Whycome so dadgum spendy?

[Abert Rim]

Why are simple lubrisizer dies from Lyman and RCBS going for $30 these days? A whole die set used to cost that much not long ago.
The Lee system is cheaper, as usual, but for BP boolits I like the ease of lubing with SPG in a lubrisizer.

[dragon813gt]

I buy them off Amazon. Some are $27. But I think I paid a little over $20 for most of them. Just have to buy at the right time. I consider the cost marginal since I can't make them myself.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

recently optics planet had a sale, I bought one for $22

[runfiverun]

I ask that same question about everything.
have you looked at the price of shot recently, why is it 46.00 a bag when lead it 72 cents a pound?

[Abert Rim]

Optics Planet sells sizing dies? Gad, where have I been sleeping?

[skeettx]

Union Machinists paid by the hour to make these, and the cost of living keeps going up

[dtknowles]

I ask that same question about everything.
have you looked at the price of shot recently, why is it 46.00 a bag when lead it 72 cents a pound?

It might seem a little high but with the raw material cost of just the lead at $18, add labor, capital, consumables, overhead and profit the wholesale price could be near $36, that would just leave $10 for retail mark up. It does not seem even enough but then I was never in the mood to run a marginal business.

When the price of lead dropped from a $1 down to $0.72 that reduced the raw material cost from $25 down to $18 so a price drop of $5 or $7 could have been expected. Prices are always slow to drop so maybe the drop will still come.

Tim

[Jim_P]

RCBS has very dear prices. On everything. But if you drop your die under your steamroller and break it, they'll replace it. That has some value at least...

[EDG]

A Lyman/RCBS lubrisizer die probably costs about $4.00 to make. I don't think there is a good reason for them to cost nearly $30.

I once worked for an orthopedic company that manufactured bone screws.
Bone screws cost $3.00 each to make out of titanium. There was nothing special about the design since they used the standard ASTM design.
Joy of joys - they sold about 70,000 a year at $75.00 each.

[Doggonekid]

I'm glad that we don't have to involve insurance when we buy equipment or supplies for our boolits. With Obama care it would be cheeper to by all ready manufactured ammo.

$3.00 per screw to $75.00. Thank goodness for insurance. ha,ha!

[mongoose33]

It might seem a little high but with the raw material cost of just the lead at $18, add labor, capital, consumables, overhead and profit the wholesale price could be near $36, that would just leave $10 for retail mark up. It does not seem even enough but then I was never in the mood to run a marginal business.

When the price of lead dropped from a $1 down to $0.72 that reduced the raw material cost from $25 down to $18 so a price drop of $5 or $7 could have been expected. Prices are always slow to drop so maybe the drop will still come.

Tim

Businesses have to sell off their expensive stock before they can replace it with their cheap stock.

My trap club sells shot, and we're still trying to sell out of the expensive stuff bought 2 or 3 years ago; we're getting there but it takes a while.

[dg31872]

I do not mind paying RCBS higher prices for their stuff. It is a one time cost and their warranty is second to none that I know of.
If I buy a RCBS dieset, I only pay it once in my lifetime. If it costs ten bucks more, that is okay. Ten bucks over 30 years is negligible.
Paying for the consumables is what grinds my gears. I plan on buying a lot of powder, primers and lead, and that adds up.

[cheese1566]

I don't know, Midsouth has a Lyman 285 for under a dollar cheaper than RCBS.

RCBS treats me right and excellent customer service in a quick manner. I don't have the sme experience with Lyman....

[Geezer in NH]

Why are simple lubrisizer dies from Lyman and RCBS going for $30 these days? A whole die set used to cost that much not long ago.
The Lee system is cheaper, as usual, but for BP boolits I like the ease of lubing with SPG in a lubrisizer. Uh Check beef prices, property taxes, inflation and dollar devaluation. I remember paying $145.00 for my first brand new Colt Ar-15 sporter at my local gun shop.

[rbuck351]

I bought a HF mini lathe a few years back and now make my own sizer dies for my Lyman, RCBS, Star and Swag-O-Matic as well as M dies, gas check makers, punches and other stuff. My $300 lathe (it's been a while) has paid for itself many times and it's fun to play with. I thought $15 was higher than they should be with $.50 worth of steel and a CNC lathe cranking out one every 30 seconds or so.

[GabbyM]

A Lyman/RCBS lubrisizer die probably costs about $4.00 to make. I don't think there is a good reason for them to cost nearly $30.

I once worked for an orthopedic company that manufactured bone screws.
Bone screws cost $3.00 each to make out of titanium. There was nothing special about the design since they used the standard ASTM design.
Joy of joys - they sold about 70,000 a year at $75.00 each.


$4 is simply an incorrect number you just made up. If it were indeed that easy to make money I'd come out of retirement as a machinist and run them. It's not that the dies are expensive. We have just become poor from a devalued dollar. Real wages have stagnated and become near poverty level. But we still have a guy from Texas who wants to buy in and blame "union machinist".

[fg-machine]

i can agree with EDG a size die would take about $4 to make .. for materials and machine time .

but then that you have to add on all the other costs ,.. the cnc machine that pumps them out surely wasnt free was it neither was the tooling or the labor or the packaging or the shipping and lets not forget all the taxes we have have to pay . along with the electric bills and other utilities .
oo wait lets not forget the facilities it takes to house the machines and workers along with the property taxes and maintenance the facilities require .

so how is that $4 looking now ... as a small business owner i hear that same carp every week . it gets tiresome .

think about this ... i have a small machine shop , and yet i still buy most of my reloading equipment . why you ask .
its simple economics ,.. i can still buy cheaper then i can make . even at what some call over inflated prices .

[Blanket]

i can agree with EDG a size die would take about $4 to make .. for materials and machine time .

but then that you have to add on all the other costs ,.. the cnc machine that pumps them out surely wasnt free was it neither was the tooling or the labor or the packaging or the shipping and lets not forget all the taxes we have have to pay . along with the electric bills and other utilities .
oo wait lets not forget the facilities it takes to house the machines and workers along with the property taxes and maintenance the facilities require .

so how is that $4 looking now ... as a small business owner i hear that same carp every week . it gets tiresome .

think about this ... i have a small machine shop , and yet i still buy most of my reloading equipment . why you ask .
its simple economics ,.. i can still buy cheaper then i can make . even at what some call over inflated prices .Add tooling, changeovers, heat treatment, scrap, receiving and shipping, perishables like coolant, indirect costs of support personnel, fixed costs such as utilities, building heat, upkeep, taxes. Then you add the costs to maintain employees such as vacation, sick time, retirement funds, taxes, insurance, holiday pay,PPE, company picnics, again the taxes. Then you add in variable overhead costs such as advertising and marketing, legal, and personnel depts. If you still think it it is overpriced you might want to develop a business plan and start making them. By the way the cost of the medical screws are only a part of it. Think about it

[Faret]

Union Machinists paid by the hour to make these, and the cost of living keeps going up

The cost of living is going up only because the value of the dollar is shrinking!

[Reverend Al]

Don't feel bad! Up here in Canada a typical 25 pound bag (11 kg) of lead shot is now selling between $75 and $85 depending on the retailer! Trap and Skeet shooters have given up on reloading shotgun shells since we can buy 250 round / 10 box flats of target 12 gauge shells for far less than it would cost us to reload them ...

:holysheep


I ask that same question about everything.
have you looked at the price of shot recently, why is it 46.00 a bag when lead it 72 cents a pound?

[tazman]

I'm glad that we don't have to involve insurance when we buy equipment or supplies for our boolits.

A few years ago the fine state of Illinois tried to pass a law requiring every one who owned a gun to buy insurance on it. The problem was the insurance was going to cost $100 per gun per year. Back door gun control in action.

[Mike W1]

The cost of living is going up only because the value of the dollar is shrinking!

Been doing that for a long time and the pace is accelerating. I always think of buying our acreage on contract in 1972 where the payment was one weeks wages. When I made the last payment in 1992 it was a days wages and my weeks wages didn't purchase me any more than that 1972 weeks wages did. Probably went in the actual hole in fact.

Thank your illustrious reps in DC. There's the problem not some union machinist.

[quasi]

The value of the U.S. dollar has gone way up compared to all other currencies, not down.

[Faret]

The value of the U.S. dollar has gone way up compared to all other currencies, not down.
Really, what is our exchange rate now?

[dtknowles]

Really, what is our exchange rate now?

Depends on how you want to measure it. $45 a barrel for oil. Less than $2 a gallon for gas. About 100 yen to the Dollar, about a dollar and ten cents for a Euro. Yuan has been devalued and there is no Dollar to Ruble mark because, well just because the Ruble is not worth anything.

Tim

[dolfinwriter]

$3.00 per screw to $75.00. Thank goodness for insurance. ha,ha!

The economics of it is that it is BECAUSE OF insurance that they are able to charge exorbitant prices for things, rather than competing for business with lower prices.

Then again, the cost to manufacture the thing is not the only cost that a company must bear to bring it to market. I don't even want to think about the malpractice insurance cost they must have, even if none of their product ever fails. I would hesitate to judge them without having looked at their balance sheet.

[rbuck351]

The reason things cost more dollars is because there are tons more dollars in the economy than there used to be. The reason for tons more dollars is government deficit spending and making tons more dollars with a few key strokes on a computer. Stop govt deficit spending and the money supply will quit expanding and prices will stabilize. The reason govt deficit spending won't quit expanding is because politicians won't quit spending your tax dollars to buy votes and we won't quit voting for the guy that gets us a bigger cut of the govt hog trough than the next hog. It's human nature.

[Faret]

One Man way up in Alaska gets it![smilie=s:

[Larry Gibson]

Got my notice from SS yesterday. No increase because there wasn't any increase in the cost of living. You guys are all just hallucinating about things costing more but it just ain't so. I got the govmunt document that proves it........:cry:

Larry Gibson

[quasi]

Really, what is our exchange rate now?

compared to what other currencies? A Canadian Dollar was worth $1.10 U.S. a few years ago, now it is $.75 per US dollar.

[tazman]

Got my notice from SS yesterday. No increase because there wasn't any increase in the cost of living. You guys are all just hallucinating about things costing more but it just ain't so. I got the govmunt document that proves it........:cry:

Larry Gibson

Yeah. I read that on mine too. Ain't that just the truth.

[GabbyM]

compared to what other currencies? A Canadian Dollar was worth $1.10 U.S. a few years ago, now it is $.75 per US dollar.

Which does not mean the US economy is doing well. Rather just not at the bottom. Neither is Canada at the bottom. World economy is quite bleak. I look for and hope for a turn around before all sit back waiting for the bottom.

[GabbyM]

Plant I worked in for 19 years shut down to move to a non union plant. Almost twenty years ago. I stopped with a fixed pension of $305 per month. Am seven years out from edibility to draw at age of 67 since it's tied to edibility to Medicare. When I started paying into that pension I could draw Medicare at 62. Slice this loaf of bread any way you want. Tin foil hat or no. Fact is the corporation I worked for . Now owned by Ingersoll Rand. Will not have to pay me more than a few cents on the dollar of real world money when this pension comes due for payment. Most of my coworkers took a lump sum payout years ago. I think they may of been the smart ones.

[WILCO]

But we still have a guy from Texas who wants to buy in and blame "union machinist".

Union wages add to cost. Just a simple fact and one part of the equation.

[paul h]

Why are simple lubrisizer dies from Lyman and RCBS going for $30 these days? A whole die set used to cost that much not long ago.
The Lee system is cheaper, as usual, but for BP boolits I like the ease of lubing with SPG in a lubrisizer.

A combination of supply, demand and economy of scale. Face it, most shooters buy factory ammo, most reloaders buy factory bullets. That means the demand for sizing dies is relatively small compared to reloading dies. While sizing dies might require as many machining steps as reloading dies, I imagine the number of sizing dies made by RCBS and Lyman is but a small percentage of the number of reloading dies, if not less than 1%. So with the economy of scale, sizing dies will cost them more to produce than reloading dies, and hence they will be more expensive.

Just a basic drill bushing from a machine shop supply house that is manufactured in bulk and is much easier to make than a sizing die costs $10-15, and they are only available in limited sizes.