Old pellet prices 🤔

Paul SE

Paul SE

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I was having a sort out of paperwork and magazines and found an old catalogue from Jim Johnson, dated December 1976.

I didn’t start going to the shop until around 1980, and .177 RWS Hobby pellets were £1 per 500 by then.

I’d like to try those heavyweight .177 pellets at 47p for 500 😂⚠️

IMG_3278.jpeg
 
When I started shooting airguns, in the early 1960s, a tin of 500 pellets was about 5 shillings (25p)

But a tin of 500 was a luxury to an impoverished, 8-year-old schoolboy so we would buy a small box which contained 200 pellets... and cost about 2 shillings (10p). We could afford those at pocket money prices. :)

Occasionally a parent or grandparent would give me a treasured tin of 500. . Dancing banana

Happy days.
 
Well time has changes....
Every thing tend to be expensive now.
I feel it is worse since Brexit.
 
Nicopod said:
Well time has changes....
Every thing tend to be expensive now.
I feel it is worse since Brexit.
Click to expand...
It’s FA to do with the B word, pellet prices were already rising exponentially due to the increased commodity costs of metals post 2008 crisis also driven by the appetite of PRC to buy up massive quantities of raw materials.
Not too long back now but I used to go to a meet at Doveridge circa 2005 ish where the guy who ran it used to sell Air Arms Diablo:
.22 were £6
.177 were £5, both tins (or plastic in the case of .22) 500 pellets. 😳
 
I think I’m paying the same price for 500 econ IIs, as I did in the 80’s for Wasps… £3.99 😆
 
I got into airguns much, MUCH too late in life (mostly a powder burner until a few years ago), so I know nothing other than what they are now, mostly. They have gone up a noticeable amount in the short three years I’ve been seriously into airguns, though! :(

My best deal to date was finding an older gentleman who was retiring from competitive airgun shooting and was liquidating his stock of .177 H&N Finale Match Heavy pellets for $4/tin of 500 shipped. I bought all 66 tins he had without hesitation! They’ve been great in my HW30 and HW50 so far, and at less than a penny each I can shoot all day without guilt! Wish I could do the same with my .22s and .25s!
 
Basher42 said:
I got into airguns much, MUCH too late in life (mostly a powder burner until a few years ago), so I know nothing other than what they are now, mostly. They have gone up a noticeable amount in the short three years I’ve been seriously into airguns, though! :(

My best deal to date was finding an older gentleman who was retiring from competitive airgun shooting and was liquidating his stock of .177 H&N Finale Match Heavy pellets for $4/tin of 500 shipped. I bought all 66 tins he had without hesitation! They’ve been great in my HW30 and HW50 so far, and at less than a penny each I can shoot all day without guilt! Wish I could do the same with my .22s and .25s!
Click to expand...
What a win 😁
 
The Squire said:
It’s FA to do with the B word, pellet prices were already rising exponentially due to the increased commodity costs of metals post 2008 crisis also driven by the appetite of PRC to buy up massive quantities of raw materials.
Not too long back now but I used to go to a meet at Doveridge circa 2005 ish where the guy who ran it used to sell Air Arms Diablo:
.22 were £6
.177 were £5, both tins (or plastic in the case of .22) 500 pellets. 😳
Click to expand...

Yep... Brexit, the pandemic, Ukraine etc were all perfect 'recent' excuses to ramp up prices on everything (pellets, building materials, energy etc) which 'stabilise' for a bit but never come down. Of course, all major world events will have some impact, but quite frankly (in my opinion anyway), I think most manufacturers and suppliers view such events as an opportunity. Not only that, demand... I remember pellets, such as QYS for example, making their debut at a reasonable price, gaining popularity, and the prices predictably rocketed.
 
I think there is a degree of greed factored in. If Wasps and Econs can be had for less than a Happy Meal, there must be something not quite right with JSB's pricing. Raw material alone cannot explain rising costs when 500 equivalent H&N can be 40% cheaper. The tragedy being a high proportion of shooters 'swear' by JSB taking them to the exclusive club of charging what they can get away with.
 
Which ever way you look at it we are really screwed over when you look at the prices of pellets today, sadly its not something you can make yourself and get decent accuracy This said rumor has it a man in Cardiff is doing just that, see tin below.

spitfire.jpg
 
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