I can see how many people have never run a business.  There's nothing wrong with shopping around, but SERVICE costs money too.  People rail all the time about how a vendor (often one with great prices) doesn't have this or that item in stock when they decide to order one.  Guess what?  It costs a vendor big money to STOCK items, and every day those items sit in inventory, the MORE it costs the vendor.  It also costs the vendor to hire and KEEP a sufficient number of quality employees (who generally demand decent wages) to insure that your order is taken quickly and correctly, and that items are shipped out in a timely fashion.  And it costs the vendor money to deal with warranty returns, "I just didn't like it" returns, and so forth.

Those costs must all be covered, and (GASP!) a profit must still be made, else why remain in business?

Yes, there ARE shady vendors who are out to scam people, and you SHOULD do the research and avoid them.

In the end, though, you get what you pay for, and it's up to you to make sure you're buying what you need.

-Troy

Ahmen Troy! I am a small time dealer and can't afford to keep 20k in inventory (yet) sitting around. I offer good prices on a lot of items, but don't always have them in stock. The dealers that charge MSRP or close to it have a a large inventory so you are paying for convenience.


C4

They have to do it by lowering their overhead costs.  Several Internet dealers here work out of their home, and do everything by Internet/mail order.  But, as C4iGrant says, those guys can't stock everything, and they don't have a retail store that you can go to and do a "touch and feel" before you buy, or take something back if it doesn't work.  And, as their business grows, it will get to the point where they can no longer work out of the home, and they have to move to an office/warehouse somewhere.  Inevitably, this will result in higher prices (witness SableCo's recent move) to go along with the increased inventory and improved service.

Again, it's clear that many folks here no nothing about the taxes, permits, accounting, legal, advertising, financing, employment, benefit, research, travel, and other costs involved in running a business like this.  All of that has to be covered before any "profit" is made.  And that's true of everyone who deals with retail sales.

I hear at least a couple times a week about how "that's easy, anyone could do that" about running various businesses from either people at work or folks that I run in to.  I always ask "well, why aren't you doing it then?"  I rarely get an answer, and when I do, I ask "well, don't you think THEY had to overcome the same hurdles you're describing?"

The bottom line is this: assuming you're a good shopper/consumer, you buy only things that you feel are a good value to you at the price they are at the time.  Sure, a guy selling bottles of water in some remote place may charge $5 each for bottles he paid $.25 for at Costco.  It's up to YOU to decide whether $5 is worth less to you than being thirsty with no other sources for water.  At that moment, that $.25 bottle of water probably IS worth $5 to you.

If you don't value Knights, ARMS, GG&G, or other products at what they cost, then don't buy them.  But complaining that they cost too much is a waste of time.  If they DO cost too much, no one will buy them, and the market will correct itself by either lowering the price or discontinuing the item.  There's no better way for things to work.

If you don't believe me, compare the standard of living in the US (relatively free market) vs the Soviet Union (socialism) in the 70's and 80's.  That should convince you.

-Troy

Guys,

When you factor in the cost of goods for the top end AR parts even at MSRP there is not that much margin in this stuff.  It is not like we make $100 profit per RIS system at MSRP.

At GTS we stock around $80,000 of inventory so we can fulfill your orders immediately and we have a real building that is devoted to sales of Gun, accessories, manufacturing etc. that has costs.  Add in insurance, wages, advertising, taxes, web fees, Industry Partner fees on this site and the margins begin to shrink real fast.  We sell a lot of stuff below MSRP but you can only go so low and still eat.

Do you want good service and support if it all goes wrong or a real cheap price.

I have read rant after rant on this very board about guys who got ripped off or shitty service from various vendors on this board and you can't help but notice most of them are the guys who sell real cheap.  There is a reason they sell cheap, NO SUPPORT!!! if it goes wrong.

If I ship you an order, generally within 24 hours of receipt, and it gets lost in the mail or is damaged when it arrives, we ship you the same order immediately, no drama, we just ship it to make you happy.  Happy customers are repeat customers.

We also guarantee every product we sell.  If you are not satisfied with it, just return it.  We will refund your $$$ or give ya a credit.

Nobody bitches about that policy when they are the ones who need help, but it costs me, right out of my pocket, but I do it to keep the customer happy and I don't whine about it, I just do it.  It is my policy.

We do not get a huge profit margin on most of the stuff you see on sale here on AR15, in fact most of it is pretty low margin and generally the higher the MSRP the lower the margin percentage wise.  It all has to be factored in.

Fairness to all is what we strive for.

Denny