...and I do mean wasted. I attended the Conway, AR gun show along with Brendan (not Brandon) and we had two tables. To say it was a waste of our time may be an understatement as it wound up being a waste of money too. That was because along with the money to rent the table, there is the cost of whatever you are trying to sell plus gas and food and such. Then there is AR sales tax on whatever you sell at the show. I sold almost nothing (even though my ammo prices were all at cost); I probably lost a bit more more than what I sold, accounting comes later. I was trying to merely recoup money for some prior purchases of things I do not need and was hoping for at least my expenses back. You win some - you lose some. Of course, it was nice spending time with Brendan and Skye who was a good pooch throughout - I always enjoy that but the gun show itself was not productive and was a tedious effort.
I made the rounds too, thinking of buying a Remington 870, 12 gauge, 20" smoothe-bore barrel with rifle sights but had no luck finding one. I must have seen a half dozen or more barrels for 870s but not the one for which I was looking. I also saw lots of guns and ammo for sale but the prices were outrageous even though prices have gone down considerably from what they were a few to several months ago. Some - if not most - of the dealers still were asking super-high prices for ammo.
There was the nothing special for sale that I saw but there was an admittedly a fairly nice shape Mosin Nagant 91-30. The thing about that was it had an asking price of $650! Wait a moment - I almost forgot - there actually was at least one thing that was well worth the asking price. I am kicking myself in the butt for not buying a Marlin 336 in 30-30, in apparently great shape, that someone was waiting with on the line outside. He was asking $400 and like an idiot I said no. Another guy walked up right then and asked how much and said "I'll take it" as soon as he heard the price. In my defense, I had had a terrible night's sleep and was still half asleep but that is a poor excuse for not making a buy like that nowadays!
The previous weekend, I was at gun show in Longview TX. I pretty much broke close to even there. While there, I did manage to pick up two 12 gauge barrels for a Remington 870. One was an 18" smooth-bore with bead front sight and the other a 20" fully rifled barrel. The price on them was not too bad for the pair and they are both in excellent shape. The 20 " smoothe-bore with rifle sights eluded me there too.
All the best,
Glenn B
