What do you believe will happen with ammo prices?

[hellagerms]

They will fall as drastically and as sudden as the Soviet Union.

[husker_t]

Originally Posted by hellagerms

They will fall as drastically and as sudden as the Soviet Union.

Excellent news! Why?

[bignick31985]

In response to the original question: I dont think anything will EVER go back down in price. It'll just keep rising, faster than pay rates increase, and it will eventually drive some people (if they arent already there) to the edge of being able to live day to day.

Sucks...

[husker_t]

I believe that prices can and do fluctuate, historically. A number of items, for example, cost less in today's dollars than they did a generation ago: computers, many food items, most clothes, many household appliances, most production firearms (yes, it's really true!), and believe it or not, even gas prices. If you don't believe it on the gas, look at this chart: until the very recent spikes pushing gas up to $3.50 in some areas, average real prices for gas between 1987 and 2005 were lower than they had been for the previous 50 years.

But that said, I think you're right that in the near future, the next few years, ammo (and many other items whose prices are shooting up) will not be going down. Why? I think two main reasons: (1) The weak US dollar (which is caused by all kinds of bad decisions by US govt and consumers--see this article on Weak Dollar 101), and (2) China and other emerging countries sucking up a lot of the available raw materials (such as metals) for their growing manufacturing base. Until one or both of these conditions changes for any reason, I don't think ammo prices will be going down.

But if history teaches anything, it's to expect the unexpected. Saying things like "if present trends continue" is always an assumption you have to make with statistics, and it turns out to be wrong more than half of the time. Present trends rarely continue forever, although there are certain constants such as human greed. Maybe new sources of metals will be discovered. Maybe new players in the world markets will start producing it more cheaply. Maybe countries like China will experience an economic and political fall of their own, as Soviet Russia did. You never know what's going to happen, but anyway, I agree that for a minimum of a few years, ammo will likely not be going down.

[Krackels]

Unless the value of the dollar starts to steadily rise, we'll see increased ammo costs.

Increasing gas costs (talk of $4.00 gal this summer), increasing raw material cost (due in part to increased demand), and increased military consumption (War on Terror, and general unsteadiness in the world) along with the inflation/decreasing value of the dollar are all contributing factors that indicate the cost of ammo will continue to rise unless things change.

Buy your reloader and materials, or stock up on your NATO calibers if you can.