Gunshow-What to put on My Table?

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hobbeeman

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It has been October since I last had a table at a gunshow. I have one this weekend but I am not sure what to put on my table. I usually put some of the good deals that I have found in the past year and have enjoyed for awhile, but no good deals are around much anymore. I am not at all sure that I could replace what I have at any price, right now, as I am not seeing many used guns at the pawn shops, mostly new guns.

I typically would purchase something that caught my interest, study it, shoot it, and sell it if I didn't want to make it a permanent part of my collection. I pretty much sold everything that fit that description last October, with few if any new purchases since.

I am toying with the idea of just putting something out with an outrageous price to see how crazy people are... (I know some think we gunshow people do this already :neener:) I don't like this idea because I like the thrill of the deal, talking with others and having everyone happy at the end of a transaction. (Last October I had 7 such transactions in one day...'til I had nothing left to sell or trade!)

I am also considering just putting out some for show, with "Not For Sale" on them, just to have some conversation.

What do you think? Would you be put-off or angry with my suggestions?
 
Conversation pieces are acceptable. Obscene prices are ignorant. Price market value or a bit higher. Overpricing gives gun shows a bad name and is just plain ignorant.

Reloading supplies, lowers, anything black rifle will sell.
 
I think it would be weird to get a table and then not sell stuff. I'm not sure what renting a table costs but it sounds like you could spend the money better elsewhere. Don't sell stuff you can't replace that you think you'll want somewhere down the line.
 
I don't get "put off" by outrageously high prices, but they make me think that either the seller isn't a serious merchant (which may well be the case, and so what?) or is trying to play someone at the show for a sucker. I try not to be that sucker, and I've done pretty well over the years, but prices have increased over the past year and I've had to pay more than I ever would have considered paying a decade ago for guns I consider very nice but not knockouts, just because I wanted them. I try to do trades with dealers I know in their stores these days, and it's been a long time since I bought a gun at a show because of the prices. Basically the shows around here in Maine stink compared to what I got used to a decade ago in Maryland, ironically an anti-gun state. I love to haggle, but I'd never seriously offer a price half of what the seller is asking. You may get a lot of rolled eyes, you may get a fair number of smirks. It's just possible you'll get some verbal abuse by frustrated buyers (not from me). Unless you really think it might go for a very high price, why subject yourself to that?
 
I don't really have to pay anything for the table, it is a show sponsored by one of the clubs that I am in. As for the conversation pieces, I a have a Lyungman, and an FR8, and I actually have a gun that I traded for a year ago that I am putting together for a display on what to look for to NOT get SUCKERED...It looks fine across a table, but has many problems when inspected closely.
I really just enjoy being at the show, and having a table to stash my purchases under and a chair to sit in.
 
I just had a thought, maybe I should put together a display of "Guns of the World", with some of mine set out grouped by country of origin, Swedes over here, Spanish over there...Russians, etc?
 
That can't hurt. Some folks bring guns to a local annual show to display, under glass. Really nice vintage Brownings, in one person's case(s). I think that's a nice thing to do, while others don't get it.
 
if its not for sale.... don't put it out there....

if you priced it too high.... don't put it out there.....

to me, a gun show is for buyers and sellers to buy and sell..... if I only wanted to just view and discuss guns, I would go to a gun museum...

thats my 2 cents worth....
 
if its not for sale.... don't put it out there....

if you priced it too high.... don't put it out there.....

to me, a gun show is for buyers and sellers to buy and sell..... if I only wanted to just view and discuss guns, I would go to a gun museum...

thats my 2 cents worth....
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+1 on this. I go to a gun show to buy stuff.

I'm avoiding any future shows (except for Knob Creek in about six weeks) due to the ridiculous prices I saw at the Kenny Woods show in Lexington last weekend. Norinco SKS's for 450. WASR's at 1,049.

Nuh-uh.
 
I would be interested in buying or trading. Maybe I should just put things out for that purpose. I don't want to give up anything that is under scrutiny by HR45 without replacing it.
 
It's called a "gun show" not a gun sale. If you wanna display stuff, I say have at it. Not everything has to be for sale. On a side note however, everything I own IS for sale, for the right price:)
 
Gun Shows are for men what shopping is for women, a social get together. Time to meet people, buy, sell, educate yourself about firearms, and interact with a shared hobby. It can also be a political meeting place for those with similar views.

I always found the best shows were the ones with exceptional collections rarely seen in public.....be that custom creations or one of a kind historical pieces.

Try putting out some "Table Bait".....unusual firearm, interesting photograph, free candy, or a conversation piece with what you wish to sell. I put out this squirrel once, wasn't a person in the whole show who didn't stop to make a comment. Women and kids went to it like a magnet. Reloading components are hot right now, try loading your table with primers....should be able to get any price you ask.

ReadingSquirrel.gif
 
Self defense weapons are the hottest guns right NOW!!...and ammo.
Have at least 50 Mossberg 500 Persuader 12 ga. (8 shot capacity)
some AR15 rifles, .357mag revolvers, .40S&W and .45acp auto pistols, a couple FALs,.... long sideburns and bushy eyebrows moving up/down real fast :evil:-sell sell sell sell sell sell sell sell
 
After years of going to shows, I know the vendors that go just to show off what they got and have no interest in selling anything. Yeah, it is social for them and often then have wads of cash ready to pick something that some poor guy wants to sell desprately enough for next to nothing.

If you want to go to show off your collection, by all means, it is still a free country dispite the intentions of His Royal Highness the Obomination and his court Jester Belosi.

You just won't see me looking your stuff over, or inquiring about anything on your table - let alone paying any ridicules prices.
 
My humble opinion is that if you just want to display it, then display it. You can do what you want, I wouldnt be mad eitherway, but at shows I generally do not spend much time at the overpriced tables. So, I think you will have more, better conversations over reasonably priced items or over items you label, "Just for show".

Have fun!
 
Cancel your table and get as much of your money back from the gun show owner shark that you can. We both know you're not going to come out of it all with a profit so why bother? Entertainment? If you insist on wasting your weekend sitting in a chair watching desperate people walk by, then at least put a sign on your table telling people of the outrageous price for a table at the show. Something like this would be helpful:

gunshowsdv0.jpg
 
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I would put out a display since you don't have anything to sell or just skip the show.
 
hobbeeman-

I would not be put off by your suggestions.

I would just identify you as another of those gun show tables with nothing for me.

Also I would identify you as one of those tables that have ruined gun shows over the past few years.

Thanks to people like you who present an "outrageous price" on a gun, or who put a "not for sale" sign on a gun, there is no wonder folks don't go to gun shows any more.
 
I am toying with the idea of just putting something out with an outrageous price to see how crazy people are... (I know some think we gunshow people do this already
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If your gunshows in Texas are anything like the Michigan gunshows then you better double whatever price you already thought was outrageous just to bring it closer to the usual gunshow prices. Kinda like $75 to $100 for a base model Ka-Bar that sells for less than $50 anywhere else. Or $450 for a very beat up SKS with a cheapo NCstar scope and a busted Ramco stock.
 
I would not be put off by your suggestions.

I would just identify you as another of those gun show tables with nothing for me.
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Pretty much.

I go to gun shows to buy stuff. It's not a social event for me. If a table doesn't have stuff for sale, or the prices are clearly out of line, I'll just keep walking and pay you no mind.
 
I'm not particularly fond of the sellers who have a lot of overpriced crap or dislplay only stuff on their tables either. I'm not a very "social" person, and get sick and tired of having to wade past all the rude people who are having conversations in front of guns that I'm interested in looking at/buying, when these people are there to do nothing but run their jaws. I won't handle or ask a bunch of questions about a gun unless I have the funds or a sincere desire to purchase it, as I don't want to waste other people's time. I would expect seller's to do the same by not putting stuff out just for show and tell.

Sellers who do this sort of thing are kinda like the dirty old men you see at the park who get a pomeranian, or some other cute little dog and walk it around young women hoping that the cuteness of their dog will lure in girls. Not that there's anything wrong with that.....I guess, but putting out conversation pieces with no intent to sell for a reasonable price just seems like something that only a needy, attention-craving person would do.
 
I am of the same opinion as coosbay. If you don't have anything to sell or are planning on charging comical prices and have some poor uninformed sap pay it then let someone who actually has inventory they want to move use the space, unless it's just a "show and tell" event, and not an actual sale. I don't know anybody who goes to a gun show simply to socialize (but then again I'm sure there are those folks...who don't have access to THR).
 
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