Let me put this thread into context. I sell guns, but not for a living. I am actually at the point in my gun selling career that I really don't care about making money anymore. My time is now worth more than the money I make at my shop. I am tired and I am burnt out from spending every hour outside of my regular full time job at this gun shop. I want to go back to just being a nice local store that offers superior customer service and guns at a decent price.
I do not "need" to make any sales to anyone at this point in time. I have no desire to stir up a frenzy and keep the sales going. So save your cries of "stiring up the pot" and claims of FUD.
What I am going to tell you is the truth. There is not a single AR15 lower receiver or complete AR15 rifle left at any of the wholesalers. The only guns I do see are a few R15s, but even those are starting to go. SIG 556s, Mini-14s, and M1As are out. Pretty much everything semi-automatic and rifle is gone.
That is not all. Glocks, Springfield Armory XDs, Sig pistols, S&W M&P pistols, and just about every other pistol out there are now gone too! Gone. Just bits and pieces of OD or unpopular colors remain and those are even hard to find. Home defense shotguns are drying up too. I can't find .223 ammo anywhere.
In short, the wholesalers are pretty much out of everything.
Now, some of you are not too worried because your local store still has some of these items in stock and they also have them at their old prices. I can tell you first hand that my inventories are rapidly depleting of anything semi-automatic. My ammo supplies are going faster than I can count. People are buying and buying a ton.
So honestly, how much longer do you think the local store is going to retain their inventory? As soon as someone finds a local guy who has anything left, what does he do? He tells his buddies and they go down there and wipe them out.
I am predicting in about a month everything that gun shops have will be gone. This is going to force them to go to the wholesalers and find more. There is just one problem, the wholesalers are out of everything.
Sure the gun manufacturer's will try and ramp up production, but that is not that simple. For example Rock River Arms has always been on a large back order ever since I got into this business three years ago. People have always complained about their what was once 4-8 week wait on uppers. Then it became 6-12 weeks before the panic. Now, I have no idea what their wait time is. If they could have magically increased production, don't you think they would have done it?
The manufacturers do not want to spend millions of dollars to increase production and they won't. So in short, here soon you are going to see a true shortage. I already see it as a retailer and it will be only a mere matter of weeks before you on the consumer side see it too.
So what is a gun store that relies on their income as their primary source of income going to do? Are they going to continue to sell Glocks for $550 when they were only able to find two of them and they have 10 customers wanting it? The mom and pop store hasn't sold a Glock or been able to pay a bill for weeks or months. You know what they are going to do. They will raise their price.
What will anyone who realizes that the demand has far surpassed the supply do? They are going to raise their price.
However, that isn't what I would worry about if I were some of you. There will always be plenty of shops and businesses that won't raise their prices. However, will they have anything in stock? When they do get a handout here and there of 10 lower recievers and they are still selling them for $115, how long do you think they will last? What are you going to do when one person or another vendor buys them all right then and there?
So what I am warning you all of today is that I can see wholesaler inventories. There is nothing left. It is only a matter of time before retail inventories will be the same.
I have what I want. I am content right now save maybe that 20" tactical upper build I wanted to put that Trijicon TA31A4 on. I hope the rest of you are happy with what you have. If you are not, be ready, it is going to get ugly.
I thought I was going to get rich from this Obama craze. It isn't true. I realized it on election night when my middle man out of state called me and said that there was nothing anywhere in stock of anything. That is when it hit me. I can't get rich selling items I don't have. That is when I realized well too late, I wish I had stocked up even more than I already was.
And the reasons for this are insignificant. Never mind that Obama hasn't even taken office yet. Never mind that we have Heller on our side. Never mind that Congress is not by and far anti-gun and that they are still held responsible to gun loving voters. Never mind that Obama has large issues at hand.
The gun consumers of America are scared. They are buying guns like there is no tomorrow. Which causes people on the fence to get scared. Which has started a buying panic. Now people are buying guns just because other people are buying guns and they don't want to be left out.
The only hope left is that when there are no guns left to buy, the squimish will just quit and go home. Maybe people will give up and demand will come down. I am not willing to bet any money on that one.
So as one Calgunner to another, I am warning you. This thing is going to get much worse. How much worse I do not know. However, I do know here shortly, there will be nothing left and consumers like you and me who have been building up an arsenal will be just fine. I have nothing to worry about, I have mine.
Feel free to disagree with me. Hope deep down inside I am just making this long speech to drum up sales that I no longer receive from 90% of you since I stopped shipping. Time will tell.
i have an XD-45 and I love it, its a great gun. i dont think you'll find anything bad about it. the only people that have anything bad to say about them are glock-freaks that will never shoot anything but a glock. and i agree with Baroom. i dont like glocks. in fact, i HATE them! they may be great guns, but i just dont like them. they feel like im holding a piece of lumber in my hand and i dont like the finish on them.
.. did u change the sights on ur xd?how does she do with lead bullets? ever had the tactical...
Glock guys can say what they want but the XD's are fine weapons. Light, Accurate, not overly expensive, and reliable.....IMO
