Lipseys vs MGE

What each one lists most of

Lipseys and MGE 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, Optic and Ammunition 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?

Lipseys lists 19,259 distinct UPCs to MGE's 5,911 — about 3.3× the breadth. 2,572 UPCs are carried by both — 13% of what Lipseys lists and 44% of what MGE lists. Beyond that overlap, 16,687 UPCs appear on Lipseys alone and 3,339 on MGE alone. If you open one account, Lipseys is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 3,339 UPCs unreachable, against 16,687 if you open MGE instead. Carrying both reaches 22,598 distinct UPCs, 3,339 more than Lipseys covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Lipseys lists 13,561 there to MGE's 3,432. Over the window we monitor, the Lipseys feed answered us 99.9% of the time and the MGE 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.

Applying for a dealer account

• 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.
• Apply for a MGE dealer account — As a smaller, focused catalog, MGE works best as a supplemental account rather than a dealer's sole distributor. Being an FTP file drop rather than an API, catalog and stock updates arrive on MGE's schedule.

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.