Silverado Gun Shows suspending the Howard Co. Gun Show

Sirex · Jan 8, 2019

Cites lack of attendance and vendor participation. I assume Maryland's anti gun culture also plays a part.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156318183618264&id=313798033263&fs=0&focus_composer=0

pilot25 · Jan 8, 2019

Sirex said:
Cites lack of attendance and vendor participation. I assume Maryland's anti gun culture also plays a part.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156318183618264&id=313798033263&fs=0&focus_composer=0

Author states "oppressive MD gun laws and internet sales." The latter is affecting every sector of retail sales.

Vendors need to lower prices and accept lower margins requiring more volume for the same revenue. Clearly they won't. This along with the reasons stated by the author, the Maryland gun show is fading away.

Red1917 · Jan 8, 2019

That’s really disappointing, I liked that show and always tried to go if I could make it, I hope it comes back

Odarlin1 · Jan 8, 2019

I understand Frank is making a business decision. Though I wish he didn't have to do this. Once he does, they have won another round.

davsco · Jan 8, 2019

heard the winchester va and one other show in va also cancelled for 2019, not sure if related. the winchester va show was nothing compared to chantilly so no big loss there.

buellsfurn · Jan 8, 2019

Odarlin1 said:
I understand Frank is making a business decision. Though I wish he didn't have to do this. Once he does, they have won another round.

yep another stake to the heart

knovotny · Jan 8, 2019

Bummer! I hope they don't cancel any other dates!

pilot25 · Jan 8, 2019

At the last Chantilly show I heard two vendors discussing they wanted less shows per year. Hope that doesn't happen but clearly slow sales are not just in MD. I go to the Chantilly show a lot and have to say the prices are stupid high on just about everything except Pmags

I was looking for a specific CZ and all of them were $50 higher than IPs on here sell them for.

Sirex · Jan 8, 2019

I have gone to a few of the Howard Co and Frederick shows, but they are often timed at a bad time for me. Both my kids have birthdays in December, plus Christmas, then the wife's birthday in January. The well is dry right now. I had previously gotten some ammo there.

Art3 · Jan 8, 2019

That sucks...one of my favorite MD shows :sad20:

Is it just that one (Feb), or all of them at HOCO? I can see how Feb would not be a lucrative time...that's when (probably not just for me

) the cash is gone and CC balances from the Holidays are still nauseatingly high :eek:

I've walked out with a rifle just about every other time I've gone...and never left empty handed.

I never thought Pikesville or Carroll County would go away...so I guess it's certainly possible :tdown:

RepublicOfFranklin · Jan 9, 2019

That’s a real bummer. I’ve always enjoyed the HoCo shows, found some good deals there, had some fun chats. Real shame.

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Rangeman · Jan 9, 2019

Long ago I went to the Shows at MC Fairgrounds, and PG County (Greenbelt?)
Sounds like what we have left will be scheduled less often.

Biggfoot44 · Jan 9, 2019

Wow ! You've definitely been around for a while , if you went to shows at the Greenbelt NG Armory . The heydays were the '60s and '70s, dropping off in early '80s . One or two one off shows circa 1990 .

StantonCree · Jan 9, 2019

Sadly thanks to shop distances, transfer procedures, dry up of cheap milsurp, and gouging the gun show model is a flawed model in these changing times.

Due to the internet most vendors aren’t offering product i can’t already get cheaper and sent to my front door, without an entrance fee. There are a couple great shops in there and damn if Lou wasn’t an amazing addition but a lot of shops aren’t snagging the trade in lots anymore.

Frank needs to develop a new model but i am aware it ain’t that easy. Maybe make shows smaller but more specific or each show geared toward a certain shooter? Less overall profit due to size scale but less show related costs. I don’t really know, I’m not great a business but i do know why the shows are failing.

From a younger perspective, i never got the says of cheap milsurp so most of my gun show experience has been Chinese or overpriced AR Stuff so guys like me find the shows disheartening

Before anyone starts telling me to start my own business......no i won’t and my opinion is worth exactly what your paying for it

jollymon · Jan 9, 2019

I remember Franks very first show at Fredrick , The guys at Atlantic Guns told me about it and that they were going to be there , That one and a few others there were packed .
Then I moved away for a job and never was visiting when there was a show , But since I took this temporary contract in DC. I've been to a couple of his shows and they are not want they once were , I can understand his reason's , Hope it's only temporary .

pilot25 · Jan 9, 2019

jollymon said:
Hope it's only temporary

If the Dems take over in 2020 it'll be packed again.

chooks9 · Jan 9, 2019

StantonCree said:
Sadly thanks to shop distances, transfer procedures, dry up of cheap milsurp, and gouging the gun show model is a flawed model in these changing times.

Due to the internet most vendors aren’t offering product i can’t already get cheaper and sent to my front door, without an entrance fee. There are a couple great shops in there and damn if Lou wasn’t an amazing addition but a lot of shops aren’t snagging the trade in lots anymore.

Frank needs to develop a new model but i am aware it ain’t that easy. Maybe make shows smaller but more specific or each show geared toward a certain shooter? Less overall profit due to size scale but less show related costs. I don’t really know, I’m not great a business but i do know why the shows are failing.

From a younger perspective, i never got the says of cheap milsurp so most of my gun show experience has been Chinese or overpriced AR Stuff so guys like me find the shows disheartening

Before anyone starts telling me to start my own business......no i won’t and my opinion is worth exactly what your paying for it

I think all of this is a big part of why shows aren't doing as well. If I need ammo, I am going to look online first (and without paying an entrance fee). If I do go to a show and buy ammo, it's usually older milsurp stuff in bulk or some random old stock, I rarely buy common calibers at shows because it's cheaper at Walmart or my local shop. Same goes for accessories.

I used to go to a ton of shows to find milsurp stuff, but it's pretty much all dried up or verboten from importation/being destroyed because infringement/laws. Now when I see milsurp at shows, prices range from okay at best, to sticker shock, to absolutely insane at times, IMO. I refuse to pay $350+ for a bubba'd Arisaka/Mauser or $500+ for a beaten Lee-Enfield when I can look online or at my local shop/forum and find an unaltered example of the same rifle for the same price (Many of these vendors will be more than willing to offer you less than $200 for the same Lee Enfield, though...)

If I want a new gun, I go to a trusted shop because most of the time, you get a better deal in a shop (and you don't have to pay an entrance fee). I have seen many used guns at shows that have prices that rival new guns, or if you attempt to trade something, they assess that your item is worth less than 50 percent of what they would sell it for. I get that vendors have to make money and so on, but telling me that my shotgun, which commonly sells for $600+ in shops, is only worth $200 tops towards a trade seems ridiculous to me as I know what I have.

Rangeman · Jan 9, 2019

Biggfoot44 said:
Wow ! You've definitely been around for a while , if you went to shows at the Greenbelt NG Armory . The heydays were the '60s and '70s, dropping off in early '80s . One or two one off shows circa 1990 .

Could it have been Upper Marlboro Arena I went early 90's?. I remember their was an upstairs and looking down. I will have to ask the guy who drove us too.
You know, our wives like to go shopping with their friends and buy pocket book #20, and we like going to the Gun Shows to acquire things

I ordered some firearms with my C&R, but at the show I could pick out my favorite with nice wood too

bbrown · Jan 9, 2019

Rangeman said:
Could it have been Upper Marlboro Arena I went early 90's?. I remember their was an upstairs and looking down. I will have to ask the guy who drove us too.

Yeah, probably the Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro. I frequented that one and also the MoCo fairgrounds and Pikesville armory. Got my first M1 carbine at Pikesville, and even had an offer to buy it as I walked out.

For a few months there was even a show at the National Guard armory on Cherry Hill Road near DarCars.

East2West · Jan 9, 2019

A shame. Not the biggest shows but always a decent selection and was nice to at least walk through and window shop.

I imagine our current federal government make up has a part to play. People aren't in as much of a rush to buy guns and gun parts as they were 10 years ago.

Silverado Gun Shows suspending the Howard Co. Gun Show

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