Gun Show Economics 101

We had a gun show here this past weekend. I bought a two-day pass and did a double-take.

Components for handloading were there to be had, if you didn't mind paying $4.00 a hundred for primers (I minded that, so I didn't buy any), or $145.00 for a 4 lb. jug of Bullseye, Red Dot, Power Pistol, or Unique (all about the same price). Single pound plastic bottles of the same powders were $30 or so apiece.

Likewise, there was plenty of 7.62x39 milsurp ammo there - communist, Egyptian, Russian: $9.00 for a box of 20 rounds, or exponentially more if you wanted 500 or 1,000 rounds. Some of that ammo was Norinco steel-core stuff - bought back in the good old days when it was $100 or less for a 1,000-round crate. The story was pretty much the same for .223/5.56, 7.62 NATO, and even the old 7.62x54 Russian stuff. There was .22 LR ammo available, if a guy wasn't averse to paying $4-5 (or more!) per box of 50 rounds. Gone are the halcyon summers of our youth, when a 50-round box of .22 shorts cost 39 cents at Western Auto. Oh, and there were plenty of AKs up for grabs - starting at around $650. Lots of SKSs - low end of about $395. An assortment of ARs too - none for under $1,200.

Some bargains were tucked away here and there. I found a box of 100 Speer 9mm Mak "Gold Dot" HPs for $10. Last time I bought some of those at our local Sportsman's, they were $20. Brass was all over the place, price-wise. Some reasonable, some way out of line. One vendor had a zip-lock bag full of 200 rounds of boxer-primed milsurp (once-fired) .30-'06 brass for $18.00. That was a fair price, given the work involved in removing the primer crimps from each round prior to reloading.

The Idaho Automatic Weapons Collectors Association was there with their always-impressive display of machine and sub-machine gunnery. I asked one of the members if they'd had a run on their full-auto collectables, given all the hot air lately about where Mexican drug lords and Somali pirates get their "assault rifles". The fellow minding the display allowed that all the cartel buyers and Cap'n Jack Sparrows of the world must've gone to another show - he hadn't seen so much as one of those rascals nosing around their armament since the show opened.

Prices for most "normal" guns were inflated, but not as much as I'd expected. One seller had a sticker on some old Sharps carbine that gave the "Cash" price, and a "Trade" price about 25% higher. I had to laugh, knowing that the first thing he's going to do when some poor schmuck rolls up to the table with a potential trade in hand is whip out the Fjestad's Blue Book or a copy of Shotgun News and quote him the 40% value to apply towards the "Trade" price of the Sharps, then shake him down for the balance in cash, plus the extra 25%. Then, when the schmuck walks away with the Sharps, the seller puts a sticker on the trade gun of somewhere close to or slightly higher than the Blue Book lists for a "100%" gun. Usually, when that kind of "bargaining" takes place between a man and a woman, someone gets pregnant.

Lost in the mists of yesteryear are the gun shows wherein an authentic bipartisan trade might take place, one wherein the tablemeister and the schmuck each get a square deal, walk away with a smile of satisfaction, and feel as though the bargain struck between the two was fair. Nowadays, every swingin' Richard on the backside of a seller's table is in it for the money, pure and simple. If you haul a prime specimen of your prized and pampered hardware collection to a gun show hoping to trade for the gun of the month, beware: once you cross the threshhold, a curious metamorphosis takes place - whereafter the only difference between your like-new-in-the-box beauty and a sack of manure is the sack. The table pirates, however, have the Midas touch. Upon contact with the tabletop, each of their guns magically becomes virtually indistinguishable from 24K solid gold in terms of dollar cost per ounce. If you're out to raise money to pay the rent, be prepared to bend over and grab your ankles as a part of the negotiations - if you can find a seller who will even consider a cash deal for your gun. You're far better off selling your piece in the want ads section of your local birdcage liner. You can get alot closer to retail for it and still offer the buyer the kind of discount that each of you can live with.

So is all that price gouging upsetting? To me, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because I feel like we (the "gun culture") ought to be looking out for one another a little better than that. And no, because it's capitalism on display - supply and demand. In the end, nothing is worth any more than someone is willing to pay for it. I figured the 9mm Mak bullets were worth $10 to me. Others thought shelling out $1,200 for an AR was the thing to do. To each his own. I'd wager that a good number of those on the seller's side of the tables went home Sunday afternoon with most of their high-priced inventory in tow. And they'll head on down the road to the next show, stick higher price tags on what they didn't sell this past weekend, and sell 'em for whatever the market will bear.

At the end of the day, the best thing about gun shows is also the cheapest, and that's the lookin'. And there's always an afternoon's worth of lookin' at just about any gun show.