Marlboro 1/30-1/31

[Knicks]

Meanwhile, MFS has RPR's for $975. Yeah, the lowers were probably the most egregious example of gouging there, though certainly not the only one.

Except for BK who had them for 50

 

[Wadcutter]

... and someone came over to me and cautioned me that they weren't preban.

I'm imagining Maura Healey with a fake mustache whispering in your ear.

I got a couple of magazines and $2 worth of jerky. I find the jerky covers over the stink of the unwashed nicely.

Saw a couple good gun deals, but nothing on my list.

 

[Misfitmike63]

came across these 2 boxes and couldn't pass them up. being from Lowell, they're cool and got placed on my mantle. smaller box is unopened

 

[Rob Boudrie]

View attachment 157530

came across these 2 boxes and couldn't pass them up. being from Lowell, they're cool and got placed on my mantle. smaller box is unopened

I uses ctrl-alt-right arrow to flip the photo.

 

[drgrant]

Meanwhile, MFS has RPR's for $975. Yeah, the lowers were probably the most egregious example of gouging there, though certainly not the only one.

There is no "price gouging" nobody is forcing you to buy the product, and it's obvious there are alternatives. IMHO the reason the prices have gone overboard at these shows in the past 5+ years is because gun shows used to mostly be visited by hard core, old school enthusiasts. When 95% of the people walking through the door demand heavily discounted pricing, it will happen organically. The problem is this is no longer the gun show demographic. When the new, post 2008, post sandy hook, post-obamascare gun owner comes through the door, a percentage of these people are like "ZOMG MOAR GUNZZZ!!!! LOOK AT ALL THIS!!!" and they suck for the overprice and willingly pay too much, which inflates the prices. It also doesn't help, either, that there used to be way more fluff and margin built into things like guns and ammo, nowadays, those margins have narrowed. (10 years ago it was easier to make the customer happy on price and still make some money).

Using the lower thing as an example... an anderson lower is like $50. Let's say dealers get them for $45, with a generous markup thats like a $75 lower. They might sell, say 3 of them at a given show. That's $90 worth of profit. Or they could sell ONE lower to the drooling, slobbering conservative knitting circle email type idiot for $150, and they only had to keep one lower in stock, and only had to deal with the administrative overhead of doing one transfer at a busy gun show.

What option do you think the dealer is going to choose, every time? As long as "that guy" shows up during every show, he's gonna keep putting the $150 lower out on the table. It's literally that simple. Even if "That Guy" is only 10% of the people walking through the door at a gun show, that's more than enough to keep most vendors busy... and profitable. Also bear in mind selling guns or even lowers is rate limited. Every gun that gets sold is 5-15 minutes of administrative bullshit between telling someone how to fill out a 4473, calling NICS, doing MIRCS if its a whole gun, etc. So you gotta factor that in, too.

FWIW there are still deals to be had, but you gotta bring cash, and be polite and discreet about negotiating. If you're that guy that yells out in front of the whole booth about how you can get them for $50 online" the dealer is going to say "Good for you, sir, go buy it online then.".

If you're not up for negotiating and you're price sensitive, then you probably don't belong anywhere near a gun show. As enthusiasts we still visit these things but our expectations are a lot different than they were 10 years ago and in order to get what we want out of the show we have to "work the show" differently from a buyer's perspective. The gun shows of 2004-2005 etc are long gone and it's silly to think that they're ever coming back, given current political turmoil. We might see a big tamping of gun show prices with a GOP president that doesn't suck and maybe a 3-4 year tamping of nutbag and durka activity... but the odds of all that being true at once are probably worse than any of us on NES winning the powerball at this point.

-Mike

 

[Field and Felt]

anyone purchase the molded ear plugs there? how much for a pair?

I was next to one of them who looked like they specialized in just ear plugs and I heard them tell someone they were $70 and something. I bought some a few years ago from another vendor who goes to the shows Hearing Protection Specialists www.GetEars.com and have been very happy with them. (This is the man and woman who have the good looking pit bull with them at all the shows) They were $40 and something back them but with inflation their prices now might be in line with the other folks.

 

[Kits Limited Sean]

They're friggan AK mags.... good luck proving provenance unless they're plastic and have mold clocks on them....

The mags in question were definitely NOT preban in any way, shape or form. Croatian marked or the gray parkerized S. Korean mags are very easy to prove that they are postban as they are only a few years old. What is funny is that the table that Slayeica visited (I was the guy he mentioned in his post) had high prices on the post ban stuff, but a better price on the Chinese prebans than you get regularly in most free states.

I do agree for the most part though, as long as they are milsurps.

 

[bigbravehog]

Good show, good weather Long line at 9AM moved quickly, only 30 minutes. Picked up a Shield 9 for $375. Next time will pick up an AR for $600.

 

[fox2boost]

a10 arms and ammo in southwick ma. awesome guys they are a laser engraver and a gun store. worth the trip and they will take care of you.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

Croatian marked or the gray parkerized S. Korean mags are very easy to prove that they are postban as they are only a few years old.

Keep mind that there is "everyone on the internet knows it" sort of proof and court acceptable proof including things like sworn statements from the Croatian manufacturer.

 

[drgrant]

Keep mind that there is "everyone on the internet knows it" sort of proof and court acceptable proof including things like sworn statements from the Croatian manufacturer.

Rob, don't talk too much sense, now...