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pyscodog

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You could buy a box of 22 bullets for less than a dollar? A 10/22 Ruger was $159.00. Guess those days are gone. The "Worlds Largest" gunshow is this week end in Tulsa and I figure the gougers will be out in full force. Lately at the GS's I've seen the Rugers as high as $350 for a used rifle when new at Wally World they're still under $200. 22 ammo will be high as the roof even though there will be ammo on every table. Dealer tables will run $125 per 8ft table and will be probably sold out. It is a great show but is it really worth the trouble to even go? I know, whats my point? No point, just remembering when gun shows were fun and you could get a deal once in a while.
 
I remember buying good remington .22 ammo for .59 a box. Wasn't long ago you could get a 550 round box at walmart for $8.88 and no limit. I even have a few primers with a .39 price tag on them.
 
Just had a conversation about .22, at the local mart we could get a brick of Federal for $8 and you got a Gerber knife with it.
Still have a couple of those gerber knives in use.
 
I hate to say I'm getting old and those days are gone but maybe its true. Still feel the gougers and scalpers aren't helping the situation any. Every once in a while a deal will come around basically meaning someone selling at a fair price and the local Bass Pro or Wal Mart will have some 22 ammo at decent fair prices but you better be ready cause you can bet someone else will be.
 
I recall when 22lr was .49 a box & under $50 for a brick on sale. A Ruger 10/22 $79.99 and $89 for the walnut manlicher stocked one and a Mark I ruger was $76.99 when I bought my 1st one. Yea and my Ruger M77V in .220 swift was $179 out the door. My M37 Ithaca was $128 w/2 boxes of 12ga, my Marlin 336 30-30 was $79.99 and my Remington 788 in .222 was 69.99 w/3 boxes of ammo at JCpennies!
 
We just had a Gun show In Reno a couple of weeks ago. Bricks of 500 were $ 65.00 Times have changed. I can now reload my .223 cheaper than I can ge some .22 rimfire for lol
 

Originally Posted By: pyscodogYou could buy a box of 22 bullets for less than a dollar? A 10/22 Ruger was $159.00. Guess those days are gone.

Yes, those times are definitely gone. Apparently I'm a lot older than you. I can remember when the neighbor who owned a little country store down the road would break a box of 22 long rifle shells and sell them individually. I remember when I could get two rounds for a penny. Not long afterwards they went to a penny each and I thought it was highway robbery. I cashed in glass "pop" bottles I found along the highway to purchase my 22 ammo.

I purchased my 10/22 Ruger at a Sears store in Norfolk, VA around 1974, for $59.95. I still have it.

I remember when my local Western Auto store sold model 37 Winchester single shot shotguns for $23.00 and I was just a poor country boy with empty pockets. A neighbor boy had one in a .410, used, that he wanted to sell. He first priced it at $15, then finally sold it for $10.

I purchased a brand new Colt New Frontier .22 revolver with a second 22 magnum cylinder, at the Marine Corps Exchange in San Diego, California back in 1972. I paid $79.95 for it. Model 12 Winchester pump shotguns were considerably under $100.

While I was in the military in the early 70's, a gallon of gas was around a quarter. During the Arab Oil Embargo in 73, the price jumped to over 30 cents a gallon practically overnight, and within a couple of weeks, went to around 50 cents. We had gas rationing and I could only purchase gas on certain days of the week, going by the tag number on my vehicle. And when I finally got through the long line and to a pump to get gas, many times they were either sold out, or the limit was $2.00 per customer.

Yet other prices I remember was when a soft drink (pepsi or coke) was 5 cents, same for a candy bar. I remember one time my parents and us three kids had been out, and my parents decided they would stop at the country store and get us all a soft drink, if they could come up with enough money. Between the two, after digging deep in pockets and purse, they finally came up with the quarter needed for 5 drinks.

Such were the days, but then too, a poor man's salary couldn't afford much either.

 
I'm old but not antique, well maybe not, but somethings have gotten to the point of outrageous. I realize costs and wages ect have gone up, thats pretty normal, but the prices people ask at the gun shows are close to legal robbery. Amazing that people pay these prices. Do they never get out? I see deals that are stupid high and people pay the price. One table will have X-rifle for $500 NIB and a few tables away, the same X-rifle for $750 used and people will try to make a deal on it. I just don't figure it. I would like to go to the Wannamaker but feel like its almost a waste of time.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI'm old but not antique, well maybe not, but somethings have gotten to the point of outrageous. I realize costs and wages ect have gone up, thats pretty normal, but the prices people ask at the gun shows are close to legal robbery. Amazing that people pay these prices. Do they never get out? I see deals that are stupid high and people pay the price. One table will have X-rifle for $500 NIB and a few tables away, the same X-rifle for $750 used and people will try to make a deal on it. I just don't figure it. I would like to go to the Wannamaker but feel like its almost a waste of time.

Yep, prices used to be reasonable and a guy could generally find some good deals at gun shows, and especially at pawn shops. No more.
 
As long as people are willing to shell out the big bucks for average quality, the prices will stay high....I've always believed there is a big difference between "Want" and "Need"...While there are some cases where the "Need" is real, usually it's the "Want" that hurts everyone..

As to memories, I can remember when the local hardware store was selling .22 shorts for 25 cents, longs were 30 cents, and long rifles were 35 cents....Like some others, I picked up a lot of pop bottles and sold Pecans door to door for 25 cents a pound to supplement my paper route money as a pre-teen...
 
My first 22 was a marlin model 60 that cost 49.99 on sale. I wish that all of my rifles would pay me back the way that one did. I supported myself and all of my habits from the 7th grade through high school with that gun.
 
I remember going to the local hardware store in late 1968 (I was 13) with my (I think it was) $20 some and change, to buy a Ruger Bearcat. The man behind the counter told me I couldn't buy it. I would have to get my dad to get for me. Because, there was a new law I had to be 21 to buy a pistol. I was so disappointed I didn't get one until I was in my 30's.
 
Ahh, to go back to the freedoms people enjoyed before Lee Harvey
Oswald! Even at a young age, I could see the government over-
reaction and subsequent government violations of the 2d
Amendment through unconstitutional laws ever since. A few years
later, I wanted to order a .22 revolver from Herter's. My Dad
had to do it for me, and Unc Sam had made laws that it had to
be shipped by rail! That was before all the special permits of
now, and having to get orders through FFL dealers!

I recall all the prices 6mm06 mentioned, and all the places
one could get firearms. Some of the corporations that now
own the same companies that once sold ammo and firearms are
with the "anti" crowd.

Also remember the "gas wars" of the late '60's when I bought
the highest octane for 19.9! The price of some vehicles was
less back then than the rebates of the same model of today,
and that's a fact, Jack! Especially pick-up trucks.

Went to a gun show three weeks ago and saw some of the .22
ammo for over $20/50 box. The boxes were very worn from
handling...looked old. Apparently, people in this neck of
the woods aren't breaking down and buying it. If only that
would hold true everywhere, we just might start seeing some
sane prices!
 

I remember working a job for minimum wage at $1.75 an hour.

Yea, I remember the days before Lee Harvey Oswald. My Grandfather was a rural mail carrier and I used to ride with him a lot in the summer and on snow days when school was closed. I remember delivering guns that were ordered by mail, to customers on his route. I also remember when you could order baby chicks through the mail (mainly from Sears, but other places too) and the mail carrier would deliver them to you. As a matter of fact, you could order most anything from Sears, including ponies. I don't think my grandfather could have got one of those in his car though. LOL.

 
Originally Posted By: claimbuster.......and I remember when I only made $480 a month too.

Aging myself, but I remember when that $480 would buy more
than $1,000 ($1,480) more will today.
frown.gif
 
Remember taking trips with family to visit my grandmother in the mid 50's and my dad would stop for gas in Pierre SD. He would drive what was then the "main drag", during a gas war, and often found gas for around $.10/gal. Also remember being sent to the store w/ a note to buy mom a pack of cigs with a quarter. A brick of .22's was $5.00. My brother would come home on leave fm Air Force and with $10.00 we would spend all afternoon shooting his .38 revolver and my single shot .22.
 


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