Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gun Show Today... High Comedy

I picked up an AR upper Daniel Defense from MIdway in the past few days. It was normal price. Would have preferred a complete rifle, but that ain't happening now. I still have another lower in need of completion, so that oughta do it.

One shop still had a few Pmags at a slightly inflated, but not horrible price. I got a few more, and a couple more Glock mags.

I'd sort of like to get a high cap .40 something, but it's not a high priority.

Hopefully people are dumping useful things like Ruger #1's and such, in their panic

Everyone willing to pay the current market rates is getting exactly what they deserve. I don't wait until my house is on fire to shop for homeowner's insurance and I don't wait until an induced "crisis" to decide that I need to buy firearms, ammunition, and reloading supplies.

Me either, I will wait a year or two from now and pick up these same rifles for 800 bucks.

I will say I'm slightly pissed about the current run on AR stuff. I've been haunting the AR15 classifieds for a used RRA middy barrel to come up for about a month and a half. I've missed 2 in that time period. Stuff usually doesn't last long there but recently it's been ridiculous. The prices are unbelievable too. BCGs are apparently in short supply, because they are selling in seconds for 3 times what I could but them for 2 months ago (and did).

I think it is awesome myself. It shows that a lot of people always wanted a good weapon, 'just in case', and that case has now arrived. Capitalism at work. The fools parting with their money obviously have some to work with, as most transactions I've seen this week have been cash only. It benefits the economy and the morale of the country, both now and into the future. This is the best response to happen for gunowners in a long time.

Who knew "0" could still really stimulate the economy?

If fools are willing to buy something at any price, how can you blame the seller for asking "any price?"

Well right up until and sometimes after the shooting, you could get perfectly serviceable AR's at Walmart for very reasonable prices.

I went to the gunshow in Kansas City yesterday. AR's and like guns were literally through the roof. $3000-4000. I did not see one reasonably priced. The closest thing was an SKS for $600-700. The price on it was probably double, but since they were relatively cheap beforehand, it doesn't seem that bad at this point.

I saw NO thirty round clips. One vendor had a decent supply of twenty rounders for $24.95 apiece. That doesn't seem too terribly bad to me, given the situation. Ammo was available, but I don't know what the prices were. High capacity pistols seemed abundant but I can't speak to the magazine situation with them.

Most of the assault rifles that were left were sub-par, at least in appearance. I've bought such guns before and they were fine after a cleanup, but they weren't cherried out guns for the most part. I did see two very pretty AR's. I don't know what brand they were but I saw the same ones, I think, at Tulsa a few weeks back. They were about doubled in price at $3000, IIRC.

The parts situation wasn't dire, but they looked somewhat sparse. The ones I priced though, were a lot less spendy than the guns themselves. I bought a set of cheap BUIS' for $65 and that's as cheap as you'd have gotten them for awhile now.

That has been my impression at every gun show since '08, Windage.

I wish now I had stock piled a few crates of "black rifles"
to trade for M1's,M1A's
or great old single shots!

It goes back much farther than '08. Perhaps I'm now officially an "old-timer", but I can remember the craziness during the original ban. I hadn't been attending gunshows too many years before that one, so maybe it goes way back or maybe that was the beginning of it. One thing that boggles the mind is that the market never seems to be saturated and people never seem to run out of money.

As to trading for stuff. Forget about the M-1's and M1A's, etc. They are in the same boat as AR's. So are SKS' and the like. People who deal in antique guns are generally disdainful of AR's and usually won't trade for them. You'd have to sell it and then buy. I don't know how many times some old fogey at a table who didn't want to trade would tell me "you can sell it and then come back". No shixt Sherlock. Advice like that virtually assures that I won't come back if I do sell what I'm carrying. It is for damned sure that these same dealers who are selling at these prices won't give the same money for things you've got to trade, let alone the guys who deal in antiques and normally won't trade. They for sure ain't trading at double what the price was two weeks previously.

This is the time to be a seller, not a buyer. Has no one heard the ancient stock market mantra "buy low, sell high"?

RS

"no habla Ingles" might not help ya around here, try Greek

I don't have an AR either, but I do understand they are ideal for routine coyote and hog control, all in all a near-perfect carbine for anyone on a ranch, that goes in spades for anywhere near the Border.

Birdwatcher

Birdwatcher

well, I sorted wanted one of these, guess I'll wait awhile...

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=322671571

Saw and held the 901 month or so ago here in FW. Selling price was 200 above the high retail. $2400 what they wanted.
Turns out it might of been a good buy if you could sell for that kind of money.
Just got back from the FWorth show.
No ammo (very small amount) Very few AR type. Had a laugh at the $1200 people wanted for the AK's.
Many brought in AR's for sale, $2500 range. People carrying 3 at a time trying to sale for that price.
Even 91/30 Russian for $300.
Guess lots of new people were out and about looking and buying weapons. Oh, pmags 30 rounds $50.00 bucks each.

Another gun show next weekend, wonder where the vendors will replace sold items in only one week.
But most all vendors that sold AR's and ammo were smiling and happy. Some ammo vendors didn' even show up today.

I laughed my fanny off at the 2008 Panic and have to shake my head in wonder at the dumpluckitude currently under way.
I'm "good" for now, if I ever need more than I have now, then I'll be dead anyway.
But 600 for an SKS is outrageous, and anything over 800 for a basic model AR is too much. And 900 bucks for a case of Barfy ammo?
I'm looking forward to the next show, just for the sociological education.

Gun shows around here have been a joke for 20 years.. Crap offered at 'new' prices, and new items offered at MSRP+++

I gave up on 'em years ago..

It's really sad; back as far as the late 70's and early 80's, one could go to a gun show and it was FUN! A whole bunch of guns from a myriad of dealers, and almost all at rock-bottom prices. You could get great guns at prices you couldn't find anywhere else. Then the largest retailers began to set up 10 ~ 15 tables and charge MSRP on everything, and there were people walking around with an abortion of a rifle slung over their shoulder asking 2 ~ 3 times what it was really worth. Later in the gun show timeline you had to be exceedingly lucky to find a good deal on a firearm you wanted to buy. Gun shows have become commercialized; they're no fun to go to any longer.

Occassionally we have a small gun show here, in Illinois of all places, where the tables are mainly rented by guys selling their personal collections. Those are fun to go to.

I swear some of these people that have tables at gun shows just do it for something to do. Some of the vendors try to actively move stuff, some there are sitting on guns so long the white tags with the prices on them are turning yellow. Make you wonder why they drag the stuff back every year.

There is one show in Montgomery that I usually go to but it's usually to buy components without having to deal with the HAZMAT fees. I will buy a rifle or handgun if something catches my eye. Lately I'm getting more interested in the lever rifles for some reason......one that is at least .35 caliber.