Over Priced Things That Shouldn't Be?

[NRA4LIFE]

I was forced to go downtown into Seattle with some visitors a few weeks ago and there was a Mariners game that night. Parking signs read $90 to park anywhere near the stadium. Yes, 9-zero.

 

[displacedtexan]

We were at a minor league baseball game here in OKC the other day, work has a suite, a buddy went down to the bar to grab a couple margaritas for him and his wife...$20 apiece! I stuck to the free Coors lights in the suite

I don't particularly like Coors Light, but my favorite beer is free!

 

[OKHunter84]

I don't particularly like Coors Light, but my favorite beer is free!

I'm with you, not my fav either

 

[maxx075]

I just moved to Utah and I was absolutely shocked at how much shipping costs to this state are. I don't know why, but there are only a few states that have outrageous shipping rates, and Utah is one of them. Alaska and Hawaii I can see, but Utah? Is it something to do with the Mormons lol

 

[Axlrod]

Just got home from NYC
Uber from Laguardia to Hotel $160
Beer at Yankee stadium $16, margherita $27
Elevator ride to the top of One World trade center $70 x 5 people
Elevator ride top of Empire state bldg. $80 x 5
.5 mile ride in a 3 wheel bike from Empire to Times Square $171 (well I negotiated that down some, didn't see the small sign that said $9/min)

Seeing ground zero, Ellis Island, and the Yankees play for my 60th birthday with my family- priceless!

 

[*zap*]

everything..

 

[CorbLand]

Because of my geographical location, I’ve never been to a major sporting event (pro or college). We planned a visit to the in-laws around March Madness this year. Beers were $14. WHY ARE THE BEERS $14!?!?

Same with concerts, haven’t been to one with more than maybe a thousand people in over a decade. Last big concert was front row for AC/DC in 2010 and it cost $40. We have tickets to a concert in Tacoma this fall and lower bowl tickets ran us $300 each. Assuming that’s about the average price of a ticket, the place is brining in about $5-6 mil a concert plus beer, food, and merch. Unreal.

Strait will be an hour and half away in a couple months. I looked at getting tickets and the cheapest tickets would have been about 600 a piece after fees and everything.

 

[Mojave]

Women are stupid expensive. I have 4 daughters and a wife. None of them hunt, so anything that is not a hunting vacation is annoying in their eyes. So I just do whatever I want. I figure if they are still there when I get home I won. If they are not, then I still won and I will just have to pay more money.

Hunting clothing is expensive. I work in safety so I basically double dip some of my hunting clothes at work. But people in suits get pissy about me giving a safety brief looking like a Kuiu billboard. Don't care.

North American hunts are crazy expensive. Here is my 2024 hunting line up for Europe.
$700 300 acre deer lease that is 100% mine and it's 500 yards from my house. All roe bucks are free, if I see a stag it is $3700 to shoot it. Odds are low that there will be a stag or anything other than roe and pigs.
$2400 chamois hunt in Slovenia. No game I am about $300
$2800 roe hunt for 1 huge buck and 2 medium/small bucks in Hungary, No game I am out $1000
$1700 blackgrouse hunt in Austria, no game I am out gas money and hotels.
Driven hunts in Germany
$100 per day x 4 days $400
Red stags are $1500 if I get to shoot one, everything else is free I just have to pay for the meat if I want to buy it.

I get emails daily about whitetail hunts in Saskatchewan and Alberta for $4500 and black bear hunts for the same. These are some of the cheapest quality hunts I see in North America anymore.

What the hell is going on?

Mountain goats are $20,000-30,000.
Mule deer $8000
Elk $8000-35,000
Sheep went past stupid to full retard 10 years ago. Everyone knows that.
Caribou are $10,000 to $25,000
Moose are the same if not another $5000 in Alaska.
Private pronghorn hunts are $5000-7500.

Even DIY western tags and tag fees are stupid. I get that they are getting that, but it's not like there is a guaranteed tag.

 

[Mojave]

Strait will be an hour and half away in a couple months. I looked at getting tickets and the cheapest tickets would have been about 600 a piece after fees and everything.

I was a huge George Strait fan from my early teens until about 15 years ago.

His song Always never the same. Sums it up for me. I don't care for it anymore.

Corb Lund, Chris Ledoux (not Ned), Dave Stamey, I wouldn't pay to see any of them in concert. I just don't like crowds anymore.

Seen Chris Ledoux and George Strait a dozen times each.

I think I am just over the point in life were concerts are interesting.

 

[jhm2023]

Trailers are one I can't seem to understand the pricing of. It's a steel frame with some boards and a damn axle or two. Why are they comparable in price to the machines I want to load on it that have way more going on?

 

[displacedtexan]

I was a huge George Strait fan from my early teens until about 15 years ago.

His song Always never the same. Sums it up for me. I don't care for it anymore.

Corb Lund, Chris Ledoux (not Ned), Dave Stamey, I wouldn't pay to see any of them in concert. I just don't like crowds anymore.

Seen Chris Ledoux and George Strait a dozen times each.

I think I am just over the point in life were concerts are interesting.

Well, Chris has been dead a long time...

I don't like the crowds much either, but I still love live music.

Front row it is! Lol

 

[Mojave]

Well, Chris has been dead a long time...

I don't like the crowds much either, but I still love live music.

Front row it is! Lol

I know Chris has been dead a long time. He was in the hospital room in Casper next to my sister when he died.

 

[RockAndSage]

Women are stupid expensive. I have 4 daughters and a wife. None of them hunt, so anything that is not a hunting vacation is annoying in their eyes. So I just do whatever I want. I figure if they are still there when I get home I won. If they are not, then I still won and I will just have to pay more money.

Hunting clothing is expensive. I work in safety so I basically double dip some of my hunting clothes at work. But people in suits get pissy about me giving a safety brief looking like a Kuiu billboard. Don't care.

North American hunts are crazy expensive. Here is my 2024 hunting line up for Europe.
$700 300 acre deer lease that is 100% mine and it's 500 yards from my house. All roe bucks are free, if I see a stag it is $3700 to shoot it. Odds are low that there will be a stag or anything other than roe and pigs.
$2400 chamois hunt in Slovenia. No game I am about $300
$2800 roe hunt for 1 huge buck and 2 medium/small bucks in Hungary, No game I am out $1000
$1700 blackgrouse hunt in Austria, no game I am out gas money and hotels.
Driven hunts in Germany
$100 per day x 4 days $400
Red stags are $1500 if I get to shoot one, everything else is free I just have to pay for the meat if I want to buy it.

I get emails daily about whitetail hunts in Saskatchewan and Alberta for $4500 and black bear hunts for the same. These are some of the cheapest quality hunts I see in North America anymore.

What the hell is going on?

Mountain goats are $20,000-30,000.
Mule deer $8000
Elk $8000-35,000
Sheep went past stupid to full retard 10 years ago. Everyone knows that.
Caribou are $10,000 to $25,000
Moose are the same if not another $5000 in Alaska.
Private pronghorn hunts are $5000-7500.

Even DIY western tags and tag fees are stupid. I get that they are getting that, but it's not like there is a guaranteed tag.

Unfortunately, that's simply supply-and-demand pricing. Hunting isn't anywhere nearly as accessible or popular in Europe. But it sounds like you are in for a great, memorable time over there. If you do end up hunting, especially with guides or any of the German stuff, it'd be really to hear about how they do things differently over there (culture, norms, etc). Were you able to bring your own guns over there, living there?

 

[Mojave]

Unfortunately, that's simply supply-and-demand pricing. Hunting isn't anywhere nearly as accessible or popular in Europe. But it sounds like you are in for a great, memorable time over there. If you do end up hunting, especially with guides or any of the German stuff, it'd be really to hear about how they do things differently over there (culture, norms, etc). Were you able to bring your own guns over there, living there?

Other than my own lease everything is guided/outfitted. It is all booked and paid for, unless I am in a casket I am going.

Roe buck season starts May 1st, and my black grouse hunt in Austria is on the 18th. So May is busy. Hungary is in July, we are going fishing in Finland in June, and then I have driven hunts in September through December and I hunt November for chamois in Slovenia. I have 20 days of what you would call PTO.

No you can not bring your own guns, and there is no reason to. In most of Europe there is some form of bowhunting, but not in Germany. I don't bowhunt anymore anyway.

I have 5 rifles here a Voere mauser 98 in 9.3x64, a Blaser R8 with 2 barrels 10.3x68 RWS and a 8x57, a Sauer 200 STR in 308, a Winchester XPR in 243 and a Steyr in 7x57.

I am a licensed German hunter, I have gone through a German hunting school. You have to be part of the US Forces to do it. There are people who have moved here and gotten married and became long term residents or citizens and that would be possible. It is written into the Status of Forces Agreement from the 1940's that American service folks, civilians and contractors can enroll in a German hunting course.

I think it is more demand, than supply and demand. I think the demand is on the outfitter side. The guide and outfitter groups try to set the pricing. Consumer demand for sheep of course, but most of the rest of it is driven by the outfitter groups.

Anyone can hunt in Europe. Saying that Germany is the hardest place for tourism hunting, as they don't have an established system to make it work. Eastern Europe, Spain, the UK, France all have big tourism hunting programs. German speaking nations are way harder to navigate. There are outfitters in Austria that cater to Americans, but they are twice or three times the price.

You won't shoot NZ type red stags in Europe unless like NZ they are behind high fence. A big NZ head in the 450-500 inch range would weigh 15-20 kg. Here a big stag weighs 11-12 kgs. The NZ type stags are availabe in the UK on game ranches for similar prices to NZ.

Saying that super trophies of ibex, mouflon and stags are $20,000 plus.

The stags I am after will weigh 5-8kg. There is huge regional dymorphism between red deer. We have big bodied deer in Germany but they don't have big heads.

Wild stags in my area probably weigh 7 or 8 kg and cost $5500 or 5000 euros. My forestmeister sent me a price list with the cost for stags in my state and 5000 euros was the number. But you'd have to have some form of a German hunting license to get in on that.

I will hunt a military area near the Czech border for $1500, but this isn't a public hunt. So that is a bit of a misnomer.

 

[KurtR]

I get the supply/demand curve, inflation, increasing gas prices and the domino effect it has on prices, I get the politics side of it along with quality ideas.....

But to me. Plastic is still plastic....IMO a jug of water and the plastic it uses is still the same plastic of goose decoys. Yes the goose decoys are thicker, "more durable", paint, different dye, etc....but it's moldable plastic!

Child Care is another.....I work in education and we have a day care connected to it and it's basically the same amount of $$ as a full time job for a couple kids.

My wife and I both have good jobs, college educated, no debt except house, cars (and my obsessive hunting appetite). Our house isn't "extravagant", 2 story, 4 bedroom and 3 car garage, but our taxes are thru the roof, esp recently! And I feel like I'm living pay check to pay check!

I just don't get it and feel I'm being taken advantage of on so many things.

I don't understand raw material prices should be similar (plastic, metals, etc) to make goods and services. But why are things using similar materials, so darn different? And I get the cost of making materials, cost of labor, etc.

But why are some goose decoys so much more damn expensive than others? Why are Avian X decoys more $$ than GHGs of similar quality? Why are DSDs $100/decoy! They're freaking heavy, and I don't notice a difference when I've hunted over them compared to Dakotas, Big Feet, Hard Core, GHGs, Avians, etc!

The details in the dsd are head and shoulders above the others. That said i am a divbomb guy with a few fb if the situation calls for it

If you think they cost to much put the time in to figure what it costs to make something from design through r and d to finished product. Prove your being taken advantage of. Whats to much of a profit for a business to make?

My wife owned a daycare for three years and we sold it as after three years it still had not turned a profit and people still complained that it cost to much.

 

[RockAndSage]

Other than my own lease everything is guided/outfitted. It is all booked and paid for, unless I am in a casket I am going.

Roe buck season starts May 1st, and my black grouse hunt in Austria is on the 18th. So May is busy. Hungary is in July, we are going fishing in Finland in June, and then I have driven hunts in September through December and I hunt November for chamois in Slovenia. I have 20 days of what you would call PTO.

No you can not bring your own guns, and there is no reason to. In most of Europe there is some form of bowhunting, but not in Germany. I don't bowhunt anymore anyway.

I have 5 rifles here a Voere mauser 98 in 9.3x64, a Blaser R8 with 2 barrels 10.3x68 RWS and a 8x57, a Sauer 200 STR in 308, a Winchester XPR in 243 and a Steyr in 7x57.

I am a licensed German hunter, I have gone through a German hunting school. You have to be part of the US Forces to do it. There are people who have moved here and gotten married and became long term residents or citizens and that would be possible. It is written into the Status of Forces Agreement from the 1940's that American service folks, civilians and contractors can enroll in a German hunting course.

I think it is more demand, than supply and demand. I think the demand is on the outfitter side. The guide and outfitter groups try to set the pricing. Consumer demand for sheep of course, but most of the rest of it is driven by the outfitter groups.

Anyone can hunt in Europe. Saying that Germany is the hardest place for tourism hunting, as they don't have an established system to make it work. Eastern Europe, Spain, the UK, France all have big tourism hunting programs. German speaking nations are way harder to navigate. There are outfitters in Austria that cater to Americans, but they are twice or three times the price.

You won't shoot NZ type red stags in Europe unless like NZ they are behind high fence. A big NZ head in the 450-500 inch range would weigh 15-20 kg. Here a big stag weighs 11-12 kgs. The NZ type stags are availabe in the UK on game ranches for similar prices to NZ.

Saying that super trophies of ibex, mouflon and stags are $20,000 plus.

The stags I am after will weigh 5-8kg. There is huge regional dymorphism between red deer. We have big bodied deer in Germany but they don't have big heads.

Wild stags in my area probably weigh 7 or 8 kg and cost $5500 or 5000 euros. My forestmeister sent me a price list with the cost for stags in my state and 5000 euros was the number. But you'd have to have some form of a German hunting license to get in on that.

I will hunt a military area near the Czech border for $1500, but this isn't a public hunt. So that is a bit of a misnomer.

All of that is extremely interesting, thank you for sharing. Definitely please consider posting some independent threads about these hunts when you do them, I'm sure a lot Roksliders would really enjoy hearing about your experiences and these differences.

 

[Tclawson]

Ground beef! And fertilizer

 

[Mojave]

All of that is extremely interesting, thank you for sharing. Definitely please consider posting some independent threads about these hunts when you do them, I'm sure a lot Roksliders would really enjoy hearing about your experiences and these differences.

I might thank you.

 

[bigunit]

The niche markets like overlanding gear and especially slide in truck campers are ridiculous. $100,000 cdn for a fibreglass box with a window and some cupboards is robbery. Also tires. I've been pricing tires for my ram. The last set I bought in about 2021 was $700. I'll be looking at $2k now.

 

[Ebola]

Ammunition - why is rifle ammunition so much more expensive than shotgun ammunition, when there are more components and a higher amount of material in shotgun shells, that are also heavier and cost more to ship?

That is a good question. Maybe because most people shoot 12 ga and there's how many different rifle calibers. Them you get into different grain bullets etc. Just way more variability in rifle cartridges