Is Polymer80 DIW (Dead in the Water)

[Bongo Lewi]

There are a LOT of cheap arms makers still in business although they also offer higher-priced arms. PSA, Taurus and KelTec come to mind...

I'm pretty sure Taurus hasn't been a bottom feeder for quite a while. I'm not a fan at all but they are not the company they used to be. KelTec has a few cheap guns but I've always considered them more of a break the rules company, so their niche is more about oddball designs. PSA.... definitely at a price point that some might call cheap. I read someplace they make more guns than any company in the US. Not sure if that's true or not but their biz model is definitely based on volume. The Dagger is a decent gun. So are their AKs.

My reference to Highpoint and SCCY was that cheap is ALL they sell. Nearly all the big gunmakers sell some sort of lower cost, no frills "value line". Highpoint has a cult following. SCCY is not a terrible gun. Especially now that they have a striker fired product.

Maybe what it comes down to is the wise newb buys a lower cost factory gun. The doofus buys a bunch of parts and puts them together badly. Neither one of them is likely to pay for training or practice a lot - which costs money. Show me a cheapass and I'll show you a poor marksman. A gun is the down payment on a never ending stream of ammo expenses. Those who do not train or practice suck.

 

[Racer88]

Maybe what it comes down to is the wise newb buys a lower cost factory gun. The doofus buys a bunch of parts and puts them together badly. Neither one of them is likely to pay for training or practice a lot - which costs money. Show me a cheapass and I'll show you a poor marksman. A gun is the down payment on a never ending stream of ammo expenses. Those who do not train or practice suck.

Spot on, IMO. But it is the reality, I submit, of the majority of the gun-owning public. They just don't and WON'T get training, nor will they practice. That said, I will always oppose mandatory training as a condition of exercising their 2A Right.

Let's see... my PFC9 / EDC has 8,000 rounds through it.

This might hurt just doing the math! LOL!

8000 X 23 cents per round = $1840! So far... that's since 9/8/22 (23 months time). Oh shit! LOL!

That doesn't include the range time (54 range trips) and 16 hours of paid training for just this pistol. Another ~$2000-ish total for those fees.

Oh wait... targets. Let's say an average of 5 targets per range visit. I like the splatterburst targets. They're about $1.60 each in bulk. 5 targets X $1.60 X 54 range visits = $432.

So, I've spent ~$4,272 on SHOOTING the gun in about 2 years. Damn. Kinda wish I hadn't done that math! LOL!

The gun with all the parts, including the optic came to $1218.

 

[FrankenGlock]

Yes, but it is extra rewarding when you can build something extremely nice for not much money. The deals are out there. I'm probably on fifty or so gun site email lists just to get the deals. Was watching an interview with the PSA CEO and he was talking about other companies that make an absolute killing on their products. Think he was referring to Glock. I'd bet they don't have $150 in each of their guns after all costs. The economy of scale is huge with bulk manufacturing and it's not like they do anything really special with their machining, so those costs are kept low too. It's good for them as it creates a situation where their business is viable but I don't want to pay that markup.

 

[brian]

Bulk $25 barrels?? Yikes. I think I'd pass on those, because I'd assume inferior quality of a rather "mission critical" part and related safety issues.

$50 for a built (parts included) PFC9 is an awesome deal! Holy crap... I paid $113 for mine! And that was WITHOUT parts!
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Of course, over the last 3 years, the 80% (and 100%) frame market was quite volatile with prices ranging from $50 - $200++. I guess my timing sucks! LOL!

Yep, there were some deals. I think I got one of my serialized frames for $50 and another for $69.99 (plus $25 each for the FFL transfer). One had an LPK installed the other didn't. The best was the complete P80 G17 size (PF9 I think) I got for $199 + the $25 xfer (three mags included).

I know I got some 80% frames for $40 to $50 at times. In theory one was free as P80 briefly had an offer for a free 80% to those who bought a 76%. Of course, that's offset a bit by CLs that I bought at $225.

 

[FrankenGlock]

Think the lowest I purchased for was around $30 each from a gun shop going out of business on Gunbroker. My FFL only charges one transfer fee per seller. In other words, if there are 10 in the box from the same shipper, it is only one fee of $20 total. The best deal I got on OEM Glock frames was 5 new G20 SF frames for $230 total for the lot.

 

[Bobster]

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Not my quote... not sure how that happened.

Sorry, it was Lewi's. Multi-quote boned me again...

But Frank's NOLO quote/link explains the topic a little better (ie: "piercing the veil").

If you shop right or buy in bulk, $200 is completely doable.

I think my cheapest "build" was a PSA compact frame ($65ish after tax/fees/shipping) and close-out PSA slide (no optics cut, $150ish delivered). Add a Pmag (bought in bulk) for $10 and that's about $225. Don't forget the "extras" when figuring price. Best price I think I've seen a Dagger go for on sale from PSA was about $240+ so maybe $280+ after fees/shipping? I just built a .40 gun with a used G22 slide I lucked upon on GB which was about $117 delivered but that very rarely happens. The frame was like $118 after tax/fees--something like that, and I had a $15 ETS mag so that was a $250 gun.

But I'm noticing NO ONE includes their time in their build cost estimates (including myself)...

This might hurt just doing the math! LOL!

So how many minutes has the gun been used? I mean, you keep track of everything else!

 

[FrankenGlock]

Time doesn’t matter if you are doing something you love.

 

[Racer88]

So how many minutes has the gun been used? I mean, you keep track of everything else!

LOL! I don't know, but it's a lot!