Posted: 4/25/2009 5:34:43 PM EDT
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I worked the RK Gunshow today in Smyrna. Crowd was WAY small, no doubt due to the wonderful weather outside.
I saw a couple of Double Star stripped lowers for $149 or so, not too bad. Saw a couple of AR's in the $1,100 range, again not too bad. None were what *I* would want as they virtually all still had the tall permanent front sight asy on them. I saw >one< upper that was for sale that was completely flat, rear & front sights. I didn't get to see a price on it. Semi handguns were plentiful, all kinds of hi-cap Glocks, XDm's, Sig's. Not too many H&K's, only 4-5 that I personally saw. The usual collection of Fudd rifles & shotties. I failed to see a single one of those get sold, either via FFL or private sale. I saw only ONE dealer all day long with customers filling out 4473's. Not to say there weren't any others, just that I only saw one. Probably didn't hurt that the clerks were two hot chicks doing the paperwork for this dealer. 
I didn't price any hi-cap mags, but they seemed to be more plentiful & a hair bit cheaper than the last show. Could be the panic buying is slowing? 
The BEST part of the thing was, I got to see a SUPER HOT chick that I was friends with back in college. She was working a table as hired help for one of those "rain gutter" companies. She moved to FL about 9 years ago & I lost ALL contact with her. When she walked by, all traffic stopped to watch her go by & she came up & hugged ME! 
We're going out for drinks Monday night. 
Yes, yes, I know the drill. Pics will follow next week as I didn't have my camera today at the show. They're banned there, ya know. 
We did sell a few TFA memberships & got a LOT of folks to start thinking about joining when we said we were the "anti-Naifeh" association. 
I didn't see any bulk ammo packages for sale but the usual 20 or 50rd packages were available. I didn't check pricing, sorry. 
Sunday will be a BUYER'S market for the non-black guns, IMO. If you're thinking about something, this would be a good time to seriously dicker for one, IMO. |
| I was there around noon today. You are dead on about the crowd. It was SLOW compared to the norm. I did score some small pistol primers and a few mags. I might be back tomorrow to see if the prices drop a little. I was mainly looking for reloading supplies. No Varget to be found, nor any small rifle primers. Military stuff was plentiful and priced fair (O3s, M1, M1 carbines). Lots of oddball surplus stuff too like carcanos, enfields, arisakas. |
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The one gun that I saw that was WAY overpriced was the Romanian AK in 22 lr that was priced at $799! The dealer go a little upset when I started laughing hard and pointing it out to two of my friends that were with me. I look at it this way, if he didn't want to be embarresed he should NOT have priced it that high.
Can we all tell I am tired of all this price gouging BS? Before someone jumps on me know that I have been on BOTH sides of the table and am all for dealers making money, but raping folks does nothing but hurt us all in the long run. |
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1) Define 'price-gouging'. In a free market system there is no such thing. If you don't like the price, you are perfectly free to buy the same item elsewhere, or even not buy at all.
2) How much profit margin is too much? If I mark something up 10% am I 'raping' my customers (provided I could somehow force them to buy)? How about 25%? 50%? 100%? Your local WalMart has varying markups ranging from 1% to 300%. Do you feel like WalMart is raping you? 3) Your local retailer has an item you want to buy. He has ONE of this item. He knows it is an item with high demand. There is zero chance of his getting any more. He paid $100 for it. He has a customer who is willing to pay $500. Why shouldn't he accept the $500 offer? Did he 'rape' the customer? |
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I totally agree. |
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+1000 |
I was seeing similar price drops at a recent show in Knoxville. AK's could be had for around $500 and some AR's had fallen to around $1250. Te biggest problem I had was with ammo pricing. I saw Stingers for sale at $27 a box and Lightnings of $6 a box. I didn't see any 223, 308, 9mm or 45 that was reasonably priced. Wolf 223 was over $10 a box of 20. I was looking for some surplus 7.62x25 and found 72 round boxes for $29 a box  . The usual reloading supplies dealer wasn't there which is odd because he is ALWAYS there. I will say that rifle accessory prices seem to be getting higher.
Dolomite |