Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire First time to be a gun show vendor...

Been looking for a good Pakistani made dragon sword /skinning knife. Used to be able to find them at all of the top rated gun shows. Anyone have a lead?

After action report:

Could have been better. I was in Mesquite (east of Dallas), and it was the most 'urban/ghetto' crowd that I've ever seen at a gun show. The hot commodities were 9MM pistols/ammo, and black rifles/5.56 ammo, and the kool kids were buying 12-gauge semi-automatic 'streetsweepers'.

Nobody was really interested in my two Yugo M-48 Mausers aside from nice comments "Those are really nice!", but that was as far as that went. I sold some ammo:

1,000 Winchester M-22 (.22 LR) - $150
200 Winchester white box .40 S&W - $140
100 CCI Green Tag .22 LR - $20
50 UMC FMJ .380 ACP - $25
200 CCI .22 LR - $30
1 old leather rifle sling - $10
2 300 round boxes of CCI AR Tactical .22 LR and 4 50-ct boxes of Federal Champion .22 LR - $110

Not one nibble on any of my 30.06 hunting ammo (Sierra GameKing, Barnes Triple Shock, Nosler Ballistic Tip, etc.), not much demand at this location for .40 S&W ammo, nobody even looked at a new box of Winchester Long Beard XR 12-gauge. Lots of unsophisticated urban-types came by asking if I had 9MM ammo, a couple even asking if I had 5.7x28 ammo (!!).

Paid for table and gas and lunch and I had some left over, so I did make a (small) profit. Selling my .22 LR ammo at $0.15/ea was pretty good, the last sale of the day was the .22 for $0.1375/ea

Next time I'll pick a show with a different demographic that better suits what I have to sell.

Sounds alright.
Can’t put a price on experience.
It only takes one good deal, bought or sold, to make a show worthwhile.

Big fitted Texas girl of about 180 lbs with a ripped down from the collar grey t shirt showing about 12 inches of cleavage will draw them to your table

I priced my stuff (loading bench clean up), powder, primers, bullets this weekend under everyone else at the Klamath Falls show. In most cases, I doubled the original purchase price. Grossed 1,700 in 2 days. The gougers asking 3x and 4x on their stuff were grumbling behind my back, because I wouldn't sell during set-up hours. Surprisingly, I had to bring home a new sealed bottle of Rel 23 priced at 50 bucks?...go figure.

Yep. The man behind my table did ok, sold a few Ruger pistols and a NICE Marlin 1894S .41 Magnum, but he only comes out once a year. I meant to tell some Campfire locals to come out but my internet connection went out Friday night from a storm and didn't come back until Sunday afternoon. Here's what he started off with Sunday morning:

3 1961 Deerstalkers (!!!)
2 44 Carbines
1 Ladysmith
1 Colt Lightning
1 Redhawk .357
2 Redhawk .41's
1 Security Six 200th year
1 Single Six with two extra .22 Mag cylinders in their original boxes

I thought about bringing out some powder, but the only buyers at this venue would have been other vendors so they could flip it, I'm not helping their bottom line at the expense of mine.

Monitor the pricing. Having it marked”fairly” don’t matter if what you want to do is sell it and it ain’t selling. Don’t get your feelings hurt. Just give as good as you get and laugh. Move around before hand and find a few folks that might be mutually beneficial. They have something you don’t but somebody will probably want, make note and let them know you’ll send somebody their way. Ask for same. Follow thru and ask the customer to mention you. When you come in with the vendor flow be obvious in zip tying your carry gun barrel. With either empty mag or no mag. Here’s a personal choice. I’ll have a live mag hidden somewhere I can lay hands on and a sharp knife to cut the zip with. I’m not walking out of a show with a grand or more and nothing but a smile and kind word to defend myself with. Very doable. Plan ahead.

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This


Price your stuff reasonably. Accept no offers or trades.

It'll move.


When I worked at the LGS we would take all the slow movers to the gun show, set up a table and price them to sell. They always did.

Gunshows have been a source of enjoyment for me over the years.. The little people have a great urge to touch something.. On my table I would usually have a couple of old cap guns close to the front of the table for their benefit.

Wow, would you look at all the .44 Carbines! Guy has cornered the market!

Had some decent stuff at decent prices and got tired of the azzholes ( dealers and public ).

Grew up doing shows w pops.

Gonna extra suck making the rounds this weekend, first show with him being gone.

Just gonna walk through to touch base w a couple folks and look for a TC barrel.

Could take the 66 .44 sporter and fugg w em. Ya know, do two loops and leave w it. LMFAO

Some folks laugh at that. Don’t. Had the organizer of a show get on the horn one morning a good hour before opening. Obudderbud was in town and guy was giving a serious heads up warning THEY would be there looking for a nice photo opp. Didn’t surprise anybody but the salsa makers but there was a momentary rumble. Sure enough an hour into the show here comes Miss Priss admiring an admirable 3” 5 shot nickle Taurus .44 Special; slobbering, drooling, so nice etc. but since she didn’t have a concealed carry or purchase permit, she had to go get her uncle who did. HE would want it (straw?) only problem was he was out of state and they brought another witness back with them. Lying 🤥 m dying. Got crude enough they knew I knew and drifted away immediately.

Another guy wandered around several shows I was wandering with a Montgomery Ward small ring Mauser that was nice. Would have enjoyed it. But he wanted 3 prices. What he really wanted to do was sell a Sten his old Daddy brought back from the war. I looked trustworthy and the price was less than a grand. Did a little interview just for chuckles before SMH and walking. Son was with me and young. Made sure it was a learning experience. Saw the same guy at the next show and got close enough to hear pretty much the same pitch. Saw him a couple more times then never again. It happens.

They were VERY nice carbines, especially the Mannlicher-stocked version w/scope closest to the camera. The demographic of the show wasn't favorable to them.

A fellow could make a gun collection with Ruger .44's. 44 carbine, The fingergroove version was a favorite. (No barrel band).
96/44 lever action, & Ruger #3. Offered in the Ruger #1 also, but never appealed to me for some reason.

I like #1s but think the 44 mag looks a little short. Shoulda made the bbl 1" or 2" longer.

Not a fan of the 1022/ 44 standard stock.
Fingergroove ( sporter ) feels way better IMHO.

Have an old beater 3 screw SBH w brass frame and a pretty clean sporter. Those my only .44 mags now.

Ruger #3 feels and looks like crap. Hated the ones I shot on .22 hornet and .223.
Have one now wearing #1 wood. But its in an oddball cartridge ( rebarreled ). Actually like the looks of the #3 lever but it doesnt work well with #1 wood in anything that bumps. Really need to hybridize a #3 stock of sorts.

Ruger #3

$2000 for a Deerstalker? Sheeww buddy!!

😐

One year only and these were probably the nicest representatives of that year as you'll ever see - I kept looking at them all weekend. I should have bought one.