I was at the Ontario show during setup Friday. As I mentioned a few weeks ago on this same thread Costa Mesa was unusually bad for vendors. Spoke with a familiar Saturday after show hours and it appears to be another down show although more closer to the norm for Ontario. Costa Mesa is generally the best show in the state in terms of sales and attendance I believe. In recent times Del Mar does better but has always been less consistent than Costa Mesa.
The promoter Crossroads appears to have added this Ontario show in the last month or so is perhaps the reason the three sites indicating coming/passed shows does not list this Ontario show. Turnout for this show is not expected to be good because like Roadrunner, Crossroads is depending on their email list with little or no additional advertising. Ontario is perhaps the most inconsistent of southern California shows so it’s difficult to say whether things have really changed at this point in time.
Ammo is readily available and premium priced like the previous Costa Mesa show. CCI 22LR MiniMag’s are $9.95 per 100 pack, 9mm FMJ per 50 is around $22 and 25ACP per 50 is around $20 or was it $30, can’t remember. Since my day there was setup, Friday, my view of Miwall’s display was terrible because of pallets and because the counter/display is roped/fenced off, kinda like herding cattle.
5.56/223Rem pricing is a joke. $795 per case of 1000 Federal from LAX ammo. Back in January of this year this same seller, LAX, had a parking lot sale and this same ammo was priced at $400. And in 2011 it was about $270 for the same case and from the same seller.
My guesstimated logic of 5.56/223Rem ammo pricing over many years. Since the late 90’s to recent times like 2011 this cartridge pricing, relative to inflation, has actually dropped. During this same time the black rifle, AR-15, became the dominant rifle platform and in turn causing the associated cartridge to skyrocket in popularity. Like most things higher quantity means a lower per unit cost.