Cheap kegs????

[chandlerbang1]

I've been out of the game a while, you know the story.... Kids, house remodel, life in general. Anyway, I have 20 ball lock kegs that I've accumulated and not sold because I might be a hoarder. I'm poking around now and see NEW ball lock kegs on sale in several places for $69??? What gives? Why are they so much cheaper now than they were two or three years ago?

 

[MaryB]

China!

 

[JohnSand]

You still have several hundred dollars worth of kegs.
HBS stores have regular sales of used ball lock cornies, 4/$200. I recently paid $25@ locally, last year $30@ (craigslist). I was happy with both prices. There is a guy on Craigslist trying to sell them $50@, no takers for many months. You can sell yours if you ask less than retail. Good luck with them, keep a few if you decide to brew again.

 

[shoo]

What gives? Why are they so much cheaper now than they were two or three years ago?

Market economics in a scenario with high fixed costs of production.

The high prices for corny kegs a few years ago were effectively because of the finite number of corny kegs in existence. The corny kegs that had been the standard for brewing were repurposed soda kegs, which effectively stopped being produced as soda companies turned towards different types of delivery and serving mechanisms. With no more production, there was a finite supply for homebrew purposes, hence the price.

Homebrewing became popular enough in recent years that it became worth it for more manufacturers (mostly in China) to start manufacturing corny kegs again, effectively because the market was now large enough to justify investing in the high fixed costs to start production at expected prices if there was competition. Because of these high fixed costs with little variation in production tech, that switch flips effectively for all manufacturers all at once, which results in a "sudden" drop in the cost of kegs.

One of those situations in which markets are relatively well-behaved and conform to theory really nicely.

 

[jalc6927]

Plus the soda companies went to boxes and flooded the market with used kegs