Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What Are Vendors At Gunshows Thinking???

Yeah, baby. I love gun shows and spent 40-years being my Dad's wingman and learning the art of arguing with yahoos like the members here. Plus, I get to look at a lot of guns.

Agree 100%. I go to a local gun show, maybe twice a year. They have basically been worthless for several yrs. now. Last one I went to, back in Feb., I was only there a little over 1 hr. Everything[for the most part], was either over priced junk, or black rifles. I saw very little buying going on.

Here is a good example of overpriced. Looked at a Ruger # 1 tropical, .458 WM, so so wood, good blueing. Looked at the price tag, $975! The dude selling it said it was real rare[yeah right]. Had just looked on gunbroker, and found one just like it for $650.....go figger....

maddog

Its like going to an auction. You get hyped on just being part of the experience and forget about common sense and what stuff is really worth. At least that's what the vendors hope. I quit going to gun shows a long time ago.

Some guys have figured out is better to sell 2 items at 10% profit than it is to sell one at 18%. Some guys do it just to screw people looking to trade. Some want to talk about their "collection" and others have found that they can liquidate an accumulation of items better on the other side of the table. Most are just trying to get maximun exposure at minimal cost. I too, have a hard time spending $5-15 just as an "entertainmant" fee, especially when I can buy a table for $50, throw a few guns on the table at an outlandish price (who knows, a sucker may come along), come and go as I please, make back-door deals with other dealers and see every gun brought in without having to stand up.

I actually had a table at the show Rich is talking about (the second time I've ever set up at a show as a seller). I was trying to move a bunch of personal stuff, no "business" for me.

As a seller, I saw it from the opposite side. I'm convinced that most guys who go to shows as "buyers", have no intention of spending a penny more than the door entrance fee. Everybody fingers up the stuff, and then either tells you how they have one nicer, or lowball you ridiculously, or just walk away.

If you ask Rich, he should be able to confirm that I had nothing but quality stuff on the table (no old milsurp, rusted, cracked, beat up $100 clunkers), at very reasonable prices. I walked around and compared. On easily comparable things, like standard M700's, I was sometimes literally HUNDREDS below some guys, and in every single case, I had the lowest price, by varying degrees, on everything.

I had bullets and ammo there. I left mail order catalogs laying on the table. I had prices on everything, but if anybody questioned it, I invited them to flip through the catalog, find the price, and I'd be roughly 25% below it, with no tax or shipping added on. Still, I sold very little.

I sold one gun. One. At the lowest prices in the show.

I don't know how many guys made comments about how I had the nicest stuff there, and at definitely the best prices. I had guys ask how I could really sell at those prices, compared to everyone else. I explained that I was just a private individual, with no business overhead, etc, and just wanted to trim down some excess stuff that wasn't being shot any more. I didn't start out high, expecting to dicker a bunch. I wanted to cut to the chase, offer attractive prices from the beginning, and hopefully get some attention at those prices.

And still, nobody bought.

Yeah, some "dealers" are nuts at the shows, but it's a two way street sometimes...

Too true...


But to another poster - yeah, every one I've been to in the last dozen years or so has had a $5.00 entry fee...

I've kicked in another buck and bought two beers at the local joint.. Got more value outta it..

Amen, Coldbore. I wish some of these guys would spend one season trying to make a living from the other side of the table. The tune would change rather dramatically.

I figure a lot of the complaints about gunshows are due to the online auction sites, just like eBay has had a massive effect on collectibles.

Some people set up at shows (having to pay for it) to have somebody to talk to, if they sold their stuff, then they wouldn't have a reason to set up.

from the shows i've been to and first one was 20 years or so ago.I believe there is only 5-10% deals to be found the rest are over retail and it is alot worse the last few years.That being said it seems that majority of the people attending are not doing their homework and knowing the prices before they go to a show or auction.Because their are people willing to pay more then retail they will always have the guys who is willing to sell their items above retail

an example the last show in rochester couple weeks ago.There was a rem sps turkey gun which retails approx 500.The vendor sold more then one of these guns for 700 a piece.And anybody that has ever been to a show can tell a story of outragious prices

I rented a table at a gunshow to sell a bunch of stuff. I figured it would be much easier for me to get rid of the stuff over a couple days at a show rather than sell over the internet and deal with endless e-mails, packing and shipping and waiting for cheques to clear. It was excellent I got rid of absolutely everything on the table for cash. My guns were priced about $100 less than the other tables that were overpriced and got equal or better than I could selling over the internet. A few other dealers came over and told me my prices were to low, I told them they were reasonable for good shape used goods and that I came here to sell stuff not sit here for 2 days and take it all back home.

I would have gotten a kick out of the looks you got telling them that!

I go as a buyer, not a sucker. When the prices are in line, I buy. The last time I bought was two years ago at the Big Reno Show and spent several grand there with one dealer only, as he was the only one still down here on planet earth.

I know a lot of the folks on both sides of the tables, and the potential buyers are all of one mind now...the prices are ridiculous at the shows. Online auctions with all their faults are now a better way to buy, but this is faint praise. Nothing can replace holding and inspecting the gun before plunking down the $$$.

Last show I went to, I went specifically looking for a Marlin .22 Mag. Bud's sells them online for $192, and there were several USED Marlins there, for $225-$230. There WERE some differences, some had walnut vs. birch, one was new but synthetic stocked, but all the used ones were beat to [bleep], and all were at that magic $225 mark. I walked out with a set of dies I was halfheartedly looking for, and that was it. I think I'm done with gunshows, period. I can save money ordering components online, or going to a shop, without the parking fee and entrance monies.

If you attend them often and you know your stuff, some great deals are out there. But the more common stuff such as the �in� guns at the time, or basically anything new will be well over-priced. Been that way as long as I can remember.

Parts, accessories and old used stuff are what make gun show worth going to. I attend only about 1 gun show a year, and I�ve gone as long as 6 years without going to a gun show and never once felt like I was missing something. I can make a much better deal on a new gun by walking into someone�s shop, rather than seeing him at a gun show (not that I buy new guns all that often, I�m an old and used gun kind of guy).

Our gunshow's primarily consist of...

Jewelry,snowcones,fudge,raffles,clothing,novelties,antique swords,ect.

Well, I've said this before just to illustrate what a vendor faces. Not to defend outrageous pricing when it happens, but to explain why things aren't at give-away prices.

You drive 1,000 miles at $3 a gallon, spend $100 a night for a room, $50 a day for food and $100 for each table - and then sit there and listen to people beech because they paid $10 to get in. Some yahoo says your prices are too high just before he clumsily drops one of your guns on its scope, shrugs and walks away.

He is exactly right. All the stuff he had was all good. There were several rifles I would have bought!

This is my philosophy as well. When I decide to do a gun show, maybe 4-5 times a year, I sell 80-90% of what I bring because I price it to SELL. Have also been given grief by other vendors but often now they come and buy up a bunch of my stuff before the show starts and then put it back on thier tables at a hoped for higher price. Fine with me as I then have moola to buy more toys to try out. Sometimes even from them,but they know that I buy cheap or not at all. All in good fun. If it is not fun, I don't go. Would NOT want to do it full time and rely on such for my income as some do. I understand thier need to keep thier prices up there. Thier choice and ours to buy or not.

Coldbore

In my experience, model 700's just do not sell. Got to just about give them away to move them. There are things that move and things that do not at gun shows. Probably regionally based to a degree as I cannot move a Remmy pump at all out here for more than about $200-225.00