price… adjustments

In searching and searching for a complete AR-15 upper in this absurdly-high-demand market, I have been trying just about every source, supplier, manufacturer, and assembler I can lay my grubby hands on. One of the more recent shots in the dark has been a firm by the name of American Spirit Arms. From what I understand, the company went through some rather rough times in the past, with a rather… difficult manager (the words “bastard”, “asshole”, and “sonofa…” came up frequently when people were talking about him) and some markedly shoddy quality control, but the name has since been sold to new management, and they are back in the game of making AR-15 components after a year or so’s absence.
If you take a look at their webpage, their prices seems more-or-less reasonable (at least given the current market and paucity of options), and I went ahead and dropped their sales department an email. Surprisingly enough, their current manager, a gentleman named Joe, emailed me back, and asked that I go ahead and call them to iron out the details. Even more surprisingly, he confessed to having not only uppers, but also barrels and bolt carrier groups in-stock, and ready to assemble and ship out. I gave them a ring shortly after receiving the email, and was confronted by their secretary / receptionist / designated phone jockey, who immediately told me that they were undergoing some substantial remodelling and expansion, and could I please call back in one or two months once all this had been ironed out? Uhm. Ok. Another email to Joe later, and he indicated I should just ask for him immediately, as opposed to dealing with the designated phone-answerer, so I gave that a shot.
To be fair, Joe seems like a perfectly reasonable and polite person to work with – it took him a minute to remember who I was, but given that he is in the midst of expanding his business, that is certainly understandable. They do have barrels and uppers, complete with BCGs and charging handles, ready to be put together and sent to good homes, and would even be willing to go ahead and omit their A2 style handguards and install a Yankee Hill Machine free-float rail solution… for the small price of $300, bringing the total price of the upper (and just the complete upper, mind you) to over $950.
Budawha?
Now, I know, in comparison to some of the custom-job uppers you can find in the Equipment Exchange on AR15.com, $950 is a small price, but those uppers have Noveske barrels, and Daniel Defense rails, and VLTOR uppers, and JP Enterprises gas blocks, and titanium nitride bolt carrier groups, and can probably serve you a martini while giving you a killer backrub. This ASA upper? Effective no-name equipment attached to a low- to mid-grade rail, and they want mid-range pricing for it? I think I will pass.
Oh, and by the way, YHM does not sell a $300 forearm – the most expensive thing they have is $200. Interesting.
I am half-tempted to just go ahead and procure the complete upper from the ASA folks, sans any handguards or forearms entirely, then just snag one of these from Brownell’s, drag the whole kit and kaboodle up to Coal Creek Armory, and have them put it together… except I am fairly certain that will be more expensive than my sub-$700 Del-Ton Inc. build, for, again, a no-name product. Hell, the parts alone would be more expensive, and I have no idea what CCA charges per hour in terms of labor.
Just like in the last spate of gasoline shortages and according price increases, I am quite loathe to start screaming “price gouging, price gouging!” when the simple facts are if you have a set amount of supply that is not going to change for the forseeable future (and might possibly diminish), and a suddenly massive demand, prices are going to increase – that is just a fact of life. (Kudos to Del-Ton for not increasing their prices any more than they have to, as dictated to them by their suppliers, though.) However, trying to capitalize on the situation by charging as much as the big boys, when you have no current reputation, and a not-so-good past reputation… well, that will not work nearly as well as you might think, distressed market or not.