Marlboro Today?

I don't speak for anyone but myself on this issue. My opinion is, that if, as you say, the promoter felt caught between a rock and a hard place, its the 4 dealers you've referred to here, that put her there. If they wish to pull out of future shows, because they want more gross margin dollars for their guns than Shooters Supply asks, they can pull out of future shows. The gun show promoter should have done the right thing and honored her agreement with Shooting Supply. Everyone here is always talking about rights this and rights that, but when these guys sign for contracted space, seal the deal with their check and the promoter refuses to honor her own deal, and returns their check and refuses them space, he has no rights. She's the one who invited him, "a dealer", to rent the space in the first place.
I have no loyalty to Shooters Supply. They don't even know me. That having been said, I spoke to a local dealer about a gun I'm interested in. This dealer has sold me thousands of dollars worth of guns, etc.. He said he could order the gun for me for $729.00. For chuckles, I called Shooters Supply, when I heard all of this noise about the gun show crap. They told me they had this gun in stock, that the local dealer said was hard to get and scarce. Shooters Supply offered me the same exact firearm for $639.00. What a dilemma. Let's see. Do I want to pay $729.00, or $639.00? Any consumer that doesn't want a gun shop, with price differences like this, at a gun show, has to have rocks in his head.
 
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Actually it said no Gun Dealer tables available, plenty of tables for parts and accessories.
This whining about pricing being the reason is just a lot of he said /she said bitching to promote one business
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Just my opinion, but for me, its totally that using political, or financial pressure, to eliminate honest competition, just plain sucks. You guys hate this in your government, but at gun shows, so that your price choices can be more manipulated upward, it's ok?
 
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I haven’t been to a gun show in MA in at least 10 years. I don’t understand why folks bother to go to MA gun show these days. Complete waste of time and money.

I went a LONG time ago. This was before I knew better, when "surplus" meant SURPLUS, and was priced like surplus. Now, from what I hear, there is no more true surplus at surplus prices. It might be a nice chance to handle different things all under one roof. I know in other trade shows, there is special "show pricing", which might make it worth it. Not so sure here.
 
I have been to a couple of Marlboro shows including the one a few months ago, someone asked me to go w them or I’d have skipped it. It was pretty bad. I can’t imagine why anyone would buy a new gun or ammo there unless they didn’t know better. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the collectible stuff because I’m not in that market, maybe they do well at that, who knows? Seems like the show is probably circling the drain unless there are enough uninformed people buying guns to keep them afloat. One would think a competitively priced vendor who might attract more serious gun buyers would be a plus, not a minus, but if they’re going to go with the overpriced garbage vendors maybe they know something I don’t? I would have no reason to ever go back to that show.
 
I went a LONG time ago. This was before I knew better, when "surplus" meant SURPLUS, and was priced like surplus. Now, from what I hear, there is no more true surplus at surplus prices. It might be a nice chance to handle different things all under one roof. I know in other trade shows, there is special "show pricing", which might make it worth it. Not so sure here.
I used to go to the Marlboro shows and sometimes the Big E, going back years ago. Indeed it was to look at different things, buy mags and accessories and meet up with friends.

But pricing has gone ridiculous at the shows (that's your "special show pricing", up, up and away) vs. brick & mortar stores, and I'm not really looking for anything so I don't bother to go anymore.
 
Wow,the beginning of the end ?

Usually Marlborough could be counted on as having a bunch of tables,hell,it's the only show I still go to...Not last year though,now not this year..I just look for knives anyway..all the good deals are snapped up by the other dealers before the doors even open.

Basically the Healeyban was like when the Hindenburg started to catch on fire, now we're at the point where it's crashing in the ground and that guy with the squeaky voice is talking about how horrible and terrible it is.... of course even without Healey ban I'm pretty sure these things would have started to die giving the poor management. Anyone that has worked these things has seen all the slippery shit the promoter has pulled over the years. In 2004 it was tolerable, post Obama era? lmao not so much anymore....
 
that guy with the squeaky voice is talking about how horrible and terrible it is....
hugemanatee_original.jpg
 
I don't speak for anyone but myself on this issue. My opinion is, that if, as you say, the promoter felt caught between a rock and a hard place, its the 4 dealers you've referred to here, that put her there. If they wish to pull out of future shows, because they want more gross margin dollars for their guns than Shooters Supply asks, they can pull out of future shows. The gun show promoter should have done the right thing and honored her agreement with Shooting Supply. Everyone here is always talking about rights this and rights that, but when these guys sign for contracted space, seal the deal with their check and the promoter refuses to honor her own deal, and returns their check and refuses them space, he has no rights. She's the one who invited him, "a dealer", to rent the space in the first place.
I have no loyalty to Shooters Supply. They don't even know me. That having been said, I spoke to a local dealer about a gun I'm interested in. This dealer has sold me thousands of dollars worth of guns, etc.. He said he could order the gun for me for $729.00. For chuckles, I called Shooters Supply, when I heard all of this noise about the gun show crap. They told me they had this gun in stock, that the local dealer said was hard to get and scarce. Shooters Supply offered me the same exact firearm for $639.00. What a dilemma. Let's see. Do I want to pay $729.00, or $639.00? Any consumer that doesn't want a gun shop, with price differences like this, at a gun show, has to have rocks in his head.


I am in complete agreement with everything M60 stated in this post. I want to add why I believe the promoter is being stupid to rescind the contract with Shooter's Supply. If we are all noticing that Massachusetts gun shows are slowly failing, attendance is dropping and less vendors are buying space each year (as demonstrated by ever expanding open space), I'll assume that the show promoter must see the same things. That must result in lower income from selling tables and lower income from attendee admission price. When the financial trajectory of any business starts heading down, you either change things up in an attempt to halt the slide or you just milk it out to it's eventual demise.

Clearly, any communication from the promoter to Shooters Supply that there is a lack of space for them is laughable.
 
I had gone to gun shows pretty regular for the past fifty years.
I'm pretty sure that last weekend's Marlboro show will have been the last.
The bad news is that it was just pathetic. The good news is that the show was so bad that I will not regret missing future shows.
 
The last time I went was to get 3 lowers engraved for SBRs. That made it worthwhile. I’d love to take my son, but having to pay full price for him and the lack of deals makes it not worthwhile from a budget perspective.
 
Serious question, is it normal to have 2 Marlboro shows so close together? They just had the big one a month or so ago and that was the usual, (like it or hate it there were numerous deals and items to be had).
Was the one this weekend from the same promoter or just a knock off
 
Serious question, is it normal to have 2 Marlboro shows so close together? They just had the big one a month or so ago and that was the usual, (like it or hate it there were numerous deals and items to be had).
Was the one this weekend from the same promoter or just a knock off
There is only one promoter doing gun shows in Mass!

Similar to your remark, the prior few years they held shows in Foxboro in Feb. and April . . . I agree too close together. No idea why. One in Spring and one in Fall makes more sense to me at the same venue. That is how Pat ran her shows in NH (different promoter).
 
Clearly, any communication from the promoter to Shooters Supply that there is a lack of space for them is laughable.
Imagine the hilarity if Shooters Supply had pretended they didn't get the refund letter, and showed up with a carload of merchandise.

(Loading up trucks'n'trailers is a whole lot of effort to yank chain, but...)

The promoter could have told the sleaze vendors that
the rejection letter and refund check got lost in the mail,
and they are "legally required" to allow SS to set up...but if Overprice.Com
wants to pack up and leave, that's on them - no refunds.
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It's been a few years since we've gone. (We've only ever done Wilmington
and Marlboro).

I've got all the 2018/2019 dates already entered in my personal calendar,
and I'm not deleting them as they go by, because it's far easier to slide the
2018 dates into 2020 once the next generation of the calendar is published.

Except that I'm convinced the whole business will collapse by then.
Hell, the promoter would have to put deposits on facilities to reserve them,
and at this rate they won't be able to justify them.

What could save the shows? Some radical regression in the legal landscape,
opening up more kinds of sales. Or another Obama-class buyers panic.

And even if one or the other happens some day,
it ain't happening before the Shriners want their reservation deposit.


Hell, going by the trip reports in this thread,
a vendor would be crazy to place their deposit,
lest that seed corn get eaten up running intervening shows.
I wonder if any vendors are attending only because they paid in advance?
 
My son and I went to the show back in January and I thought it was pretty lively-- a lot of beef jerky, a lot of knives, but he picked up a shotgun for less than what he was looking to pay so it was a win. I was surprised about all the jokes about BO posted here on the forum because I didn't encounter anything.

Now THIS show, we decide to go at the last minute, zero line to get in, much more space with less vendors but about six minutes in I'm looking at a 1911 and a guy slides up next to me that smells like he hasn't seen water or soap in about three years-- so I move along. A few tables down my son bolts with no explanation and then I get a whiff of the older normal looking guy who smells like he poured urine all over himself before coming in.

Despite these setbacks, there were several various Beretta models-- and I'm a fan. Last table we went to we check out a 92FS Compact (we both have full size 92s and so does my wife) and as he hands it back to the guy (B&K Sales-- great guys) I chime in "I'll take it!" Great price too.

So I'd call it a win of a show, even though it was sparse. I've been to B&K's shop and I've never seen this model there before. Now I'm still considering a 1911 down the road but I'm happy we went to the show.
 
I went to the show back in January ... was surprised about all the jokes about BO posted here on the forum because I didn't encounter anything.

Now THIS show, ... my son bolts with no explanation and then I get a whiff of the older normal looking guy who smells like he poured urine all over himself before coming in.
Nah, I'm sure he'd regard that as wasteful -
that stuff doesn't grow on trees, you know.
A few drops on his pulse points, and he's good to go.
 
A few weeks ago I went to a dozen or so table "gun show" in a Church storage room in Missouri and it blew the ever living doors off of this show. It's really depressing living here sometimes.

My friends and I went to this show. It was depressing. There was a ton of overpriced garbage and i'm not sure if I missed this booth at the last show but you can now buy polished rocks and amethyst to go along with a cheap Chinese knife and jerky. My friends went into the "vip" area to get ripped off on ammo. They wasted all the cash they had. They went to go get more from the atms. Atm's were down when we were there. So we left. At this point, the State needs to just come in and mercy kill gun shows.
 
I saw a post from Tombstone Traders to "Come on in, and see what we brought back from the show!".

Now, with the context from here, I'm not quite sure what that even means.
 
The promoter needs to drop the admission price on these things if they want more foot traffic. It has to be sub-$10 and you'll probably see twice the attendance.
 
The promoter needs to drop the admission price on these things if they want more foot traffic. It has to be sub-$10 and you'll probably see twice the attendance.
She's much too greedy.

I've heard that renting the tables pretty much pays for the fixed costs of running the show. The gate (us folks) are their profit. So the lower the table count, the more she decides to raise the gate fee. Eventually it will all collapse.
 
Well, if she's able to keep getting the fees from repeat vendors and she's making money, then I guess we won't see many/any changes.

When it all starts to fall apart, my guess is that she won't change anything and will just stop doing them.
 
I agree the entry fee is a little high, but $12 is not going to break me and it's a good way to browse around and spend an hour and a half. I'd rather walk through rows of overpriced guns, beef jerky and fancy rocks than sit through most Hollywood movies today. And in those aisles of drek I always find something in the hunt. It's easy to get negative about living in Mass and being a gun owner, but I think it's better to stay positive and pull together. I enjoy talking to many of the dealers and other enthusiasts I encounter during the show and I've never left (although I've only been to three of them) without having some fun.
 
After Location, its all about Selection Selection Selection- I didn't go to the Marlboro show, but the last Wilmington show I attended was another miserable disaster! The Healey-Ban certainly put a dent into the goodies we can buy, but ARs are not the only thing to get! I got in around noon on Saturday, (so maybe all the vendors sold out :rolleyes:) but I didn't see a selection of Henry rifles, Tavors, Sig rifles, CZ Scorpion or any of the Mass compliant rifles perfectly legal to purchase. Hell, where were the Hi-Point rifles? Throw a Mech-Tech upper on a table with 80% Polymer lower and watch it sell!

Vendors need to wake up and get competitive on prices, but also get products that we can actually buy and enjoy. Nothing is worse than leaving a gunshow with money in your pocket!
 
They need a barrel of .22, and you can take a handful for $3, or something like that. Make it interesting and fun.
 
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