Anyone else seen how abysmal they’ve become?
Granted, it’s been since ‘22 that I’ve been to one, but I visited the LR show at the fairgrounds first part or January and the Conway show today. The LR show was the littlest I’ve ever seen there, and Conway wasn’t much better.
Did find some shotshell primers there amongst the purses, chinese knives, baked goods, bedazzled cow skulls, and Gucciflaged AR’s though…

I would tend to agree. I think the personal collection "I know what I got" sellers, along with the dealers who added a 25% reverse discount and the guys with the come-hate-another-demographic-with-me pamphlets started killing them.

Then threads like this, with some justification, add to that. A lot of institutions probably ought to die, but I wonder what we're going to replace them with. I miss the good shows.

I mainly go to he Benton shows.

The only LR shows worth going to for the last 30 or 40 years have been the Ark Gun and Cartridge Collector Club shows and they may not be anymore.  I don't know if they are since I haven't been to a show of any sort in several years.

I've been a regular at several of the local shows. I don't go to buy as I got mine years ago, but I do look for deals where someone is cleaning their closet. I used to think the AZ shows were crap till I moved to NWA... IIRC, Y2k was about the end time of the decent shows. Dealer pricing seem to indicate they think I should fund their retirement plan. I don't know how they can afford to go to show after show and not sell anything - there must be a lot of suckers out there.
Recently, the show at the Benton County Fairgrounds decided to raise their admission to $12 - I told them it wasn't worth it and that I wouldn't be coming back- 1/4 of the tables were empty, so I guess some vendors felt the same way about their increase in table prices.  These days you can get anything you want cheaper price shopping the internet - why waste time, gas and money at a gunshow... unless you're flush with cash looking for autonomy.