Well, it's been a few years since I had a new firearm, so I did some research and decided it was time for a 380. I have a couple of other handguns, but find they are so big and bulky that most of time, especially in the summer, I do not carry them. And of course, a gun that you leave at home isn't going to save you if you are out and about. After doing some research on the Ruger LCP, and being a Ruger fan myself, I decided to buy one.
So checking out the internet, google shopping and gunbroker.com, I decided to get on a satin chrome model. The cheapest I found was $315 shipped and picked up form my FFL, so I went to the gun show in Norfolk with 3 Benjamins for "flash cash" in my left hip pocket.
The Norfolk gun show was all that the posters on here said it would be, rows of 90% overpriced junk with a few good deals if you could find them and knew exactly what you were looking for. I quickly discovered the Ruger sells the LCP in a little white cardboard box, where most other guns come in a dark colored cheap plastic box. This made the Rugers really easy to spot with vendors with 20 yard long tables full of pistols sitting on dark colored plastic boxes. I went around the entire exhibition hall and found only two vendors that had a chrome LCP, both priced within 5 bucks of each other.
After getting the best price from the first vendor, I went to the second and asked him if he could do $300 even, flashing my Benjamins made no impact whatsoever, and he said "it's not often that someone can beat my prices, if they do have a better price than me (thinking he was calling my bluff), then they deserve your patronage." So, I said, "Thank you, I'll go do that" and walked back to the first vendor, saved myself 5 whole bucks, and bought it.
So I sat down at a nice comfy table, waiting for my background check to go through and talked with the gentleman next to me who was also buying a LCP! He said he had gone around the whole hall too, and they had the best price. The bad part was, he had been waiting an hour and a half for his background to go through, yikes! I guess having an uncommon name pays off here, because mine went through and out the door in less than 10 minutes. The vendor told me cash or card, didn't matter, so I gave her my CC and got another 2% cash back due to my rewards plan. I think she was expecting the cash since I flashed it earlier, and kind of hesitated when I handed her the card, but she did tell me same price for cash or plastic when I made my offer.
So, off to the range today, going to put a couple boxes through the new girl, see how bad she kicks.
So checking out the internet, google shopping and gunbroker.com, I decided to get on a satin chrome model. The cheapest I found was $315 shipped and picked up form my FFL, so I went to the gun show in Norfolk with 3 Benjamins for "flash cash" in my left hip pocket.
The Norfolk gun show was all that the posters on here said it would be, rows of 90% overpriced junk with a few good deals if you could find them and knew exactly what you were looking for. I quickly discovered the Ruger sells the LCP in a little white cardboard box, where most other guns come in a dark colored cheap plastic box. This made the Rugers really easy to spot with vendors with 20 yard long tables full of pistols sitting on dark colored plastic boxes. I went around the entire exhibition hall and found only two vendors that had a chrome LCP, both priced within 5 bucks of each other.
After getting the best price from the first vendor, I went to the second and asked him if he could do $300 even, flashing my Benjamins made no impact whatsoever, and he said "it's not often that someone can beat my prices, if they do have a better price than me (thinking he was calling my bluff), then they deserve your patronage." So, I said, "Thank you, I'll go do that" and walked back to the first vendor, saved myself 5 whole bucks, and bought it.
So I sat down at a nice comfy table, waiting for my background check to go through and talked with the gentleman next to me who was also buying a LCP! He said he had gone around the whole hall too, and they had the best price. The bad part was, he had been waiting an hour and a half for his background to go through, yikes! I guess having an uncommon name pays off here, because mine went through and out the door in less than 10 minutes. The vendor told me cash or card, didn't matter, so I gave her my CC and got another 2% cash back due to my rewards plan. I think she was expecting the cash since I flashed it earlier, and kind of hesitated when I handed her the card, but she did tell me same price for cash or plastic when I made my offer.
So, off to the range today, going to put a couple boxes through the new girl, see how bad she kicks.
