Your RK gun show is in Tennessee. I go to the RK gun shows down here in GA several times a year. I see very very few used guns for sale at these shows. The few that I do see are very nice older guns (usually pre-lock) that are priced way above the guns actual value. Reminder, these sellers know what the real value of the used guns are and jack up the price accordingly. They may come down in price, but the gun is still not a good deal. These dealers are looking for buyers who don't know any better so they can make high profit margins off one gun.
I've never attended a gun show in GA but have done dozens of RK shows, from Memphis to Bristol. I worked gun shows for dealers (FFL holders) for over 30 years. I've seen some things & learned some things.
Having no used guns at a show is a surprise to me. I have no guess why that would be, but I'll take your word for it. At the TN shows, there was/is a dealer who had 95% used guns. Rifles, pistols, all in excellent shape. No, he wasn't cheap. But the guns he had were gorgeous. (Darryl's Guns, if anyone is interested. No, I never worked for him.)
But you're wrong in that there's no deals to be had at shows. But most of the deals are from walk-around-sellers, i.e. private sales. I'm speaking of used guns here, not NIB ones. Sun afternoons are best for private sales deals. Sellers are tired from walking around, tired of carrying heavy guns around, tired of lowball offers. They just want to sell it & are willing to dicker a bit just to get home with some cash.
As for deals with dealers, those deals will always be for new guns, IMO. A big advantage for the buyer will be he gets to hold the gun he's buying. Doesn't have to be the one on the table, it can be the one in the trunk. Finger bang it, check for issues, try the trigger, etc. Can't do any of those things at a big box store anymore, sadly.
Again, Sun afternoons are best when dickering with a dealer. I always asked, "You want to take it home or do you want to sell it now?"
Yes, there are dealers who want to make a weekend's worth of profit on 2-3 guns. Those are the dealers who won't sell many per show, IMO. Then they whine about how badly they did.
The first dealer I worked for always had the largest set of tables at any show we worked. Wasn't even close. This was in the 1990s, early 2000s. Those days were during the Clinton gun bans, ban on Chinese ammo & other assorted fun games.
But the next dealer I worked for was something else. He was a former employee of the aforementioned dealer. He graduated college, worked as a stock broker & got his FFL. I began helping him for free at shows. He had ONE table, half of it was coins & knives. This lasted about a year. Then he went to 2-3 tables & opened his own shop. Things exploded, sales wise.
Then he too became THE dealer at TN shows. He specialized in guns that no one else carried. CZ's, Baer's, B&T, upper tier Colt semi's, etc. But his trick was he got great deals from the wholesalers & didn't try to make a house payment on each gun. He sold them at a moderate price. Customers told their buddies & so forth. We treated customers like WE liked to be treated when we were on the other side of the table. It worked well.
Today that FFL still has customers coming to see him from 20 years ago. There's 4-5 times more gun shops in the Nashville area than when he started. But they know he has the best prices, so that's where they go.
Point is, one can't paint all shows or all dealers with the same broad brush, IMO. Yes, there's sorry shows & sorry dealers. Avoid those, IMO. Buyers can help themselves by doing their homework beforehand. Know the pricing of what they're looking for.
But big box stores & shops can't carry everything. Gun shows are a wonderful way to check out a new gun or a hard to find one.
My claim to fame is I once sold a Sig 210 (the reissued one) to Taylor Swift's dad. Her brother bought one as well, can't remember what.
