Do You Still Go To Gun Shows? I do.

 I still do. I go as both a buyer and as a vendor. In the past year or more, I guess it's been more so as a vendor for me; not that I am a dealer or want to be one. I sell to resupply my savings when my savings account takes a hit due to things like firearms and ammo purchases. When I do sell, I quite often and I do mean most of the time, sell at either a loss or a break even price. I am not in the business of making a profit, or earning a living selling firearms or ammo. First of all, I am pretty certain I could never make it in the business world. What I am though, is happy if I can recoup what I spent on an item or at least get close to my purchase price if I sell at a loss. Sometimes though, the loss is substantial but those are the breaks. When you figure in the cost of vendor's tables, sales signs that I print up, price tags, state sales tax, and travel expenses to shows (though nowadays most shows I attend are local), among other things, it all adds up or should I say subtracts, and all too often results in more of a loss than otherwise.

 

Then, when I attend a show as a spectator and potential buyer, if I do buy something it is at gun show pricing, which when it comes to most dealers' prices are way to high. Yet, I have sometimes found good deals and at times I will bring a gun or two with me to try to sell as an attendee of the show. 

 

Now, I realized, about 30 or 40 years ago, that prices at guns shows were inflated all to often and all to much. Back then though, it did not mean that a good deal was very difficult to find. If you looked, then haggled you could still get a nice price on a purchase. As the years rolled on though, the prices got higher and higher, some to the point of being ridiculous such as a dealer asking $500 or more for a Mosin Nagant 91/30 of no special merit and in only fair to good condition. Still though prices were much lower back then than now. For instance, in 1998, I picked up a Hungarian Mosin Nagant M44 in excellent condition from a gun vendor at a gun show in NY. It cost $80.00 out the door - nearly the same rifle today (probably from a different country though, like Russia) at a gun show in AR is selling for a minimum of $400.00. As expected more or less though, I got a Russian M44 in 2003, but from an online dealer, for $62.95 shipped. So years after I bought the Hungarian one at the gun show, I got a Russian one at about only 78% the cost of the Hungarian model. Goes to show, buying at guns shows is often higher priced than buying from other dealers. Then again, I would pay more for the Hungarian any

day so even though it was more expensive than the Russian and that sale being a few years before getting the Russian; I was quite happy to pay that for a Hungarian model. A Mosin Nagant 91/30, with bent bolt, that I picked up in 2009 sold for $175.00, shipped from an online dealer (yes their prices have gone up drastically too and that gun would go for much more today). I have seen bent bolt 91/30s going for $700 or more at guns shows within the past year. That is outrageous!

 

What is also outrageous is when I know, without doubt, how much a dealer paid for a gun he has for sale on his table. A few of them were being sold by show attendees and I had inquired as to the asking prices before dealers finally bought them, a few others were sold by me to dealers over the years. Once they buy them, they put them o their tables and proceed to jack up the prices, all to frequently, by literally hundreds of dollars, in some case, double or more than what they had just paid for them. My bet is most will lower the price if you are wanting to buy but you also must be willing to haggle and must insist on a price reduction. Some dealers though are truly avaricious and will not come down in their sky high prices. It's those dealers on whose tables you often see the same guns over and over again at future shows. 

 

Still though, good deals can be found at gun shows. For instance, if you get there early, at least a half hour before the doors open, there is usually a line of folks waiting to get into the show. Very often, at least a couple to a few folks on the line (and subsequent attendees after the line dies down) will be carrying a long arm or handgun they are trying to sell. There is your chance for a deal - before they get inside to be set up by the vulture like dealers, who are stuck at their tables, you can ask to see any that interest you and try to make a deal in the parking lot before they get inside (check your local and state laws on this as selling in parking lots at guns shows is {or was} illegal in some gun unfriendly states - like NY as best I recall).

 

Of course, you might also fine a vendor like me, a gun owner selling off part of his personal firearms in private as opposed to commercial sales and one who sells at either a small profit, a break even price or at a loss. Even then, when selling at a loss on something I got at a decent prices, I have potential buyers (with very little potential) trying to haggle me down to an even greater loss and then complaining if I don't go down further. Let's face it, it is not always the gun show vendor, who puts too high a price son his wares, who is the bummer at a gun show but all too many times it is the cheapskate buyer who is the cause of gun show grief.

 

With all that in mind, I plan to attend a gun show, this weekend, in Hot Springs. I will be an attendee not a vendor but I likely will bring along a couple or few guns I will try to sell. They likely will be sold at a loss if only because of how much I will have to lay out for a hotel (damn are they ever so expensive, especially their weekend prices) and other travel expenses to get to the show and stay overnight. By staying overnight, I can attend both days of the show while both looking to sell and looking to buy in an 'oh such a deal' moment in which I may pick up a gem at a great price.

 

Speaking of gems, I will likely have my CZ 457 Royal in 22 LR (unfired in the box), Savage 111 Long Range Hunter in 300 WIN MAG (round count 20) and a mini Mosin Nagant 91/30, unfired in box) by Keystone Arms, with me for sale. All will probably be sold at or below my cost if I get any buyers at all. Yet, even after paying for the trip and hotel, if I sell a couple, I will have more money than before I went to the show. Not much more but a bit more to put back into the bank until I buy more guns or ammo.

 

All the best,

Glenn B