Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at unloading your collectibles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The COMEX Issues and Stops Reports Expose Conditions Behind Physical Gold Supply Problems

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COMEX Can’t Find Any 400 Oz Bars For Its New Gold Futures Contract

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Fake Morgan Dollar purchased from a flea market!

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Silver and Sanity (Gary Christenson)

Economy & Finance:

SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson describes the now developing cascade of events: Businesses That Are Going To Fail.

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At Wolf Street: How Will COVID-19 Impact US Manufacturing? First Indications Are Ugly. Exacerbated by Underlying Conditions

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And at Zero Hedge: US Public Pension Funds Have Lost $1 TRILLION In Recent Weeks

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The Return of the Barter Economy, Swapping Eggs for Toilet Paper

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Peter Schiff: Americans Are in For a Rude Awakening

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 2, 2020

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This is the birthday of Émile François Zola, a novelist and essayist. He is most often remembered as the author of “J’accuse” (I Accuse!), his lengthy open letter to president Félix Faure, which accused the French government of anti-semitism.

—

A quick update:  I talked with a major storage food vendor and he reported that the entire industry has an order backlog averaging 8 to 12 weeks. They are not guaranteeing delivery dates, because the big food packaging companies are not guaranteeing them any delivery dates!  Likewise, the folks who make and sell water filters are building order huge backlogs. For instance, British Berkefeld reportedly has an order backlog of 9,000 of their large filters. The vendors haven’t seen anything like this since the last few months before the Y2K date rollover.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced – Round 87

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We’ve completed the judging for Round 87 of the bi-monthly SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The Prize Winners are:

First Prize:

First Prize is awarded to Greg X. for the article Generators for Family Readiness, which was published  in two parts on March and March 15, 2020-.  Links: Part 1, and Part 2.He will receive the following prizes:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

Second Prize is awarded to A. in N.D., for the article Smelting Scrap Lead For Bullet Casting, which was published on February 18, 2020.  He will receive the following prizes:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

Third Prize is awarded to Mama Bear for her article A Prepping Reality Check which was published in four parts, beginning on March 5, 2020.  Links: Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. She will receive the following prizes:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Honorable mention prizes ($30 Amazon gift certificates) have been awarded, for these nine articles:

Note to the top three prize winners:  Please e-mail us your USPS and UPS address(es) so that we can arrange shipment of your prizes.

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

My Hawaiian Retreat, by R.L.

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If you haven’t yet moved to a geographically isolated location, then you should do so now.
I abandoned my previous position in Northern California. I had originally chosen it because it wasn’t downwind of any military targets from the Cold War. I moved 2,400 miles to the southwest, to the Big Island of Hawaii.
The attractions were great. Incompetent state and local government, year round growing season, no dangerous predators, and plentiful fish and game. Top that off with no fishing licenses, no insulation or air conditioners needed. “Secondary waterfront” acreage parcels (that are across the street from the oceanfront parcels) are less expensive than acreage outside of Reno.
It’s not been totally without drawbacks. I found three acres at an altitude of 2,200 feet for less than $30,000. Once clearing started though, I found that I needed to bring in an excavator with a hammer to take out some basalt outcrops. Not having budgeted for that set us back more than I had expected.
However, the benefits have been incredible. We packed up our solar array from NorCal and now have it producing our off-grid power. The development we’re in has fiber-optic high speed Internet on every street, so we have Internet less expensively than we did for slower internet in California. We have free water that, to quote the Bard, “…falleth like a gentle rain from Heaven.”, because it’s rain. It’s a pristine environment just 25 miles from where NOAA samples the third cleanest air in the World. The two cleaner places are both in Antarctica.

Continue reading“My Hawaiian Retreat, by R.L.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the prospect of Internet  Rationing in Europe.

America’s Grimmest Month

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: America’s Grimmest Month

Austria Says: You Must Wear a Mask

Peter sent us this: Austria to Make Basic Face Masks Compulsory in Supermarkets

Study: Coronavirus Could be Airborne

Coronavirus could be airborne, study suggests. This article begins:

“It may be possible for the novel coronavirus to transmit through the air, a new study released over the weekend suggests.

In a joint study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, and others, researchers found genetic material from the virus that causes COVID-19 in air samples from both in and outside of confirmed coronavirus patients’ rooms. The findings offer “limited evidence that some potential for airborne transmission exists,” researchers said, though they warned that the findings do not confirm airborne spread.”

Hamptons Houses are Now Luxury Coronavirus Bunkers

H.L. sent this: Hamptons Houses Are Now Luxury Coronavirus Bunkers

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 1, 2020

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April 1st, 1886 was the birthday of Arthur W. Pink, who died 15 July 1952 and was an English Christian evangelist and excellent Reformed Biblical scholar. It was his meticulously referenced arguments in his book, The Sovereignty of God, that first convinced JWR of the truth of the doctrine of Election.

April 1st is also both April Fool’s Day and (unofficially) Molly Ivins Day. The latter refers to this key verse: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1 KJV)

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Update: We are in the midst of judging. The prize winners for Round 87 will be announced tomorrow.  (April 2nd, 2020.)

Today we present the first entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Making Light, by M.E.

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Artificial light is useful for extending working time beyond sunset, for providing comfort in the long dark hours of winter, and for finding one’s way in the night. Without electricity or batteries, solar cells or wind up flashlights, lamps and candles can be made just as they have been for thousands of years.

The cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic were done by the light of lamps that used a lump of animal fat as fuel and lichen, moss, or juniper twigs as wicks. The light of these crude lamps was sufficient to produce some of the earliest known works of art in pitch-black caves. Some of these lamps were merely rocks with slight, natural hollows in them, others were carved from soft stone to form handles for carrying and bowls for the fat and wick. The carved bowl lamps are not dissimilar to lamps of pottery or tin used into the 19th century in frontier America. (I own a copy of one of these, called a Brown Betty.) As the wick burns, the fat melts and the liquid is drawn up the wick to provide fuel for the flame. The problem with these lamps is when the fuel runs out, the wick will continue to burn in an uncontrolled manner, destroying the wick and creating a fire hazard. Later, far superior designs addressed this problem, although the open bowl style of lamp can still be found today.

The ancient Egyptians and other Mediterranean cultures had a better design, a better fuel, and a better wick. These lamps, made of glazed pottery or metal, run a fiber wick through a narrow opening that snuffs out the flame when the wick burns down and keeps it from creating an uncontrolled blaze once the fuel is depleted. Oil, a far superior fuel to fat, can be added through the hole in the top of the lamp while the flame is still burning allowing for nearly continuous operation. The olive oil used in these lamps is an especially desirable fuel as it burns without smoke or odor. Anyone who has ever burned tallow candles or rushes (porous reeds soaked in animal fat) can understand the appeal of a less fragrant fuel such as plant oil, especially in closed in spaces.Continue reading“Making Light, by M.E.”

March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran

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Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices.
I’d like to start this month’s column by just saying “Wow.”

What Did Gold Do in March?

Spot gold ended February on a down note, falling $58 to end at $1,585 an ounce. This wiped out most of gold’s gains for the month.
The second week of March saw gold prices get crushed, as investors sold anything and everything possible to meet margin calls on their stock holdings. Some in the media proclaimed that the week’s heavy selloff of gold “proved” that it was no longer a safe haven.
Those who remembered the global stock crash of 2008 – 2009 knew that gold was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing – acting as “disaster insurance” for investors’ equity holdings. Those people who had bought gold beforehand fared much better than the lemmings who went all-in on equities at the market top.
Gold recovered from the selloff rather swiftly, although it took silver and the other metals longer to catch up. The virus-induced freeze on factories and heavy industries was especially bad news for platinum and palladium. Meanwhile, silver slumped to an 11-year low of $11.94 per troy ounce before rebounding.
To put the level of volatile trading into perspective: gold futures saw their largest-ever loss in a single day – down almost $75 on March 13 – followed by the biggest single-day gains on record, adding $83 on March 23 and another $93 on March 24.

By month’s end, the yellow metal had cooled off somewhat but still hovered just below $1,600 an ounce.

What Is Different About This Crash?

Experts are saying don’t make the same mistake the talking heads on the news are making. Look to 1929 instead of 2008 to see how the current crash may play out. The 2008 crash was caused by big banks gambling with other people’s money. It’s right there in the name: “The Global Financial Crisis.”

This time the cause of the crash came from an outside source, an infectious virus that shut down all economic activity. The meltdown in markets has happened far faster in 2020 than it did in the last crisis. At one point all of the stock market’s gains since President Trump was inaugurated three years ago were vaporized in a matter of weeks.Continue reading“March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on Jim Quinn’s The Burning Platform blog. (See the Blogs section.)

Books:

I recently heard about a small business called LiveFireManuals.com. They offer a bundle of more than 500 military manuals that are downloadable, for just under $7. It might be wise to load up a 8 GB or 16GB memory stick with those. Granted, with a several hours of searching, you could probably find PDFs of most those manuals available at various free web sites, and download them. But you have to ask:  “What is my time worth?” (Probably more than $7, for several hours of work.)

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A current bestseller: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

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First Raise a Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the Peace

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The Underground Railroad Records: Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom

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The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it’s not the complexion of our skin or the twists in our DNA that make us unique. America is exceptional because we were founded upon the notion that everyone should be free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.” – Senator Rand Paul

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 31, 2020

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March 31 is the birthday of economist Dr. Walter E. Williams, PhD., who was born in 1936. His book American Contempt for Liberty is highly recommended.

—

A reminder: The big “Pre-Hunker” sale on pre-1899 manufactured cartridge guns at Elk Creek Company ends at midnight, tonight.  I’ve sold eight guns since Monday morning, and only have about 70 more left on hand.  Get your order in soon!

JWR’s Firearms Market Trend Predictions for 2020 to 2025

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I was recently asked by a consulting client about my predictions for the U.S. retail gun market for the remainder of 2020 and next few years. In this article I’ll summarize my responses:

  • Panic buying will continue through August, or possibly longer. News of a large scale “camping” exodus from big cities, home invasions, campsite robberies, garden thievery, livestock rustling, and roadblock confrontations will raise gun buying to a fever pitch, even in small towns.
  • Once the urban gun shops have sold out, then buyers will travel further out into the suburbs and even small towns, and wipe out those inventories. Low gas prices will facilitate this.
  • We will continue to see severe shortages of most modern military caliber ammunition–most notably 9mm and 5.56mm.
  • The strong demand and higher prices for centerfire ammo will spill over to rimfire ammo buying–as people will want to shift to inexpensive training ammo. So we may experience another multi-year .22 rimfire ammo drought.
  • Prices will be strong across the board until at least August. For now, it will be a lucrative Seller’s Market–especially for private party guns.
  • First-time gun buyers will be so desperate that they will be buying even commemorative Winchester lever actions for use as practical self-defense guns. Some people will also buy bird-hunting shotguns and do Bubba hacksaw or tubing cutter jobs to turn them into combat shotguns. (Desperate times call for desperate measures.)
  • To get around state restrictions, there will be renewed interest in pre-1899 cartridge guns — but not in muzzleloaders. Many of those buying replica cap & ball revolvers will be doing so with the intention of doing cartridge cylinder conversions.
  • After the COVID crisis dies down — probably in October or November of 2020, a lot of “first-timers” will have buyer’s remorse, and sell guns back to gun shops. They will of course take big losses. Since many of these folks know little about either legalities or market fundamentals, they will assume that they can only  sell guns to FFL holders–even in states where private party sales are perfectly legal. If you live in one of those free states, then it will be a good time to post “want to buy” classified ads.
  • The glut of returned guns–many of which will be “like new in box” (LNIB) and perhaps even unfired and “new in box” (NIB) — will drive down prices. This will profoundly be a Buyer’s Market.
  • Adding to this oversupply, the heirs of elderly people who succumbed to the COVID-19 virus will begin to flood the market with a lot of nice old classic guns. Have plenty of cash on hand to buy these “Grandpa’s old guns.”  You might end up buying a few $300 M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, or pre-’64  Winchester Model 70s.
  • The Buyer’s Market will persist through 2021, UNLESS a Democrat wins the presidency. A dem in the White House hcould flip things back to a Seller’s Market, much like we saw when President BHO was elected.
  • The nascent recession may turn into a depression. As the crime rate rises, a lot of people will be looking to trade high grade sporting guns (such as a over & under shotguns) for practical and tactical guns. If, at that point, you are sitting on a pile of M4geries and full-capacity 9mm pistols, then you will be able to trade very advantageously.
  • A high crime rate will inspire more people to get CCW permits (or to carry without one in Constitutional Carry states), to defend their lives and property.  This will create a disproportionate market demand for  compact, concealable self-defense handguns. (I believe that Daily Carry pistols in the size range of Glock 19/M&P Shield/Glock 43 will be the most sought-after, at least by the more knowledgeable buyers.  So I suggest that you stack them deep, when the COVID buying panic ends, but before the Depression Seller’s Market begins.)
  • The higher crime rates will inspire may people to carry daily. This will drive demand for guns in stainless steel or with rust-resistant finishes (Melonite/Tenifer/Cerakote.) Glock’s uses Tenifer as their standard  finish.
  • Over the course of the next five years, many Blue States and Purple States will enact Universal Background Check laws–banning private party sales of modern (post-1898) guns. This paperwork requirement will make pre-1899 guns more appealing to both collectors and practical shooters. I can foresee pre-1899 prices rising, even in the midst of a Buyers Market, for modern guns.
  • If President DJT is re-elected, he will continue to appoint pro-RKBA Federal judges and Supreme Court justices. There may be a delay of several years, but eventually there will be some landmark decisions, affirming our gun rights. Many unconstitutional gun laws wil be overturned.
  • Strong memories of the pandemic in crowded cities will spur interest in relocation to “wide open spaces”, by those who can telecommute for their work. Thus, if there is some “backfill” in the lightly-populated Plains states, then there will be a stronger interest in scoped long-range precision rifles–both both action and semi-auto.
  • A spread in prices will develop between papered and un-papered guns. In states that enact Universal Background Checks, a large black market in sans papiere guns will emerge.  These won’t be stolen guns, but rather just untraceable and deniable guns. (By deniable, I mean older guns where people can say: “It’s been in our family for years.”) And of course the burden of proof on the date of acquisition is on the Prosecutor.)  Just as with pre-1899 guns, people will be willing to pay more, for privacy.
  • Democrats will continue to push for more civilian disarmament legislation. But increasingly, they will be stymied by DJT-appointed judges. I’ve concluded that it is almost inevitable that here will be a resounding Supreme court ruling  that invalidates any state and local laws that restrict semi-auto militia rifles and full capacity magazines. But, again, that may not come for several years.
  • The “feast or famine” market swings in the gun market will continue for the next five years. Some debt-laden major manufacturers may go bankrupt. The gun makers and gun sellers that are the most flexible, lean on overhead, and innovative will be the ones that survive and thrive.

Note that thee foregoing are just my own subjective predictions. Your local circumstances may vary. – JWR

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on some Grant County, Oregon residents concerned about the threat of a Mad Max environment. (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

Region-Wide

All five Redoubt States are now under stay-at-home orders. It is a bit eerie.  Even though the Redoubt region has only been lightly affected by the pandemic, bars are closed, restaurants are either closed or operating take-out only, some banks have their lobbies closed (drive-up teller service only), and most in-person church gatherings have stopped. I should also mention that locally, I’ve noticed that the drivers of vehicles with Washington license plates are now viewed with great suspicion.

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When looking at the maps of coronavirus infections, you will undoubtedly notice the American Redoubt region coincides with a very low number of cases. Much of this is attributable to the low population density of the region.  And in the long run I believe that both the infection rate and case fatality rate rate in the Redoubt will continue to be relatively low. Many times in interviews over the years, I’ve said: “Fewer people means fewer problems.” That is true for a lot of different threats. A viral outbreak spread by casual contact is just one example.

Idaho

Governor Little issues statewide stay-home order, signs extreme emergency declaration

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At KHQ: Idaho Gov. Little discusses upcoming COVID-19 response measures ahead of Wednesday’s press conference

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Idaho Secretary of State asks Governor to delay May primary

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”