Own Your Very Own Pallet of Ammunition...
Based on some recent conversations, I've started to ponder on the idea of offering a unique opportunity: own a dedicated pallet of ammunition, stored in our warehouse, free for 1 year.
Here is the question I'll pose to you followed by my thought process:
What if you could purchase, for asset preservation purposes, your very own pallet of factory new ammunition? Would that be of interest to you?
Right now we offer what is called “pooled”, or unsegregated storage of ammunition. If you have 1,000 rounds of 9mm Practice in your account, for example, you have a claim on 1,000 rounds of our 9mm Practice inventory. When we go to ship it out you’ll get a mix of brands and bullet weights that total 1,000 rounds. There isn’t a specific locker with your name on it accumulating ammunition until you ship it. Everyone’s ammo is totaled up and we make sure we have that much on hand.
[Side note: I’ve had email conversations with customers that thought we had a physical “crate” with their name on it that we were dropping ammo into. Not so. When you have 17.5 rounds in your inventory there is no way to set that aside for you. Or if we set aside a full box for everyone with a couple of rounds, we’d have a lot of excess inventory. Nope today all ammo is totaled up, pooled together and stored on pallet racks.]
Anyway, as time moves on we rotate through this inventory, so the 1,000 rounds of 9mm Practice inventory that was physically in the warehouse at the start of the year will have turned over by the end of the year and been replaced with new stuff. It will likely be a slightly different mix of brands and bullet weights, but not always - we always keep some staples going. The benefit, of course, is that you aren’t getting old inventory - it is fresh and new. Plus every time you get a shipment you get a different mix of brands. People really dig it (and if they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be using our service!).
That is how our unsegregated ammo holdings work today.
We have also offered the opposite approach, segregated holdings, in the past and even today have some customer's “special purchase” ammunition and magazines sitting in our warehouse waiting to be shipped. These are specific items that are owned by someone so we can’t ship them to anyone else. Today we have two full shelving units dedicated to those items until they are claimed and shipped.
The logistical hassle of lots of bins of inventory that are just collecting dust is why we got out of the “gear” and “special purchase ammo” game and no longer offer that anymore. Honestly, it just didn't make sense with our business model.
But that is for small stuff… what about something big like a pallet of ammo? Would that make business sense? Hmmm let me publicly ponder on this…
Pallets of Segregated Ammunition
I’ve now had multiple conversations with people musing about buying a pallet worth of ammunition and storing it with us. Who can blame them? With the slow motion banking and dollar collapse we’re experiencing right now it is hard to know what constitutes as “safe” place to park your money. I'm sure everyone can agree that physical ammunition is a pretty safe bet when compared to some of the alternatives.
A pallet of ammunition will always be a pallet of ammunition. Like any tangible thing, it won’t ever be worth zero (and in fact is likely to go up in value over time due to inflation, changing laws, demand, and general uncertainty). Of course being a 1-2 ton pallet of potentially hazardous material, only a very small percentage of people would actually want to keep one in their home!
That is what is leading me to think that offering the ability to purchase and store dedicated full pallets of ammunition might make sense for regular people with some excess funds.
So what is the cost of a pallet of ammunition?
Depending on manufacturer and caliber, a full pallet is anywhere between 50,000 to 200,000 rounds, so let’s say for sake of round numbers the ballpark market value range is $20k-$50k.
So if you are someone with an extra $20k, and were looking for someplace safe to park your money, that isn’t a bank... you could park that money in a very tangible pallet of ammo with your name on it. This would not be part of our regular ammo pool but instead would be a dedicated pallet that you could theoretically take delivery of any time you wanted.
Or you could more likely just sell it when prices rise… or if you just needed the money. The main goal would be to preserve your money and maybe make a little too, but primarily use ammo as a true "store of value". As you can see from our ammo price charts, ammunition prices are pretty stable right now. We're seeing flat to very slight downward price declines in most calibers - a good time to buy.
So now let's imagine that you have a pallet of factory new ammo stored off site: something that will never go to zero, it can be shipped if you wanted it, or better yet, sold when prices rise. It could sold all at once or a little bit over time. It is an asset you can point to, touch, something tangible. Something valuable. Something I talk about all the time as one way to help protect yourself from a dollar collapse.
We could take it a step further and you could pick the caliber that you think will have the highest potential for future price increases, or one you wouldn’t mind having delivered. You would buy at the market rate for that caliber and could sell back at the market rate in the future. Sure, there is still a chance you could go underwater if prices drop, but like anything you don't have to sell and take the loss, you could just hold on until prices rise (and if history is our guide you won't have to wait long!).
You wouldn't even need to sell back to us, you could list it on Gunbroker or someplace else and have it shipped to your buyer (no free shipping of course!). It is YOUR pallet so you can do whatever you want with it.
We could take 360 degree pictures on initial acquisition, mark it in some unique way, and provide “proof of life” randomly if you need peace of mind that your pallet of ammo is still safe and secure.
Of course it would be fully insured against fire, theft and other types of damage. It is already in a climate controlled, secure building so that isn’t an issue. Hmmm what’s left? This is starting to sound pretty good.
If we did this, we could offer free storage for the early takers, probably for the first year but we couldn’t house zillions of pallets for free in perpetuity. So there would need to be a reasonable storage fee after the first year: $200? Less than $20 a month for the rack space. Seems reasonable to me.
What am I missing? Is this something you would do if you had the extra cash? Anyone have a burning desire to own a full pallet of their favorite caliber?
AmmoSquared Inc. has revolutionized ammunition with the new Ammo² Wallet: an ammunition bank account backed with physical ammunition. Ammunition is stored in a climate controlled environment and managed by the customer online 24/7 until physical delivery is requested. Ammunition can be bought, sold, exchanged, or even transferred to other people with just the click of a button. To learn how you can start stacking ammunition effortlessly, visit ammosquared.com today!