I'd like to know how all the hoarders can afford to buy all this ammo? I make decent coin but I cant afford to buy hundreds of dollars worth every paycheque....
I don't get paycheques, anymore which is exactly why I buy a lot of ammo.
When people are buying ammo by going into deeply into debt, that will be a pretty good indication it is grossly over-valued. I pay cash only, or if I use my CC, it's only in amounts I already have in the bank and that I never carry a balance for (same thing with all precious metals).
It really is irrelevant how much your income is, what matters more is your liabilities - Your debt load.
Our communist education system doesn't teach this, but excess production and savings are what generate wealth. Excess consumption and debt create poverty - and debt should be avoided like the plague, except for emergencies or where the debt can be used to generate greater cash flow than the interest paid.
Ammo doesn't generate any cash flow, but unconsumed, it is a form of savings that is liquid, has a market, and moreover natural supply constraints. Personally, I consider ammo a form of savings that cannot incur the expense of inflation, and thus, can be categorized as an asset.
Most people don't think in terms of assets and liabilities, expenses and income. They only focus on income - which is exactly why the middle class in Western civilization is getting wiped out. Income is 1/4 of becoming wealthy, or if not, financially independent. of course, the government neither wants you to be wealthy or independent at all, which is why they don't teach it anywhere and proactively encourage people to act in ways that ultimately will make them poor and in a state of total dependence.
As for my regular update. On my way to TSE for my weekend shoot, I stopped by the Macleod Trail Canadian Tire and they were all out of cheap .22. i was a bit worried, since the 12 gauge bulk packs were a bot cheaper at this CT ($59/250 shells of misc birdshot - or $0.23/shell, compared to the $0.26 I paid. I also bought the last 3 boxes I'd 2.75" slugs for $13.99/15 shells - about the going rate from last year.
I checked out the Walmart across the street, same deal. I was a bit surprised that they had the same bulk packs I bought from CT for 31.50 or $1.50 more than what I paid for the, before the discount.
Went to WSS after, and the cheapest .22 they had was Rem Thumderbolts at $250 If you bought 10 bricks, so about $0.05 per round. I would have bought the last box, but it only had 9 bricks, and that was all they had (they had plenty of stock of the more expensive brands), and with 9 bricks, it would have been $27 per brick.
I checked out the Walmart next door and to my surprise, they had 5 mini bricks of the win 333s for $15 or about $0.04 per brick. I bout them all.
I wasn't going to buy more, but at my club meeting this week I realized I under budgeted how much ammo I was going to need for my youth program, so I made up the difference.
Whats interesting is that it looks like price is starting to reach an equilibrium to meet up with supply, only it looks like the increases have began. I'm used to $0.03 -$0.04 per round .22, but honestly, I think we are now in the $0.06 per round era and the $0.04 per round days are a thing to be reminisced about.
I had a thought to what Joe said about $50 per box birdshot. I really don't think it's improbable. After all, a short while ago many people thought $1000 per ounce gold was impossible, but today gold is at $1600, and anyone waiting to buy at under $1000 have been a long time waiting. I suspect if gold went down to $1000 again, the folks who waited probably wont be able or will be unwilling to get any.
