(CA) Gun shows draw smaller crowds

[BenW]

I agree with my Calif compadres who lay some of the blame on the shows. It's $7-8 to get in, $5 parking at the closest one for me. That's around 12 bucks to view often overpriced items.

My strategy of late is to only go to the shows when I need ammo, powder, primers or bullets, then buy large quantities of those. If I pick up other incidentals during the same trip, then I don't feel as gouged as I do if I buy say, just a couple of ammo cans for $5, which end up costing $17 if I add the fee just to walk through the front door.

 

[GW]

The old Cow Palace shows were really something, sometimes using 2 or more rooms and there was everything you could think of . Guns, Ammo. knives and other stuff with multiple vendors selling stuff that was well, interesting at least. You could bargain with dealers too and generally, it was just a great time. Then the CA AWB went into effect and that was a major nail in the coffin of gun shows here
The gun shows are dying because they forgot about the internet and
They forgot about local shops. I have never seen a deal on a gun at a gunshow that I couldn't easily beat at any of the local gunshops. I have never seen a deal on an accessory that I couldn't easily bet on the web and thats including shipping
Surplus ammo and jerky are about it for the gunshows here, but when you think about it, even they aren't such great deals
for example I went to the SF cow palace show this weekend
round trip =6 gallons gas = $12
parking = $8
admission (with my $1 discount pass was $9 (IIRC)
So... I spent $29 to save $6 on ammo
Now, if I shine 6 Bay area shows
I will have saved $180, which will buy me a weekend in Reno, where they still have a quality gunshow. The show in San Jose is even worse, it really is the dregs
6 years ago these shows were events that you planned your weekend around
Any more, I'll just stay home and mow the lawn. (after I get back from the range)

 

[Bear Gulch]

The last few that I have been to in Idaho have offers used stuff for new prices. It seems that if a guy sold good quality at a good price, he'd do alright. It seems that many vendors want to make a huge profit per gun instead of making money off of more modest (but more plentiful) sales.

 

[C96]

I usually go to two or three gun shows a year around here. Some prices are good at these,
most prices are not, but that's OK with me.

I go because I want to see and handle firearms that are of interest to me. Looking
at something on the net just ain't enough. And once in a great while I'll find something
of interest that is priced right.

I do have a very good local shop that will get me most anything I want at
20 to 50 bucks over his cost, my son works there, but I do want to handle
some of these critters first.

And the gun shows around here will usually have at least one vendor with a lot
of new ammo for sale and at good prices.

If I'm gonna go shopping, it might as well be at a gun show.

allan

 

[stealthmode]

i only go to renew my nra membership for 10 dollars less and i get in free to the show. cant buy anything useful except ammo in california.

 

[Jim Diver]

The gun shows in this area have been getting worse and worse. Hardly 50 tables at the last one. They used to be good sized, now they are not worth going to.

 

[carp killer]

Gun shows are much better outside of California.

 

[Cosmoline]

Don't read too much into this. I know many, many folks in the local shooting community who stopped going to gun shows completely over the past decade. And I can tell you the shooting sports are NOT on the decline in any way, shape or form in Alaska. The fact is too many gun shows have gone from being real bargain spots to places where grumpy jerks sell massively overpriced firearms or useless gewgaws. You're more likely to find a real bargain in a store's back shelves or in an on-line auction.

 

[LiquidTension]

I remember when shows at the State Fairgrounds here in SC were pretty good. One even took up two rooms. Admission used to be $5, is now $6. Also, they started charging for parking (another $1), so I stopped going. The show at Jamil Temple doesn't charge for parking, so I go there when I need to. I haven't bought anything other than reloading stuff and ammo at a show in the past 2 or 3 years. Only deals I ever found were my Mossberg for $200 and a hard-chromed P7 for $650.

Primers and powder are the only things that are consistently cheaper at shows, mostly because of the shipping and hazmat fees. Sometimes ammo is cheaper, but with AIM selling cases of .308 for $164 including shipping even that's getting rare. Nowadays gun shows are filled with dealers that think $350 is reasonable for an SKS, $1000 is "below dealer cost" for basic configuration Oly Arms ARs, and of course there are the guys with the $35 Wilson mags If they'd drop their prices to $25, they'd still be making 4 or 5 bucks off of them and I would have bought a half dozen of them by now. As it is, they get no sales because they are greedy.

Gun shows will continue to get crappier until the greedy dealers (not all of them, I know) realize that they will make more money if they quit gouging the customers. With the internet being in so many homes nowadays, people realize how much stuff costs and refuse to buy stuff that's marked up too high. It's entirely possible to turn a profit without ripping people off, and repeat customers are worth a lot more than the two or three ignorant people that actually pay $20 for your FAL mags

 

[GW]

Gun shows are much better outside of California.

Well at least our trailer parks don't get blown to flinders by tornados

See, its easy to find something positive to say about California
Guns shows used to be like the SHOT show with all sorts of vendors selling all sorts of cool stuff but now as said many times before Way overpriced junk and take it or leave it attitudes. There was some guy selling used FAL rear sights for $85!!
I chose to leave it

 

[Checkman]

Cosmoline-

Man you nailed it. It seems that most of the dealers are "grumpy jerks". I've seen dealers almost get in fistfights with shoppers at the local gunshow and I perosonally was treated like an idiot by one dealer of Winchesters. Now whatever my faults might be when it comes to knowledge of Winchesters you better treat me with some respect if you want my business. And if you find the idea of people handling your precious rifles to be too much then what in the heck are you doing at a GUNSHOW?? It seems to me that many of the folks at gunshows don't have a clue about what it means to be retail. And when you sell guns that's what your profession is - retail.

 

[The_Antibubba]

It's a lack of respect for shooters

I went one year to Sacramento's "Gun, Knife, and Doll" show (and that should tell you EVERYTHING right there), and I've been to the big Reno show, and the difference were truly amazing. At Reno, most of the sellers were, if not friendly, then far less rude-and some were very friendly indeed. I think it had to do with the fact that there were several hundred other dealers in the place that one could take his business to. Prices were reasonable. Nowhere did I hear the crackle of a stun gun, and there were no jerky sellers-NONE. It was like a celebration of guns, gun culture, and gun history. It took my breath away.

The Sac show was nothing like that. The word that comes to mind is miserly, as if what little they had was all they were ever going to have, and that the show-goers weren't going to get it without a fight, and we were lucky they were even there at all. And yes, California law does make it hard on gun shows, but those show dealers need to understand that we don't actually need them-we have shops and dealers already, and most of them deal with us much more fairly than the exhibitors do.

Gun shows were once the only way to see so many guns in one place at one time, but as others have pointed out, the Internet has changed all that. If gun shows are to survive, the attitude, approach, and culture will have to change.

 

[standingbear]

UHMMMMM its not just in CA these days.


they got surplus clothing and shovels, nazi memorabilia,shotguns from the 1930s up to the 1980s..all rusty or scratched and very expensive.Saw the 1100 dollar 1911s,the saa colts,and the brycos, someones bubba'd mossberg for 600 bucks, c&r stuff but he wanted cash,no trades,swords,books,pocket knives,watches and baseball cards...the funniest thing..a ruger 10/22.. the rare sniper model.. that said "preban" with a butler creek folder-the finish was missing and someone spray painted it camo colors.500 bucks and he would throw in the sanford 50 round drum mag and the used scope that had been wrapped in electrical tape.I think he thought I would seriously buy that monstrosity.

cant forget the food stand..hot dogs that literally explode in ones gut on the way home.they should start selling tums or alka seltzer or including them in a combo special with each hot dog.

 

[Rockrivr1]

Here in Massachusetts the gun shows only happen during a few months of the year so the ones that do go on are pretty busy. This upcoming weekend there is one at the Big E and the place is usually packed. It would seem though that the vendors have the same problems as everywhere else. They charge WAY to much for the guns there. I've never bought one at a gun show because of these reasons. I like to go because Mass doesn't allow online purchases of ammo, so these shows are the only way to get bulk ammo at a decent price.

 

[atek3]

here in the PRK we call them 'jerky shows'

atek3

 

[50 Freak]

Gosh, I really miss the big Pomona shows, they used to advertise "8 miles of tables". This was of course before pre-1990. I remember going at 8 in the morning and walking till about 6 and not fully seeing the whole show.

 

[enfield]

I'll give ya a hint. My wife and I went to the gun show in Delmar CA a couple of years ago. $7 to park and $9 admission. 25 bucks gone and I hadn't even seen a Beanie Baby yet.

 

[GW]

Yep That describes the last San Jose gun show
Severely gouged before you get in the door
15 minutes to see everything (thats because 80% of it is the same junk that was there the last time you were there)

I left feeling like the time I lost a $20 bill at the grocery store --wasted money, wasted time :banghead:

I headed over to the local gunshop where as I walked in a fellow was just saying he was heading to the gun show. I told him he would be better off spending the money on ammo in the store because at least he'd have something for his money and not feel like an idiot for going to that lousy show.
He listened to me
I wish I had

 

[benEzra]

He pointed at the rifles and handguns displayed on the tables surrounding his blue tableclothed surface, covered with National Rifle Association promotional materials. He noted that just one of the 50 or so weapons within sight was made after 1980.

"You don't see a lot of new stuff coming into the sport," he said.

That's because California outlaws the sale of most of the interesting, modern rifles. I wouldn't go to a gun show either if all there was to see was tables full of Remchesters, and I had to wait 10 days to bring anything home.