CHEAPER THAN DIRT BACK IN THE NEWS

No surprise here..

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/04/03...reLOtMV6uoIdXqiYdiE2VYtIVOMP_COy3uam9RUY

And nothing has changed. Same reason I wrote them off a long time ago.

CTD is the retail equivalent of the old guy at the gun show with the $950 Tapco’d SKS.

I wouldn’t even give them that much credit anymore.

Yeah they are more equivalent to a US PPE distributor selling 3M Masks to foreign countries for bigger bucks when they could be used here to save lives....that's CTD.

Have not bought from them since their first price gouging.

I hope they go away.

another half [censored] so called gun store , hopefully the will go out of business soon

IDK how they stayed in business after the last couple crisis'. They suck & haven't bought from them since 2008.

Honest question - how are gun stores supposed to keep supplies during panics like this? If they don't increase price, they won't have any inventory. And for a dedicated gun store, I'd think priority #1 is having some type of stock available. Maybe not?

There’s a right way and a wrong way. They went the wrong way. All gun stores I’ve been in are still getting shipments daily and have product on the shelf. Maybe not the same selection but they are not empty.

Say you sell all the guns in your inventory. Does it matter if you do it in 1 day or 25 days? Nope. You make the same amount of money regardless of how long it takes you to sell them.

I swore several years ago to never darken their door or spend another penny with them.

They have NOTHING that I want or need. They will eventually go away.

This is no surprise to anyone. It will be interesting to see what the final AG opinion is on the price gouging. I know every time the word gouging is used here people chime in with the legal definition, but I think we all know there is a legal definition and a practical definition. CTD absolutely meets the practical definition. I haven't had any use for them for many years and this doesn't change that either way.

Back just before the first panic hit ( late 2008 I think ), I had a standing order for 1k rounds of 7.62x39. Before they processed the order, the panic buying started. They promptly cancelled my order saying the stock # of the ammo I ordered was no longer in stock, but the new stock # was in stock (same EXACT product) and I could order it. Problem was, the price on the "new" stock # was 2-1/2 times higher than the original stock # that I had ordered.

I haven't spent another penny with them since. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

They needed to be out of business 12 years ago.

Too many dumb people out there for them to not survive. Sad but true. They will never, and have never, gotten a dime out of me.

Very similar story here but my order was magazines and magazine parts. After nearly all my order got cancelled I called to get the story behind it. I could tell the poor girl I talked to had heard it a million times already so I just calmly told her I was done with CTD and I was sorry she had to work for a company like that. Took forever to get removed from their email list! I also filed a dispute with my credit card company because they charged me full shipping cost for what should have been my entire order but all they sent was a envelope that weighed less than 6 ounces. Cost for that bad boy was around $14 in shipping if I remember correctly. I won that part of the argument at least.

I'm not understanding your point - if they can increase prices long enough to keep inventory long enough to last until the next shipment, then that's a plus, right? I'm not arguing - I don't shop at CTD and never have. Just talking.

For the record, cancelling orders because you want to sell the same product for more is obviously unacceptable.

If CTD was on fire and I had to piss...

I'm referring to your post that's in red. Why would they run out of inventory? Are you saying if they increase the price, people won't buy their product, then they won't run out?
If that's the case, then they aren't making any money because nothing is selling.

I'm saying they'll sell less. They'll still sell some. I'm saying why wouldn't they increase price so they have more inventory during a panic? What good is a gun store with few or no guns?

I think they will lose on this one. Price gouging during a crisis is criminal behavior, not any other way to paint it.

Some of those people were probably 10 years old back when

I'll add that I started doing business with them in 1993, before they were renamed as CTD. Before that they went under the name "Michael Tenny" from Denton. They had great prices on the Chinese imports. MAK 90's were $149.97. I think 1200 rds of 7.62x39 was $69.97, so were new SKS's. Fun times, ha!

Haven't been back since the last price gouging.

It is not a complicated issue for me.

I made my decision about CTD and other companies back in 2012. My memory regarding "who treats me how" is lifelong and my personal integrity runs very deep.

For the record: IMHO the state, local and the federal government have absolutely no business getting involved in this. We are not talking about food, water, shelter, medication, energy, etc. I have a very low tolerance for nanny state tactics.

There's not a manufacturing slow-down, as of now. I'd rather sell more @ regular price & restock than sell less @ a higher price & piss people off.
That's how I see it.

Not surprising. This time they will get since the price gouging is under the magnifying glass

Simple, push higher volume. Order more from distributors. Cheaper than Dirt has played the short game on every crisis, then benefitted from the fact that as soon as its over, the vast majority of consumers don't care that 6 months before they were price gouging, they just want the cheapest price possible THAT DAY.

Haven’t shopped there in a long time and won’t.

However, it’s their goods and they can charge whatever they want to. Their objective is to maximize profits and ROI.

Remember The Godfather? “Nothing personal. It’s just business.”.

I quit CTD back in 2007 or 08 based on the way I was treated in the store. It was close to my office at the time, so I went in regularly and when I had questions, the guys behind the counter were downright rude. Just decided life it too short to deal with these jerks, so haven't shopped with them for years now.

Never saw anything I wanted reasonably priced since the first flier I got in the mid 90's.

Distributors don't always have more volume. My LGS goes completely out of stock every time there is a panic. It's frustrating when I'm trying to go to the gun range and can't get anything.

Again, I'm not defending them. But I also understand the logic of having inventory at all times. I don't understand cancelling orders - that should be a crime if they do have the inventory.

^^That is how you either build, or maintain a good reputation. Treat customers right, and you get more customers. Treat customers like chit, and eventually you won't have any customers. CTD is maintaining their BAD reputation.

After the first run on ammo and the way they responded, I vowed that I would never do business with them again. I didn't even realize that they were still in business! LoL. I'll still keep my vow.

I have access to basically all of the major distributors, and a lot of ammo manufacturers directly, and they aren't cumulatively out of anything, except occasionally 5.56. I've been able to source that through distribution 2-3 times a week the last couple of months, which is plenty if I order even 1/2 smart.

CTD uses most of the same people, they simply do it because they know they can, not because they feel some business need to due to supply drying up.

This is spot on. Raising prices increases your margin, NOT YOUR INVENTORY. If they raise their price to delay selling as the previous post suggests, that gains them nothing, except a few extra margin points. more inventory doesn't magically appear by raising prices, they just make $150 on a gun instead of $100. so if they sell it day one, they make $100. if they raise the price and sell it day 25, they make $150, but it took much longer to sell, so they cant turn their inventory as quickly. That's the balance retailers have to make. what some gun stores are doing is reading the price to where they make $500 on that gun (or ammo) instead of $100, because they know they can take advantage of peoples fear

100% agree. It's on us as consumers to punish businesses for this type of behavior, not the government

Also, CTD has a history of marking prices up on the exact same inventory they held before the crisis. In fact, they have a history of canceling orders placed before the crisis and saying hey if you still want it the price is now 2x what you paid. I am not lying. There is no greater crooks in the firearms industry than CTD. These actions are why their brick and mortar businesses shuttered.

Around 2009 I discovered they were charging 8.5% sales tax in Texas instead of 8.25%. It may seem trivial but cheating is cheating. I wish Doug Paymer would open a chain of gun stores in Texas.

Weird. Wonder how my gun store runs out every time but CTD and others always have supply.

Another one that does this is B&S Guns in Garland. I don't shop at CTD or B&S. Ammo Depot in Caddo Mills has always been good to me and that's where I shop. If I buy online, I have guns sent there so at least they can get the FFL fee, and I don't sweat the $25-$30 because of how they've treated me.

Good info though - thanks for the civil discussion.

There are still gun enthusiasts that don't know about the things CTD has done in the past. That and each happening bears new guns owners keeps places like that open.

Ain't that the truth...the one thing different with this scare then all the others is the amount of people that went out to buy guns and ammo that never have before. I can't count how many times I was in gunshops at the beginning of this mess with individuals in there buying their first gun. If the NRA wasn't such a screwed up damn organization now and still focused on what it needed to do, it could have grown significantly due to this crisis.

[/quote]
Weird. Wonder how my gun store runs out every time but CTD and others always have supply.

Another one that does this is B&S Guns in Garland. I don't shop at CTD or B&S. Ammo Depot in Caddo Mills has always been good to me and that's where I shop. If I buy online, I have guns sent there so at least they can get the FFL fee, and I don't sweat the $25-$30 because of how they've treated me.

Good info though - thanks for the civil discussion. [/quote]


My guess would be that your local store orders much more conservative, because they can't afford, or don't want to take the risk of bulking up, then the demand going away and them being stuck with a bunch of inventory they cant afford

PSA is doing the same thing on a smaller scale. Their uppers went up 20-30% and the ammo at least 15-20%. I guess that's in the reasonable zone as opposed to CTD ???

CTD was ok, just ok when they were off 820 back when, every once in a while you could pick up cheap ammo..
They have always been on the high side for ammo in my opinion. I have never been to the newer store up both of Dallas or wherever they relocated to. The partner that opened that Fort Worth gun that opened and closed really quickly wasn’t terrible on the prices but it was in a weird location down off 30..

No surprise that CTD is doing what they are doing, I can garantee they won’t get any $$$ from myself.

I bought my first rifle from them! At the time they were the cheapest