Gun show grousing

pasound

pasound

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A few observations from cruising the local gun show this weekend.

One vendor had a .22 617 - the tag said "aluminum cylinder" - what? It's a stainless gun. Cylinder didn't just have a wear line - it was a deep gouge, and dirty, and a $770 price...

Another had a nice High Power - $1600 - little too nice.

Saw a O/U shotgun with 12, 20, and 28 gauge barrels, leather display type carry case, and a $10,000 tag...

Plastic, plastic, and more plastic. Hardly a steel gun in sight, let alone any revolvers.

Rarely heard any bartering going on, let alone see anything get sold.

I mentioned in another post the P38 that the seller decided to keep. Another had a 3913 Lady Smith, stainless and white, and a $700 tag - asked if he'd take an offer, and he said "nope".

Better pickings at a couple of LGS, and lower prices too. :(
 
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Never got to look at a name on the shotgun. Several large men were drooling on it. Not aware of aluminum cylinders in the 617-2. Looked it up in my SCSW (3rd) and must have missed that. Cylinder was so rough it would have been an immediate return to S&W for a fix - too expensive, seller wouldn't talk price, too much trouble.
 
Did our local show last weekend.

The majority of the folks at the show to REALLY buy something were all 50-90 years old and maybe 10% of the attendees.

The rest were there for the $5 entrance fee worth of entertainment. With their greasy fingered kids touching everything as they walked by the table.

Wished I had bought a flyswatter with me.

Same old stuff show to show with very little change. I do think at least here in MT , these shows are dying.
 
I think that is the case in central WV - and this show draws vendors from east KY and southern OH. It was sad - I heard a vendor say "I haven't sold squat all weekend. Seems everyone here is a dealer or wants to sell something."
 
I wish more young people fingered my guns. Folks we need the young ones to keep our rights . If they stay on their I phones and don't look up there will by no gun shows to gripe about.
 
Really can't remember the last gun show I came away from feeling positive.
Some way, somehow in my region some sort of urban legend has spread that anything in a S&W revolver made before 'the hole' came around is an uber-rare collectable and a four-figure price is certainly not out of the ordinary. It's nuts.
By their reasoning I'm sitting on the equivalent of Fort Knox.
 
Ackley1952 said:
I wish more young people fingered my guns. Folks we need the young ones to keep our rights . If they stay on their I phones and don't look up there will by no gun shows to gripe about.
Click to expand...

I have 2 sons that are into collecting. One has a nice " snake gun " collection.

I think a lot of the younger set are into guns. It is not all us older guys that are buying semi auto black plastic
 
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dave1918a2 said:
Colorado Gun Collectors gun show coming up May 17-19. Lots of blue steel and wood to look at and buy. $10K might just be a low sale price.
Click to expand...

Less than two weeks away! I am really looking forward to this show, it will be my second time there. I only have 2 N frames and 1 K frame so the world of Smith and Wesson is wide open to me.

80 to 100 juried displays and nothing newer than 50 years old. I'm even bringing my Honey. The show is that good.

The slush fund is in place and acceptably large. Last year I only spent 1/3 of what I brought. I met many good people and learned about local events I had been unaware of. I brought a M1917 Eddystone home.
 
10-12 years ago I bought a 6", 17-8 in factory matt blue. Never seed one afore. Got it for $400 at a show. I thought oh goody such a deal. Got it home and took the factory rubber grip off so I could put a set of factory targets on it. Strike one: the factory rubbers were RB to SB conversion. Strike two: found out it had an aluminum cyl.. I sold the gun before I got to strike three. I wish I had it back.
 
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I had one of those 617s with an aluminum cylinder. It was a 10 shot. Dumped it and now have a 4" all SS 10 shot. It's a very nice gun.
It's been far more than 10 years since I bought a gun at a gun show, probably closer to 25 years. Generally prices on guns are stupid high. Occasionally I'll find a fair deal on loading components, and other related stuff.
I'm down from 7-8 gun shows per year to 2-3 per year, and will likely reduce more.
 
Been quite a few years since I've gone to a show in my area. The most local venue is a mile from home, but last time I attended it was $10 to get in and about 50% of the vendors were anything and everything but guns. I don't need any more knives, and I can get hot sauce and beef jerky at the local market. The guns that were present weren't much I was interested in and the prices were a lot higher than I would have expected. Seems to be a trend.
 
pasound said:
I think that is the case in central WV - and this show draws vendors from east KY and southern OH. It was sad - I heard a vendor say "I haven't sold squat all weekend. Seems everyone here is a dealer or wants to sell something."
Click to expand...

If it wasn't for dealers buying from each other most shows would go out of business.
 
I stopped going to "gun shows" about 25 years ago. There weren't many guns at them at all! Lots of beef jerky stands, jewelry stands, tables of "tacti-cool" gun accessories, hawkers selling there all-in-one food slicer, plastic guns, etc. The few dealers which did have steel, blued guns had replaced the price tags with tags which had numbers on them resembling telephone numbers! I haven't missed going to them in any way. I guess I was spoiled as I went to many gun shows back in the 1960's and 1970's where the tables were piled high with all kinds of mil-sup handguns and original holsters. For $100, you could get three, maybe even four mil-sup handguns including their original holsters!
 
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Gun Show Promoters are ruining the Texas shows.
Way to many shows.
You can go to a show with 100 mile radius of any major city
and go or set up for a show.
Gun sales are flat period.
 
Well: I for one find some of the above comments "interesting"! I set up for the Crossroads show here 2 weeks ago and I had around 20 guns for sale. This was a mixture of pistols, rifles, and shotguns. By the time I packed up and left on Sunday I only had 10 guns left. Perhaps this was due to the fact that I price then fairly(to sell!).
Jim
 
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