Calibers of Ammo Worth Keeping and Collecting Over the Long Term

thegazelle

thegazelle

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I recently noticed a trend on the secondary market, that some ammo is dropping in price, some precipitously. In particular I was able to find boxes of good brands of 9mm on sale for prices that were from more than 12 years ago.

I suspect the culprit is the banning of all semi auto PCCs in the past few years, coupled with the handgun freeze. I shot mostly PCCs for years, and stockpiled a decent amount of 9mm, and continued to buy more after the bans, but now I have one gun that can shoot 9mm. I was hoping there would be some other models introduced in the market to shoot 9mm in bolt, pump, or even single shot, but it seems like that's been slow...not even the Turks are making cope 9mm long guns.

I think things like .22LR, .308, 12ga, 20ga, .410, and .223 are solid calibers to stockpile long term and I continue to buy them. There are a number of options of makes and models to shoot those and I think they will always be popular. But I really wonder about 9mm. Sure, some retailers can't drop them to secondary market prices, as they probably got their stock years ago and I suspect it's been slow to move them. I can only imagine what it's like for .40S&W.

Seemingly, I am seeing more and more people on secondary markets just dumping their entire collection / stash of ammo. I usually buy the whole thing to get more favourable prices, but invariably I get stuck with boxes of 9mm. I have thought long and hard about slowly divesting myself of my 9mm, but of course the sunk cost fallacy kicks in - I'd be losing money with some of the boxes sold, since I bought the bulk of these around the 2019-2022 timeframe.

Wondering if anyone else is in the same boat, wondering what to do with their collection of 9mm.
 
Funny, I was just looking at my 9mm drawer the other day and thinking it was getting a little light……I never look for used ammo but perhaps it’s time to start. I find it hard to sell ammo. I have a bunch of .204 ruger but no rifle but I will hang on to it because if I ever bought another one I’d be hard on myself for getting rid of the ammo I had.
 
Even tho most of the Surplus is gone (at 30c) , x39 from tenda in Redbox is sorta clean and is only 56c + tax and 223 is about 62c if you buy a bunch. Just gotta shoot more, gazelle.
 
If you have at least one firearm in 9mm, no harm in stocking up. Who knows what will happen down the road. Maybe the price doubles, maybe it’s deemed a military assault round or some BS and banned altogether. Sounds crazy but yeah this is the world we’re living in.
 
With the increased global demand and cost for raw materials used in small arms munitions, I believe prices of ammo will continue to rise more quickly than inflation. World conflict is a driver of ammo costs. On top of that, manufactures, trying to keep up with new cartridge trends, drop old calibers that may have less demand and lower profit margins.
Given that, it seems to me that it’s never a bad idea to stock up on ammo and materials to make ammo (if you have access to good storage options).

It’s not like we haven’t seen extreme shortages of ammo and components and huge price increases in the last dozen years!
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I try to stock up when I see good deals on calibers that I do shoot. I have still 3 or so boxes left of 303 brit that I bought 14 years ago at 24 tax in.
I was at crappy tire the other day and saw 303 brit for 89.99 .
I switched most of my guns to classic calibers with 308 being the newer caliber I shoot. 12 gauge, 223, 22lr, 30-30, 308, and my wife has a 7.62x39 bolt gun.
During covid the local bass pro shop went months without a selection much different than that. My brother inlaw waited half a year to get ammo for his daughter's 6.5cm
 
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