imported post
It's simple economics. If everyone wants ammo and mags and they keep selling it for a low price, it will be snapped up by the relatively few number of people who get there first and the later arrivals won't get any. The free market allows the prices to rise to meet demand. Because of this say you WANT 1,000 rds, but only NEED 500 rounds and you WANT 10 mags but only NEED 5 to meet your personal defense and shooting priorities. So you go to the store and find that the prices are up 20%, so instead of buying the 1,000 rounds you settle for 500 rounds and instead of buying 10 mags you only buy the 5 you really needed. When I come into the store a few hours later I am also able to buy 500 rounds and 5 mags because they are still on the shelf because you didn't buy them. Eventually demand, production and price catch up to each other and the prices stabilize or, more often, start to fall because all the people already have what they need and aren't going to buy any more until the price falls to what they are willing to pay for what they just want. So price increases like this, of a limited commodity, actually allows many people to have some of the commodity rather than a few people have a lot of that commodity.
I don't expect Obama to do anything significant against gun rights his first term. so I didn't rush out and buy a bunch of ammo, mags or new guns as I already have most of what I need for personal defense and sporting purposes. I've bought a little more ammo I'll be shooting up in the near future just to hedge against immediate price increases but I expect that with the global recession that the price of precious metals such as copper and lead will come down and that once this buying frenzy is over and Obama does nothing against gun rights for a year or so that all these prices are going to come back down. I could be wrong but I'm willing to risk it.
