Sometimes I Have Good Timing For Ammo Purchases. I recently bought 5 boxes, 250 rounds, of Federal .45 Auto, Hi-Shok, JHP, 230 gr. ammo from Sportsmansguide.com. The price was pretty good at $129.19 plus shipping but the deal was not done there - it got better. The day I decided to order, they offered a special coupon code on orders of $100 or more for which you could deduct another $15.00 from the price plus you would receive a $15 gift card for Sportsmansguide in the mail. The coupon is good in addition to any coupon codes or other savings specials. So that brought the order down to $114.19 plus shipping and remember I would still get that gift card too. When I went to check-out, a pop-up reminded me that my Sportsmansguide Club membership would expire this coming February. I figured that was not all that far away but still decided to skip renewing my membership even though they offered a few bucks additional off of my then current order and also promised two $10 off coupons. Their dollars off coupons are no big deal, they are almost always available but I suppose they would have been good to have in the event that Sportsmansguide was not offering any discounts at any time in the future when I may have been placing an order. As I said though, I opted not to renew.
I was a bit surprised when another pop-up came up, as soon as I opted out of renewing, this one at first looking like an exact duplicate of the first . Paying attention pays off though as the second pop-up was markedly different from the first. It doubled the additional dollars off my order that the first pop-up had offered if I renewed my membership immediately and it also offered free shipping on that order! So now I would get my regular member discount of 5% on ammo (the non-mmember price was $135.99 not the $129.19 I quoted above which was my orice due to my membership), that discount would be doubled to $13.60 if I decided to renew my membership, I would get the $15 off for the coupon, and would also get free shipping if I renewed. They had expertly baited the hook.
I bit, was hooked, and they reeled me in with that offer. I added the club membership renewal at $29.99 to my order. It is something I would have paid for anyway. It gives 5% off of ammo orders and 10% off of almost everything else ordered from them I just wound up paying for my renewal earlier than I had expected. Even had they not doubled my regular discount, I figured, since it gave me free shipping on my then current order, it was well worth doing right then and there. So the renewal saved me another $6.80 off of the actual merchandise total bringing it to $107.39. Shipping would have added another $15.99 but the renewal took care of that too. Had I paid shipping, it would have brought the merchandise total to $123.38 which still would have been a very good price for 250 rounds of that ammo shipped. Instead, the total for the actual ammo order though remained at $107.39 and that is a very good price for the ammo in question. Granted they added $29.99 to the order for my renewed club membership but as I said I would have paid that anyway, it was just a matter of timing.
By the way, speaking of timing, I placed that order on the 4th and received it on the 7th - wow! While I have had some few problems with a few past orders, the folks at Sportsmansguide seem to have gotten their acts together and are doing better with ammo shipping. Instead of receiving 5 boxes of this ammo, loosely packed in a larger shipping carton with a bit of paper wadding added to the mix, they actually wrapped the five boxes in plastic and taped it nicely secure, they placed that in the shipping carton with the wadding and a good deal of it. It arrived in excellent condition ad sooner than past orders.
I only was a bit disappointed that the ammo order did not include my promised $15 gift card but really I should not have been disappointed at all since I knew better than to expect receiving the card along with the order. They ship the gift cards separately on those types of promotions. Yet, knowing that was to be the case was what disappointed me. You see, Sportsmansguide sent me an email the day I received the order. The email said that they were offering free shipping on orders of any amount. That is a good offer. I wished that I had my $15 gift card to take advantage of the free shipping offer. Well, low and behold, the Christmas season must hold some small bit of wonder in it for me. The gift card arrived in the mail today and the free shipping offer does not expire until 11:59 PM tonight (if it is still December 10, 2012 when you read this you till have time). So, as soon as I opened the envelope with the gift card in it, I went to Sportsmansguide.com and ordered some more ammo. This time I ordered a brick (500 rounds) of Federal American Eagle .22LR, 40 grain, solid point, ammunition. The price I paid could not be beat, not even with a wet noodle.
The price of the 500 rounds was $19.94 and shipping would have been $8.99, which would have made the total $28.93. That is about what I would expect to pay for that ammo at a gun show (plus gas, toll, admission fee money related to the gun show). My total came out to came out to a bit less than that at a whopping $4.94 for the brick of ammo. I wish I could get a box of it every day at that price. Even one per week would be splendid. But that is probably not going to happen again anytime soon. It just seems like the ammo gods and the spirits of Christmas (past, present and Future) all smiled down on me for this one. Imagine that, .22LR rounds at a cost of .00988 cents apiece - wow not even a penny per round!
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that it is right before the end of the Mayan calendar! Whatever.
Al in all, the deals you can get, if you pay attention and then are lucky enough to have the timing work out just right, are pretty darned good especially at this time of year. Surprisingly enough that included deals on ammunition this time round.
All the best,
Glenn B
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