Like a lot of you guys, I keep an eye out on eBay and Craigslist for MREs. Over time, you start to get a feel for the market and the feeling I'm getting right now (Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008) is that it's a good time to buy MREs.
With hurricane Gustav and Ike that just went through Texas and Louisiana, lots of people were affected and there have been tons of MREs distributed by FEMA to people in need. For the first couple of weeks after the hurricanes hit, you didn't see *too* many new MREs show up on eBay but in the past week, that trickle has turned into a steady stream. I think people stocked up on MREs because they were without power and fresh food and had the need. But as service is getting restored to many places, some people are finding they have more reliable food sources and maybe don't need all the MREs they have collected and so those MREs are starting to appear for sale.
Keep in mind that I'm NOT advocating people stock up on "free MREs" with the sole intention of selling them. But in times of crisis when you're without food and you need to provide for your family, you're going to drive your car down to the nearest POD (point of distribution) and load up on MREs, water, and ice. When your personal crisis is over, you can either save your remaining MREs for the next disaster (this is the best option) or if you need the money more than you need spare military rations, you can sell them.
So with all that said, I'm seeing more and more auctions for MREs...and fresh 2008 MREs at that...pop up on eBay. Some are regular auctions and some are Buy-it-Now. The auctions appear to be completing around $45-$70. This is much lower than the crazy $80-$100 per case prices we saw after Katrina. And the Buy-it-Now's are even reasonable - some are for $45, most are for $50-55, and a few are at $70. And most of these are with true, reasonable shipping and not the inflated $30/case flat rate shipping some sellers try to get.
So where does that leave us? That leaves us with $45-50 cases of fresh 2008 MREs with decent shipping. If you've been looking to buy some of the new MREs, I'd recommend you start buying now.
