Bozos at Gun Shows

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TonyPoulos

New member
Had a bad experience yesterday at a show. I had a HS2000 9mm with me as a potential trade and was talking with an exhibitor who expressed some interest. He had a nice new pre-ban Egyptian Maadi with laminated thumb hole stock for $345.00.

As he started looking through his gun price book, some bozo exhibitor wandered by and stuck his nose where it didn't belong. The conversation went like this:

Bozo: "How much did you pay for it?"
Me: "$278.00 plus transfer fees."
Bozo: "They're going for $199.00."

After that, the exhibitor with the Maadi lost interest.

I ended up buying a S&W 1006 to build on my 10mm collection. But I really wanted that Maadi.

Anyone else have a gun show horror story to tell?

Tony :mad:
 
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CharlieTuna

New member
I don't have a horror story. The gun shows I went to always were crawling with police(and rightly so). But there is always at least one guy wearing a trench coat, in the summer, its like 95 degrees out and its hotter inside because the A/C isn't working, lifting the left flap of the coat and 'trying out' various shotguns. You know slipping them in and out underneath the coat. I can't help but laugh at these characters while the attention of 4 officers has been drawn eyeing the guy. What an idiot.
 
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PreserveFreedom

Guest
Due to the Bozo factor, and the fact that you were trying to make a deal, I think I would have ignored him or added a bit to the price. Another solution would have been to reply, "This is an A to B conversation. Kindly C your way out of it." :D
 
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KSFreeman

New member
I don't understand CharlieTuna's post? Why is it right to have police crawling all over gun shows? Are gun shows illegal where you are? Are you in New Jersey or Kalifornia?

And the point about the coat and the shotgun? Did he point the weapon at anyone? Is it illegal to carry long guns where you are?

No gun show horror stories, but like Mr. Poulos I hate the buttinskis too. If I do any dealing I call a sidebar and go somewhere else. The problem is they are almost always wrong like the guys that ramble on about how machine guns are illegal (in Indiana) or that short barrelled shotguns spray a boulder of destruction.

My favorites were the "ceramic Glock 7" buyers of the early `90s. These morons would hold forth on how they would go through metal detectors at airports and how they already had two. I would smile and nod and say "I see you saw Die Hard 2 as well."

Firearms attract a lot of people who know absolutely nothing about firearms. Teach them.
 
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C.R.Sam

New member
Had a nice bombardiers clock at my table. Guy lookin at it thumped it back down in the table. Didn't realize till a bit later that he had broken the ballance staff. Then a previous looker came back with cash in hand to buy it......no longer functional and several hundred bucks didn't go in my pocket.

Nuther show charactor expounds very loudly for bout a half hour that round balls far more accurate than conical bullets. Drove people away from our area. My partner in that table was in the top ten in the world in ISU pistol. I had to take a munchie break cause nothing short of physical violence would drive the loon away. Came close to all of us gettin thrown out that day.

Far more good experiences than bad from both sides of the tables tho.

Sam
 
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TonyPoulos

New member
Sam, there sure are 2 sides to the coin. I roll my eyes when people pick up guns and start working the actions and waving them around right in front of the "please don't handle" sign.

My wish is that this only happen to those buttinski, wise-ass, bozo exhibitors. May they be descended upon by hordes of sticky fingered tire kickers.

Tony
 
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Tamara

Moderator Emeritus
Gun stores seem to have a gravity well that pulls odd ducks in: "This is my granddaddy's Winchester Model Twelve. They're antiques, now worth about $4,000" or "You can't shoot Silvertips in a Glock. No lead bullets; only Gold Dots or Hydrashoks" or (my favourite one ever) the guy that walked in with a scope, sans rifle, handed it to my coworker and asked "Can you bore-sight this?". Without missing a beat, my coworker squinted through it and said, completely poker-faced, "Looks pretty much spot-on to me, sir".

Gun Shows have this same exact gravity well, but multiplied several hundred times over.

Oh, and: Moved to General Discussion.:)
 
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44rugerfan

New member
My three-year old picked up a book with a bear on the cover. He has a thing for bears. The book is covered in plastic. There is no "do not handle" sign. The book is covered in plastic. My kid says, "Look at the BEAR!" At which point the dealer comes over and reaches to grab the book back, and says, "Don't...." at this point he sees looking at him and stops just short. He says, "...well, let's be careful, OK?" So of course I spent some time (with the dealer hovering close by) looking at the bear with my son. Needless to say I spent my money on a different table.
 
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CharlieTuna

New member
KSFreeman-
I am in Illinois just south of Chicago. I haven't been to a gun show where the police weren't there, both inside and outside. As for thinking the police belong there well, the types of people that went(to the admitted few gun shows I've been to) to those shows at least 60% had absolutely no good intentions. I am not trying to stereotype or anything but those people I know I would not want to have anything more deadly than maybe a small stick. After about 4 shows (in different places) I just stopped going altogether. For the few gems that you can find at a gun show there was always plenty of people to screw it up.
 
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george miller

New member
stories

i was asking 500 for an ingram i had.a table i passed also had 1 on their table only they were asking 650 for theirs.the guy saw me and asked me how much i wanted for mine.i said 500.he reached under the table and got out a book,looked it up and offered me 300 bucks."said"oh these arent made anymore and the clips are scarce..."i pointed out to him that he had 650 on his and he just smirked. later,i saw a used 10/22. guy wanted 175 bucks for it.it was about 75%.it came with 1 used and abused butler creek 25 round clip.he said the clips are no longer made an he wouldnt sell the gun without the clips.got me one of those books now so i can get a steal like those %@#@$! do.
 
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VictorLouis

New member
Those !@#$% Flayderman's Guides

If I see a dealer reaching for that, I conclude our conversation right then. There are some areas where certain guns, or types of guns, command more than they may in another part of the country. YOUR account has to take the prize, George.:D What a putz.:(
 
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Gonzo_308

New member
This happened to a friend working a table next to mine.

We were discussing lunch and weren't paying as much attention as we should have.

This idjit standing in front of the 5X7 card stating "PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE HANDLING FIREARMS"starts disassembling my friends NIB matchgrade HBAR to show off for his sweetie.

I think she was REAL impressed with how stupid he looked after the LOUD, LONG, epletive filled dressing down he recieved.
 
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rhedley

New member
Gun Cowboy

At my last show I had a 3rd gen Colt Sa .45 on the table for $1200, this idiot, about 45 years old, picked it up and did the finger spin with a stupid grin on his face. WE TALKED !
[Gun is now sold]
 
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gdhillard

New member
My recent shoping trip to a show in Barre, VT, scored me a nice model 60. It also showed me some of the most powerful threats to gun ownership in America. I am refering to the skin head/trench coat set, who were indeed trying to dangle shot guns from their arm pits, and the guy in full fatigues and boots, who kept replaying some fantasy of mass slaughter with every firearm he picked up. It's easy to blast liberals for their anti gun stance, but it's time we took a look at how some folks present the issue of gun ownership to the public. Gary
 
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Don Gwinn

Staff Emeritus
Charlie, I've only been to one show in Chicagoland, but I must say I didn't see anybody I thought was "up to no good." I go to several shows a year down here around Springfield, Decatur and St. Louis and I don't recall seeing any visitors I thought had "bad intentions"--and though I do see a lot of cops, they're awfully friendly cops. I have seen exhibitors who embarassed me, though, notably the t-shirt vendor who always has to have a couple of Klan shirts prominently displayed.
The bottom line is that I suspect you and I saw a lot of the same kind of people, only you assigned more sinister traits than I did. Either that, or Chicago really is as terrible a place as I always thought. :eek: Just consider the possibility that those people you assign bad thoughts to may not be having them. You shouldn't be able to tell by looking. 60%? It just sounds a little excessive.
(BTW, guys, I have a bald head and I wear black boots....don't shoot! Maybe I'll get a Pink Pistols shirt before the next show so people don't have to worry as much. :) )
 
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www.glock19.com

New member
Gun stores seem to have a gravity well that pulls odd ducks in: "This is my granddaddy's Winchester Model Twelve. They're antiques, now worth about $4,000" or "You can't shoot Silvertips in a Glock. No lead bullets; only Gold Dots or Hydrashoks" or (my favourite one ever) the guy that walked in with a scope, sans rifle, handed it to my coworker and asked "Can you bore-sight this?". Without missing a beat, my coworker squinted through it and said, completely poker-faced, "Looks pretty much spot-on to me, sir".
Click to expand...

At my last show I had a 3rd gen Colt Sa .45 on the table for $1200, this idiot, about 45 years old, picked it up and did the finger spin with a stupid grin on his face. WE TALKED !
[Gun is now sold]
Click to expand...


starts disassembling my friends NIB matchgrade HBAR to show off for his sweetie.
Click to expand...

Do you guys all work at my store?
Damn I have had all the exact things happen before many times.
The last one really pi$$es me off .Every retard who was a supply clerk or a latrine cleaner has to rip apart my Ars then they usally can't get them back together :mad:
 
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Jamie Young

New member
I think it was at the last gunshow I went to a Guy picked up $2000 M1A with a fancy stock on it and put a huge scratch about 8 inches long on it. Needless to say right in front of the gun was a sign that said DO NOT HANDLE FIREARMES WITHOUT PERMISSION! The Vendor flipped out but didn't make the guy pay for it.
 
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CharlieTuna

New member
A couple of those shows were the Cook County shows. I'm not saying anything bad about the police presence, except that there was a lot of it. When the show was near me(I think it has since moved to a horse racing track or something) it would pick up a lot of people from the Harvey and Chicago Heights areas. Areas noted for being friendly to drug dealers and gang types(not to mention some amount of corruption). In these situations I felt quite in the minority. Mind you I am joe blow average white guy(5'10", 165#). The police for the most part were obviously in better shape and quite friendly when approached or asked a question. But it was also hard not to notice (except for the persons doing the act) a few of them always checking the person doing what I described earlier.
 
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