Recent Gun Show Experience

[browningautorifle]

I've also met more good people than jerks and have returned to buy over and over from some of them.

Mostly the case here too, after all at least we're mostly like minded at a gunshow.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Same here Jim.... I've been to many gun shows and was a member of a local club that held 4 or 5 a year where I could get a table cheep. There are many people who are nice and we have a good time. I've learned more from some guys working at shows with me than about anyplace too. There ARE a few jerks, but they are few really.... When they come to our tables and raise heck, we laugh at them after they leave in a huff and go back to having fun.

[mike webb]

I've been going to gun shows for about 20 years and have seen them change quite a bit in my area. In the 90's they seemed to have a lot of anti-government books, etc. and people walking around in nazi uniforms. Today, it's the jewelry, beef jerky, etc. That's okay, if they can sell their wares - why not? I've been one of those idiot buyers, not knowing what I saw, asking dumb questions, etc. I've had patient sellers really take time and straighten me out and I've had them blow me off or tell me off. It's probably just as frustrating for the sellers dealing with the wide variety of buyers as it is for us with some of the dealers. I have a friend who is a dealer and has tables at all of the shows in my area. He's confirmed what I always suspicioned in that the dealers scour the show for deals before the doors open. Most of the good bargains are gone before we get in the door, but I'm not complaining, I understand it. I go to the shows because I enjoy checking everything out and I'm looking for enough parts and other guns to fill the holes in my collection that I find a few treasures now and again. I've also met more good people than jerks and have returned to buy over and over from some of them.

Most of the folks with tables at gun shows ARE good people and it is just a hobby for them. They wheel and deal to finance their own habit(I'm one of them). And it is true that most smoking deals are gone by the time the doors open at a gun show. I know a few guys who get a table, throw some junk they drug out of the basement on it and browse through others sellers merchandise before the doors open. Those guys are mainly there to buy from other sellers or from the general public. Nothing wrong with that because it isn't hard to pick them out. Kinda like the guys who frequent yard sales, buy cheap and then resell at flea markets.
As an aside, up here in Canada anyone walking around in a Nazi uniform would be risking insults at least or maybe an invitation to step outside for a thrashing. I have no use for those people. Millions died to stop the Nazi ideology and those who glorify it should not be tolerated in my opinion. Others may disagree.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

All true, and pretty much the same here all the way down here in Texas Mike...
(So it's probably the same in-between here and there)

Times have changed and we don't see Schutzstaffel officers walking around in black NAZI uniforms much anymore.
I even feel a little squeamish when I pass the tables/vendors that are full of NAZI Totenkopf ('Dead-Head') symbols and all the other SS artifacts ---
(You don't see as many of those vendors often here anymore either.)

Yes, there are probably a few vendors who do like you said, and only get tables to prowl in that hour before the show opens....
I didn't see it a lot at our shows, but I'm sure a few might by all the nearly worthless gun JUNK that have on their tables!

I usually don't have time in that hour we get in early to walk around looking for 'deals', as we're usually straightening up our tables, putting away lunch, etc, etc --
I get my BEST trades/deals from other members by attending the membership meetings every month!

* Also the antique arms club who puts on great gun shows, never allowed any jewelry/jerky/ toys tables unless they have 75% or so guns too... They are simply turned down, and tables aren't rented to them. (Sadly, this is not the case at many other local 'gun' shows here too, and they're covered up with junky tables selling everything imaginable not even related to guns)

[jonnyc]

I don't mind as much the guys who are into the actually history of the Nazi period and deal in the artifacts. The ones who make me want to bring burning-at-the-stake back are the table-holders who sell all the new books about how poor, old Uncle Adolph was just misunderstood, new DVDs of Hitler's 'best' speeches, and how the Holocaust was just a myth.