Iron Valley vs Lipseys

What each one lists most of

Iron Valley and Lipseys 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.

Firearm, Ammunition, Parts & Components and Optic 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.

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 Lipseys's 19,259 — within ten percent of each other. 7,769 UPCs are carried by both — 39% of what Iron Valley lists and 40% of what Lipseys lists. Beyond that overlap, 12,198 UPCs appear on Iron Valley alone and 11,490 on Lipseys alone. If you open one account, Iron Valley is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 11,490 UPCs unreachable, against 12,198 if you open Lipseys instead. Carrying both reaches 31,457 distinct UPCs, 11,490 more than Iron Valley covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Lipseys lists 13,561 there to Iron Valley's 8,039. Over the window we monitor, the Iron Valley feed answered us 100% of the time and the Lipseys feed 99.9%.

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.

Applying for a dealer account

• Apply for a Iron Valley dealer account — SFTP 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.
• Apply for a Lipseys dealer account — An Exclusive Firearms listing — a model Lipsey's describes as produced specifically for its own distribution — may arrive here with no match from another feed to set beside it, so expect it to appear as a single source rather than as one of several listings to weigh against each other.

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.