My son and I attended the Conway Gun Show this morning. I brought along two rifles to sell. My son carried around my Savage 111 Long Range Hunter in .300 WIN MAG. Not one person asked to look at it. I strolled through the aisles hefting my CZ 457 Royal. The vendor at the first set of tables I walked by told me to come back if I had not sold it by the time I was leaving. That made me hopeful that I'd be leaving the venue with lots more cash than the $67 I had in my pocket.
As I passed one table, I noticed a package of twenty 7.62X39mm stripper clips for $12.00. I figured I'd buy them if still there later. Almost everyting else I saw was way overpriced. Yet, I did see one new Beretta 92FS with an asking price of $625.00, out the door. That was not bad at all. The lowest price I saw on AmmoSeek for the same pistol was $646.49 shipped. Add another $20.00 to have it go through my local FFL and the price into my hands would have been $666.49. So, $625.00 was a very good price without a waiting period due to shipping, to actually have it in hand. If I did not already have four 92FS pistols (two of which are regular and the other two are 92FS Compact L, Type M), I may have bought that one. Let's face it, with inflation at its current level, saving $41.49, or 6%, off of the rock bottom price shown on AmmoSeek, is a good thing making it a good bargain. That money could get you a couple or few boxes of 9mm ammo at today's prices. Heck, with my Ammo+ membership at Target Sports USA, that amount would be sufficient to pick up four boxes of CCI 9MM, 115 grain, Blazer Brass ammo, shipped.
There was one other firearm with an almost decent price on it by today's pricing. That was a nice looking Chinese SKS. The seller was not a show vendor but an attendee. He was asking $550 for it. I should have taken a look at it right after he walked in but I did not. Later, I saw him as he was leaving and should have looked it over and asked him what was his bottom line. I would have offered $400 if it was in excellent condition, and if it had matching numbers maybe an additional $25. With him walking out the door, still with it, it may have been the perfect time to haggle with him. There is almost always the chance of a disappointed seller making a good deal at that point, instead of leaving without making a deal at all and thus with the same amount of cash as when he got there. It was a Frank Fritz (RIP) "buy it when you see it" moment; a would have, could have, should have at least looked at it kind of a thing. I failed at doing what I usually would have done and missed out on that potential opportunity. While I would not pay his asking price of $550, even that was at least a decent price by today's pricing. Who said you cannot find good or even decent deals at gun shows nowadays (or ever)?
Of course excellent, good or just decent deals at gun shows are a rare commodity and that has been likewise in the few decades I have been attending them. Granted, it is more difficult to find such a deal today as opposed to 45 years ago or so, when I went to my first gun show, but a couple or a few decent to outstanding deals can be found at almost every show. That is if you look hard enough and haggle as best you can. You are more likely to find dealers willing to come down in price on Sundays instead of Saturdays, in my experience. That can be either because they sold almost nothing on Saturday and need to get some cash, any amount within reason for a y given item, or because they have done so well, so far, and are more willing to sell something for a little less because their coffers are filled with how much they have already brought into them.
Not long after the guy with the Chinese SKS departed, I went back to the vendor who had told me to come back with the CZ 457 Royal, if not sold by the time I was ready to leave the show. I offered it to him at about $200 less than the lowest price found on AmmoSeek. Mine is unfired in excellent condition, in the box with papers, essentially brand new. He offered me $100 less than my low-ball price. I am pretty sure, had he bought it, he would have asked quite a bit more than the lowest online price when he offered it for sale, or so is my guess.
The only thing I bought at the show were 100 rounds of Norinco 7.62X39mm ammo (banned from future imports by Clinton back in the 1990s) and the pack of 20 stripper clips, that I mentioned earlier, for 7.62X39mm ammo. The
ammo had an asking price of $50, I got em for $45. I gave them to my
son as a gift since he had asked me earlier for a hundred bucks to buy
ten boxes of it from the same vendor. I only had $67 on me, and my credit cards while far from being maxed out have to much on them for me to use them for anything other than what I need, at least until the 1st of next month when I pay them off in full. So, I got
what I could afford while leaving a bit of cash in my pocket. I had asked Brendan if he wanted me to take $100 out of the ATM and loan it to him but he said forget it. So, I surprised him later when I gave the 100 rds. to him as a gift. The stripper clips had an asking price of $12.00. I got them for $10; I think I think I was lucky the vendor still had them. Until today, I had not seen them offered for sale below a dollar apiece, a buck each has been the offering price for a couple of years now in my experience. So. .50 cents each was such a deal and a good one at that.
All in all, Brendan & I enjoyed the show. Well, I think we did, but know I did (I just asked him about it and now I know he enjoyed it). It was a nice way to spend about a couple of hours together, actually about three hours with the drive.
Some other things of note: I would have taken some photographs of the show, to display the wide variety of guns and other things for sale except for the numerous signs at the entrance forbidding anyone from taking photographs. This is the only gun show, in my memory, where I have ever seen such a disappointing rule and there were at least two, to a few, signs saying so. If I had been permitted to have taken pics, I would have made certain to take them not only of tables displaying guns, firearms parts, their accessories, and ammo, but also of what I think were the annoying amount of tables with odd ball stuff, at least oddball to sell at a gun show.
Those off items were anything from: bread and other baked goods, jam, hot pepper sauces, pepper mills, coffee grinders, knickknacks, fishing rods & tackle, axes, hatchets, fantasy swords, brass knuckles, toys, jewelry, and even a few tables with only potted house plants for sale. Never before, to the best of my little gray cell's abilities, do I recollect house plants being sold at a gun show; that was weird to say the least and the vendor selling them had at least three tables of them. Those are sad examples of what things are allowed to be sold at gun shows, in my opinion, but it happens at all gun shows nowadays and I am not blaming the promoter of such shows but I am disappointed that such has become the norm. It is amazing what unrelated junk items are allowed to be sold at so called 'Gun shows' or Gun & Knife shows. I, for one, do not even particularly like the sale of knives being allowed, other than bayonets, but I can tolerate them as they are also weapons. I suppose folks have accepted the fact that knives always will be sold therein. I imagine it is much akin to peanut butter & jelly (fruit preserves are to my liking), as they go well together and so it seems for knives and guns go together to many folks.
However, in my estimation, those other non gun related items, like house plants, really do not have a valid place at a gun show. I suppose though, the promoters do not attract enough firearms vendors, and financial concerns demand they fill as many tables as possible to stay in business and make a profit. Thus they allow what I, and many others in my experience, believe are junk vendors into the venues. As I said, it is like that at all gun shows. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, singling out G&S Promotions. It has been that way for decades at most, if not all, guns shows I have been to in the past 30 years or more. Although, I remember some of the shows I attended early on that did not allow anything but guns and items that were directly related to firearms, I miss those days. Sadly the trend to allow things unrelated to firearms seems to be continually getting worse. Sooner or later, if not restricted now, the amount of tables selling items unrelated to firearms may outnumber the number of tables from which guns are sold, at some shows.
Regardless of my qualms along those lines, the show promoter Stephanie E. of G&S Promotions is a very nice lady and runs a very professional operation with good people working for her. I have been to several of their shows with Brendan, and to a few by myself, both as a vendor and as an attendee. I think they host some of the best Shows in AR (anywhere for that matter) along with those run by Kerry Murphy Promotions; although, I must say Stephanie is much prettier than Kerry!
All the best,
Glenn B
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