At the last Dallas Mkt. Hall show I was pretty discouraged. I spent the weekend without seeing a single gun that interested me. The crowd seemed small and unenthusiastic. This show which just concluded was the exact opposite. I don't think I have ever seen a larger crowd at that show. Impossible to walk the aisles sometimes. Lots and lots of really nice Smiths there.

As I went into the show to set-up on Friday I found a beautiful S&W Model 1950 .44 Military (4th Model) 5" in the original gold box not 10 feet inside the door. The gun is about 99% (very lightest turn line) and doesn't look to have been fired since the factory. I spent most of my cash on it so about all I did was walk around and look for the rest of the show. I already have a 4" 1950 Military .44 and I later located a 6.5" M1950 Military there. I didn't buy it but will try to get it soon. Since they only made about 1200 of these guns in 4", 5", and 6.5" barrels I don't know what the odds are of collecting all three lengths but probably not very high.

As I was packing up to leave a couple came by with a very nice 1948 Pre-M17 in the original gold box. I didn't need it but I convinced my table partner to buy it for $600.

I didn't really have anything that I wanted to sell this weekend but I put a very nice pre-'64 M70 Winchester and a nice SxS J.P Sauer & Sohn 20 ga. with leg 'o mutton case on the table mostly to take up space. About the only folks who looked at them were oldsters like me. Most of the action now is with the AR's, AK's, Glocks and Sigs...not too much interest in the classics these days.

Bob

I found a 4" in mid December. It cost me $850 (we discussed it here). Mine didn't come with a box. But I knew a guy who had one, so last weekend I traded some wood for it. Of course the box is wrong, since its for a 4" nickel gun. Such is life.

We had the same thing happen about a year ago. I bought Lee's 4" 1950 Target. Right after that someone else here bought another from Lee (hence the speculation he was producing them in his basement.)

When it rains, it pours.

But us old guys are lucky. We generally have a few extra bucks to spend. Better still, none of the young guys are even vaguely interested. The middle age guys are all unemployed and broke (or smart and not wasting their money.) More importantly, they mostly don't know what they're seeing when it jumps up in front of their faces.

If you go to enough gun shows, study the guns, from time to time it pays off. Which brings up another comment on how to approach a show. The guys that hate the shows (but go anyway) walk in, take a right turn, and basically run through the show, end to end. If someone is blocking a table, they walk around. They see maybe 40% of the show as it exists at the time. Then they leave. The smart guys with tables sit and watch the crowds, then they take a hike, looking at everything on every table. Then they reverse direction and walk the entire show again, seeing things they hadn't seen the first few passes.

And when a guy 3 aisles over sells some bulky **** he wanted out of the way, suddenly he has a quarter of his table vacant. So he reaches down in his tub, bag, or box and brings out new stuff that has never seen a gun show before. If you're walking the show, you see the new stuff when it comes out, or just a little later. Its called working the show.

Better still, you meet and become friendly with the other vendors. You stand outside with them, you pick up lunch with guys you've seen before and suddenly become friends. Then as you amble along, one of your friends is showing another vendor a treasure. One brought in for show-and-tell, not for sale... Maybe. Then you ask what else is hidden from the unwashed masses, and out comes more stuff. Only the vendors or friends see most of it. So you tell a guy that if it ever does come up for sale, let you know. 3 years later the guy appears at your table and asks if you're serious. In his hand is a suspicious gold box with a K32 inside. He wants big bucks, and he won't take less than $1200 for it...... So you act like he's robbing you, but you pay up.

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Dick Burg

Dick,

You're exactly right about "working the show". That's the best description I've ever heard.

A word about the pre-M21 boxes. My 4" gun was found at Tulsa without a box. A little later I was able to purchase a box that those came in. It is a gold Model 1926 Military 4" box with the "1950 Model" label stuck on the lid over the "1926 Model".

The 5" pre-21 that I got yesterday came in a gold 5" M1926 Military box however it doesn't have the stick on label. I am confident that this is the box that the gun came in because it came from the widow of the original buyer and it doesn't look like it has been out of the box many times (still has the paper and brush). There is a letter coming from Roy and he is supposed to confirm that the unlabeled 1926 box is correct.

Bob

I'm guessing our seeing the entire show is why we come away happy so often. We actually see double or more show than the casual observer. One trick I really like is walking the show in opposite directions. Its like hiking out in the woods or mountains. When you do that, you stop every 5 minutes or so and turn around. Things look different. Sometimes objects on a table shield the goodies (or the vendor just rearranges things.)

One of the more upsetting things is to have someone come along with a goody you didn't see. You may have walked past it two or three times and didn't see it. Good evidence you need to slow down and look harder.

The Military models are interesting because some of the sellers aren't S&W guys. They look at the gun, figure its an M&P, and price it accordingly.

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Dick Burg

bob
the sticker is a hit and miss thing. I have a couple of orginal boxes for my 1950 guns and some have stickers and some don't if they were put on at the factory they could have fell off over the years.
not a big deal.
jim

Jim,

I closed the deal on the 6.5" gun so that completes the set.

I'm sure that is right that some of the 1926 boxes had the sticker and some didn't. Even if the sticker had fallen off I believe that the big smear of glue would still be evident. And I've seen at least two different styles of the stick-on label.

I once had a maroon box with a 1950 .44 Military label on one end and Roy indicated that it was probably one that a repaired/modified gun had been returned in. Kinda wish I still had it to put this new 6.5" one in.

Bob

I was at the market hall show yesterday, looked for you. I wanted to meet you. We have talked on email once. I always like meeting gun people. Bob in Texas

I noticed that the show was not advertised in the DMN, it seems
like that happened a year or so ago. Did the news refuse to run it, that was the rumor last time? I think there was a show a week or so ago at Big Town and there was no ad for that one
either. Do you know anything about it?

rjh,

Sorry I missed you. I have been at the same table (F-21) for the last several years and hope to be there the next time. Please try again to stop by.

Jag,

I don't have an answer for your question. I'm not a member of the Dallas Arms Collectors Assoc. so I don't know if someone just slipped up on getting the adv. out or the Dallas News wouldn't run it. Whatever the cause, it didn't seem to negatively impact the attendance. I thought that with the drizzling rain and the football games it would be a light crowd but it was very heavy.

Bob