Ridiculous table at Gun Show

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XxWINxX94

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Hello folks,
Went to one of my local gun shows today just as I always do in search for bargains. Ended up trading a Cimarron Uberti for a Belgian Browning A-5, but thats another story.

As I browsed the aisles of tables I came upon a table that had 3 people behind it. A middle-aged man, and 2 sons, 1 about 16 years old and one about 10. Anyway, I was looking at what they had for sale, and I read a typed "sign" they had taped to the gun rack they were displaying merchandise on. It said:

"This is the (name) family gun table, we are an FFL dealer in (Town name), Illinois. A service charge of $5 is required to look at any of our inventory, but will be credited towards the purchase of any firearm."

Now before everybody shakes in their boots, in Illinois you have to present a FOID card to the seller/guy behind the table to pick up/look at guns (its the law).

So basically, This guy was going to charge people $5, just to pick up his stuff and look/handle it yourself. If I got charged for that all the time I would be broke! And the guy didn't even have that many guns, either. I feel bad for the guy if his business is hurting for $, but charging someone $5 to pick up something seems a little insulting and ridiculous, IMO. I mean, I paid $5 to get into the show.

I've been going to shows all around my area and have never seen anything like this.

Has anyone ever seen a dealer/seller try to charge somebody for handeling a gun at a gun show?
 
If he had really rare or desirable guns, I would imagine the $5 charge would be a deterrent to all but the most interested in his wares. I've never seen anything like this, but a charge like that would pique my curiosity. I would come and look over the table just to see what was so special. :D
 
St charles show?

If so that place is ridiculous always trying to sell mosins for $200 and sks' for $400, im talking run of the mill stuff, nothing special.
 
I think I'd ask him if I owed him $10 because I had already looked at two of his guns. If he said no then I'd stand there and stare at every gun he had to try to determine why they were worth $5 a peek??? How silly can he be?
 
I would come and look over the table just to see what was so special
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I didn't see that much special about it. There was a couple 70's Smith & Wessons, an older Winchester .22, and a couple ARs and a newer Sig rifle. I didn't even bother to check the prices.

St charles show?
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Nope, this was Wheaton/DuPage County Fairgrounds, normally a better show. But it still has the $200 Mosins and $400 SKS's, don't you worry my friend!

I think I'd ask him if I owed him $10 because I had already looked at two of his guns
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Well, it was only to handle a gun he had on the table, not 'look at' with your eyes. But its still seems stupid.
 
Never seen or heard of that before. I hope it doesn't become the norm. The closest thing I have come to that is when I was at a gun store I asked if I could look at a german ww2 schmiser[?]. He politley said no. I don't blame him either.
 
Pay $5 to fondle a weapon at your GS or fondle all you want at Gander Mountain for nothing. What a contrast......:)
 
Now if he'd been selling cheeseburgers and then would give you a cheeseburger if you decided not to buy a gun......and fries and a drink of course
 
Of course nobody even tries to understand where he's coming from. Have any of you been behind the table?

What usually happens is 95% are hummers and thumbers with no real desire to purchase. It's as if it was the mall and you get to mess with any of the merchandise as you please, and whether you take the time to put it back exactly as you found it doesn't even come to mind.

Add in the thieves who team play distracting the table vendor while the innocent looking sidekick walks off with a Colt SAA, Walther PPK, or Benchmade - which happened at the last local show. Not every small town exhibitor has cable locks to chain down his goods, the cost would blow any chance of profit.

It's a known characteristic of human juveniles to pick things up, and if extremely young, put them in their mouth. ADULTS don't need to handle a firearm because they have enough experience to know 1) if it's metal, it's cold and heavy 2) wooden parts smell like wood, 3) it belongs to somebody else, ASK.

Unfortunately, today's generation has to suffer with over 50 years of vendor experience at gunshows, which means Ryker mounts to hide all the pilferable stuff under glass, show cases, cable locks, and signs that are telling customers their behavior has gone from bad to worse.

Cash talks, BS walks, is another sign I've seen displayed prominently at shows since the '70s, if 21 year old+ undisciplined children unaccompanied by a responsible adult keep coming to shows, you'll see even more of it.

LOOK, DON'T TOUCH. IF YOU'RE REALLY INTERESTED, YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT. You just need to check condition and negotiate.

"Wow, that's cool, what the heck is that!" while dragging it off the table isn't a good thing. Does the car lot leave the keys in and the door open?

It's not all about you.
 
Tirod as to your comments: You observations are all very valid, but if you don't want to put up with the stuff DON'T GET INTO THE RETAIL BUSINESS. Everything you mentioned is an issue with any retail situation. If you haven't the temperament to deal with that then don't go into retail.

TX expat - Shame on you! Problem is that I think I've been in some of those places, but not in many years.
 
LOL @ TX expat.

In all fairness, I don't think a gunshow is the place to sell your stuff if you don't want a bunch of "tire-kickers" playing with it. The only thing that doesn't get picked up and put back on the table, covered in fingerprints and germs, is the beef jerky. (If you're lucky.)

Auction Sites/ Sale Forums might be a better idea for them. It has way more visitors on any given day than the average gunshow. Of course, they will have to give up the lucrative $5 viewing fee BUT making an actual sale would help cover the loss.
 
The fact that yo have to present a card to handle a firearm tells me that Illinois is another state that I will never live in.
 
I've never, in all of my (many) years seen any vendor want to charge a person for handling their merchandise. However, I always ask the table owner if I want to pick up a gun to check it more closely. And I've never had my request denied. The fact that you know what you're looking for doesn't mean that that revolver locks up tightly, that the action of that semi is smooth, etc. Again, common courtesy usually will take care of the matter.
 
The car lot does not leave the keys in the cars, but they dont charge for a test drive either. Heck, some of the local dealers run specials where they will give you a $25 gift card to Lowes or some other stores if you will test drive a car. I couldn't imagine paying $5 to look at a gun, or just about any other non perishable item. I tried on a new suit jacket the other day...for free, imagine that.
 
If the guy had any new guns at all, I can understand the charge. People right and left are picking up pieces, racking the action, dry-firing it, etc.

In the course of a two-day weekend you could easily have several hundred people kicking the tires on a new gun. By the time they are done, the guy might have to sell it as used, especially if someone accidentally puts a scratch or ding in the gun!
 
Well, the poster does list Location: Crook County, Illinois.

Five dollars to look at a gun at a gun show is weird to me.

Some of the local dealers run specials where they will give you a $25 gift card to Lowes or some other stores if you will test drive a car.
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If the local Class 3 dealer would give me a $25 gift card to Widener's for ammo, I would love to test drive some of his Title II items. :)
 
Last weekend I stopped in at my LGS just to browse and get a feel for the kind of guns my wife wants. Looking to get a handgun, kinda want it to be something we both like. Anyway, we handled about half a dozen handguns, BS'ed with the other customers and the shop owner. Had a good time, killed about half an hour and went home, purchasing nothing. What did this do for me? Other than gain the knowledge that neither my wife nor I like the Beretta 92Fs, and she likes the most expensive guns in the shop, not much. But it did help continue the rapport I've built with the store owner, which may help in the long run.

Now re: the gun show table, if he was the only one with a handling fee, that table is gonna do very little business. If he was going with tha majority, no problem. Still, I wouldn't be going back to that particular show any time soon.
 
Would have made more sense to put it either under glass, or cable locks. The cable locks can't be that expensive. The $5 fee probably made his afternoon a lonely one.
 
@ Tirod - Are you serious? He's, albeit poorly, hoping to sell something. So yes, it is all about me. Me being the consumer, not me per se. It's most certainly not all about him, that's for sure.

If the "hummers and thumbers" bother him then he's in the wrong place because that's exactly why most folks go to gun shows. That's the whole point of them. If the cost or conditions of doing business are too much for him, then he's in the wrong line of work, because I can all but guarantee you that nobody in their right mind would accept such a childish ultimatum. Now if he was dealing in rare antiquities, then I would certainly see some reasons to 'qualify' buyers, but I got no indication from the OP that this was the case. If he truly feels that all those conditions are such negatives, then he really shouldn't pay money for a table and go sit and waste his time, since that's all he's really doing.

And it's funny that you would mention a car lot, since it really does nothing to prove your point. Actually yes, they do leave plenty of cars and trucks open, just walk inside the big building with all the salesmen in it and you'll find plenty of cars with the doors open and the keys will probably be there too... And even if you are just looking and tell them you have absolutely no intention of buying anything that day, they'll still happily jump all over the chance to let you take one for a free test drive. No $5 'test drive fee' or anything like that. It's called the cost of doing business.

"if you are really interested, you already know what you are looking at"... How exactly would you recommend that you get the "know" part down without doing comparison shopping, which would include actually touching the product, or various products, in an effort do decide which one suits you.

@ danprkr & InkEd - You guys have some dirty minds. I was talking about the petting zoo that I took my kids to. What did you think I was referring to :D
 
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