Hoarding versus profiteering...

**zachomega** · May 5th, 2009, 02:58 PM

I've been thinking about this since the York gun show...

It doesn't bother me so much that people are hoarding for personal use. I can understand. As I saw it put before, if you can buy when the price is low or before ammo becomes unavailable, we'd all do it if we could.

I also saw somebody posting along the lines of how shooters (all of us) shouldn't be blamed for wanting to shoot and wanting to have ammo to do it. Once again, I totally agree.

However, I have also seen, what to me, looks like people taking advantage of this situation. For example, I saw at the gun show, a guy with a bunch of 100 round WWB value packs that looked like they were clearly bought from Walmart sitting on his table at nearly 2x the going rate at WalMart if you can find it.

I'm not saying they can't charge what they want...because clearly they can. But isn't there some sort of ethical problem? It's not like they bought 9mm just to have some to sell to customers...Once again, I understand that. But we are talking about buying out all of the available stock just to charge 2x the going rate and to fuel the hysteria that ammo is harder to get than it might actually be.

Yes supplies are limited. Yes business owners have to watch out for their businesses. But at what point is it just gauging and profiteering?

People will pay what they are willing to pay. But when I see Federal and Remington value packs of 22 LR marked at 30$ like they are doing me a favor, I take offense to that.

I guess I am just venting. Hopefully this isn't out of line and please take my post with a grain of salt.

-Zach

**LorDiego01** · May 5th, 2009, 03:43 PM

Its called capitalism and a free market.

So long as the buyer is willing to pay for it, the seller should be able to set whatever price they want; and nobody should get in the middle of the transaction with words such as.. "profiteering" or "hoarding".

Just my $0.02

**zachomega** · May 5th, 2009, 03:55 PM

Fair enough. As I said, just venting some thoughts. Sometimes it helps to get them out into the open and get some different perspectives.

You make a good point about capitalism and free market.

-Zach

**7998** · May 5th, 2009, 04:42 PM

I can see how you take offense to that but,,,,,, It is a free market society(supposedly anyway). He has the right to ask as much as he wants, just as you have the right to tell him to shove his over priced ammo up youknowwhere. Don't worry either he'll probably end up selling it for a fair value or someone in a tin foil hat will suck it up.

**Paradigm** · May 5th, 2009, 04:49 PM

Sweet. Problem solved.

Please, oh, please lock the thread.

**ungawa** · May 5th, 2009, 06:41 PM

Free markets work best. Over reasonable timeframes. That's why Mormons keep 6 months of food in their homes.

Tell your grandfather you are stunned that you went to the bank/supermarket/range and didn't find money/food/ammo magically waiting for you there at a reasonable price and he will slap you.

**TXDMERC73** · May 5th, 2009, 07:00 PM

I feel this is OBAMA's Secret Agenda.... to pay the ammo companies more tax credit by charging more for their ammo so it can control the guns u see what good are guns with no ammo? eh ? makes sense if he cant control our guns he can find a way to control our ammo.

**Paradigm** · May 5th, 2009, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by TXDMERC73

I feel this is OBAMA's Secret Agenda.... to pay the ammo companies more tax credit by charging more for their ammo so it can control the guns u see what good are guns with no ammo? eh ? makes sense if he cant control our guns he can find a way to control our ammo.

Uhhh...so why are the manufacturers working 24/7 trying to make enough ammo? There was a thread on here about that....

**TXDMERC73** · May 5th, 2009, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Paradigm

Uhhh...so why are the manufacturers working 24/7 trying to make enough ammo? There was a thread on here about that....

if they were really working 24/7 i dont understand why there isnt very much ammo... they should think out of the box and create more jobs cuz, i doubt it they will ever meet the demands with the tiny ammo factories they have now...they be a fortune 500 company if they would build more ammo plants.9mm ammo is back ordered many months and so is various ammo. it would help the economy if they built more ammo plants...why doesnt OBAMA help build more ammo plants since the demand is so high?

**Paradigm** · May 5th, 2009, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by TXDMERC73

if they were really working 24/7 i dont understand why there isnt very much ammo... they should think out of the box and create more jobs cuz, i doubt it they will ever meet the demands with the tiny ammo factories they have now...they be a fortune 500 company if they would build more ammo plants.9mm ammo is back ordered many months and so is various ammo. it would help the economy if they built more ammo plants...why doesnt OBAMA help build more ammo plants since the demand is so high?

Business regulations are insane. I can only imagine how much more insane the regulations are on ammo manufacturing. Expanding a plant is a costly venture - and something you only do when you forecast prolonged growth, not a 1-2 year bump.

Basically, you can't just go out and "create more jobs" - it takes a lot more than that.

As far as the reasons why ammo supplies are low, you can search one of the many, many other threads that explain it.

Oh...just for good measure, since it's only a matter of time: GOUGING!!! Woohoo! I said it!