Comments

Episode-1231- Listener Calls for 10-21-13 — 50 Comments

  1. Couldn’t agree more with your response regarding “row cropping” and permaculture. What is the energy audit, and what does it provide for you (at what costs), are the important aspects to consider. It seems there are quite a number of people who look at permaculture and immediately go “if its not coming out of a permaculturists mouth it can’t be permaculture” rather than taking what is good and sound, regardless of where it comes.

    You can buy organic gardening hand tools like the Hoss Seeder/plow that can “automate” all of your basic planting activities (opening a loose hole, putting a seed in, and covering it). Works best in rows, and would allow you to easily manage a large family garden without having to use a tractor. Is it going to please Paul Wheaton? Probably not, but it’ll certainly open up an average persons ability to feed themselves, good food.
    http://www.easydigging.com/hoss-seeder-planter.html

    Cheers.

    • Just listened to the part on cheaper than dirt. The last statement you made regarding buying during a crisis is 100% correct and on point. I had waited and waited and waited to buy a Saiga 308 for years (even though you could buy them all day long for 300-400 dollars) then the “crisis” hit. So I had to make a calculated decision, and I ended up buying an already modded Saiga 308 (i was going to do the mods myself, but mods were completely gone and stupid expensive).

      The only way to describe what happened for me was “I was completely unprepared”.

  2. The good reason to be mad at cheaperthandirt is how they basically stopped selling scary black rifles when the pressure for greater gun control was really ratcheting up, and other companies in the gun-related industry were taking form pro-2A stands. It’s not that they raised prices on stuff.

    I get really annoyed by pro-gun types, who say they’re generally Conservative, small government types, and who you could reasonably assume were pro-free market folks, throw a big ass fit over ANY price increase in these situations. I just wanna shake these people and say “It’s called the principle of supply and demand, asshole! Look it up.”

    • I don’t know what you are talking about, you can buy all the ARs, AKs etc at CTD that you want.

      • Jack, about CTD:
        1. I don’t think anyone had a problem with them raising prices after a while, it was the “CTD is suspended online sales of firearms” that got them blacklisted.
        2. I would argue that they didn’t raise prices to capitilize on supply and demand, they raised them to take advantage of uninformed consumers. $1000 for a case of .223, $500 for a beta-C mag, $9,999 for an AR. etc. (I’m guessing their software didn’t allow 5 digits on their prices)

        quick example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJgTS5DpePc

    • Yes, NOW you can, after the chaos has more or less passed. But in the thick of it they froze sales on, if I remember correctly (and I may not), all long guns.

      So, I’m not now and was never saying lets all boycott them like a lot of people were at the time, I’m just saying that’s a better reason to be pissed at them than ‘they increased prices on stuff just like everyone else did’. I still buy stuff from them, so I’m definitely not trying to crap on the business as a whole.

      • Err, online long gun sales I meant to say. I think their physical location was still doing sales the whole time.

      • I believe it was all online gun sales and it was only for a few weeks. Their story was that it was due to the overload it was placing on the system due to rush of sales and the backlog it caused. Certainly could just have been an excuse but that was a pretty short ‘politically’ inspired change.

      • Yeah, I could accept that as the cause, and if they had explained that from the outset it would have saved them a lot of grief. I remember just about every online pro-gun person and community just taking a huge dump on them for that, because the perception was that they were bowing to political pressure rather than market forces.

    • CTD was one of the first to stop online sales of firearms after Sandy Hook, I think “Dick’s” (holding true to their name) beat them out by pulling evil black rifles from their shelves.

      It had nothing to do with the “rush of sales and the backlog it caused” – they sold out the 2A community due to pressure over online sales of firearms. And it wasn’t even real pressure at that point, it was only rumors of pressure. They even came out and stated that they wanted to “reevaluate” their stance on online firearms sales.

      Now, prior to that I had a decent experience with CTD, fast shipping and I had good luck with their dial-in support which only had to use once or twice. AND i am not calling for a boycott on CTD, HOWEVER I personally will NEVER spend another dime with them, that goes double for Dick’s (and their new “Field & Stream stores also).

      As far as the “price gouging” I don’t give too much worry about that. However, just for sake of conversation, their price on 30rnd MagPul mags went from $14 to $99 overnight, far ahead of anyone doubling normal prices on them.

  3. Now just waiting to see a quote on their catalog:

    “Cheaper Than Dirt is like the Amazon of the tactical world” -Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast

    🙂

    I personally didn’t particularly have a problem with their pricing etc, I just thought their ‘so many days to the Mayan Apocalypse’ was horribly cheesy, and hope they didn’t mean it seriously!

  4. Iron, well seasoned iron cookware… lodge brand for example. Is my favorite stuff.

    Cabelas is pretty good about not being gun snobs too.

    Sounds like the general plot of revelution

    • I have to agree with Chef Snow. It is an investment to buy cookware that says ‘Made in France’ on it, but long-term, it is pennies. However, one that is state-side that with my current usage is holding up quite well, Epicurean cutting boards. I spent extra for the gourmet line that has a drip channel as well. They are very nice, and not had a single issue with them, even with them going in the dishwasher every night. If they hold up as well as the Staub dutch ovens, that will be very impressive…

    • The entire response I was thinking “Iron Skillets”. The ONLY time we don’t use an Iron Skillet is because we’re cooking so many things that we’ve run out of Iron Skillets and have to go to the Emeril pot set we have.

      Eggs, meats, asian stirfry, jalapeno poppers, fried chicken/fish, literally doesn’t matter what it is.

      Oh i guess my wife uses different pots for pasta, so I’m wrong on that one.

  5. Jack,
    I had the Ponzi scheme question, and on a day that your voice was healing, I feel kinda bad, so next time your near Omaha, I owe you a scotch! The Dundee Dell has over 600 unique single malts on hand (owner is a collector). Your answer has provoked more thought that I will simply learn to grow more food, and ride out the storm, because most of the people I know are in the zombie mode you talked about a few weeks back.

  6. May good fortune shine on Rob and Mulligan Mint. I hope they can work out the problems and continue turning out awesome silver medallions. Jack, you voice sounded pretty weak today. Hope ya get better soon.

  7. I do not think any one in office knows what it take to run America. The final sentence of the Declaration of Independence is a promise among the signers, to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor,” and many of them and their fellow patriots did in fact sacrifice their lives and fortunes in service to our country. No loss of life or money could ever diminish the honor of these heroes, and it is that honor that we celebrate today.

    In times of need, all those that hold goverment offices will give and sacrifice there money.

    I also feel we need to change how you can be come a member of is group…I feel you must be 3rd generation american to hold any type of goverment office…that way you have all your intrest in the country and no other.

  8. Still getting 404 not found, or “file not found” if playing in the site browser/pop-up.

    Any help appreciated, as I need my daily Jack-fix please!

  9. Jack,
    With your new recommendation on Mulligan Mint, any idea on what that means for orders that have been in the system for a while? I order ParaDimes on 9/12/13 and am wondering if I will ever see them.

    • I can’t remember off hand when i bought mine (shortly after they came out with paradimes), but I definitely got them. Great product, hopefully they come through this intact so i can buy more paradimes. Such a shame too because its the only realistic fractional on the market.

    • I also would be interested to know.. I have large orders from 8/13 and 9/21 that haven’t been filled (all paradimes).

      • @Insidious,
        Have you tried contacting the mint? I did and got a very generic “form letter” response.

      • I thought it was ok to order from Mulligan until Jack told us otherwise. That would mean any order placed before yesterday (when Jack said that we should not order silver) should still come. That is my understanding, anyway.

        • I thought the same thing but, I guess sometimes unforeseen things happen. Hopefully everything will work out and all orders will get filled and Rob will be able to keep the mint running.

      • “I think it has mostly to do with the bankruptsy and if you ordered before it was filed then you are now basically a creditor in said bankruptcy. I wish I had better news than that.”

        And if you ordered after the bankruptcy was filed you are now . . . what? Left hanging out to dry?

        • Not at all you are waiting on an order that likely will be filled unless the trustee decides to liquidate the company. They are filling all orders taken after the filing. They are not filling those before said filing ONLY because the court ordered them not to.

    • I think it has mostly to do with the bankruptsy and if you ordered before it was filed then you are now basically a creditor in said bankruptcy. I wish I had better news than that.

    • If you ordered pre-BK then Jack’s right in that you’d be considered a creditor at this point and you should have received a notice declaring you as such. The problem is where you stand in terms of priority amongst the various creditors (e.g. secured vs. unsecured). IOW’s, secured creditors take priority over unsecured creditors and as such, will me made “whole” first before the unsecured ones. If the debtor chooses to reaffirm their debts, all of the creditors will get what they’re owed slowly over time at which point the trustee will declare that all pre-BK debts to be satisfied, discharge the bankruptcy and “set the debtor free” so to speak.

      In the event of the trustee declares that the debtor to no longer be a viable going concern, then the debtors assets are liquidated and the proceeds are distributed to the various creditors, those with higher priority (secured) taking precedent over lesser (unsecured) creditors.

      I couldn’t possibly know whether MM could be considered a viable going concern but it doesn’t look good. The BK court appointed a trustee to determine whether MM could be saved from a business standpoint recently. The trustee will have the final say though (as to whether to liquidate or reaffirm) and it looks like a decision will be issued around mid-November. If they order a liquidation, then as a customer you’ll most likely get a de minimis amount if anything at all. If they decide to reaffirm then you’ll get something eventually, but only after everything else is satisfied. Bad news all around but that’s just the way it works unfortunately.

    • @Jack
      That makes total sense. Well technically you wouldn’t be a creditor. A creditor would be republic metals or anybody else who loaned M2 silver. Customers come above creditors in a bankrupcy, however, in this case, customers continuing to come in when the silver is probably “locked up” is another story.

  10. Hey Jack, for some reason I have check all three sources to get this podcast and it says the file is not found. Just thought you should know.

  11. Hi Jack,
    I’m also unable to Download the episode to. Tried a few minutes ago today at 9:21 PST and getting this:

    Not Found

    The requested URL /audio/2013/10-13/epi-01231-calls-10-21-13.mp3 was not found on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    Apache/2.2.25 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.25 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at http://www.survivalpodcast.net Port 80

    I’m trying to download on my blackberry…

  12. I can’t download the show either. I tried late last night, and again just now at 12:33pm EDT. Same error as shasta ron.

  13. With regards to Cheaper than dirt, inventory is an expense. When there is a run on supply it only makes sense to try and make as much money as the market will allow. Especially when you are unsure what the replenishment value will be on the inventory you just sold. Think of inventory as money in the bank. If it doesn’t move, it might as well be Zimbabwe dollars. When it’s hot and you can’t replenish it, its like gold. It’s an interesting to observe the almost “hyper-inflationary” effect with regard to ammo as it teaches you how your money becomes worth less with respect to that one product.

    I lost some respect for CTD when they stopped selling some weapons online. I chose to spend my money with businesses that stood against the media onslaught.

  14. A new source with out the agenda….well how about the no agenda show! News analysis with no agenda. No advertising or seed selling

  15. hey Jack, you said on this cast that the copper sentinel coins were same day shipping. When i got to the MM site, it is saying delivery 3-5 weeks. Am I missing something?

  16. Re: the Peach Tree guild

    A bit belated, but one of the best discussions of guild design I’ve found is in “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” by Toby Hemenway.

    Mind you, I’m a beginner gardener. However, the discussion is high-yield, well-written, and has a good balance between giving specific examples and teaching how to think (as Jack makes a point of emphasizing).

    HTH,
    David