Once fired Brass Pricing

[Thirdtimeisacharm]

I have been in the buy sell pages for a while but figured I would ask here to see what you all think. I see small batches (~100) mostly coming up and am interested in opinions regarding lots of 500 or more

I am considering loading virgin brass and then selling it once fired for my PRS rig. (Save time on annealling, cleaning, etc). I have a few buddies that will most likely join me and as such we have enough buying power to get dealer status at Grafs.

My question is not about firing virgin brass but if there is an accepted price margin for once fired? If Peterson Dasher, as an example is 1.19/case new, is .95 a fair price? Thoughts?

We would be selling 6x47, dasher, BR, and 6GT

 

[Emerson0311]

I have been in the buy sell pages for a while but figured I would ask here to see what you all think. I see small batches (~100) mostly coming up and am interested in opinions regarding lots of 500 or more

I am considering loading virgin brass and then selling it once fired for my PRS rig. (Save time on annealling, cleaning, etc). I have a few buddies that will most likely join me and as such we have enough buying power to get dealer status at Grafs.

My question is not about firing virgin brass but if there is an accepted price margin for once fired? If Peterson Dasher, as an example is 1.19/case new, is .95 a fair price? Thoughts?

We would be selling 6x47, dasher, BR, and 6GT

I don’t trust 1F brass for any significant price unless I personally know the user. How much would you pay for a once married woman? Could be a great deal, only 1 way to find out.

 

[Thirdtimeisacharm]

I don’t trust 1F brass for any significant price unless I personally know the user. How much would you pay for a once married woman? Could be a great deal, only 1 way to find out.

 

[OREGUN]

My guess is that you’ll never get .95 in your example with any consistency. Maybe some will sell that high but if you want to move it, it’s going to be less than .50 a piece.

 

[Hickswr]

Once fired 6GT & dasher ALPHA brass will consistently bring 75% of retail price.

Peterson isn’t near as popular for some reason.

 

[Baron85]

Unless there is a brass shortage like a few years ago, I would plan on 75% of new at best.

 

[Cynical]

If you’re just talking about saving time, the logic is ok. But if you’re talking about making money, no way this works. People aren’t usually paying even 80% of retail for once fired. And in your example, no one will pay $.95 per piece for Peterson. That’s close to retail price for brand new when bought at a sale price in 500 packs. Maybe if it’s a hard to get caliber like Lapua 6br a couple years back but usually 80% is too optimistic in my opinion.

I’d guess 60-75% of sale price for good brass with some assurance of its lineage and what firearm it was shot in, and 50% for major mfg brass like Hornady etc.

My personal attitude is if you’re shooting enough to worry about time saving on processing brass, then it makes sense to look at autodrives for processing your own. I do separate steps in batches of whatever caliber, no less than 300 at a time. Decap on a Dillon super 1050 running on auto drive at about 1500 rounds per hour. Anneal. Wet wash (up to 500 308 sized cases at one time). Size on a Dillon 750 running on auto drive at around 900 rounds per hour (it’s an actually less because I hold on the top stroke a few seconds for more consistent sizing). Then dry tumble. Large rifle gets primed on the same Dillon 750, small rifle on the same Dillon 1050. Then those cases are stored ready to load. I usually load on a Dillon 550 but hand-dump powder. The system just works for me, each batch is a sprint so I’m never running a marathon when processing.

You said you had buddies who would team up for purchases. Take the same buddies, buy the equipment, sell what brass you don’t need (profit motive), take a depreciation expense on the equipment on your taxes and buy more components to shoot. You can’t sell loaded ammo without an FFL of some variety but you can sell brass without one.

 

[OREGUN]

Or you know, shoot factory ammo and sell the brass for whatever you can get for it and call it a day.

Even if you buy DELUXE custom ammo you'll be selling Alpha or Lapua instead of Peterson and your costs will be offset by .75 a round instead of .40.

 

[Mike Casselton]

I don’t trust 1F brass for any significant price unless I personally know the user. How much would you pay for a once married woman? Could be a great deal, only 1 way to find out.

In the case of the woman, I highly recommend the try before you buy method.

In fact, you can try many times before buying.
Doesn't mean you won't get head separation later though...

 

[Rob01]

I have been in the buy sell pages for a while but figured I would ask here to see what you all think. I see small batches (~100) mostly coming up and am interested in opinions regarding lots of 500 or more

I am considering loading virgin brass and then selling it once fired for my PRS rig. (Save time on annealling, cleaning, etc). I have a few buddies that will most likely join me and as such we have enough buying power to get dealer status at Grafs.

My question is not about firing virgin brass but if there is an accepted price margin for once fired? If Peterson Dasher, as an example is 1.19/case new, is .95 a fair price? Thoughts?

We would be selling 6x47, dasher, BR, and 6GT

It’s a terrible idea as you will always be spending money on new brass and never making back what you think you should be. Save time? You are loading your ammo already and doing everything to new brass that you would do to once fired except tumbling. Annealing is one of those things some do and some don’t. Some only do every few firings so not really in the time mix. You are saving no real time and wasting money just buying new brass and then trying to sell it. Bad idea.

 

[Holliday]

I don’t trust 1F brass for any significant price unless I personally know the user. How much would you pay for a once married woman? Could be a great deal, only 1 way to find out.

Once married? Ha! At least brass hasn’t been hit by 500 rifles before that 1x firing.

It’s a terrible idea as you will always be spending money on new brass and never making back what you think you should be. Save time? You are loading your ammo already and doing everything to new brass that you would do to once fired except tumbling. Annealing is one of those things some do and some don’t. Some only do every few firings so not really in the time mix. You are saving no real time and wasting money just buying new brass and then trying to sell it. Bad idea.

Exactly……

 

[FLIGHT762]

For purchasing fired brass, I'd rather take my chances buying 1X Factory over someone's 1X handload. At least the Factory ammo has been pressure tested.

Refer to this thread: https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/why-do-people-load-so-hot.7265702/page-3#post-12291621

You just don't know what someone's 1X firing did to that brass.

 

[Thirdtimeisacharm]

If you’re just talking about saving time, the logic is ok. But if you’re talking about making money, no way this works. People aren’t usually paying even 80% of retail for once fired. And in your example, no one will pay $.95 per piece for Peterson. That’s close to retail price for brand new when bought at a sale price in 500 packs. Maybe if it’s a hard to get caliber like Lapua 6br a couple years back but usually 80% is too optimistic in my opinion.

I’d guess 60-75% of sale price for good brass with some assurance of its lineage and what firearm it was shot in, and 50% for major mfg brass like Hornady etc.

My personal attitude is if you’re shooting enough to worry about time saving on processing brass, then it makes sense to look at autodrives for processing your own. I do separate steps in batches of whatever caliber, no less than 300 at a time. Decap on a Dillon super 1050 running on auto drive at about 1500 rounds per hour. Anneal. Wet wash (up to 500 308 sized cases at one time). Size on a Dillon 750 running on auto drive at around 900 rounds per hour (it’s an actually less because I hold on the top stroke a few seconds for more consistent sizing). Then dry tumble. Large rifle gets primed on the same Dillon 750, small rifle on the same Dillon 1050. Then those cases are stored ready to load. I usually load on a Dillon 550 but hand-dump powder. The system just works for me, each batch is a sprint so I’m never running a marathon when processing.

You said you had buddies who would team up for purchases. Take the same buddies, buy the equipment, sell what brass you don’t need (profit motive), take a depreciation expense on the equipment on your taxes and buy more components to shoot. You can’t sell loaded ammo without an FFL of some variety but you can sell brass without one.

Appreciated. I have the equipment and already have a pretty automated system. It’s just the balance of family, work, and trying to shoot PRS LOL!

I appreciate the input. This is why I figured it was worth asking.

 

[Thirdtimeisacharm]

Thanks all!

 

[OREGUN]

For purchasing fired brass, I'd rather take my chances buying 1X Factory over someone's 1X handload. At least the Factory ammo has been pressure tested.

Refer to this thread: https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/why-do-people-load-so-hot.7265702/page-3#post-12291621

You just don't know what someone's 1X firing did to that brass.

You also don’t know if the person took factory new brass and did a bunch of stuff to it before loading it….which reading this thread is apparently a thing. Show me the process (other than mouth chamfering) that a reloader can do to alpha brass that makes it better than it was when it came out of the box.

I don’t want brass that you sized, washed, trimmed, primer-pocket-reamed, etc. even if it’s never been fired.