This used to be a great show. Today was a mess at best. The arena has had its fair share of problems. Today's were the worst ever...in spades. My buddy Joe even called to find out what other events might be going on. No reply.

So today he/we discovered that every high school for maybe 100 miles booked it for graduation ceremonies. This place has a huge series of parking lots. Places for 10s of thousands of cars. And every one taken.

Worse the idiots that run things decided they need more money so now they've upped the parking fee to $10. Of course the admission to the show remained a "reasonable" $12 for an undersized show with lots of unused tables, huge aisles and very few vendors and even fewer customers.

I'm a pistol kind of guy so I was tossed into a market I'm not used to. I went with one thing in mind, I need a single point sling for my Shockwave. I'm guessint it will stress my wife's sewing ability to convert it to something that will work and be strong enough.

In the past the promoter got really pissed when we pointed out he was ruining his shows. Well, this might have been the final straw. He's going down from 4 shows a year to 2. If anyone bothers to attend.

The other thing I was looking for was one of the new P210As. I didn't care if it was a target model or not. I didn't see anything of interest at all. Yes, I spent $10 to park, $15 for the sling, and $4 for my coke. My advice to any one would be to really consider before going to one.

We've got another show in 3 weeks down at the horse park. Yes, we have a state park for horses. I'm going just because I like the venue. Its only about 70 miles and we're going just to see friends (like today). The Dickson shows are in the shitter, so to speak.

Went to the Helena MT show yesterday. $6 to get in, free parking. It's getting smaller with fewer and fewer tables with gun related items.

More and more tables for Political candidates, folks selling crafts and other crap. Pretty sad.

Couldn't IMAGINE $25 to be disappointed! Six bucks is bad enough.

Gun shows may be going the way of computer shows, remember those and how HUGE they used to be with lots of great deals? Now they are gone.

I remember driving up to Columbus to the Ohio Gun Collectors show.
3 full floors. An all day event!

I assume you went to the Louisville show. It's sucked for a couple of years now. The G-Town show is....well, classier but smaller. I'm not going to either. The last show I went to was at Heritage Hall a number of years ago. Roller dogs and fake Nazi crap.

I only ever go to gun shows anymore if I want to sell something, or I'm just bored.

Tons of cheaply made, overpriced ARs, tons of cheap airsoft-quality optics and accessories, tons of made in China mall ninja costumes, the inevitable booths of guys selling Nazi stuff or anarchist literature.

I was hoping, a few years back, that it was just my local show. Then I went to shows in five states, and found out they're terrible all over the country.

Golden age of guns or no, either you guys had way better shows in years gone by, or time is shining up your memories, cuz these days they're terrible.

The exception has been the Indy 1500, which I'm actually looking forward to this fall.

It’s the Internet. Most items can be purchased cheaper on the Internet.

A couple of months ago I went to the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, VA. It was the first time in five years. I don’t think I will ever go back.

Used to go to gun shows almost every weekend. The last time I went to one was over 10 years ago, and it was already sorry. Yeah, gun shows will eventually go the way of the dodo bird.

I still want to attend Wannamacher before I die. It sounds like I’d better hurry.

I went to our podunk one recently, and $10 didn’t buy you enough gun show to need a snack or a beverage.

NY shows have sucked like that for years. I cant be bothered looking at over priced crap.

Because of this forum, I have never been to a gun show. Just never heard enough good things about them to make the effort to go.

You can trace the problem back to money. Profit margins in firearms are extremely low and since there have not been any big scares sales are average. Why would dealers pay for a space and waste three days time to lose money? Budsgunshop, Grabagun and other online dealers have driven prices into the ground and make it difficult for local dealers to compete. People expect dirt cheap prices and complain when their LGS cannot match online prices.

Until sales tax laws are forced on online sales the local guys cannot compete. The online retailers will eventually put most local shops out of business. It may seem good for the consumer but when there are virtually no LGS you’ll see very high transfer fees. It will eventually balance out but the consumers desire for the lowest price will make local gun stores go the way of shopping malls. Why buy at a mall when you can find it cheaper online?

For years I've been hearing you guys talk about the declining shows. My local show has thus far remained steadily shielded from the non gun-related trinkets, albeit prices have been a tad high.

I went yesterday and for the first time, saw a decline in overall quality. There were substantially fewer firearms vendors. It's typically the same sellers at every show. They we're noticeably absent. In their place was every snake oil salesman, pitching everything from wonder mops, pet hair rollers, jerky, political garbage, gold and silver, to rows and rows of Chinese knives. It was terrible.

Friend wanted to go back in February to our local show here in Greenville, S.C. I used to go a good bit but have not in a couple years... well the show here was probably twice as big as a couple years ago... I've never seen so much. too much for me to take in...

I'll go to a gun show up to 200 miles away. I just like to check out guns, even if I don't have money to buy, and make a scenic drive, and sometimes a meal afterwards, out of it. Having them laid out on a table so I can see and even lightly fondle them lets me just browse without feeling pressured. I have gotten four from the same local (actually in the semi-neighboring city of Bristol) vendor. Their actual store's location and hours are not convenient to me during the week, but a gun show on a weekend is.

I went to one yesterday. It was a small one, but I got to see some guns I'd never laid eyes on before, not one, but two complete Dan Wesson revolver "Pistol Pacs." These were made in the 1970s and consist of the revolver frame, four interchangeable barrels of different lengths ranging from 2.5 to 8 inches, a spanner wrench for the barrel nut, a feeler gauge, a couple of kinds of grips and a suitcase-like carrying case (not sure if the case was part of the original package). I don't know if they were worth what the seller was asking, and didn't care because I didn't have it anyway. Other noteworthy ones were half a dozen High Standard .22 pistols, including the top of the line Victor. Even when one disappoints me, I don't consider the time wasted. Can you see a movie for $8-$10?

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Because of this forum, I have never been to a gun show. Just never heard enough good things about them to make the effort to go.

Quit listening to all these whiners, most of whom are secretly already planning to go to the next one, and at least give it a try.

I had a table at the show rburg is talking about. I like older revolvers and my table had 24 revos that were anywhere from 50 to 125 years old and all were priced less than the lowest on GB. Normally I sell 2 or 3 and buy about the same.

Yesterday I didn't have one single person ask "what's the best you can do", "got any room", "want to trade"...

I packed my wares up at closing yesterday and today I'm posting on the Sig Forum instead of sitting in an uncomfortable chair at a deadend gunshow.

One thing rburg failed to mention; forever, vendors have been given a parking pass in bright colors. You could hold up your pass and roll thru the parking pass lane smoothly and traffic kept moving. Now vendors get a bar code ticket similar to a theater ticket and the parking attendant must scan each ticket and 10 seconds later a beeper says permit is valid. Probably takes a minute per car longer than it should. Not bad if no one is in line but how about when the dealers show up at the same time for a 9 am opening bell? Just another in a long line of annoyances with fairgrounds operations.

The only gun show I’ve attended that hasn’t gotten smaller or less crowded is at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. Sure, it’s a little different than the typical title 1 show but I haven’t been disappointed yet over more than a decade.

quote:

Quit listening to all these whiners...

^^^^^

The ones in my big city are still big enough. I go about once a year.

Nothing local worth going to . I could drive an hour to the one's in New Orleans but I haven't heard any feedback good or bad on them .