Lilred's rant of the week...gun shows

[Rapier]

Lilred,
Ain't it the living truth? I did shows for a while (put them on). That was at the Shrine Club in Ft Walton, Rocky. Then I did a couple of years at the fair grounds. We had a great time, guns and gun related items only, display tables were free. Then Jim and I got into traveling the circuit with my Rugers and Jim's Ohio Rifles and we left the show production scene. After a few years I came back to the local shows and they had been hijacked by commercial promoters. It was a disaster of which I wanted no part.

Truth is that the local shows that were being run by local collectors or clubs have all been taken over by pros. Nothing is free, so the collectors do not display. All you have is black guns and jewlery. Junque.... that is high priced junk, crowds the isles. The pros are their own worst enemy, they grub money, refuse to give and the vendor quality goes down, customer volume goes down and it spirals out of control.

Unless you are 60 or so I doubt if you have ever gone to a show and seen the stuff of magazines and mesuems, like you saw years ago. It was what made a gun show a gun show.

I ride 12 hours each way for the Tulsa show and have several tables. Or I have had for the past 3 or 4 years. If you have never been, go over and take a look.
Ed