Are gunshows overpriced or can you find good prices on mags and stuff at them>

Dude i found the MRE table at the gunshow this past Saturday. $5 a pop for 2016s. Grabbed a bunch. Further down their table they had 20rd usgi mags. Some were in good shape others were rough as fuck. They wanted $20 each. Seeing how i just handed the man $50 for his MREs i figured id ask if he'd do 2 mags for $20.
>nah man cant do that
I just told him good luck with those, thanks for the MREs.
Also
>$450 for makarovs
>$550 for a "russian" sks that was clearly norinco
>$800 century AKs
Although i did see a thoroughly used highpoint for $50. Wish i would have picked it up

You gotta wade through the shit but I almost always find something good

you can find the odd deal on mags, accessories, stuff like that, i can't ever recall seeing a gun i couldn't buy for less elsewhere. if you need something really specific like a part numrich is sold out of or a rare mag they are good places to look.

You just know that hi point has seen some unspeakable horrors. Been shoved into the ass crack of a fat herpes riddled junkie wife in the back of their ratty trailer. Who the hell puts a lot of rounds through a hi point?

I got a mossberg 500 with pistolgrip/stock for $175 at a VA gunshow so yeah there are some good deals here and there

I picked up a West German kevlar vest from '89 for $25, resale is $120 and rising. It is honestly a crap shoot, and better to go than not.

99% of the time youll find nothing
but that 1% of the time you find something amazing that makes it worth going to every single show

I once bought a decrepitly old man's former bullseye 1911. Crown city arms cast frame and slide, colt nat match barrel, bomar sight rib, dangerously light trigger. $400. Love it. Also bought a .308 converted MAS-36 that wasn't headspaced right and blew a casing up. $300.

Also sold a hi-point carbine in one of the beretta clone stocks to a guy in a moving car in the parking lot of one once.

Total fucking crapshoot based entirely on your ability to haggle. The best tables for guns will ALWAYS be the ones that some old homies communally rent, but NOT the ones that dudes without FFLs get to try and scalp. Actual real FFLs almost universally markup everything preshow.

I got a non RC K98k (parts matching, bolt mismatched to gun but bolt parts match) for $600 2 years ago. they are around 1k most everywhere else.

Every now and then you find a good deal almost always ONLY on milsurp, surp parts and random non gun odds and ends. for anything else online is the way to go

BBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTT

>Today on things that never happened, a NEET leaves his house!

You will rarely if ever find a good deal on a gun at a gun show. Ammo maybe, but then it's very hard for them to beat online pricing for bulk stuff like .22LR, 7.62x39, and 5.56x45.

The real value is also maybe being able to buy some odds and ends that you can inspect in person before putting coin down. Stuff like a P38 can opener, USGI surplus ammo cans (though again, Ammo can man online has really good pricing on these, shipping included, and their customer service is excellent - they replaced one of my dented and fucked up 7.62 caliber cans at no charge, and included an extra one as an apology), a first aid kit - that's stuff I've picked up as a gun show. There's also the jerky, which is worth it for the novelty value alone - especially exotic meats like alligator, venison, buffalo, ostrich, etc.

If you go just to entertain yourself for the day, see a bunch of different firearms, it'll be pretty cool. But most of what is on sale is junk and/or overpriced.

>$2800 for a Danish M1 Garand in a fucking US laminate stock
>$400 for a Mossberg 42M .22 rifle missing the aperture sights
>$850 for a new production M16A1 upper, no bolt/charging handle, and a shitty non chrome lined 1 in 9 twist barrel

These are some of the more egregious deals I've seen. My experience buying ammo was also terrible - the 7.62 Danish ammo turned out to be DAG German surplus (nothing wrong with that, that was good), the 5.56 "British Radway Green" turned out to be UAE manufactured AD ammo from a lot infamous for pierced primers, and the .223 "Lake City" turned out to be fucking reloads. I will NEVER purchase ammo from a gun show again, at least ammo not sealed in factory packaging.

Honestly, if it comes to getting deals, I'd rather just buy from high feedback sellers on Gunbroker, Arfcom, AKFiles, and Gunboards. But gun shows are still ok when it comes to just looking around.

I think it depends where you are. In AZ they are mostly a ripoff except for maybe ammo. Once in a while you'll find a good deal or maybe a fair price on something less common, but for the most part it's $700 Anderson AR's and $650 beat to shit 91/30's from Fudd FFL's who "know what they have." I make it a point to tell people that they can save a ton of money online when some fudd is trying to rape them on price, even if they're a fudd themselves.

That's not impossible

idk dude, i was at the one in Tucson last weekend and got a PSO 4x24 scope for $210 and 840rds of 7.62x25 for $150

You will never get a better deal on new firearms at a gun show than you can find online. What you CAN find at gun shows if you have the knowledge are good deals--sometimes even excellent deals--on used firearms, with the additional bonus of actually being able to physically inspect the gun that you're buying. Some of my best recent finds include a Mle 1935a with its original finish for less than $500, a refinished Mulhouse Manurhin in excellent mechanical condition for ~$900, and a 95% condition Ruger GP100 for $325.

Ocasionally, I found a romanian dong handguard for $15.

My method is don’t by anything you are looking for Untill I’ve seen the whole show. Saved a lot of money that way

Majority of tables are gunshops selling their marked up stock "on sale" and retards selling their private collection crap for literally 3 times their worth. Love the milsurp tables though, as I usually find good deals on gear.

Also, if you don't have the library of firearm and firearm accessories value in your head, the internet on your phone does. Just search up what the going rate for what your looking at is before you haggle with the boomers who "know what they got!"

I've seen hillbillies trying to sell their tact'd out century arms AKs that have been dragged through the dirt for 2300. You could literally walk over to the store tables and buy one brand new and throw on all the tactical parts from the parts bins for less than half that price.

I've also seen the same table at every gunshow for the past 2 years trying to sell the same beat up mosin nagants for 400-600 bucks. Some real autistic old dudes at these places just hoping to lure in a sucker.

I'll beat the dead horse like everyone here and just say there are sometimes awesome deals, just have to find/haggled them.

Let's see. If you paid 5$ per MRE then maybe he paid 2$. You bought 10, so by now his profit was 30. The mags could have cost him 10$ each, so you'd earn him nothing on those. He also paid for transport to the show, plus table rent. How generous do you feel your offer was?

This to the max

You'll often find another table selling the same stuff as another table for a bit cheaper, or if they're the same price tell table A that table B is selling X and if they'd cut you a deal to beat the competition. They'll try to make you feel like shit for haggling but don't feel bad, there's some shady sales types at these shows who will run people dry if given the chance.

>You see this gun?
>I'd like to discuss the price
>that guy over there is charging the same as you for it
>I could buy it from him
>but I like you
>I think you deserve my business
>so how about we make a deal?

That's how you get a good deal at gunshows.

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Guy selling walks up to an ammo table I just _just_ asked about for my hens teeth ammo and I got 5 50rnd boxes of .218 Bee for $20/each from hm and a partial for free! So yeah, a deal.

That entire table had like 15 old beat up pistols all for under $150. You know there is some real nigga shit going on there
If that guy is expecting to make money buying old ass 20rd mags for $10 each then hes fucking retarded. I offered $20 expecting to hear $30 come back, instead i got a straight no. He wasn't going to move at all on them. I wasn't an ass hole about it, just gave him a sarcastic good luck for being a shitty businessman and moved on with myself.

Mags are pretty cheap in my experience, parts if you're willing to buy no box Chinesium

Ive been to many gun shows in many states. And I have to say, they are all shit. However, the last few gun shows I went to were in California and they had some of the best deals I've ever seen. 800 dollar Lugers, 900 dollar M1 Garands, yeah sure they didnt have any mags or good ARs and shit but I picked up 2000 rounds of M2 Ball for like 120 bucks cus some old dude was selling his shit. Last year my buddy was still living in California and got an M1 Carbine and 50 magazines for 550. Was an Inland Type 3. Not bad for such a shitty state

Mostly shit.
I did pick up a lightly used coonan 357 for 500.

Actually dumb

so when someone bumps into you and doesn't realize it, you just follow them around the gun show for hours?

>bald guy about to get merc'd in the bottom right of the picture

99% percent of the stuff is normal/over priced. If you know what you're looking at you can score older stuff sometimes.

That's how I convinced a very knowledgeable QT MILF to sell me a Sig for $150 under the cash price in Florida.

Did you convince her to throw in an under-the-table barrel cleaning?

>negotiating
I know you think that haggling is encouraged, but it isn't.

>We buy ammo
What do you buy?
AMMO!

What, you don't?
I like to study their habits.

>so how about we make a deal?
Sorry son, that's below my margins. I gotta make money too.

No. I happened to see him later you insufferable faggot.
Nice strawman though

Who has that oldass gun show picture of that boomer holding the AK with the 100 round rainbow magazine with the weird ork looking kid watching behind him?

i feel like 5-8 years ago they were horrible but now getting better minus the boomer single tables. 2 weekends ago NIB AP M5 lower $135, Ruger mark4 NIV bull barrel blued finish (basic bitch) $299. 1k 7.62x39 wolf and 8 pounds of powder for online price so saved shipping and (((hazmat fee))).

You go to gun shows for the 15% of stuff worth your time, and the 1% of stuff that's almost too good to be true.

Pretty much my experience here in maine. There good deals on camo and milsurp stuff, but guns are horribly overpriced. I saw a guy asking 1100 for a used wasr with a sling and ammo pouch and a couple 30 round mags. He had sold it by the time I got back around. Wtf. Who buys that shit.

Also fuck tons of overpriced garands as you mentioned.

15 years ago you could often get good deals on milsurp. Then they were shit but recently they seem to be getting a bit better, I guess as the literal boomers die off and their collections go up for sale.

You'll never find a really good deal on new guns at a show, new guns are already low-margin items for dealers anyway and they're not going to lose money.

You may occasionally find a good deal on used guns, milsurp, or ammo -- I have a 5.45mm Arsenal and almost all of my ammo comes from gun shows.

For used and milsurp, the ability to actually examine the items in person is huge and if you have a clue what you should be paying you will at least ensure you get exactly what you want.

If you know exactly what you're looking for, you will occasionally get an outright steal on a milsurp gun, though it's not common, especially now that you no longer just have dudes flipping piles of cheap milsurp.

This guy right here. Any one going to a gunshow looking for new shit is retarded. Gunshows are comprised mostly of FFLs and a few old farts who really should have an FFL but hate the government. Go to gunshows looking for surplus, ammo, parts, etc. If you see a table with new gear on it, that's not the table for you. You want the old guy set up in the corner with one or maybe two tables worth of stuff. You want the guy with buckets full of new in paper wrap P1 slides. Don't go looking for a great deal on an AR or a Gen5 Glock.

It wasn't recent but I still marvel at how I bought a mint condition late production M1903A1 for practically nothing because for some reason he though it was worth less than the A3. I still remember how hard it was to keep a poker face, I was so worried someone else would walk by and get into a bidding match with me (it was easily worth twice what I paid).

Yes mostly and yes sometimes.

>I get that, but you don't have to spit in my face wile you do it
That like has worked for me numerous times, old coins, mags, some cool shit.

I always do a quick price check on my phone before I buy anything at a gun show. 9 times out of 10 it is overpriced by like 40% and I can get the exact same thing on Amazon or Ebay for much less. But sometimes there are interesting oddities and deals. I got a great deal on soft pistol cases, dude had a great price if you bought 3 so I got some for pistols of mine that don't have their own cases.

>the bzzzzzztttt guy
>the guy with "genuine" Third Reich gear that is suspect
>the shitty food staffed by normies (non gun people)
>"No loaded firearms allowed inside (lel I'm packing regardless)
>overpriced repackaged beef jerky guys
>pickle guy
>normies selling non gun shit like its a swap meet
>Boomers with overpriced shit
>Boomers with guns priced thousands above their worth that they actually don't want to sell
>the CMP boomer who bought 10 rifles and is reselling them
>smelly fat people
>cringe masters wearing camo and gear

Did I miss anything?