between. Just retired a few year's ago and have built up a good stock of component's. Love to reload and shoot but also am a big fishing and boat guy out in tampa bay for the last 45 year's.
I can spend about 30$ going to the range or put 30$ in gas and maintaing the boat (I have a dock 30 ft. from back door ) and each will keep me busy about 6 hrs' or more. It just seems to be more complicated going to the range the last few year's ,traffick,gas and fee's plus some ranges are changing owners (I have 3 rifle ranges right at 45 miles in different directions) and am not sure what's going to be the end result. I will keep my reloading presses and a good supply of components but will let some of the stuff go. I have shot enough to be confident in my mind to be able to pick one up and give it a good run. I just have to much stuff and dont really care to just wear out barrels at this time. Have all the things I want to hand down/over to my son set aside.I dont think he will ever catch the reloading bug so he will be set for a decent supply of ammo. I think I will end up with a couple of carbines and maybe three pistols.Plus the reloading gear, but may start chasing grouper a bit more in the future. Things could change fast so I will move slow.... 
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So if you sell your stash, what are you going to shoot? How soon do you think you will be able to replace your stash? I sold some ARs, a lower and a few hundred rounds of ammo during the panic but I have plenty of each of those things. Heck, I sold three ARs but I built 4 to replace them.  The last thing I would sell would be any reloading components that I would use. I am selling a friend all my 45 ACP reloading stuff but I'm getting out of 45 so I don't need it. |
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Sell stuff where the opportunity for profit is greatest.
I had a stash of SS109 bullets that I sold and upgraded to Hornady 68 and 75 grain match bullets for what I got out of them. Which would you rather shoot? PRVI SS109's or Hornady match bullets? 
I have plenty of ammo loaded up to tide me over until the panic goes by the wayside. |
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Short term gain with poor long range planning is symptomatic of US society. I agree with this. I was just commenting at a match yesterday that I am glad I've been reloading and stockpiling for years now. Although, I do hope this shortage gets over with soon. It's a bit scary seeing everything out of stock, and even the more obscure suppliers being out of stock and taking a couple of months to fill orders.... |
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Short term gain with poor long range planning is symptomatic of US society. I agree with this. I was just commenting at a match yesterday that I am glad I've been reloading and stockpiling for years now. Although, I do hope this shortage gets over with soon. It's a bit scary seeing everything out of stock, and even the more obscure suppliers being out of stock and taking a couple of months to fill orders.... and no end in sight due to the gov't purchase of billions upon billions of rounds. Even the police departments are having a hard time sourcing ammo right now at least a smaller town force is. My cousin who works for them says their range time is minimal, so much they rarely shoot more than a few rounds of 223 anymore. Personally...keep it unless you decide that you've got so much loaded ammo that it will last you a lifetime AND enough to supply you in a 'worst case' event at which point ammo also becomes better than cash :-) |
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One of the worst case senarios happened to me a few year's back. Living on the water and being in a first class flood area I found myself looking at 40 firearms and some 600 lbs. of ammo and having to load all of this plus what ever I may want to ever see again in the back of my F150 with a topper. Had 4 hurricanes come thru that summer, some very close.
I got out of the AR10 and sks bussiness and made twice what I paid for that gear.I have primers and powder that are 20+ years old and would be hard to move now but work just as well as if I bought them last week. Also have plenty that I picked up new in the last few years. It's not that I would what to leave home but I may be forced to by mother nature ( 8 ft water in the house for a few days ) so I need to figure out what I really want/need or move to Tenn. which sounds ok. I really do not see the ammo/ reloading stuff getting back to what we where used to ever,no matter what the prices are.... 
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I wouldn't unless you need the money.
Now, if I had lots of factory loaded ammo, I would definitely make bank on it. I would sell a certain volume, say 1000 of factory ammo, for today's market price. Take that money, and use it to buy components. Essentially you're trading getting around 4 hand loads for every factory round, so you've gained 3,000 rounds. Once you have loaded the replacement for that 1000, then sell another 1000 rounds. Now, if you are sitting on tens of thousands of rounds per caliber, the I would increase that number. Just use a web crawler to find the components, and check places like Nosler's Shooter's Pro shop for deals. You will come out of this mess smelling real good. |
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Regardless of what you sell it for. Your replacement cost will be higher than what you paid for it. This will lower what you think you made on it. I have a feeling that if you sell it you'll regret it later. Now if you had a big stock pile than you could sell some of it off. Leaving whats left over paid for.
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Yep, I'm another to say only sell what you don't use/don't want anymore. I have some boxes of virgin USGI .30 cal 150 FMJ's I bought from Pat's years ago. I contemplated selling them off at a profit because I don't use them as I prefer the results of match bullets. Then again I think, i could load some FAL specific loads and they'd be adequate for FAL accuracy.
I'm going to sell off some spare parts and kits but I really don't see me selling off ammo or components. Heck I think I'd sell a few guns before selling ammo. |
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I wouldn't unless you need the money. Now, if I had lots of factory loaded ammo, I would definitely make bank on it. I would sell a certain volume, say 1000 of factory ammo, for today's market price. Take that money, and use it to buy components. Essentially you're trading getting around 4 hand loads for every factory round, so you've gained 3,000 rounds. Once you have loaded the replacement for that 1000, then sell another 1000 rounds. Now, if you are sitting on tens of thousands of rounds per caliber, the I would increase that number. Just use a web crawler to find the components, and check places like Nosler's Shooter's Pro shop for deals. You will come out of this mess smelling real good. I did this. Since I picked up reloading a had a large stash of ammo become redundant, so I sold a bunch in the last two months to pay for reloading. |
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I sold two 100 round boxes of AE .223 for $200 a couple of months ago. For that , I got about 800 rounds worth of components.
55gr FMJ is 55gr FMJ, and my hand loads are more accurate, and at least as reliable if not more. So, basically , I traded 200 rounds for 800 rounds of the same ammo, only mine is loaded with Varget and more temp stable and accurate. Hard to beat a deal like that. Anytime you can trade for more than you had, you're doing well. I don't have a lot of .22lr, about 600 rounds, but I'm thinking of breaking it down into 50 or 100 round bags and selling it off. You can get more for the smaller portions because it doesn't hit a man as hard as if he was buying 500 rounds at a time. People don't think about dropping $10 or $20 when all they want is to just get a little ammo to feel like they have something. |
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If you think this is gonna be over soon, sell.
But this isn't gonna be over soon. Right after supplies start coming in, the talk of 25% or 50% sales taxes on ammo and restrictions on internet sales will be going round and round. That will start a second wave. The third wave will come as those taxes and restrictions get implemented, state by state. So, sell the stuff if you don't need it this year. But making a short term profit by re-buying it next month is . . . well, . . . unlikely. |
| i'm taking a gamble and selling some of my componets to consolidate to purchase a higher volume of lead bullets once available. doing the same with factory ammo I have stockpiled. selling it off to buy more componets. if all goes well i'll be able to make the stash much larger. |
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In the stock market they call it "dollar cost averaging". Buy at a steady pace whether the price is high or low. That way, over time your net cost is just the average cost.
I do not buy the SHTF mantra. I do believe in the law of supply and demand. I also believe in price elasticity. |
| This extreme demand/supply drought won't be over for at least a year from now. So you have to ask yourself how much are you going to shoot in the next year? If the answer is little or none, then sure I guess I would consider selling my stash. However I don't need the money, and would rather sit on it and have one less worry. For me the future is uncertain and I would rather be safe than sorry. |
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I will take a somewhat contrarian view and tell you why.
The current price bubble on guns and ammo is just that, a bubble. There is boatloads more money chasing ammo than there is ammo/components to fulfill it. Hence prices go up and shortages occur. There will be a time in which prices will start to drop back, more than likely on ammo at first as inventories build up and manufacturers want to move it. If you use the 2008 panic as a general guide, by 2 years later, we were back to where we started and in some cases, cheaper than before. I base my 2 years number on the general trend that we are seeing with prices just about topped out now and in some cases, the price/supply/demand curve has hit an equilibrium and things have stabilized. Example - in 2009, I bought new LC 223 brass. My cost was just about $150 a K; and I had to purchase a crate (~75K) to get that price. By the end of 2011 into 2012, Natchez (or was it midsouth?) had it, retail, for $115 a K. So, if you have bunches of stuff and plenty on hand to cover your average ammo use, I'd go for it. TLDR: Sell what you can and put the money aside for when prices, both ammo and components, slump. I'm guessing the slump is going to be in less than 2 years. TR |
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Right now, the increased cost of loaded ammo is way higher than it is for components. Most components are very close to their prices before the panic, and it is only availability that is the issue.
Sell the loaded ammo, and reinvest that into components. You are going to gain a tremendous amount. In normal , non panic times, you can generally receive a 4 to 1 ratio, meaning that you can generally load 4 hand loads for every 1 factory round. Sometimes you can do better than that. Right now, the odds are about 8 to 1. For every factory round you sell, you can load about 8 hand loads. Right now 1 round of 55gr .223 is going for about $1 each. You can load a round for ¢.15 or so. If you sell that 1 factory round, you are loading 6 rounds of the cheap stuff. The more expensive stuff is even a better deal, and some calibers are much better. You sell 100, you now own 600 hand loads. Sell 1000, you now own 6000 hand loads. When this bubble pops, then you can go back and buy more factory ammo. Save the factory to shoot later, or until the next crisis, and repeat. |
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Right now, the increased cost of loaded ammo is way higher than it is for components. Most components are very close to their prices before the panic, and it is only availability that is the issue. Sell the loaded ammo, and reinvest that into components. You are going to gain a tremendous amount. In normal , non panic times, you can generally receive a 4 to 1 ratio, meaning that you can generally load 4 hand loads for every 1 factory round. Sometimes you can do better than that. Right now, the odds are about 8 to 1. For every factory round you sell, you can load about 8 hand loads. Right now 1 round of 55gr .223 is going for about $1 each. You can load a round for ¢.15 or so. If you sell that 1 factory round, you are loading 6 rounds of the cheap stuff. The more expensive stuff is even a better deal, and some calibers are much better. You sell 100, you now own 600 hand loads. Sell 1000, you now own 6000 hand loads. When this bubble pops, then you can go back and buy more factory ammo. Save the factory to shoot later, or until the next crisis, and repeat. pretty much what i'm doing and hoping for. |
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My factory loaded ammo usage is nill. I have been casting for the last few years and most of my rifle practice and all handgun ammo is done with lead. I have plenty of 223 components for matches. I have plenty of cases and powder, I could be a little heavier with primers and 22 LR. I had a couple thousand rounds of factory ammo laying around, half Wolf, half brass. I put an add on Armslist and had it sold in two days (I made sure I was cheaper than everyone else). All to young men, eager to give me their money and thanking me after the deal was done.
Now I have over $1000 to spend on what I need. I added an air assist to my Star sizer, bought 7 pounds of RL15, got lucky with 5000 primers off Midway and another bought scope. You've got to look at your situation, I just had some ammo laying around for years, turned a quick profit. Bought some stuff I needed. I can wait it out. |
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Meh, I've been selling stuff and re-ordering it. A certain dealer in this state had a bunch of Dillon Precision parts (presses, dies, conversion kits) sitting around and I bought a bunch of it and put it up on ebay. Things were selling so well that I pulled 2 sets of dies and my Super Swage off my own bench and sold them too. With just what I sold those for, I'll be able to order .223 dies, .308 dies, 9mm dies, .45 dies, .223 trim die, .45 Colt dies, .45 Colt Conv kit, and a new super swage with practically no outlay of cash from my own pocket. That said, the market is cooling down FAST. I sold one Dillon 650 on ebay 3 weeks ago for $1025, the last 3 I sold went for between $900-$925, but had to go nearly the full length of the auction before they sold. I only sold my own Dillon equipment because I saw that the backorder was only 6-8 weeks. My current situation is that I've got maybe 2 weeks left before I go back to 60, 70, 80, 90+ hour weeks until July. It won't matter if I've got the equipment or not if I can't touch the loading bench for 3 months. Personally, I'd think about selling equipment, but I WOULD NOT think about selling components. Most of those are backordered beyond belief and you don't know when they'll ever come back in stock. Just my $.02 |
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I'm selling, but I'm only selling stuff that I don't need or have already purchased replacements for. When Wideners had 6K packs of Hornady 55FMJ in stock last month, I ordered one (in hindsight, should have ordered 10, but oh well). I had a 6K pack of Lake City laying around that I bought a while back when there was no hornady in stock (all I've ever used for this load before was Hornady). So I sold the 6K Lake City on Gunbroker for crazy prices. Same with magazines, I sold 5 PMAGs in late December while placing backorders for 50 at "normal" prices. Now I have 30 of those magazines already, which were completely funded by the 5 I sold in late December. I wouldn't sell things I couldn't readily replace, but once I have replacements on the way that I'm confident I will receive, it's open season for gunbroker. I got over $1K for the Lake City bullets I sold, which more than paid for the 6K I purchased last month, and helped fund my latest rifle aquisition. The replacements I already had in hand only cost me $540. So yes, the prices are going up (I probably paid $460 or so for the LC bullets last May), but I still made a decent profit. Beyond that, no, I wouldn't sell.  |
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I went to the Corbin web site and checked prices. It costs well over $2000 for a complete set up to make 0.224 caliber bullets.
At normal prices (if we ever see them again), you would have to make well over 8,000 bullets just to break even on the gear. Then there is the cost of materials. Corbin charges more for the copper tubing and lead core than I wsa paying per bullet. At those prices, it is a losing proposition - there is no break even point. You will be behind the eight ball when you buy the gear and it will get worse the more bullets you make. Does anyone know what I missed because this just doesn't make economic sense. |
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I went to the Corbin web site and checked prices. It costs well over $2000 for a complete set up to make 0.224 caliber bullets. At normal prices (if we ever see them again), you would have to make well over 8,000 bullets just to break even on the gear. Then there is the cost of materials. Corbin charges more for the copper tubing and lead core than I wsa paying per bullet. At those prices, it is a losing proposition - there is no break even point. You will be behind the eight ball when you buy the gear and it will get worse the more bullets you make. Does anyone know what I missed because this just doesn't make economic sense. Cast your own cores and make your jackets out of spent .22 LR shell casings. |
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What does that cost? How much space does it take?
It seems you'd need a dedicated shop just for reloading - casting, swaging, case prep, reloading. I'd bet we are talking $3,000 to get started, then you have to harvest the spent casings, "mine" the lead and do all the rest of the work. Sounds like a full time job. Am I wrong? |
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