Expo Gun Show

[HB of CJ]

Oregon Gun Shows ... Decline ... Subjective ...

The maximum revenue sweet spot is fine but you do need to include everything necessary to make that determination. Everything. The most important thing small business owners forget is their time. How much? How much time to add to the revenue equation?

Quality of time, if any. It is easy to suddenly, (or slowly) realize your free time becomes less and less as all available time is invested into the business attempting to establish that sweet spot total revenue. And maximum revenue does not establish maximum profit.

Just saying.

Gun shows in Oregon are slowly dying. I for one am surprised that we still have any. The Grants Pass Oregon Gun Show used to be a busy noisy fun event to attend. 250 tables? Every available space in that probably too small hall was taken up. Narrow aisles.

Two bucks to get in. Lots of free parking. Josephine County Fairgrounds. Live background music. A good PA system asking for product and services. Now the Grants Pass show is practically dead. Seven bucks to get in. Probably only 150 tables. Wide aisles.

Yep ... the main complaint the gun sellers have is the so call instant check which is not. Is the Oregon State Police purposely choking down the gun shows with slow back ground checks? I have seen checks take 60 minutes. At about 10 minutes the sale fails.

Respectfully.

 

[Larry243]

Oregon Gun Shows ... Decline ... Subjective ...

The maximum revenue sweet spot is fine but you do need to include everything necessary to make that determination. Everything. The most important thing small business owners forget is their time. How much? How much time to add to the revenue equation?

Quality of time, if any. It is easy to suddenly, (or slowly) realize your free time becomes less and less as all available time is invested into the business attempting to establish that sweet spot total revenue. And maximum revenue does not establish maximum profit.

Just saying.

Gun shows in Oregon are slowly dying. I for one am surprised that we still have any. The Grants Pass Oregon Gun Show used to be a busy noisy fun event to attend. 250 tables? Every available space in that probably too small hall was taken up. Narrow aisles.

Two bucks to get in. Lots of free parking. Josephine County Fairgrounds. Live background music. A good PA system asking for product and services. Now the Grants Pass show is practically dead. Seven bucks to get in. Probably only 150 tables. Wide aisles.

Yep ... the main complaint the gun sellers have is the so call instant check which is not. Is the Oregon State Police purposely choking down the gun shows with slow back ground checks? I have seen checks take 60 minutes. At about 10 minutes the sale fails.

Respectfully.

You are absolutely correct!
They do want to choke out gun shows, but the pricing and quality of gun shows is so poor any-moor. Parking, entrance fees, and available food prices make it impossible for a father or Grandfather to take there grandsons to a gun show on Saturday... They have strangled me and my family out for the last time...
Greed, and government has finally won-out!
Larry243

 

[HB of CJ]

Anybody here old enough to remember the really big 3 day shows? 2500 tables? Seven big buildings? I remember at least six folks waiting in line with multiple hundred dollar bills in their eager hands to buy our M16A1 semi auto replicas. Back in the day.

We only brought 25 rifles. Once sold out about Saturday afternoon. She went home with the truck. I stayed with only one sample and took orders. It was definitely worth my time. Those big Pomona CA shows were a significant annual sales success. 1985-6.

Semi auto. All the guts were Colt made SP-1. Spendy. Perfect. Very nice. I do wish I had kept just one of them for me. Nope.

 

[Larry243]

Anybody here old enough to remember the really big 3 day shows? 2500 tables? Seven big buildings? I remember at least six folks waiting in line with multiple hundred dollar bills in their eager hands to buy our M16A1 semi auto replicas. Back in the day.

We only brought 25 rifles. Once sold out about Saturday afternoon. She went home with the truck. I stayed with only one sample and took orders. It was definitely worth my time. Those big Pomona CA shows were a significant annual sales success. 1985-6.

Semi auto. All the guts were Colt made SP-1. Spendy. Perfect. Very nice. I do wish I had kept just one of them for me. Nope.

Boy do I hear you!...Big Time!

 

[oremike]

I think the decline has more to do with the loss of the outdoorsy huntin' and fishn' than the gov' take over. It's easy to take away something that's not used anymore.

 

[Larry243]

I think the decline has more to do with the loss of the outdoorsy huntin' and fishn' than the gov' take over. It's easy to take away something that's not used anymore.

PERHAPS!

 

[Kruel J]

You Bet!
It Sucks, Smells, and is the arm pit of the nation...

You must not get out much. Visit Chicago, LA, Baltimore and a few others then have something more productive to say....

BTW, our membership is LARGELY based with Portland Metro members.......

 

[pdxcat]

My father and I have been going to the expo gunshows regularly for 20 odd years. I've seen them fluctuate wildly based on the current political climate. 2008 had people lined up across the building (D hall) to by ammo and the entire building was packed with tables. The situation in 2016 was similar before the election. After trump got elected, size and attendance dropped sharply. They don't even fill the smallest hall now.

I think they will continue on modestly until the next panic and then will explode again. The gun market as a whole is just so soft right now. I'm getting factory new ammo cheaper at cabelas than the reloads I was buying at gun shows 2 years ago. Even more so when you factor in the parking and admission cost. Ammo deals were my main reason for going for a long time, where does that leave us now?

I would be sad to see them go. I spent many Saturday mornings with my dad going to gun shows growing up. That's something I'd like to share with my son once he's born.

I do not go often, but I find it a decent way to spend a couple of hours, say hello to all the vendors I do business with in town, and maybe take a look at a few guns I have not had a chance to see in person yet.
I don't go planning to get deals, I consider it more of a social event, and usually tag along with a friend or two.
It looks like the only vendors to make decent profits are the big 3s (Curt's, NWA, Keith's).

 

[Larry243]

You must not get out much. Visit Chicago, LA, Baltimore and a few others then have something more productive to say....

BTW, our membership is LARGELY based with Portland Metro members.......

Oh, I'm sorry you live there. I know it must be dreadful for people to see and live with all the problem!

 

[Kruel J]

Oh, I'm sorry you live there. I know it must be dreadful for people to see and live with all the problem!

I live in Hillsboro, and Nampa, Idaho isn't exactly crime free. Having been a Meridian resident for many years, I'm not just some "Hippie Portlander" drinking Starbucks and riding a bicycle. Nampa has plenty of it's own dirty laundry.

 

[Kruel J]

Nampa:

Nampa Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

Hillsboro:

Hillsboro, OR Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

What do you know, pretty even there with Hillsboro even being ahead.

 

[Larry243]

Nampa:

Nampa Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

Hillsboro:

Hillsboro, OR Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

What do you know, pretty even there with Hillsboro even being ahead.

I don't know who bit your crackers, but no one was talking about Hillsboro anyway. You weighed in on a conversation that was about 6.5 ammo size. You brought up Portland, not me. I just said what type of sludge pool it is. No secrete what kind of place that is. You started running your mouth off about Chicago, La, and Baltimore and areas in the east... Who wants to be there.. not me. No one was talking about Hillsboro anyway.
Sleep well!

 

[Kruel J]

I don't know who bit your crackers, but no one was talking about Hillsboro anyway. You weighed in on a conversation that was about 6.5 ammo size. You brought up Portland, not me. I just said what type of sludge pool it is. No secrete what kind of place that is. You started running your mouth off about Chicago, La, and Baltimore and areas in the east... Who wants to be there.. not me. No one was talking about Hillsboro anyway.
Sleep well!

You are so spot on my man...
Portland is the suck hole capital and arm pit of the United States... Cut the head of the snake off!
Larry243

Yeah. It was me that brought up Portland.

 

[Kruel J]

I don't know who bit your crackers, but no one was talking about Hillsboro anyway. You weighed in on a conversation that was about 6.5 ammo size. You brought up Portland, not me. I just said what type of sludge pool it is. No secrete what kind of place that is. You started running your mouth off about Chicago, La, and Baltimore and areas in the east... Who wants to be there.. not me. No one was talking about Hillsboro anyway.
Sleep well!

I also didn't talk about Portland or otherwise in that thread.........

 

[DLS]

Guys, guys ... quaylude time!

I live in Battle Ground .... a few miles from PDX.

I lived for years on Boise ... a few miles from Nampa.

Both cities have their good and their bad!

But it shouldn't matter because we all love liberty and love to burn powder! Right?!

 

[Mikej]

It looks like the only vendors to make decent profits are the big 3s (Curt's, NWA, Keith's).

I went to the last show, Collectors West. Generally their show was the smaller of the two. The other was the "Rose City Gun Show", also called The Wes Knodel show. KIETH'S was not at the Collectors West show last time. Northwest Armory had taken several tables in the middle rather than the three they always had near the doors in that dark corner. I'd heard some time ago that Kieth had some disagreement with on of the promoters. Maybe that came to the boiling point? I've always liked buying from Kieth's. They can get pretty much what ever you want, if you're willing to lay down half a C-note and wait.

 

[Colts4me]

Oh yeah, we shouldn't have background checks at the shows. We could get the saggy pant gang types in there buying, and get it of the streets.

:Sarcasm: Just in case some one might think "I" disagree with background checks.

It's the way the state does it, why should a man with a CCW have to go through a background check? He should be able to buy the gun and get a receipt and walk out the door. Oregons BC is just taxing you to register any gun you buy

 

[Mikej]

why should a man with a CCW have to go through a background check?

He shouldn't.

 

[teflon6string]

I think the decline has more to do with the loss of the outdoorsy huntin' and fishn' than the gov' take over. It's easy to take away something that's not used anymore.

You might have something there. If you look for it, the hunter demographic is present to some degree at Portland Expo shows but largely obscured by:

- Lime-green zombie-themed guns/gear, scary posters/targets
- Bump-fire/rapid fire/mag-dump accessories
- Non-hunting apparel and mis-spelled feisty/clever T-shirts
- Brass knuckle "paper weights"
- Tiny pink derringers/pistols, pink pepper sprays, pink zappers
- Loose, rattling stilettos and butterfly knives
- "Historical" Nazi logos on fake Zippo lighters (Taiwan circa 2014)
- Cookies, beanie babies/troll dolls, bedazzled purses, wood carvings
- $55 bricks of generic .22lr ammo
- Spiked metal dog collars
- Shotguns festooned with rails, grips, magazines, stocks, lights, optics, single-point paracord slings, etc., etc., etc. (I think there's an actual gun in there somewhere).

Perhaps all this stuff goes hunting... I don't know. Or, maybe that's just what sells best in Portland. Things seem to lean more toward the hunter vibe at the shows in Albany, Hillsboro, Grants Pass and Rickreall. Plus any number of outdoor/sporting stores between here and there.

 

[fredball]

This is Oregon for you....
Punish the people all the time. This again just shows why Oregon is the Arm Pit of the United States.
Drugs, Sex, Rock & Roll... Oh, fingernail, Pot, and tattoo shops are main stream industries.

Larry243

Don't forget sanctuary citys we cater to those who perfer to be here unlawfully, and pay for zero zip nada nuttin