Gunshow observations

T

TailGator

New member
My daughter's fiance is interested in a Beretta PX4 Compact, and in pursuit of the same I traipsed off to a gun show with him on Saturday for the first time since the dinosaurs died off.

No Compact was on hand. The most common brands were Jiminez and HiPoint. Most major brands were represented except Beretta. Besides the cheapies, the most common pistols were the pocket .380s in their various iterations. Prices were mostly MSRP plus or minus a few bucks. The only prices that raised my eyebrows did so because they were on the high side rather than bargains. Six hundred for a base model Glock 19 is a bit higher than the local gun stores, for example.

The thing that amazed me the most was that I made two unsuccessful attempts to make purchases. Nothing big, but I was going to pick up an extra mag for my 92FS. Holding one in my hand, I told one vendor that I would take it, but while I was pulling the cash out of my wallet the guy placed a call on his cell phone. I held out the money to him and he sat down to chat. I stood there for two or three minutes with my money in my hand without being acknowledged again, and when I got to the point of feeling embarrassed I put the mag back on the table and put my money back in my wallet.

I stopped at another booth later hoping to purchase the same item. The magazines were in a jumble under glass in a case. I saw what I wanted but the price wasn't marked, so I had to inquire. The vendor told me the same price, so I replied, "OK, I'll take one. You wouldn't have a D spring also, would you?" The guy, without getting out of his chair, said with a sneer, "I don't sell parts, just magazines." He then turned in his chair to face away from me and shook his head like he thought I was a blooming idiot for wanting to give him my money. So I didn't.

My soon-to-be son-in-law shook his head and asked, "What is wrong with these people?" I didn't have an answer. I honestly don't get why a vendor would pay a fee for a table and then run off customers who are holding cash out to them for the asking price of their merchandise. I'll pay a couple of bucks more to someone who says "thanks."

The barbecue was good.
 
Reminded you why you don't go to gunshows, huh? I get a lot of the same treatment at local gun stores, too. So I order parts from Brownells and I found a local home-based FFL for transfers.
 
Gun SHOW

From my experiences that why its called a GUNSHOW! They seem to be there to show off their guns and stuff. Not very interested in selling or buying. Once in a while, if they find a sucker who will pay 20% or more over the guns value, they will maybe take your money. Bargains are sitting in the closets of private people not gun SHOW dealers! Just my experience in the last few years.
 
Tailgator, I see you’re from Florida. Otherwise I would have guessed the gun show you went to was in Princeton Illinois. Same thing up here. I guess gun dealers make plenty of money and don’t really need our business? The only reason I go to gun shows is to buy reloading components to save on shipping. Occasionally to search for rare / hard to find parts, but seldom have luck finding any. I guess the main reason I go to gun shows is to see what you described. It humors me, in a warped kind of way.
 
i used to love gun shows. no so much anymore, $15 TO 20 just for parking and admission and rude sellers selling their crap for 25% more than cabelas or sprotsmans warehouse. i rarely go anymore and when i do it is mostly a show hopeing to find a bargin that never seems to be there. but it is an afternoon out.
 
Tailgator, many of the gun shows I go to are nothing more than flea markets that call themselves gun shows. Barbeque, jewelry and other no gun items are frequently on display.
The isles are narrow and it seems like double row baby strollers and groups of people wearing really big "Bling" are blocking most of the isle walk space constantly.
Just an observation on my part.:D
I don't go to to many any more unless I am looking things like holsters. No real buy on price, but I get to try the gun in the holsters before I buy them.:)
 
I went to the Ft.Worth Gun Show a couple weeks ago looking for a GP100. No luck there, not one. Seems there are more tables selling junk, candy, jewelry, etc than guns. They were selling alot of SHTF guns tho. And alot of CC guns.

I remember when the gun shows were a place to find bargains! Man, prices are up on everything, no bargains there.
 
My favorite at the gun shows here are the guys with case after case of pirate guns and other relics for $20K and up. Does anyone go to a gun show to drop $50K on Blackbeard's pistol?
 
My favorite at the gun shows here are the guys with case after case of pirate guns and other relics for $20K and up. Does anyone go to a gun show to drop $50K on Blackbeard's pistol?
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Good stuff. In Denver, we have lots of beef jerky, jewelry, food carts, and coin dealers there also. I have a Luger that I wanted to find out the value of, so I go to the guy who only has Lugers and P38's on his table to see if he can point me in the right direction to get it appraised. No luck as he was a major jerk about the fact that I was bothering him from not making any sales. Like the previous poster said, how many of you are going to the show with a minimum $1500 looking for that prize Luger, knowing that he is the only clown you can deal with there who has one anyway??????

I hadn't been in 7 years, and some of the same people are there trying to sell the same junk............
 
I am not a fan of gunshows at all.
I don't like wading through the crowds like a cow, and being jostled like one.
I've only had one good interaction with a seller.
I've never seen any special deals that could generally beat what I could find at the local Academy.
 
ever since i was old enough to go to gun shows i've always thought that most vendors there are impolite. there a few large gun stores that are polite and have good deals but most of the vendors at the tables are just plain rude
 
I have been pretty vocal about the gun shows being pointless, but I recently went to a smaller one and found a good gun at a great price. Yeah, probably 70% of the tables were of zero interest, and of the remainder, half were selling things at WAY over reasonable prices.

But that last 15% of tables had some good guns at good prices, and one came home with me. The trick seems to be getting there early before it gets too crowded and knowing exactly (or at least have a really good idea) what you want to find and how much it should go for. Then, if you're lucky, those two things will converge at a table where they actually want to sell things and understand it is worthwhile to be friendly to the people who want to spend money.

I still think gun shows are very mediocre entertainment and rather useless places to go for actual information. But every now and then you can find what you're looking for at a lower price than you'd hoped to find. I won't bother to go unless I have a particular item in mind, but when I do, if there's a show and I have time to kill, I'll have a peek.
 
I find some collectables at shows and those tables are the only ones I stop at. Usually a good price can be had and they are more willing to dicker over the price.

I would never consider buying a new firearm at a gunshow.
 
I would never consider buying a new firearm at a gunshow.
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I'd be interested in knowing why. New guns tend to be a known quantity in that there's no question of condition or warranty. You don't have to worry about whether the price shown is exactly what it should be for that condition since you aren't trying to decide if it's a 90% or 80% example. If there's a problem with it, you'd be talking to the manufacturer anyway, who would honor the warranty since you're the first purchaser. Moreover, it's usually actual FFLs who are selling the new guns (whereas the used ones could just be a private party selling off chunks of a collection). And as new guns, the chances are greater than you'll be seeing multiple examples of that model (or at least of competing products), so there's greater ability to price shop.

Personally, I'm more likely to consider a new gun than a used one- if that used gun turns out to be a problem gun (maybe it passed your checkout procedure, maybe you weren't as thorough as you might have been in a more relaxed setting) you have no recourse.
 
This disappointment with gunshows reminds me of that saying about Fishing, "that's why they don't call it "fishing" not "catching"".
 
Because I'm not paying MSRP at a gunshow. Especially in the St. Louis area.
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Ditto.

But then, I didn't. :)

That's the one nice thing about gun shows- you have the opportunity to do a bunch of shopping without a bunch of driving. If one table has a gun priced on the high side, you go on to the next.

The gun I bought was a Sig Ultra, and I managed to get it for $850 plus tax- a fair amount off MSRP, and since I knew that subcompact 1911s of good quality tend to run in the $1100-1200 range, I knew it was a good buy. The table right across the aisle had a Springfield of the same size, but I figured since they thought a K frame Smith was worth $650 used, the Springer probably was going to be priced rather higher than I was willing to pay.

However, I've also been to shows where there just weren't any deals of any kind to be had. That's why I quit going just as entertainment.
 
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