Frederick Gun Show Today

If it wasn’t for South Carroll Sporting Goods it would’ve had zero collectible firearms.

If You needed plate carriers, over priced ammo, doomsday food supplies, collectible coins or apple butter it’s the place to go....

It’s so depressing compared to the gun show I used to beg my parents to drag me to growing up....

Don’t worry in case you missed it, the same experience will be available at Howard County in two weeks. Lol

Don't criticize Maryland shows around here or you'll bring out the knives

I'll support the Maryland shows more when they're actually gun shows again. Nowadays it's a shop or two and the balance is a swap meet

Bertfish said:

Don't criticize Maryland shows around here or you'll bring out the knives

I'll support the Maryland shows more when they're actually gun shows again. Nowadays it's a shop or two and the balance is a swap meet

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I’m just disappointed the MACA show was canceled and we were forced into this.

Yes losing the MACA show was a hit for the year.

I am genuinely curious why the MD shows do not have more vendors which are actually gun shops. We don't have as dense a population of FFLs as PA I'm sure but there are plenty in the state. What are the show promoters failing to do that is keeping the shops away? Or what is this state doing (beyond the COVID ********) to make it unappealing to the shops to attend? If anything.

Bertfish said:

YI am genuinely curious why the MD shows do not have more vendors which are actually gun shops. We don't have as dense a population of FFLs as PA I'm sure but there are plenty in the state. What are the show promoters failing to do that is keeping the shops away? Or what is this state doing (beyond the COVID ********) to make it unappealing to the shops to attend? If anything.

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Maybe the shops are staying away of their own volition because there is no need. Said differently, they don't need to leave home to sell their inventory. I honestly don't know but it's a consideration.

mpollan1 said:

Maybe the shops are staying away of their own volition because there is no need. Said differently, they don't need to leave home to sell their inventory. I honestly don't know but it's a consideration.

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I would agree except the MD shows have been sliding for a while

Bertfish said:

I would agree except the MD shows have been sliding for a while

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As has Maryland at large so why not the shows

Bertfish said:

I am genuinely curious why the MD shows do not have more vendors which are actually gun shops. We don't have as dense a population of FFLs as PA I'm sure but there are plenty in the state. What are the show promoters failing to do that is keeping the shops away? Or what is this state doing (beyond the COVID ********) to make it unappealing to the shops to attend? If anything.

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I’ll offer a few things to your questions.

For a gun shop to setup at a show means they have to either close, as South Carroll Sporting Goods did today, or have more staffing to keep the shop open on show days. And remember that involves three days for a two-day show. Then ask what are they gaining? Are they going to make enough money to cover the extra expenses of doing a show? Don’t forget it costs money to setup at a show besides table fees. There is transportation, food, displays, and that is only a partial list. This is a constant no matter what is going on in the world.

Now let’s look at the present. The eight-hundred-pound gorilla is inventory. Most gun shops are struggling to obtain enough inventory to sell. If they don’t have enough to sell at their shops, they certainly aren’t going to have enough to sell at a gun show. See above about coving expenses.

Then there is the chicken and the egg. If people don’t go to shows in Maryland, the vendors won’t make enough to do the shows. Then the vendors stop doing to the shows and it only spirals down. With the exception of normal magazines and certain reloading components most of what is available at out of state shows is available for sale at Maryland shows.

Unfortunately, what needs to happen is a combination of more people going to Maryland shows and buying stuff and more vendors being at the shows for people to buy from. How to make that happen is anyone’s guess.

Scrounger has it correct IMO
The gun shops that have inventory have lines to get in right now.
Its kind of a flea market right now.
I like the flea markets though

Supply is low and demand is high. Going to a Gun show will not change that

If only I, ah never mind.

My LGS, Southern Gun Works out of Suffolk, Va, closes up to do shows. He only has 1 full time employee with him, and as of Tuesday, they were going to Fredericksburg this week.

SmokeEaterPilot said:

I’m just disappointed the MACA show was canceled and we were forced into this.

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Yeah, second year in a row with no MACA. It's killing me. I miss the monthly meetings too.

One other point to mention. I remember getting some of my best stuff at MD shows from out of state vendors who came down to wealthy MD. Over the years MDs gun laws have made it a losing proposition for them. Just not worth the hassle. Throw in the lack of C&R imports and here you are. I'm old enough to have seen the glory days of the second golden age of C&R in the early 90s when you never knew what would show up on a table from one show to the next. It really was eye opening. I wish I could fire up the flux capacitor and take younger collectors back 25 years in time so they could experience what the word "plenty" really means. I have a memory of standing at a table looking at Egyptian FN49s selling for $300, French MAS 36 arsenal refurbs selling for $105, French MAS 49/56s, also arsenal refurbs w. sling, cleaning kit, spare parts, manual selling for $300. Imagine only being able to afford one (I picked the FN49). Crazy times. It's sad that they inherited a world without all that excitement, the buzz in the waiting line and then the room. Agree that the MACA show is the only MD event left with that same experience.

mawkie said:

One other point to mention. I remember getting some of my best stuff at MD shows from out of state vendors who came down to wealthy MD. Over the years MDs gun laws have made it a losing proposition for them. Just not worth the hassle. Throw in the lack of C&R imports and here you are. I'm old enough to have seen the glory days of the second golden age of C&R in the early 90s when you never knew what would show up on a table from one show to the next. It really was eye opening. I wish I could fire up the flux capacitor and take younger collectors back 25 years in time so they could experience what the word "plenty" really means. I have a memory of standing at a table looking at Egyptian FN49s selling for $300, French MAS 36 arsenal refurbs selling for $105, French MAS 49/56s, also arsenal refurbs w. sling, cleaning kit, spare parts, manual selling for $300. Imagine only being able to afford one (I picked the FN49). Crazy times. It's sad that they inherited a world without all that excitement, the buzz in the waiting line and then the room. Agree that the MACA show is the only MD event left with that same experience.

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Don't forget the $49 m44's and $75 revolvers, Oh my fav, unissued Yugos...