Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cheaper Than Dirt called out for price gouging

Posted on by

It was brought to my attention in comments that CTD, home of the $100 Pmag, has been called to the carpet by the Texas AG for price gouging to the tune of having to refund $400k to customers.

Some linkage:

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/coronavirus/article242031861.html

BREAKING: Texas AG Accuses Cheaper Than Dirt of Price Gouging

I have razzed CTD for years for their computerized algorithm that raises prices to slow demand as inventory dwindles. Succinctly, as inventory levels go down, the automatic pricing raises the price to slow down the sales of inventory. The idea being that you slow down the sales of inventory so that you’ll get restocked before you run out of stuff. Problem is, in a panic buying situation the inventory is flying off the shelf so fast, and the next resupply is uncertain, that the price keeps going up up up….thats how you get $99 Pmags.

However, you also get them when someone just arbitrarily says “Quadruple the price of everything.”

Regardless, CTD just took a hit to their reputation that is going to be legendary in the gun community for years to come. I expect them to either make a statement denying the charges and saying they settled for $400k to avoid more costly  litigation..or…I expect the to say nothing in hopes it all blows over.

Regardless, for those of you who never saw the earlier times CTD dropped its pants and bent the consumer over……….

ETA: I almost forgot to mention, CTD has also, during times of panic, cancelled existing orders that were already made forcing the would-be purchaser to either renew the order at the new higher prices or go elsewhere. Classy.

Final mag purchases of 2020

Posted on by

Unless something insanely discounted happens, I am done with buying magazines. (Although I am done buying them, there’s still some in the pipeline that aren’t here yet. Most notably a buncha Magpul AR-10 mags.)

Under a Biden $200-tax-stamp-on-magazines program, you’re looking at $40,000 worth of tax stamp. I mean…you know…if a person actually registered them.

For the want of a nail 2021 was lost

Posted on by

“I can’t wait for 2020 to be over!” is something I keep hearing over and over. To me, it’s like hearing people boarding the Titanic saying “I can’t wait for this ship to pull away from the dock and get under way!”

Why does anyone think that 2021 is going to be an improvement over 2020? I mean, think about it a minute….all the negative things that occurred in 2020? The consequences of those events will carry into or appear in 2021. 2021 is going to be full of unplanned, unintended, and unanticipated consequences of things that happened in 2020.

Lemme give you an example – Wuhan Flu erupts and Joe the waiter gets his hours cut or his job ‘temporarily’ eliminated. Ok, we can foresee that. And then Joe can’t pay his rent, but have no fear…government puts a moratorium on evictions. Joe is safe. But there’s further downstream consequences…Sally, the retired schoolteacher who owns the rental property that Joe is not paying rent on, counts on that rental income every month to supplement her small pension. And pay the property taxes on that rental. And the insurance. And now that Joe has a gov-issued free pass to squat there, Sally has to choose between eating and paying property taxes to avoid losing her rental property. Unintended consequences.

I think 2021 is going to be full of downstream consequences like that. People only look one or two, maybe three, steps downstream at what the consequences of some of these things will be. Look further and you’ll see that it takes time for the affects of those things to occur…and when will those affects finally start bubbling to the surface? 2021.

The original proverb goes something like this;

For want of a nail a horseshoe was lost,
for want of a horseshoe a horse went lame,
for want of a horse a rider never got through,
for want of a rider a message never arrived,
for want of a message an army was never sent,
for want of an army a battle was lost,
for want of a battle a war was lost,
for want of a war a kingdom fell,
and all for want of a nail.

The guy putting shoes on the horse probably never thinks that if he does his job incorrectly the kingdom will fall into ruin, after all its just a nail in a horseshoe. But…its an excellent example of how not thinking about the far reaching consequences of an action come back to bite you on the ass.

My point is: there is no, and I mean NO, indication that 2021 is going to be a welcome relief from 2020. Even with a vaccine, the damage that has been done socially, economically, politically, ideologically, and emotionally is already in play. Like an earthquake in the middle of the ocean, the tsunami has already started to head towards land. The fact that it doesnt strike right away doesn’t change the fact that it has already started. Same thing.

More worrisome are the people who think that once the calendar rolls over to 2021…whew!..we’re safe. These are the people who will be caught empty pantry, empty bank account, empty magazines, empty life when 2021 doubles down on the crap that 2020 started.

But…I could be wrong. Maybe everyone gets the vaccine, infection rates drop, businesses (the ones that survived) roar back and boundless opportunities present themselves. Might happen. But I’d rather prepare for the other alternative and be proven wrong, than not prepare because I believe in the rosy future and wind up shoplifting steaks to survive.

 

Article – Stealing to survive: More Americans are shoplifting food as aid runs out during the pandemic

Posted on by

Shoplifting is up markedly since the pandemic began in the spring and at higher levels than in past economic downturns, according to interviews with more than a dozen retailers, security experts and police departments across the country. But what’s distinctive about this trend, experts say, is what’s being taken — more staples like bread, pasta and baby formula.

If you read the article further, they talk about some unfortunate 21-yr old single mom who steals food from the supermarket. Further in the article we get this gem: “…gave up on local food banks because of the lines.” Here’s the part that gets me…she has no job, so it’s not like standing on line cuts into her busy schedule. What it does mean is that this person would rather steal than stand in line for free guilt-free food. Has no way to feed herself but can’t be bothered to stand in line when the food is offered free. :::SMH:::

Out of curiosity, I checked what a single person would get on food stamps (although they don’t call them that anymore). Assuming minimum wage, and if I did the math right, I’d get about $134 a month. Wanna hear the interesting thing? My current budget for groceries is less than that. I can, authoritatively, tell you that one person can exist quite satisfactorily on $134 in groceries per month. And not be a scarecrow. Heck, man…this is a country where you can go into most supermarkets and buy a completely cooked ready-to-eat chicken for $5-8 that will last you two days. And that doesn’t include whatever you scrounge with a little $20 lawnmowing gig, a $15 snow shoveling job, or just helping someone carry a sofa up three flights of stairs.

Heck, minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Discounting taxes (because, really, if all you earn is minimum wage you aren’t paying any federal taxes), all you have to do is work one hour a day to eat better than pretty much anywhere outside the developed world. Get together with another down-on-their-luck buddy, pool your $14.50, and you can both eat fairly well that day. But even on $7.25 a day, you’re not going to starve. At all. (Although it does require a bit of discipline and intelligence in that you need to know how to do basic cooking.)

I used to have a buddy who lived on a VA disability. He was always running out of money at the end of the month. His choice of food? He’d head to the supermarket and buy a meatloaf-and-mashed-potatoes dinner that was basically heat-and-eat. And for the price he paid for it he could have bought a sack of potatoes and enough ground beef to last him 3x longer than that one meal would. But, he didn’t think that way, and he claimed he didnt know how to cook. And as a result he was always behind the curve, borrowing money at the end of the month.  When resources are scarce, and your back is at the wall, you have to think and make careful decisions…not do whats easy.

This isn’t to say that hand-to-mouth living on food stamps is going to be a walk in the park. Nope, nope, nope…my point here is that the goal is to not be dependent on .gov to feed you in the first place. This is why, when you have an extra $20 in your pocket, you pick up a 25# bag of rice, a flat of canned vegetables, a box of oatmeal, an assortment of spices, or whatever else will store nicely in your kitchen cabinets for a couple years.

And this isn’t some class-warfare you-hate-the-poor attitude I’m evidencing. I don’t hate the poor, and I don’t resent the rich. I could very easily be either one, all depending on my actions. I have food socked away so that if, tomorrow, I had absolutely zero income I could still eat. I could probably go for a month or two with literally no change in my current diet. After that, it’s into the stored food and that would carry me for about a year or more.

I can totally see people hitting a hard stretch and, through no fault of their own, having to lean on some form of public welfare….but stealing food from a supermarket because you’d rather not be inconvenienced by standing in line at a food bank is not the same as ‘stealing to keep from going hungry’.

Bargain – 12 CCMG AR 25-rd conversion mags, $199.99

Posted on by

If youre like me (and Crom help you if you are), you like to have .22 conversion kits to allow you to practice cheaply with your guns. CMMG is having a sale on the 25-rd mags that go with their highly-recommended .22 conversion kits for ARs.

Don’t ask “Will this work with my Ciener/DPMS/Mattel .22 conversion?”. I don’t know, I don’t care. The CMMG is the best conversion kit for AR’s I’ve found so I’m not really inclined to go investigating alternatives.

A dozen 25-rd mags for $200. Free shipping.

Deal is for today only, as I read it. Go get ’em.

Intruder Alert

Posted on by

About 11 years ago some drunk interrupted my evening by trying to gain entry into my house. At the time, the response was to gunface him and, unsurprisingly, he suddenly realized he needed to be elsewhere.

Absolute exact same situation just happened again. Second time I’ve gunfaced someone.

This used to be such a nice town……

 

Focus

Posted on by

Guns are a big part of my life… they make me money, they keep me safe, they encourage a particular set of values and lifestyle….but sometimes it gets difficult to remember that  there are other aspects of preparedness that may actually be more paramount.

Between the Wuhan Flu, the repercussions of that flu on the economy, the ‘reset’ that we are seeing as jobs that were formerly secure suddenly become insecure, and of course the economic uncertainty of the upcoming administration, it is not unreasonable to think that perhaps stocking greenbacks may be a bit more prudent than stocking green tip.

There is, literally, no such thing as a secure job. Even if you work for yourself, own the building, and have no competition, you’re job is not secure. Literally anything can happen…..crazy legislation, an earthquake, a divorce, a heart attack, a fire, a war…..there is no shortage of things, black swan and otherwise, that can yank your employment rug out from under you. Certainly, some jobs are more secure than others…but the notion that “oh, I’ll always have a job..there’s always a need for [occupation] so I’ll always be employed” doesn’t take into account those curve balls. There’s always going to be a need for paramedics…so your job is secure. Right up until you get in an accident and lose a leg or your sight. The point is, while you can have a certain amount of security at your job you never, ever, ever have 100% security. So…be ready.

I spent a huge(!) amount of money on materiel in 2020 and, for the most part, I’m done. Oh, if a nice AR crosses my path for a bargain price, or a case of .223 turns up at pre-flu prices I’ll take it. But now it’s time to start resources into improving resiliency. And nothing improves your resiliency in the pre-apocalypse like cash.

My record of forecasting the future has been less-than-great. But…I foresee economic turmoil ahead. I see higher unemployment as flu-related impacts to business cause layoffs. I see jobs going away and not coming back (at least, not in the way they used to be). I see higher taxes on the folks who still have jobs. And I don’t see that changing in the near-term. Oh sure, there’ll be an bit of an economic bounce when we declare victory in The War On Chinese Flu but it’ll be a short-lived bounce.

If someone asked me what to do to increase resilience for 2021 I’d say “Wargame a scenario where you lose your job and can’t find another one at all or at the same wage and prepare for that”. That means clear debts as quick as you can, and start holding cash. Sure, you’ll lose some to inflation but I don’t see a Wewimar-esque hyperinflation coming yet. If you want to hedge your bets, split it among cash and metals. Here’s what I wold not do: I would not buy big ticket items just because I can, I would not buy anything on credit, I would not plan any expensive vacations, and I would not plan on having kids (because do you really want to take the hit of three months without a paycheck  and have the added medical expenses and the additional stresses all at a time when things are so uncertain?)

When you come home, shoulders slumped and your mind racing, wondering how youre going to meet the mortgage now that your boss has said that your job is over in two weeks, will that new 4k television you bought last week seem like a good idea or would you rather have had that money in our account right then?

So, for me, it’s time to quietly make sure the decks are clear and start gathering up all the resources I can. I’m fortunate in that my house is paid off, and I used some of the windfall from gun sales to pay all the taxes for the next year. In a worst case scenario all I have to pay for is utilities and food. Right now money that would otherwise go to things like mortgage payments is freed up to go elsewhere. I suspect 2021 will be similar to 2020 in many ways, but I think it’ll also have some new torments to go with it. I want to be as resilient as I can be against that future. That means checking off the gun stuff from my list and moving on to beefing up the financial resilience. Might want to examine your own situation and see how youd fare if you got that pink slip tomorrow.

 

To sleep, perchance to profit

Posted on by

So although I have what actually could be construed as ‘enough’ magazines for my forseeable use, I want to be in a position to take advantage of any future ban by having extras for sale/trade*. Problem is, I’m not the only one with that idea. As a result, when my primary vendor gets stuff in stock, it moves fast. And then, I discovered something……..

It appears that, on weekdays, my vendor updates their website at several points throughout the day. As those updates hit the website, people pounce and inventory drops to zero in minutes. But…not at 3:30am. It appears that they do inventory updates in the wee hours of the morning. As a result, I’ve taken to sleeping with my phone laying on the bed next to me, with the browser opened to the product page I want, and I wake up a couple times in the middle of the night, refresh the page, and…surprise….the items I want are in stock. And then I scoop it all up for little ol’ me. What is it I’m looking for? Well, I’ve covered myself with about 500 Glock Pmags but I want more AR Pmags and AR10 Pmags.

Drawback is that I’m not exactly getting a solid nights worth of sleep, but on the bright side I’m getting a monstrous stockpile of magazines.

*= “But..but..what if they make the magazines illegal or regulated? Then you won’t be able to sell them?” Of course I’ll be able to sell them, I just won’t be able to sell them legally.