Re: bulk reloading prices
First; I always buy my components from a local dealer. I prefer to have him receive my business, in the hope that this will allow him to keep being there when I need him. His shipping and hazmat expenses are spread over far larger purchases than I could manage, and therefore have much smaller impact on my overall costs.
I'm probably the opposite of most of what you'll read here. I don't believe in maintaining large stocks of components, or in producing large quantities of ammunition for storage over long term periods. I seldom have more than 500 of any type primer, or 2lb of any particular powder. I don't have the kind of income I can assign to sit idle in the form of unused components. Although I can provide proper storage conditions for components, I see no advantage to ageing them before their use. My components are all fresher than a year, and I seldom have any sorts of issues that might be associated with storage of either components or finished ammo. I know my components supplier has a healthy turnover of his component stocks. I make my match ammo in anticipation of the next match, and it seldom sits completed for more than up to three weeks.
The only thing I maintain a significant stock of is factory made hunting ammo because to be honest, one seldom can say how many weeks, months, or years those boxes of ammo have been stored in a warehouse anyway. I would not presume to improve on loads the factory has spent years and a lotta bucks perfecting, and that's why I don't like to handload hunting ammo, at least not very much.
I use a Dillon RL550B and have for going on two decades. Just because I can make ammo more efficiently does not mean I am therefore constrained to do a lot of it at a time. My purposes are served in a manner that suits my actual needs.
Greg