Now I wanna go to a gun show. When's the next one. I haven't been to one in years, but the last one I went to the guy selling the gun I wanted was a dink. I left and went to a local dealer to buy the same gun. And, yes the shop was busy that day.
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yep, a lot of "dinks" at the shows. if you get offended easy, cause a lot of the guys are salty to say the least, you best save the entrance fee to begin with and do it right the first time....the last one I went to the guy selling the gun I wanted was a dink. I left and went to a local dealer...
People go twice?? Wow. I don't think I've even ever done the "damn I shoulda bought that yesterday" race back. Anything that was at a decent price was bought by me or someone else on Saturday. Anything that's readily available and at a good price at a show is a unicorn or can be had similar-priced at gun shops across the state.
Next show is Foxboro this weekend, ~300 tables.Now I wanna go to a gun show. When's the next one. I haven't been to one in years, but the last one I went to the guy selling the gun I wanted was a dink. I left and went to a local dealer to buy the same gun. And, yes the shop was busy that day.
yep, a lot of "dinks" at the shows. if you get offended easy, cause a lot of the guys are salty to say the least, you best save the entrance fee to begin with and do it right the first time.
Also they seem to have the market corned on flatulence, I bet its about 60% of the unrepentant gun show cropdusters are above 78. The BO crew though is pretty well distributed by age, though.
I never woulda believed snowflakes would be found in a gun and knife place.
problem with that is not too many vendors want to hang around after they set up on friday. set up doors open @ 3, a lot of vendors take 3+ hours to unpack and get their displays in order. they don't want to hang around, they want to relax, sit someplace, grab dinner and head for wherever the're staying. vendors who need all the allotted time to set up, until 9, don't want people under foot. and i'm sure it's a safety issue with the house also. a lot of traffic involving a couple of fork trucks. it's non-stop. if you've ever seen the safe and ammo vendors moving in you'll know what i mean.
I guess I suck at trying to make my point... lol... Let's put it this way... say you buy 8 tables at the typical $75 rate, that's like $600 just to go to the show as a dealer. If they reduced the table rates or did something different, they'd get more dealers to actually fill these places. They ain't doing that at this point (to the best of my knowledge). Or they should have a tiered structure for fees and placement. The promoters are making a killing at these things and just punishing the
dealers and the attendees. One huge problem with these shows from the vendor POV is even if the attendance is shitty it still costs the dealer the same $ to set
up. So fees can be a serious deterrent if you end up with a shit show. If I ever won the lottery I'd probably start a small firm that competes with these pricks and start some new gun shows in MA and elsewhere. More people need to be lured back to the shows not treated like shit. It kinda reminds me of some bars and restaurants where they allow their quality to slide back a few clicks because they can get enough business off the blow in customers or seagulls etc that are content to settle for "good enough". The promoters just strut around acting surly because they know you don't have a choice to go somewhere else.
-Mike
I'd be up for a VIP ticket thats like $20 and gets you in early on Friday night after setup, like 7-9 pm. capped number of tickets. Or pay another $5 on top of
that and get in all 3 days. That kind of thing would never happen with these shitbird promoters though.
-Mike
Also they seem to have the market corned on flatulence, I bet its about 60% of the unrepentant gun show cropdusters are above 78. The BO crew though is pretty well distributed by age, though.
Sell the tickets online, show up with a ticket and get in no waiting line.
No china plastic piece of shit vendors.
I had a friend who, at one time, was looking into buying Patty DePetre's gun show operation. It's a tough way to make a buck. The table rentals basically pay for the venue. You make your money off the crowd that pays to get in. At $10 per person, it takes 2000 people to make $20,000. Out of that, you need to rent the tables (the venue will rent the tables and chairs to you), pay for security, insurance, advertising, helpers at the gate, room and board for yourself and your helpers, and probably a bunch of other stuff.
Nobody's getting rich doing it.
This idea would work a heck of a lot better in a free state. Just saying.I would not call it a "Gun Show", I'd call it a "Transfer Event". It would be:
~Held at my gun club (or your gun club. The more clubs the better.)
~Offer tables for free to members, non-members $15
~$5 entry ...
~Once you receive your table, you can display as many legal firearms as the table will hold.(cutting a 2x4 for support under the center of the table IS allowed.)
~Table and entry fees go to the Club.
Now here is the kicker:
~You can only sell as many firearms as you have left on your "annual allowance" of 4 private sales.
~It is YOUR responsibility to ensure all laws are followed, not the club or the organizers.
~It could be held the last week of December and the First week of January. (so, 8 potential sales/transfers in a two week period. Still YOUR responsibility to track your sales.)
Running a table at a gun show is no picnic either. I've shared a table at shows in the past, we made the fee back, but not a lot of profit.
This idea would work a heck of a lot better in a free state. Just saying.
Read what i wrote again.Lol, if its not profitable then why are they still doing it? Certainly not "for the hell of it" . I'm also going to guess that the attendance has a huge effect on
profit, and anyone that's been to enough of these things knows that there have been wild swings in attendance, probably by thousands of people on each
show. I won't dispute that setting one of these things up is probably a huge pain in the ass, but after they've done it a few dozen times, they probably have a
system that generally works. I think the one thing most of these promoters have f***ed up on is they haven't actually bothered to investigate why vendors and
attendees have largely been scared away.
-Mike
Read what i wrote again.
I didn't say they weren't making money. I said it's not easy money and nobody's getting rich.
Probably?The promoters are probably doing better than some of the dealers at these shows
Probably?
Some of?
Haven't seen "you must have an FFL" tableholder rules from any NH show promoters, nor in the Midwest, Texas, etc.
BATFE likes to harass anybody "...engaged in the business of dealing in firearms...", Obama's January 2016 Executive Action has firmed up the rules on when a private seller crosses the line and is engaged in the business...