PSA PA-15 16” Nitride M4 Carbine 5.56 NATO Classic AR-15 Rifle with 13.5” M-LOK Rail, Black - $519.99

What makes this $500 AR a $1000 plus rifle??? That's right, by the time you pay shipping, state tax. and transfer fee at your FFL, you will be out well over a $1000, and hoping to find to some sub-standard ammo for less than a buck a round, before shipping.

Answer: Clueless buyers being exploded by a greedy company, that is focused totally on profit.

Up another $20 this week. Greed on steroids.

Before you spend $919.99 plus $17 shipping, for this "Budget AR", I appeal to you to go to the link posted below, and see what I believe is a much better option. A few years ago the folks at LaRue Tactical, which was already highly respected for their line of premium rifles, and components, decided to bundle a package they named the LaRue Ultimate AR-15 Upper Kit, and sell it to AR builders at a substantial discount. The name is somewhat confusing because the kit, is actually a complete, high quality AR-15 rifle, with their outstanding MBT-2s trigger, minus a stripped lower receiver. I'll repeat: a complete rifle, minus the stripped lower receiver. Their price is $792 plus $10.99 shipped to your home. No FFL required. That is the exact same price it was two years ago. Hats off to LaRue, they have not raised their prices $0.01 on any of the products they make since the pandemic began. In contrast, your good friends at PSA have raised their price on their rifle by 84%, almost double since then. LaRue allows you to select a number of options at no additional cost, to include caliber, barrel length, and others. Be sure you have them assemble the upper, because they will fire a test group target to include in your shipment, and they will not ship an assembled upper that does not render a 1 MOA, or smaller group at 100 yards. When you go to the link take notice of the 4.88 out of 5 stars this kit received from over 250 customer reviews, many of which were written by highly experienced AR shooters who already owned several premium brand AR's. If you take the time to read a couple of dozen reviews, I'm certain that you will agree that this kit is an outstanding value in today's market.
https://www.larue.com/products/larue-ultimate-ar-15-upper-kit/#reviews-tab...

Nicer rifle for $140 less. https://www.primaryarms.com/radical-firearms-16in-ar15-with-15in-mhr-handguard-and-fail-zero-nib-bcg...

"Freedom over Profit" is PSA's tagline. Funny, if that were the case they wouldn't mark this up $350 over their pre-Covid price. Or the Ruger 57 to $829.99, which is $100 over EVERYONE else on the web. Or $750 for 1000 rds of 556. These guys have become worse gougers than Cheaper than Dirt.

I built 2 for close to this not long ago. I understand the ammo increases somewhat but this is shameful. Glad I'm not in the market for an AR. When or if I need one again, I'll skip these gougers.

A PSA rifle for $800? I think not. It's worth $500 max.

58% price increase compared to the pre-pandemic price. I call that shameful greedy behavior PSA.

Not a bad price, but it's been $499 since December.