11/08/2023

There were two recent additions to the "roster" that had people in California pretty excited until they saw that the new additions cost "off roster" prices. It's outrageous what is happening and I would like to see companies stop taking advantage of Californians due to their lack of options.

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Hey everybody, how's it going? Welcome back to Copper Jacket TV. So today, we're going to be talking about a couple of new roster editions: the 365 and the 320 in the state of California. And even if you don't live in the state of California, you're going to want to watch this one because people in California, it feels like sometimes even when they win, they still lose. I mean, this is going to make your head spin. People in California are getting Rak over the coals for these, okay? So let's go and talk about what's going on here, and I've got to be honest with you guys, this is terrible. I mean, it's just absolutely terrible to see this happen. And I'm going to have to tiptoe around the way that I talk about this for obvious reasons. But let's just go ahead and get into it.

So if you live in the state of California, I'm sure that you're aware of what the roster is, right? It's a list of things that California has approved in that state, and it's a very short list. That short list has gotten smaller and smaller over the years, mostly due to micro-stamping. There was a micro-stamping provision that said something had to have a micro stamp in multiple locations in order for it to be approved for that list. Well, there was an injunction placed against the enforcement of that micro-stamping provision, and since that injunction is currently in place, there's a lot more things that have recently been added to the roster. And out of those things, two of them were the 320 and the 365. And so that's the good news, right? That's great news. People finally have a carry option and a full-size option that are well respected across the country and newer than what was on the roster, usually like 25 plus years old. So that's the good news.

Here's the bad news. I decided to go and check to see what these things would cost. And so I went to one of the more popular places, which was Turners, and it's $730 for a 365. $730! Now, for those people in California who might not know any better, if you were to go to where I live in the state of Nevada or go to an academy outside of the state of California, they're on sale for like $474 right now. I think the average price is around $500. So $500 seems to be the norm whenever I look. Sometimes you can find it for a little bit less, sometimes a little bit more, but for the most part, it's around $500. In California, for the same thing, pretty much, other than a magazine disconnect, load chamber indicator, things like that, you know, very small things, it's over $700. Over $700! That's getting fairly close to off-roster prices.

Now, if you don't know what off-roster means, that means when somebody who is exempt, okay? They're exempt from the roster, so law enforcement, government officials, people like that, when they're exempt from the roster, they can get whatever they want that's available to everybody else. When they get something and they determine that they don't want it anymore for whatever reason, they could put it on the market and you can get it. But you're going to have to pay ridiculous amounts of money for it because it's rare. I mean, it basically comes down to supply and demand. There's very few of them, and so supply and demand dictates that you're going to pay a lot more for it, right? I'm guilty of that myself. I think it's absolutely ridiculous because people are spending two, three times as much as you would pay in a free state for something that's really just basic, to be honest with you. So off-roster prices are insane. That's what you got here out of this.

So Californians win. Yeah, they got something new and something that's nice and definitely worth getting. But at the same time, you've got to pay $200 plus extra for it than you would in a free state. Now, I started thinking to myself, okay, maybe it's because there needs to be a dedicated line of machining for it, right? So there needs to be new machining, they're going to use new parts and stuff like that. But I started thinking, well, they do that for everything else as well. And the prices don't inflate when they come out with something new, right? That's available to all the free states. You don't see that new thing, which has a new line of machines just dedicated to that, probably get elevated in price. Now you don't see that. Okay, well, maybe it's the R&D that went into it, you know, the new development. There had to be some new things that had to be added to it, sure, fine. But again, isn't that what happens with everything they put out that's new? Everything they put out that's new required some type of R&D and some type of development, but you don't see that inflation going on there either.

And so I started thinking, well, maybe it's California. Maybe the retailers are just taking advantage of people. So I decided to call a buddy of mine who has access to all the different distributors around the area and what different pricing would be. And that's not the case either. As a matter of fact, the manufacturer, what the manufacturer is asking is extremely high. The manufacturer is asking for like $130, $140 over what retail is for everybody else. So you're talking about $130 over retail at the wholesale level for these people in California. Then there's a standardized pricing, right? So a lot of these manufacturers have a standardized pricing. You're not allowed to sell something lower than that standardized pricing, which is called map pricing. Okay. So if a retailer is caught cutting that price down past that map price, they can actually get in trouble with the distributor or the manufacturer and things like that. So there's a standardized pricing level. And so they're forced at that standardized pricing level. And that standardized pricing level is like hundreds of dollars more than what you would pay in a free state. Again, it's unbelievable how you get, well, I don't want to say lucky. That's the word that almost came out of my mouth, but there's a lot of people, including the FPC and others and the GOA and people that are involved in overturning these things so you guys can at least start to get some of your freedoms back. So there was a lot of work put into just this alone.

But there's people out there who fight to have these things overturned. And then when they do, the people of California see some benefit come out of it in the form of something being added to that roster. And then the negativity hits almost immediately when you find out that it is significantly more than everything else across the country. I just don't get it. Like I was saying in the beginning, it sometimes feels like even when you win, you lose. I mean, I personally, as where I live right now in Nevada, there's no way if I saw something for $730, a 365 for $730, there's no way I would get it. That's absolutely ridiculous. But if you want one in California, that's what you have to pay. It's just insane, and I just wanted to talk to you guys about that. So it's not the distributor, the distributors are stuck at a price. It's not the retailer, they're stuck at a price as well. It seems to be that it's inflated from the manufacturer. Now, I don't know that for a fact. It could happen somewhere in the middle in between the lines right between the distributor and the manufacturer or some type of contract could be written up. I'm not sure. But from everything that I've seen in my research talking to distributors, talking to retailers, and talking to wholesalers, stuff like that, it seems like it's starting at the source, and that's where the inflated price is coming from.

So, it's just, it really is just a shame, and I just wanted to bring that up to let some people know. At least when you go into your local shop and you see it for $730, $740, $750, whatever they're going to ask, it's really not their fault. They're barely making anything on it. So just try and keep that in mind. I don't know. I mean, if you add something new, just going to, I guess you're going to have to pay double for it. That's just the way it is until things could be normalized in that state. And we make that state like every other state, which I don't see happening very soon. But at least we'll have some laws overturned fairly soon here with everything that's going through the courts and everything that is as close as it is to the Supreme Court. So again, I wanted to talk to you guys about that. I want to thank you all very much for watching. I really do appreciate it. Please like, subscribe. You guys have a great day.