Gun Show Shock

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I used to do gun shows mostly for obsolete ammo. Never bought a gun. Prices for the most part are way overpriced. I hear from my lgs that they get a lot of gunsmithing business from gunshow guns. I'm not going to stand in line, pay $8. to enter only to be insulted by their inflated prices.
 
The door fee is a dud. Here in Tulsa big gun shows are fairly cheap , but the small ones are expensive as heck. I hate that too b/c I may not plan on buying anything and just go because a buddy wants me to.
 
Thing is, every gun show I've been to was like that - just not as extreme. Pre-panic, I went to window shop and giggle. Sometimes I found a deal but didn't expect it. I haven't had the heart since then.
 
I was horrified to see .22LR Remington GB 525 round bulk packs for $99.95. Single 50 round boxes of cheap crappy .22LR going for 9 bucks each. A brick of T-bolts for $140.
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That is one of the reasons I have been avoiding gunshows entirely this year. I just won't pay that even if I can't shoot at all. But I infact have quite a bit of 22LR cached, so the prices are merely a oddity.

I also have refused to buy any ammunition that I could identify as coming from Walmart at local gunshops. That really bugs me when they buy "retail" and sell for retail ++.

Things are starting to settle down a bit. I will probably attend a show or three later on this year if my disposalble $ are good. Otherwise, I pretty much limit myself to gunshops.

In the past, I seldom attended a gunshow that I didn't buy a gun at unless I specifically attended to buy accessories. On the common stuff, I tend to be rather rigid on what I will pay.

In the old days, I used to buy a quite a few Colt D-frame stocks if the price was right. Prices today are simply scary high. Guess I need to inventory what I have and sell a few things.
 
Yep, going to the gun shows these days for ammo is a joke.

Last November I was picking up ammo at cheap prices. Now I regret not buying more 9mm, 22lr, and 223.

Good thing is that guns are slowly coming back down in price.
 
Salesperson at wallyworld guncounter said that they get ammo in first thing most mornings, and the same crew is in line to buy it. Limit of 3 boxes, but it all goes. Same guys there each morning.
 
*NOVA* said:
"...fewer shooters at the range."

This has been my obseravtion as well. I have an all day unlimited membership at my range, so it pays to go for a day, take your time and make very shot count. I will not take my son to the range anytime soon as lately all he does is point the gun in the target's general direction and pull the trigger fast as he can. Told him next tme he does that he can buy his own ammo!

Gun shows around here in Northern Virginia are still huge far as I can tell. I stopped going but when I drive by I see long lines of folks waiting to get in.
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Well, I have to change what I said, because, much to my surpise, the lines were NOT long last weekend when The Nation's Gun Show was hosted at the Dulles Expo Hall in Chantilly, VA. There were, however, long lines for Reloading Supplies and Ammo.
 
Stevie-Ray said:
Well, my buddy and I went to the gun show yesterday ..... What I wasn't prepared for was the prices. But the ammunition!:eek: I was horrified to see .22LR Remington GB 525 round bulk packs for $99.95. Single 50 round boxes of cheap crappy .22LR going for 9 bucks each. A brick of T-bolts for $140. My buddy found a box of 9mm ball for $20. Good thing too, because most others wanted $40. Shotgun ammo has gone up a tad, but not much. Seemingly anything else was completely outrageous, and I refuse to be a party to keeping these prices artificially high.
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They probably got their ammo from Meijer. Read on I think you will find this interesting.

I was at Meijer this morning to get a few things for house. I looked in the sporting goods section as I normally do when I shop there and the ammo display case was empty as usual. The Meijer store clerk was there and said that someone came in just 15 minutes ago and cleaned out everything thing they had.

Does this mean that Meijer has been getting a regular supply of ammo? And someone has been coming in to scoop it all up and sell it on the internet on a regular basis??(probably since December when the shelves have been consistently empty).

Why mention Meijer? I saw the op was from Michigan where Meijer is based. Meijer is like a combination KMart and supermarket. They are a Midwest based regional chain of department stores. Maybe we all should take an early morning ride over to Meijer and see what they have for sale in the display case.
 
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Be patient, it will return. And remember the shops that gouged and stay away from them.

My LGS kept his prices the same throughout the scare and people certainly remember that.
 
There were tons of ammo at the Southaven MS show, about 1:30 last Sunday. The rifle ammo prices were about the same as one year ago
(normal gun show inflation), having been to numerous shows since '08. Even Swiss 7.5 was about .55/round.

What really shocked me the most was that almost no visitors were there. Maybe the recent Senate vote plus last Wednesday's action in Congress to delay the DHS' large ammo purchase finally filtered into the paranoid thinking of the sheep?:)

It was almost like a ghost town. There might have been one visitor for every 2-3 sellers. Never saw anything like it.
 
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Stop buying overpriced ammo. Just STOP!

If guy buys their three boxes of 9mm for $30 each (that's just a guess) at Walmart every day for two weeks running and sell all of them at a show for $75 each, they are encouraged to keep doing it. If they buy them for $30 each and can't resell them for a tidy profit, they will stop.
 
soonerfan85 said:
On the bright side, the tight supply and high cost of ammo locally translates to fewer shooters at the range, which translates to time to make much needed repairs to the range. Went out to shoot yesterday and had the range to myself. Gotta stay positive and look for those silver linings. :)
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Yes... and the bright side after some of them go out of business is that there will be less competition and they can raise prices!

Oh YAY!!!!
 
same here the same idiots buying wwb and then selling it or listing it in armslist for 2 or 3 times the retail cost, and again the same group of losers doing this. Glad I reload and cast, but getting tired of reading "hard to find" yea its hard to find because you buy it all up.
 
I'm thinking there must have been tens of thousands of people who, after the Sandy Hook nightmare, decided to buy their first gun. They were clueless what was going on about price gouging and had no ide what things used to cost before December 2012. I'm hoping word gets out and sooner or later so most folks new to guns will realize they need to stop paying these crooks inflated prices for ammo and guns.
 
Some of you folks should have listened to us "paranoid tin foil hat wearers" that invested in ammo back in '08.
Many of those that laughed then aren't laughing now.
 
I got my dad a stainless Rossi 92 in 357 at the Nations show the past weekend. Along with some old reloading stuff and odds and ends.

Cost me a my left nut to get in though.
Kid brother was excited he was only 6$ with the coupon lol. He watches Game of Thrones and took it upon himself to buy a giant sword.

Seller from MD asked to see my ID when I was buying 3 30rd AK mags. I paid in cash.
He said it was against MD law, and I said 'Welcome to Virginia.' Bought them anyways. Good deal. Explained he didnt have to and said it made him feel better if I ever used them in a crime, yet he retained no information about me nor did the mags have any ID that went back to him. What a loon.

Then theres always the suspicious Korean lady with all the M1 Garand and M1/M2 Carbine parts... Wonder where they are all coming from?
 
Went Sunday after lunch to the show in Bakersfield, CA. There were two volume ammo sellers, another smaller one, and several "casual" ones - about twice as many as six months ago. All had remaining stock, and prices have fallen off the insane levels of recent shows, at least for most vendors. I picked up 500rds new .45acp FMJ, 500rds reloaded 9mm FMJ, and 500rds of reloaded .45acp JHP. Prices were ~25% more than a year ago, but (obviously) worth it to me.
 
Went to a show in Dayton, OH a week or so ago...

There were more vendors that customers. there were many rows where I was the only customer in the row.

Ammo still high, but guns back to normal or cheaper for the most part.
 
That is one of the reasons I have been avoiding gunshows entirely this year. I just won't pay that even if I can't shoot at all. But I infact have quite a bit of 22LR cached, so the prices are merely a oddity.

I also have refused to buy any ammunition that I could identify as coming from Walmart at local gunshops. That really bugs me when they buy "retail" and sell for retail ++.

Things are starting to settle down a bit. I will probably attend a show or three later on this year if my disposalble $ are good. Otherwise, I pretty much limit myself to gunshops.

In the past, I seldom attended a gunshow that I didn't buy a gun at unless I specifically attended to buy accessories. On the common stuff, I tend to be rather rigid on what I will pay.

In the old days, I used to buy a quite a few Colt D-frame stocks if the price was right. Prices today are simply scary high. Guess I need to inventory what I have and sell a few things.
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When I worked for Sportsmans Warehouse in Reno, we had several of the LGS guys show up when we had ammo, try to clear it all out to put on their shelves at twice the price (if you were lucky). I always made a point to get in their face about it and shut their a$$e$ down. The one that I really enjoyed nailing was a guy that was using his wife's discount(she worked in the clothing dept.) then putting up for sale at the shop he worked at. I know a lot of my fellow employees would ask why it bugged me so much. And the reason is, I saw it as us losing customers. Customers that stopped coming in because we never had ammo because of these greedy jagoffs gobbling everything up and reselling it.
 
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