Camfour vs Iron Valley

Both catalogs are synced into one shared vocabulary, so the same UPC can be counted on either side and matched across them. Everything below is what we measured in the two feeds — how much each one lists, how much of it is the same product, and what only one of them carries.

Catalog size, overlap, feed uptime, and integration type for Camfour and Iron Valley.
CamfourIron Valley
Active SKUs19,25419,978
Distinct UPCs19,24919,967
Shared UPCs (both carry)8,727
Only at this distributor10,52211,240
Uptime98.9%100%
IntegrationAPISFTP
FreshnessSynced 1 hour agoSynced 26 minutes ago

What each one lists most of

Camfour and Iron Valley describe their catalogs in their own words, and we resolve both against one shared product vocabulary before counting. A category below therefore means the same thing on either side. Each list is that distributor’s own largest categories, counted in active listings.

Camfour

Firearm
11,243
Parts & Components
2,004
Ammunition
1,406
Tools & Maintenance
1,331
Magazine
1,054
Targets & Range
336
Holster
318
Reloading
296

Iron Valley

Firearm
8,039
Ammunition
3,393
Other
2,901
Parts & Components
2,414
Optic
1,864
Suppressor
370
Unknown Category
24
Displays
14

Firearm, Ammunition and Parts & Components appear in both lists, so those counts can be read against each other directly.

Each list stops at that distributor’s eight largest categories. A category on one list and not the other is one we have not counted here, not one that distributor does not carry.

Where each one will ship it

Taken from each company’s own site on the dates shown on their individual pages. Running a drop-ship programme and naming where the parcel goes are separate questions, and most distributors answer only the first — so “Not stated” below means they have not published it, not that they refuse.

Drop-ship programme and shipping destinations for Camfour and Iron Valley.
CamfourIron Valley
Ships to your storeYesYes
Offers drop-shippingNot statedYes source
Ships to your customer's FFLNot statedYes source
Ships to your customer's addressNot statedNo source
Ships NFA items to a receiving SOTNot statedYes source

Every distributor here ships to your own licensed premises — that is what a wholesale account is, not a policy any one of them publishes. Confirm anything you will act on directly with the distributor.

Which should you open?

Iron Valley lists 19,967 distinct UPCs to Camfour's 19,249 — within ten percent of each other. 8,727 UPCs are carried by both — 45% of what Camfour lists and 44% of what Iron Valley lists. Beyond that overlap, 10,522 UPCs appear on Camfour alone and 11,240 on Iron Valley alone. If you open one account, Iron Valley is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 10,522 UPCs unreachable, against 11,240 if you open Camfour instead. Carrying both reaches 30,489 distinct UPCs, 10,522 more than Iron Valley covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Camfour lists 11,243 there to Iron Valley's 8,039. Over the window we monitor, the Camfour feed answered us 98.9% of the time and the Iron Valley feed 100%.

This is arithmetic on the counts above, not a recommendation of one company over the other. Which account is worth opening also depends on terms and on what your customers ask for, neither of which is in the catalog data we measure. What each company publishes about shipping destinations is in the table above it.

Camfour

Camfour syncs a mid-to-large catalog mixing firearms, ammunition, and accessories, connected through a dealer API on the same automated schedule as the other API-connected distributors here. For a dealer weighing how many accounts to run, Camfour's breadth is wide enough to anchor a storefront on its own rather than serving only as a supplemental source.

How to open a Camfour dealer account

Iron Valley

Iron Valley Supply's catalog only shows up on the hub once a dealer connects their own SFTP login — like Crow Shooting Supply, it uses credentials tied to a specific dealer account rather than a shared integration key, so there's no general Iron Valley feed syncing independent of any one dealer the way there is for the API-based distributors here.

How to open a Iron Valley dealer account

Applying for a dealer account

  • Apply for a Camfour dealer accountThe catalog's size makes this workable as either a primary or a supplemental account depending on your other distributor mix.
  • Apply for a Iron Valley dealer accountSFTP credentials are dealer-specific; the catalog will not appear on the hub until you've connected your own login. As a file-drop connection, catalog and stock updates land on Iron Valley's schedule rather than on demand.

Both links leave this site. Applications are submitted to, reviewed by, and approved by the distributor themselves — Project Parabellum is not part of that process and cannot speed it up or vouch for you.

Project Parabellum is not affiliated with Camfour or Iron Valley, and neither distributor reviews or supplies this page.

The counts here are our own measurements of the feeds we sync, refreshed hourly. They describe what each distributor sends us, which is not the same thing as everything either company sells, and they will differ from figures published elsewhere.