Elaboration please?
Printable View
The oak gun show is becoming more trashy more and more with every show. Walking the show today was very disappointing.
I remember how great the old valley forge gun show was and how nice oak show when started. And slowly turning to this.
Even the afew good vendors left, are now selling generic trash that you can find cheaper on-line.
Look what kind of customers the show is attracting lately more and more, did you ever see that in past.
I don't think that Eagle Arms has full control of the evolution of the gun shows. I think that times are changing, the market is changing and it looks like the number of vendors is down over the last 20 years. I would say that they have two choices, they can allow more non-gun vendors or they can shrink the size of the show. I suspect that the more tables displaying at a show the more attendees it would attract and they don't differentiate between the vendors when they advertise show size. I would think that a vendor who didn't make their bills at the end of the show would cease to exhibit there. For the most part I have tunnel vision and my tastes are eclectic so I don't even see that tub guy or the knife guys outside of my peripheral vision. I sort of see the massage lady but don't have a clue what she looks like. If a vendor has, or might have, what I am looking for I can pretty much sense it from an initial glimpse, after that I move on. And ammo stands all get my attention. :cool:
Seems like todays gun show/flea market has evolved into a 'family' event. Handbags and jewelry for the wives/girlfriends , toys for the kids , leashes , bones and chew things for the pets. I saw about 5-6 dogs at the show too.
I went to a couple Valley Forge shows and they were similar to the Oaks shows. Not as big though. I have been to an oaks show at least once a year since they started. They seem the same to me. Maybe a few more junk vendors but they are definitely bigger overall than when they started.
I agree with your assessment. From what I read here there are still a few of the older style gun show in some of the smaller venues. I have only been to one of that type many years ago. A lot of smaller vendors with old parts that are hard to find and a lot of well priced used guns. I would not mind going to one of those type shows one a year but I enjoy the bigger more varied shows as well.
I also like outdoor shows and fishing shows. They seem to be evolving as well.
I saw a couple of dogs too, none with four legs though.
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I won't take it personally but...I have in my mind that the earlier show was at the Ft. Washington Expo in....get ready for it.....drumrooolllllllllll.......Ft. Washington. In the former Honeywell building, which was one of the largest single floor buildings (if not THE largest) in the area. Then somebody ruined that for some reason and they moved the show to VF Convention Center and it was just as big but spread across two floors. I found the two floor floor plan annoying myself. IIRC they were both advertised as 1000 table shows and they were good gun shows. I am not sure if there was a lapse of time in between but at some point the show moved to Oaks in the former PENCO Locker factory (I'm thinking mid-late 1990's), where it is still held today. I was told that the next show in late March will be a 1000 table show as well. The anti-gun laws and import laws seem to play a role in the changes as there used to be a selection of H&K and AK's that is not available anymore.
My sons and I attended both the gun show and the golf show on Sunday. What's going on at the gun show is no different than what is going on in other shows. At the golf show, they had Anderson Windows, Dr Basement Dry, H&R Block and even a pillow vendor. Wtf? We got into the gun show and saw the Bathfitters guy in the corner and just couldn't believe it. I'm at the point where I'm tired of wasting my time and money walking through a show that is not as advertised.