Tag Archives: bargains

Estate sale

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Minding my own business…not hurting anyone…just trying to go about my life without interference and pain. And I get a text message:

“Estate sale near your place with lots of gun stuff…” and an address.

Okay, maybe it’s worth checking out. Hop on my bike and ride over.

So here’s how you know the decedent was a serious gun guy.. he had cleared out his dining room, shored up the floor, and parked a four foot bed lathe and a milling machine in there and made it his machine shop. I got there in time to see a guy buy it for a ridiculously low amount of money and then come back with a flatbed and a forklift.

Indeed there was a  lot of reloading stuff…Berger bullets, Lapua brass, etc, etc. Heck there was freaking quiver of Dewey cleaning rods. I started chatting with the gal selling it all. Her dad passed away in February. Turns out, it was someone I knew. I hadnt seen him in about a year and his diabetes finally got the better of him, but not before cruelly making him a semi-blind, fuzzy-headed, nursing home candidate.

Since it was someone I knew, I had a good idea of what would and would not be there. Lotsa 6.5 stuff, plenty of .223, and lots of expensive reloading gear. The kids were up from Florida and wanted to get everything sold and outta there. Pretty much the perfect storm of motivation to allow one to make some…somewhat profitable…deals. So..yeah..I bought it all. Some of it I’m keeping, like the Lapua brass and a fw of the micrometer dies, the rest Im going to try and flip for quick cash.

And I gotta buy some beer for the guy who turned me onto the deal.

And I was trying so hard to not spend money this week. Mmmph.

Achievement unlocked: Bargain AR

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Last week I made the mistake of stopping in a gun store and found a complete PSA AR-15 lower, w/ Magpul furniture for $65. Well, shoot….wouldn’t you have snagged it too? There was some confusion on the paperwork and I complained a bit and they knocked $5 off the price. So, complete Magpul’s PSA lower for $60.

Then today, PSA sends me an email about this. A complete upper, with bolt carrier group and charging handle, for $199 delivered. Ok, that’s not gonna be easy to beat. Order up.

Final total? A brand new, ‘economy’ tier AR15 for $260.

What a… (wait for it)….bARgain.

:::drops the mic:::

Link – Police surplus….M249S?

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Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch and starts chest-beating about how police departments have no need for a semi-auto M249, it is worth noting that this is advertised as new condition and never been unboxed. Likely some department ordered these at the 11th hour to use up their budget so it wouldn’t get cut the following year.

But, if you have $7k to spend….although dealer on a new one is $7700 so its really only a 10% discount.

However, it is also worth pointing out that some departments actually use the M240…most notably, some Texicans.

Blasts from the past

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Here’s why my Roth is underfunded:

But, with most .223 running around $0.32/@ it seemed like a nice way to get some blasting ammo. For you young bucks who are too young to remember, back before Slick Willy was flavoring his cigars with brunettes we could buy cheap Chinese guns and ammo. How cheap? You could get an SKS and a case of 7.62×39 for about $125-150. Seriously. My UPS guy hated me. Quality-wise it was…interesting. At one point even Chinese gunpowder (hey, they invented the stuff, right?) was on the market very briefly until it turned out that it was basically fireworks powder..it had a burn rate measured in Planck time. Their ammo was a mixed bag…always dirty, often underpowered, but always cheap. Kinda made Wolf look like Federal. All those SKS rifles you see these days were purchased because ammo was nine cents per round.

But, if you were just going to the range to break rocks and make noise…well, it was a pretty good deal. I know a lot of people who salted away cases and cases of this stuff. Not my first choice for Der Tag, but some ammo is (usually) better than no ammo.

This stuff? I’ll probably just use it for playing around with the Mini-14’s.Box says brass case but believe it when I see it. As Uncle Duke says…

That Tapco deal

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Sadly, will not come to pass. While I was able to get a good deal on the mags themselves, the vendor wanted, and I kid you not, $314 to ship. Now, I ship stuff for a living so I know how much it costs to ship things and it does not cost that much to ship a couple hundred plastic magazines across the US. So, with the shipping charges wiping out any gains from the discounted mags, it’s pretty much a non-starter. But….I’ll keep my eyes open.

Swine dining

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I don’t mean to blow my own horn here (and, really, who amongst us is flexible enough for that anyway?) but sometimes I do like to brag…. thus:

So..I’m in Albertson’s and I do my usual patrol through the meat department. Sitting on the shelf are four pork whole tenderloins, marked down from $4.99/# to $2.99/#. Now, that’s all well and good, but Zero can do better. Those four (and keep in mind that number ‘four’) tenderloins are also marked down an additional 30%, knocking it’s per pound price down to about $2.09/#. Thats not bad for animal protein. But…Zero can do better.

Me: “Hey, you’ve got these pork tenderloins marked down 30%. If you mark them down to 50% I’ll take ’em.”
Him: “They’re already on sale at $2.99 from $4.99.”
Me: “I know, but Im the kinda guy who needs to feel like he’s really getting a deal, you know? Mark ’em down to 50% and I’ll take all of them.”
Him: “All of them?”
Me: “Sure. All of them.”

Here’s where the wheels flew off my grand plan. Remember that number four from earlier? Well, there were, in fact, four pork tenderloins sitting on the top shelf marked down to 30%. What I did not notice, were the other twenty packages sitting below it, also marked down to 30% off. And…I just committed myself to taking them all.

Uhm. Well.

The happy ending is that in the final analysis I wound up paying $1.50/#. The more interesting part is I wound up with almost 60# of pork tenderloin. The really interesting part is that I had one hell of a time re-arranging the stuff in my already overloaded freezer to accommodate it. I literally cannot fit any more food in my freezer. And, yes, I’m thinking about purchasing another freezer.

Can NOT be re-assembled to make a complete pig.

My normal procedure is to line a baking tray with foil, season one of these things with some sort of spice blend (Old Bay is actually rather nice), cook it up, slice it thin, and snack on it cold. But, lately I’ve noticed that glazing it with sweet chili sauce is actually pretty darn good.

Anyway, I think this counts as a pretty sweet score. I could literally stop buying meet for the next several months and be just fine. Oh, and mind you, there are two tenderloins in each of those packages. Yum.

Bargain background blathering

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Last of the AR mags went out in todays post. Everyone should have theirs within a few days.

In case anyone is curious, what’s the criteria for these sorts of infrequent offers I put out there? Pretty simple – it has to be an item that I need for myself, that can be discounted if bought in a large enough quantity, small enough to ship Priority Flat Rate, and inexpensive enough that I can be okay with getting stuck with keeping it all for myself.

You’d be surprised how many vendors change their tune about their pricing when you ask about buying 500 magazines rather than 50 magazines. But…to get that sort of discount, I need to find a buncha folks who are willing to take a buncha mags off my hands to make the discount happen. Thats where you folks come in.

Remember the 10/22 deal last year? I moved a couple thousand magazines in that episode. When you dial up the guys at Mags-R-Us and ask if they’d do a little better on a thousand magazines…well…numbers start shifting. As a result, I get to buy mags for myself at a good price and pass the savings on to you, as they say.

The drawbacks? Well, its a lot of work. There are always people who make it difficult. They say they want thirty mags and then -poof- they never pony up. Or they order mags and think Im going to ship them overseas. Or they want to pay me when their next unemployment/disability/VA check shows up. Or they just send cash in the mail without telling me (which is fine, but I need to know its on the way so I know to set some mags back…which carries back to Problem Person Number One in this list). And then pack stuff up, labels printed, hauling dozens of boxes to the PO, etc, etc. Its a bit of work.

But, so far, it’s been somewhat worthwhile. I usually wind up with a few extras for my own stash at a good price, and you guys wind up getting what I hope is a good deal. Everyone wins…which is the best situation you can get in a business transaction.

Future bargain buys? If I can get a good deal on Glock 9mm mags or Mini-14 mags, that might come to pass. Before you start jabbering in comments with “Hey, if you can get a deal on .45 Smith and Wesson M&P mags…..” No. It doesn’t work like that. Its stuff that I need for myself, and that Im okay with keeping if it doesn’t sell. If I dont have a Smith, Steyr, or Valmet, then the odds are pretty good Im not going to be looking to fabricate some Smith, Steyr, or Valmet deals. Makes sense, right?

As I said, at the moment the only good deals I’d be interested in putting together (gunwise) are ones that fit my needs. Other stuff turns up once in a rare while…micro Pelican cases, Esbit stoves, etc, etc. But so far the magazines get the best response and thus get the best discount.

So thats how it works, guys. It’s all self-interest. By selling you guys stuff at a good price, I get a quantity discount that lets me fill my own stockpiles. Everyone wins.

 

$100 Mag Deal

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Ok, lets do this……

  • What you get: 10 aluminum AR mags, black in color, dry lube finish, anti-tilt follower, delivered to your door/bunker/rallypoint
  • What you pay: $100.00
  • How you pay: Email me. I’ll send you a link you can pay at with a debit/credit card.
  • When you get: They’ll ship Priority Mail in the second half of next week

Paying online is, Im afraid, the only option. Every time I do one of these I get people who say to set some aside for them and that they’ll mail payment. And then Im left with unsold product when that payment never shows up. In the meantime, I turned away potential purchasers because I was outta stock except for the stuff I was holding back for those folks. Every time. Every. Time.

Exception: If youre local, we can arrange pickup.