In a perfect world there would be an endless supply of surplus ammo but unforturnately that's not the reality of surplus ammo. A lot of the surplus ammo is going away because it's just that, surplus and not being made anymore and there isn't much of it left in many calibers. He sells a lot of what's out there. Plus he doesn't make that much on the commercial ammo he sells let alone the surplus and in some cases comes close to even losing money on the surplus.
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SGAmmo Returned or Damaged Packaging Items, Discounted, To Many To List
- Thread starter WeldonHunter
- Start date
Their name's still the same. Gabbert right? Oh you mean Performance Ammunition Center. Know it well.
You're not the only one that trolls.
Damn most of it's gone!!
I wanted some S/G shells....
I wanted some S/G shells....
the quality problems with surplus these days is what makes commercial ammo so much more appealing.
With Commercial ammo I can make a calculated decision on the investments and it always works out because the product is 100% consistent in its characteristics. So for example, I can buy 100,000 rounds of 45 aguila at the rate of $260 per 1000, then plan to sell it for $289.95, knowing I loose 3% (8.70 per case) to the credit card companies, and end up clearing a net profit of 21.25 per case, so I get to make $2125 profit of a $26,000 investment. The margin is thin, but volume is good and the product is consistent and good quality so there are no returns or problems
With Surplus the calculated decision often goes astray. For example an actual experience, I buy 195,000 rounds of German DAG 308 at the rate of $345/1000, and anticipate selling it for $389/1000. however when we get the ammo, the there is 1x65,000 round pallet that is 50% full of corroded, stained, degraded ammo mixed into each and every box where ever the ammo touches the cardboard it is corroded. Then I have to pay my workers $20 an hour to go through, dump the ammo loose, sort out the clean stuff from the bad stuff, bag it into 20 round bags, pack the bags into ammo cans, then sell that ammo for 39 cents a round, then it leaves 32,000 rounds of nasty corroded degraded ammo to sell at a huge loss for reloading components. Additionally some cases get shipped out before the problem is discovered, so we have to pay to return them and then pay to send an exchange back.
Additionally there seem to be a lot of people who want to buy surplus and get "new ammo". Which is to say people are appealed to surplus because of the price, however they are not experienced with surplus and have the expectation of like new ammo, so when they get a few stained or ugly looking rounds in a case, or a little dust on the ammo, or or a dent in the can, or a crate with a broken handle or some other imperfections that one who is knowledgeable about surplus would expect from ammo that is 20-50 years old, then they want to return the whole lot at my expense and a full refund, and a "special deal" on the next purchase because I sent them "bad ammo" and "wasted their time" and "made them miss their shooting event", then I get back the return and there is nothing significantly wrong with the ammo at all and the whole deal is at our loss. Really some people just should not buy surplus at all.
Anyway this is just a couple examples of the same sort of problem that happens all the time with surplus, in 2011 I'm pretty sure we lost more money on surplus deals like this than we made on the good ones. Surplus has been extremely inconsistent in quality and with low profit margins, a likely occurrence of 10% degraded ammo, costs from returns, costs and time consumed from labor to sort and inspect questionable lots, it just is not really appealing to chase surplus deals. They only things that seem to be 100% perfect are the soviet spam cans of 762x54R and 5.45x39
Regards
SG
With Commercial ammo I can make a calculated decision on the investments and it always works out because the product is 100% consistent in its characteristics. So for example, I can buy 100,000 rounds of 45 aguila at the rate of $260 per 1000, then plan to sell it for $289.95, knowing I loose 3% (8.70 per case) to the credit card companies, and end up clearing a net profit of 21.25 per case, so I get to make $2125 profit of a $26,000 investment. The margin is thin, but volume is good and the product is consistent and good quality so there are no returns or problems
With Surplus the calculated decision often goes astray. For example an actual experience, I buy 195,000 rounds of German DAG 308 at the rate of $345/1000, and anticipate selling it for $389/1000. however when we get the ammo, the there is 1x65,000 round pallet that is 50% full of corroded, stained, degraded ammo mixed into each and every box where ever the ammo touches the cardboard it is corroded. Then I have to pay my workers $20 an hour to go through, dump the ammo loose, sort out the clean stuff from the bad stuff, bag it into 20 round bags, pack the bags into ammo cans, then sell that ammo for 39 cents a round, then it leaves 32,000 rounds of nasty corroded degraded ammo to sell at a huge loss for reloading components. Additionally some cases get shipped out before the problem is discovered, so we have to pay to return them and then pay to send an exchange back.
Additionally there seem to be a lot of people who want to buy surplus and get "new ammo". Which is to say people are appealed to surplus because of the price, however they are not experienced with surplus and have the expectation of like new ammo, so when they get a few stained or ugly looking rounds in a case, or a little dust on the ammo, or or a dent in the can, or a crate with a broken handle or some other imperfections that one who is knowledgeable about surplus would expect from ammo that is 20-50 years old, then they want to return the whole lot at my expense and a full refund, and a "special deal" on the next purchase because I sent them "bad ammo" and "wasted their time" and "made them miss their shooting event", then I get back the return and there is nothing significantly wrong with the ammo at all and the whole deal is at our loss. Really some people just should not buy surplus at all.
Anyway this is just a couple examples of the same sort of problem that happens all the time with surplus, in 2011 I'm pretty sure we lost more money on surplus deals like this than we made on the good ones. Surplus has been extremely inconsistent in quality and with low profit margins, a likely occurrence of 10% degraded ammo, costs from returns, costs and time consumed from labor to sort and inspect questionable lots, it just is not really appealing to chase surplus deals. They only things that seem to be 100% perfect are the soviet spam cans of 762x54R and 5.45x39
Regards
SG
way to go SGAmmo...Tell 'em how is done..
