I see no one else has posted on this one...yet.
We had a lot of fun. For me it was a good show, if tiring. A lot of stuff going on, and a bunch of our members stopped to talk. I feel sorry for the poor dude they hired to play me this weekend..
I didn't even get a chance to walk the show until today. Stuck in a booth is no way to live your life.
Some things I'm starting to understand. I do know I have no clue about prices, but others seem to be even worse off.
Many of those who don't attend miss the running banter we have going on between friends at the show. At this weekends show we kind of were teasing the Fugate entourage. For those who don't know them, they've probably got a bum rap here over the years. Maybe some of it deserved, maybe not. There are 2 brothers who move thru the show. They work it pretty hard. You can learn from others if you watch. Also as a part of the moving group is the "big guy", Basil, and one of the brothers girlfriend. She's pretty nice looking. They moved around and bought items they felt were priced fairly or too low.
Last week a poster asked how the purveyors found and bought their stock. Its easy. Come to the show and watch them or others in action.
Anyway, on Saturday, the pretty girl was gone and in her place was an old short guy. I asked the logical question, how he'd transformed from a pretty young girl into a short old guy. Everyone loved it. Then not letting it go, when the pretty girl came around later, I said I wanted to see if the big guy patted her on the butt like he was doing to the old short guy. Basil's reply was "I need a lot more beer for that."
Anyone can go to a gunshow and pick up some pretty good deals. The trick is to know a good one from a bad one.
I was working David Carroll's tables, unpaid of course while he ran off to warmer dryer places for an auction. He also paid the Fugates a real compliment when he was there. David told me to leave them alone, they know what they're doing. I just wonder if they learned some of their methodology from David. They pick up an interesting gun, and go over it repeatedly. Looking at every square inch of it. Turning it upside down, focusing on area's, then moving the gun to see another. Basically the inspection views each part of the gun, and from different angles. Sometime watch David do the same kind of inspection.
Guns: yes, there were a bunch of them. I was in a selling mode more than a buying one. I offloaded 4 guns over the weekend, but added one back in. 2 of the ones I dumped were Colts, a forgivable offense. Interestingly, all my sales were to dealers (wholesale type transactions.) Money seems to be a bit scarce these days. At OGCA last weekend the scuttlebutt was "guns are soft", meaning sales were nearly impossible.
I wouldn't say that, since I sold 4 and Joe dumped 2 more. And I did buy a 29-4, engraved. Its a Lew Horton 3" with unfluted cylinder. Nice gun. But it'll be a 44 special in my hands.
Blake has been dreading this post. He was down to the point where he was begging me not to tell what he bought (a 357) nor what he paid (way too much.) Well, maybe not. It had cokes, and we know those are only worth $100. Or we're telling him that. He was so worried he stuck around and worked like a dog helping us pack up hundreds of Davids guns. Of course I don't know how we'd have done it without his help.
Some guns I passed on but kind of regret. Our dentist friend had a beautiful 2" 15-2 for $725. It was nickel, and to make matters better, it had elephant ivory grips. He lowered the price to the point were it was really hard to resist. A guy in the back of the room had an early 1917. He wanted $695 for it, and it had the concentric cut hammer. It had about 50% finish left. Not many K22s, but a few. The prices of prewar guns in great shape is still climbing.
Other stuff. I saw a box of 22 Jet ammo in a bag for $25. Not a full box, but nearly so. A guy had a great set of presentation quality K frame grips, probably Goncolo Alves, for $125. It was almost blond wood with dark redish streaks. Nice contrast.
Ammo: there are still sellers with 550 Bulk packs marking them up from the original $13.47 into the $25 price range. The interesting thing seems to be ammo is available if you're willing to pay the price. Its gone up enough stocks of it are coming out of stockpiles. I even saw a sign at an ammo booth "We buy resellable ammo." And another "Sold a gun and still have the ammo? We buy old ammo." I've never seen that before.
I also saw something really strange. Boxes of 3 or 5 rounds. Baggies with less than a box full of ammo. Prices were high for it. Even reloading supplies, bags and original boxes with odd numbers of bullets inside. One old red Hornady box of .308 with 9 bullets. Asking price was $2!! Maybe we are in tough times.
We missed Lee. He was apparently sitting at home tending the store. There were a lot of people looking for him. Only one with a rope and a noose tied in the end..
I'll think of more later on.
Gunshow Report - National Gun Day
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