Portland Gun Show = *** hat

[malinky]

Well, usually to argue infringement of any sort you have to present a context where you had no choice and then you got strip-searched and probed. I hardly find it to be the case with the Portland gun show - I haven't been there for months, and not planning to go for many months to come. I'm sure you can do the same.



When you get busted for selling a firearm privately to an ATF agent from another state, don't forget to make a post on this forum about the amount of the bail, and overall experience

From having busted underage drinkers in NC (showing OR DL's) I believe fake Oregon ID's must be the cheapest around, you take that chance either way. Although I did forget my proximity to Washington.

 

[fd15k]

From having busted underage drinkers in NC (showing OR DL's) I believe fake Oregon ID's must be the cheapest around, you take that chance either way. Although I did forget my proximity to Washington.

The current law penalizes for lack of effort. There is no expectation that you can tell a fake OR ID from a real one, but if you don't make a reasonable effort to establish that your buyer is allowed to possess a firearm, that's when you get screwed.

 

[MarkAd]

Your response makes you sound like a paranoid hillbilly,

LOL, MarkW he already knows about you.

 

[Jammer Six]

No such thing as a "good" gun show.

They all have parking, nazi "memorabilia", sales tax, and fools running the tables.

 

[Member 18201]

No such thing as a "good" gun show.

They all have parking, nazi "memorabilia", sales tax, and fools running the tables.

Maybe you should get out more, J 6.

 

[malinky]

No such thing as a "good" gun show.

They all have parking, nazi "memorabilia", sales tax, and fools running the tables.

Yeah what's with the Nazi stuff, I've seen it to every show I've been too. Ditto on the foolish individuals, I asked one vendor is they had kill flash for a rifle scope and they asked me what it was.

 

[fd15k]

No such thing as a "good" gun show.

They all have parking, nazi "memorabilia", sales tax, and fools running the tables.

There is no sales tax in Oregon. As for Nazi stuff, it's just part of military history...

 

[malinky]

There is no sales tax in Oregon. As for Nazi stuff, it's just part of military history...

I know that ... I HAVE READ BOOKS there's just so much of it, you'd think they'd mix it up with some allied stuff to widen their range of customers.

 

[PDXSparky]

No such thing as a "good" gun show.

They all have parking, nazi "memorabilia", sales tax, and fools running the tables.

Of course there is such a thing as a good gun show. It's a show, with guns. How can that not be at least good? You just aren't going to the right shows. And as other have said NO TAX in Oregon.

 

[Mikej]

Geez Louise......I can't believe all you so called gun enhtusiests, (really want to say gun nuts but don't want to be called out by anyone) are posting, belly-aching about the local gunshows! Speaking of PDX here, how much time and $3.89/gal gas you going to spend perusing gun stores from PDX to Albany to Bend to Roseburg to Coose Bay? You don't want Carla's Nuts, don't buy 'em, just walk on by, but I little snack of wasaby peanuts ain't half bad in the early afternoon. I've never seen the Benie Babies some have mentioned, maybe THOSE tables are all jambed up first thing like Kieth's? Maybe it's cause I'm only two years into the gun nut stuff, but I haven't been to a show in almost a year and I'm jones'n. Maybe by the time I get to be a seasoned pro I'll feel the same way as a lot of you guys, hope not though.

I don't understand how, if the shows are as bad as some of youse guys make 'em sound, there are sooo many people there two hours after the doors open on a Friday??? And Saturday shows are jambed to the rafters by noon?

I'm thinking of expanding my horizon and getting into an AR, maybe, and I couldn't think of a better place than a show at the Expo to look, fondle fire arms, and talk to a lot of people.

Mike

 

[Trailboss]

Geez Louise......I can't believe all you so called gun enhtusiests, (really want to say gun nuts but don't want to be called out by anyone) are posting, belly-aching about the local gunshows! Speaking of PDX here, how much time and $3.89/gal gas you going to spend perusing gun stores from PDX to Albany to Bend to Roseburg to Coose Bay? You don't want Carla's Nuts, don't buy 'em, just walk on by, but I little snack of wasaby peanuts ain't half bad in the early afternoon. I've never seen the Benie Babies some have mentioned, maybe THOSE tables are all jambed up first thing like Kieth's? Maybe it's cause I'm only two years into the gun nut stuff, but I haven't been to a show in almost a year and I'm jones'n. Maybe by the time I get to be a seasoned pro I'll feel the same way as a lot of you guys, hope not though.

I don't understand how, if the shows are as bad as some of youse guys make 'em sound, there are sooo many people there two hours after the doors open on a Friday??? And Saturday shows are jambed to the rafters by noon?

I'm thinking of expanding my horizon and getting into an AR, maybe, and I couldn't think of a better place than a show at the Expo to look, fondle fire arms, and talk to a lot of people.

Mike

Mike, many of us have lived long enough and been shooting and attending shows long enough to have witnessed a major decline in show quality, especially shows like the one at the Expo center. The contributing factors are many but the non-firearms related stuff is the most visible. Here are somethings that I would like to see addressed:

$80 cost per table is too high

$9 entry fee is too high

$8 parking fee is too high

Many prices higher than local brick and mortar stores

Same ol' same ol' dealers and stuff (only ones that can afford to attend)

Obsessive rules concerning plastic ties (was denied a chance to view the bore on an old revolver because dealer was afraid to take the tie out of the barrel, resulting in my walking away from a likely buy)

Face to face selling virtually shut down with by new law

Fewer and fewer tables of used firearms (likely due to the $80/table fee)

Non-firearms tables growing as a percentage



Mike, those who complain are likely doing so in an attempt to save the gunshows from a spiraling demise.

 

[raindog]

I personally suspect gun shows are a dying event.

I'm a genuine gun nut and a military history buff and nostalgic for the survivalist days of the 80s and like tacticool stuff and like old misurpers and like pretty much any exotic weird gun chambered in .257 Roberts or .404 Jaffrey and I reload...

...and I haven't been to the PDX gun show in 3 or 4 years.

I started going to gun shows in the late 80s. Back then it was a different world:

- there was no Internet, forums, gunbroker.com, etc. It wasn't so much buying guns as talking guns. If you wanted to go talk and shoot, you were limited to gun shows or local gun clubs. If you wanted to see a lot of guns, you had to go to a gun show.

- In 1988, I walked into a gun show and bought a Turkish Mauser out of a barrel for $25. Today, that same gun would be lovingly wrapped and presented like a Picasso for $400 or more. There just isn't the same "treasure hunt" ethos in gun shows because all the military surplus has long since been absorbed. The last few years' Mosin-Nagant sales are probably the last gasp of the milsurp market. (BTW, those were also $25 or less in the 80s!)

- The Internet drives down price and availability in general, but also eliminates local market abnormalities. Thirty years ago, you got better deals at gun shows because some guy with a less-popular gun really only had the local market to sell to. You could get a lot of great deals. Now the market is more smoothed out because he can also sell online. An ad here reaches more people than you'd probably reach at a gun show.

The SHOT show in Las Vegas and that kind of thing are a different story (more a vendor event), but local gun shows?

I admit it's fun to walk around and see things I wouldn't see, but it's money to drive there, money to park there, money to get in, and if I find something I wanted, the price is higher and there's a background check fee (versus buying privately). I can do a LOT of window shopping at home -watch video reviews on YouTube, read every manufacturer's catalogs, etc. If I was to go to the gun show again, it would probably be me and some friend saying "hey let's go kill an afternoon".

As for the PDX show itself...here is my take...which hasn't changed since I wrote it:

http://www.northwestfirearms.com/ge.../17458-have-gun-shows-changed.html#post126305

 

[Mikej]

Sigh....

Good input TBoss and Raindog, guess I'll consider myself the lucky one this time as I've not personaly witnessed the demise of the "Gun Show" as you knew them. There has been enough things in my 57 years I've witnessed the "Good Old Days" of, and miss.

Mike

 

[raindog]

I will say one thing in favor of gun shows. Compare these scenarios:

(1) I tell my wife I'm going to go hang out with a friend for the afternoon. I come home with fudge from the gun show. Score points with wife. No idea I came this close to buying yet another gun.

(2) I'm laying in bed at night looking at a gun catalog while she's reading some magazine. "You're looking at guns again!?!?"

 

[davemata]

So you prefer to lie to your wife?

 

[MechanicWithAGlock]

ya i went to that gun show ridiculous that you gotta pay twice to get in an all. plus far to many non firearm related vendors i saw 2 tables selling rc helicopters wtf is up with that now if it was something telling meat or some sort of other merchandise he got from hunting and what not that would be a little different.
.all in all the only way i would ever go back is if i had a decent amount of money to spend in the first place but for the window shoppers or lets see what i can get for 200 bucks people not really that great.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

I personally suspect gun shows are a dying event.

I'm a genuine gun nut and a military history buff and nostalgic for the survivalist days of the 80s and like tacticool stuff and like old misurpers and like pretty much any exotic weird gun chambered in .257 Roberts or .404 Jaffrey and I reload...

...and I haven't been to the PDX gun show in 3 or 4 years.

I started going to gun shows in the late 80s. Back then it was a different world:

- there was no Internet, forums, gunbroker.com, etc. It wasn't so much buying guns as talking guns. If you wanted to go talk and shoot, you were limited to gun shows or local gun clubs. If you wanted to see a lot of guns, you had to go to a gun show.

- In 1988, I walked into a gun show and bought a Turkish Mauser out of a barrel for $25. Today, that same gun would be lovingly wrapped and presented like a Picasso for $400 or more. There just isn't the same "treasure hunt" ethos in gun shows because all the military surplus has long since been absorbed. The last few years' Mosin-Nagant sales are probably the last gasp of the milsurp market. (BTW, those were also $25 or less in the 80s!)

- The Internet drives down price and availability in general, but also eliminates local market abnormalities. Thirty years ago, you got better deals at gun shows because some guy with a less-popular gun really only had the local market to sell to. You could get a lot of great deals. Now the market is more smoothed out because he can also sell online. An ad here reaches more people than you'd probably reach at a gun show.

The SHOT show in Las Vegas and that kind of thing are a different story (more a vendor event), but local gun shows?

I admit it's fun to walk around and see things I wouldn't see, but it's money to drive there, money to park there, money to get in, and if I find something I wanted, the price is higher and there's a background check fee (versus buying privately). I can do a LOT of window shopping at home -watch video reviews on YouTube, read every manufacturer's catalogs, etc. If I was to go to the gun show again, it would probably be me and some friend saying "hey let's go kill an afternoon".

As for the PDX show itself...here is my take...which hasn't changed since I wrote it:

http://www.northwestfirearms.com/ge.../17458-have-gun-shows-changed.html#post126305

DITTO!!! Well put!