geophysicishooter
Member
This past weekend there was a gunshow at the local county fair grounds. I didn't have any plans to make any firearms purchases but I did have some spare .40 ammo to sell (as some may remember from my thread a couple weeks ago Sell it? or Stash it? A Seller's Market) as well as some bills to pay. So I thought I might try my luck peddling it out of the back of my Rodeo, which I did. I showed up to the show early, before the doors opened, chatted with a few people in the parking lot (i'd find out later most of them were dealers), got myself set up and waited for the fish to start biting. I greeted everyone that came within speaking distance with a friendly Texas-style "good mornin'". It was slow going at first but people were friendly and would walk up and check out what I had before heading into the main show.
Most everyone I talked to thought the price I wanted ($15/box) was fair and not outrageous. Some thought it was a bit high while others thought I could probably get more for it. I thought I was well placed in the market where price was concerned. I got a couple of nibbles as the morning wore on and turned down a couple of low-ball (what I thought were lowball) offers. I even had the cash in hand in one instance and gave it back because the guy wanted me to come down 20% off my asking price and knew I could do better..
So eventualy my ship came in. A guy to whom I had spoken earlier came out of the show and saw that I was still there. So he came by and asked if I had come down on my price and I told him I just turned down an offer for $12 per box (which I had) and he decided he would take two boxes off of me. Couldn't take 'em all but he took two. Awesome! I had also brought (kinda by accident) a little Fobus paddle holster that I wanted to sell also and about the time money and ammo had changed hands between myself and the previously mentioned gentleman, another man drove up and asked about the holster. I told him I'd take $10 for it. He agreed that was a good price. So I made another sale..
Now I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Got a couple new dollars in my pocket and I had gotten my price.. Then a few minutes later another fellow is ambling through the parking lot. He made his way over and asked what I had. I told him, told him what I wanted for it and asked if he was interested. Indeed he was and told me he'd take the whole lot and didn't even ask if I'd come down on the price (how nice..). So he produced the cheddar, I boxed up his ammo (taking my name and address off the box, of course), we shook hands and went our separate ways. I even threw in a rock sample of fine-grained gypsum (see username) when he mentioned his nephew collected rocks..
So now I'm out of trade bait and with a new pocket full of $20's, I decided I'd go inside.. Told myself I wasn't going to buy anything.. (yeah right...) So in I go. I have the guy at the door check my sidearm and had him put the zip-tie on it and off into the abyss I wander.
There were the commensurate tables of over-priced reloads, jerky of all kinds, western-themed quilts and even a table hocking Sham-wows..
rolleyes. It wasn't a huge show but there were some decent deals to be had. One guy had a falling block action 10 guage shotgun that he said had been converted from a rifle (an example of which I had never seen before. any comments??) for which he only wanted $600 (seemed a little low for an arm mfgr'd in the 1870's but that era isn't my strongsuit). It had some brass tacking ornamentation on the foregrip and on the stock which he wanted to attribute to Indian ownership but I suggested to him that most indians would have stripped it of all unneccessary metalic pieces and taken the steel cap off the buttstock to reduce wieght and for use elsewhere (like for arrow heads or knives).
I found a guy who had a giant box of CTproducts AR mags for $20 per. I got three of them from him for $50 which I thought was a good deal. He wanted to sell me 10 for $15 each which seems like a decent buy but I didn't need 10..
The best part of the day (besides putting cash in my pocket) was running across the people I had spoken to in the parking lot inside the show. They all asked if I had sold out and had gotten my price. I had and told them so. Most seemed pleased that I was able to sell my stuff. One wished he had bought what I had when he had the chance and told me so as we were looking over a table of what we both agreed was over-priced ammo..
It was a fun day and a great exercise in free market economics for me.
Moral of the story and lesson for the day: God Bless America and the Free Market!
Most everyone I talked to thought the price I wanted ($15/box) was fair and not outrageous. Some thought it was a bit high while others thought I could probably get more for it. I thought I was well placed in the market where price was concerned. I got a couple of nibbles as the morning wore on and turned down a couple of low-ball (what I thought were lowball) offers. I even had the cash in hand in one instance and gave it back because the guy wanted me to come down 20% off my asking price and knew I could do better..
So eventualy my ship came in. A guy to whom I had spoken earlier came out of the show and saw that I was still there. So he came by and asked if I had come down on my price and I told him I just turned down an offer for $12 per box (which I had) and he decided he would take two boxes off of me. Couldn't take 'em all but he took two. Awesome! I had also brought (kinda by accident) a little Fobus paddle holster that I wanted to sell also and about the time money and ammo had changed hands between myself and the previously mentioned gentleman, another man drove up and asked about the holster. I told him I'd take $10 for it. He agreed that was a good price. So I made another sale..
Now I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Got a couple new dollars in my pocket and I had gotten my price.. Then a few minutes later another fellow is ambling through the parking lot. He made his way over and asked what I had. I told him, told him what I wanted for it and asked if he was interested. Indeed he was and told me he'd take the whole lot and didn't even ask if I'd come down on the price (how nice..). So he produced the cheddar, I boxed up his ammo (taking my name and address off the box, of course), we shook hands and went our separate ways. I even threw in a rock sample of fine-grained gypsum (see username) when he mentioned his nephew collected rocks..
So now I'm out of trade bait and with a new pocket full of $20's, I decided I'd go inside.. Told myself I wasn't going to buy anything.. (yeah right...) So in I go. I have the guy at the door check my sidearm and had him put the zip-tie on it and off into the abyss I wander.
There were the commensurate tables of over-priced reloads, jerky of all kinds, western-themed quilts and even a table hocking Sham-wows..
rolleyes. It wasn't a huge show but there were some decent deals to be had. One guy had a falling block action 10 guage shotgun that he said had been converted from a rifle (an example of which I had never seen before. any comments??) for which he only wanted $600 (seemed a little low for an arm mfgr'd in the 1870's but that era isn't my strongsuit). It had some brass tacking ornamentation on the foregrip and on the stock which he wanted to attribute to Indian ownership but I suggested to him that most indians would have stripped it of all unneccessary metalic pieces and taken the steel cap off the buttstock to reduce wieght and for use elsewhere (like for arrow heads or knives).I found a guy who had a giant box of CTproducts AR mags for $20 per. I got three of them from him for $50 which I thought was a good deal. He wanted to sell me 10 for $15 each which seems like a decent buy but I didn't need 10..
The best part of the day (besides putting cash in my pocket) was running across the people I had spoken to in the parking lot inside the show. They all asked if I had sold out and had gotten my price. I had and told them so. Most seemed pleased that I was able to sell my stuff. One wished he had bought what I had when he had the chance and told me so as we were looking over a table of what we both agreed was over-priced ammo..
It was a fun day and a great exercise in free market economics for me.
Moral of the story and lesson for the day: God Bless America and the Free Market!
