Tag Archives: bargains

Taking opportunities where I can

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Every workday I do a bank deposit for my employer. Conveniently, there’s an Albertson’s grocery near the bank, so after I do my deposit I do a fast run through the meat department at Albertson’s looking for remaindered meat discounts. Today was a good day:

Organic Angus 85/15 ground beef knocked down by 50%. That puts it to $4.99 per pound. And its already in convenient easy-to-stack one-pound vacuum-sealed bricks. Well, I guess I’ll take ’em all. Contacted a friend to see if they wanted me to pick some up for them, so I’ll be spreading the good fortune around a bit. Still gonna have about 30# to tuck away in the freezer.

I got a similar deal many years ago, but back then it was $1.50 per pound. But that was 15 years ago before inflation worked its magic. Because Im a numbers kinda guy, I price compared against CostCo.

CostCo has 88/12 at $5.79…about 13% more than the remaindered stuff from Albertson’s. But its in bulk and needs to be repackaged. So, yeah, worth the effort…IMHO.

Considering inflation and other economic uncertainty, its not a bad idea to take advantage of these sorts of opportunities when they arise.

Its a sad state of affairs where $5 a pound is considered a bargain for regular hamburger meat.

 

D’oh Canaduh

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Minding my own business. not (purposefully) hurting anyone, and B. sends me a text asking if I would be interested in this:


Well, geez, man….I don’t know. I gotta figure out what it is first. Alright Google…show me what you got. “1305 21 102 8445-0004 7.62mm” returns a few images, including this one:

Hmm..Appears to be Canadian 51’st State-ish. Interesting because if it was from Canuckistan, shouldn’t all those markings be in French also? Or, maybe this stuff predates that bilingual nonsense.

I usually am hesitant to purchase this sort of thing because you never know what storage conditions this stuff was in. However, sometimes its a risk worth taking.. especially if the price is right. So, I made an offer and I’ll pick this stuff up later.

By the way, the .30-06 ammo I picked up in the above-mentioned post was made in 1959 by FN and had been stored sealed in those nice .30 cal cans for almost 60 years. And it all shot flawlessly, and, as I recall, virtually all the tracers lit up. This simply confirms that quality made ammo, packed and stored well, will last indefinitely.

I still have several battlepacks of 7.62×51 sitting on the shelf, so this will be a nice addition. I’ll need to see if there’s anymore where this case came from.

 

“Ammo cans”

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So, as I’m reorganizing things, I am discovering that there are a lot of small items that need to be corralled into one place in a somewhat protective manner. For example, my stash of Aladdin wicks, mantles, and burners. Or my stockpile MALICE clips. Things that are numerous enough to need to have their own dedicated container, but not so large or heavy that they need a steel ammo can dedicated to them.

So, for giggles, I hit Facebook marketplace and figured I’d look for some discount ammo cans. No joy. But…I did find some plastic ammo cans in two different sizes that would suit my needs. In for a penny, in for a pound….how many to buy? Well, stuff is always cheaper in bulk. I’ll take 300.

And thats how I wound up with an IBC tote cage full of plastic ‘ammo cans’. They had ‘half height’ ones in addition to the .30-cal-size cans. So, I figured I’d split it 50-50 and wound up with 150 of each. Are they as durable as a steel ammo can? Of course not..theyre plastic. But, theyre waterproof and perfect for organizing the things on shelves in my basement…batteries, first aid supplies, waterproof notepads and pens, water filters, etc.

Got into them cheap enough that I’ll give a bunch away to the local LMI for their own storage needs. Even then, I’m probably going to have way more of these than I actually need but it’ll be nice to be able to get some things nice and neatly packed away for that upcoming Rainy Day.

Link

Glock 17 Gen3 cop trade-ins $300

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AimSurplus has a bunch of LE-tradein Glock 17’s on the block. $299 ea. for Gen3 17’s with night sights and in original case. One mag.

Since I have plenty of Magpul G9 mags here, I wasn’t concerned about the guns coming with only one mag apiece. A $300 G17 will always grab my attention. But cop guns are notorious for being beaten up aesthetically while being mechanically good. Ordered three and they showed up yesterday:

Absolutely excellent condition. Night sights still have plenty of glow. Barrels need a cleaning at the chamber end as there’s a lot of fouling on the feed ramps, but thats five minutes with Hoppes and a q-tip. I ordered three, which came out to $17.51 to ship for each gun. That puts my basis as $317.51 for each very clean G17. Strong recommend.

They still have them in stock as of today, so if you’ve got a buddy with an FFL, or you’ve a LGS who does reasonable transfer fees, I’d say  jump on this deal.

Someone will ask why Gen3 when there are trade-in Gen4 and Gen5 out there. The Gen 4 made some changes to the ejector/extractor, I believe, that caused some problems. Gen5 is alright I suppose but interchangeable backstraps aren’t a thing in my world. The Gen3, IMO, is the best version of the Glock. In fact, Glock still makes the Gen3 for various agency commitments.

I see this as an opportunity to grab yourself an ideal pistol at a bargain price. Passing the info along to you guys, do with it what you will.

AK mags

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I’m not really an AK guy. Yet, somehow I have managed to acquire three of them.. a milled Arsenal, a milled Norinco, and a WASR-10 of some flavor. I still have gobs of 7.62×39 laying around, so I decided to keep the AK’s since having a military-style semi-auto with plenty of ammo is never really a bad thing. And, of course, logistics rears its ugly head. If you’re gonna have a buncha AK’s, youre gonna need a buncha AK mags.

Ok…will 200 be enough?

I went for an even split of 40- and 30-rd mags. These are the AC Unity mags that you’re seeing all over the place. Made in ex-Yugoslavia they’re pretty good mags. The nice feature is metal locking tabs front-and-back. Ordered in bulk from Robert RTG (bookmark that place, guys) they came out to, with shipping, $4.87 per mag. (10% on 100+ mags.)  For that kinda money, I don’t mind having a bunch of extras to someday sell to the unenlightened masses when the next mag ban comes rolling in.

This is, by the by, on top of the AK mags I already have. I went deep on AK mags a few years back when those metal Korean AK mags were coming into the country. And prior to that I had a buncha ChiCom mags. For a guy with only three AK’s, I’d say I’ve got the magazine end of things covered.

One is none, and two hundred is….one hundred?

Why it pays to keep track of prices and stock up

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If you guys recall, throughout last year CostCo was selling the Lifestraw 4-pack. As time went by, the prices kept dropping:

Until, finally, they hit the “stick-them-in-a-corner-and-blow-them-out-we-need-the-space’ price of $4.25 ea. I bought a bunch and some of you got them as Paratus gifts.

So’, Im in CostCo yesterday and beheld this absurdity:

We’ve gone from a low of $4.25 each, to a WTF price of $12.50 ea. In Januray, of all times. Dunno the reason behind this but I can tell you that I was absolutely tickled to think I got as many of these as I did at the $4.25@ price.

Moral of the story: when the price is right…buy and  buy hard.

 

Glock Redux

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Kings Firearms Online was having a sale on some LE trade-in Gen 4 G17’s. Well, heck, for $300 apiece, why not? I prefer Gen3 Glocks for various reasons but these should be quite easy to flip for $350-375 to someone wanting a Christmas gift to themselves or a friend.While I have a big ‘ol stack of Ruger P95DCs sitting around, I have an almost as large pile of Glock 9mms. I’m kinda wishing I’d picked up more than just these three. Theyre in typical copgun condition: bluing wear, grips nicked and scratched from years of being a ghetto referee, but mechanically fine. Face it, copguns just don’t get shot that much. They get banged around a heck of a lot, but mechanically theyre almost always like new.

Its been a long time since I’ve seen police trade-in Glocks in 9mm for sale but when it happens, I try to go deep.