philadelphia national guard armory

[red dog]

i agree the oaks show was hands down better (the one just before christmas) than any armory show. i help a dealer at both shows so i have seen their best and worst. the oaks show was our all time best sales show ever by a substantial margin. i must say as we sell only handguns both shows still have good sales. the oaks show had tons more dealers and foot traffic. both shows can be fun and depending what you are looking for worthwhile going to.

[douglee25]

Ok I just got back. I still haven't received an answer to my earlier question, but in case someone was wondering, yes you can buy, sell, and trade at this show.

The show was packed. I mean literally you could not move down the aisles. This was my first show ever, so I can not give an accurate opinion if it was a good one or not. I would venture to say it was average+. I ended up trading my S&W 5903 in on a new Ruger LC9. I shopped several dealers and it turns out the last one I got to ended up giving me the best deal.

Of note:

1. The best pricing I found on guns was at the first booth on the right against the wall in the larger room. The name of the company was Mechanicsburg Ordnance Co. I don't think I found anyone who could touch them.

2. I didn't catch the name of the company, but about middle of the room at the very back at the end of the aisle, there was a company that had signs up that said 'We buy used guns'. He offered me what I felt was a good price on my gun. Straight up cash purchase.


Apparently there were two guns out in the parking lot trying to sell handguns out of their trunk and they got arrested by the police. One guy appeared to be in his 60's and he looked like he was about to have a heart attack. The cops kept telling him to calm down. He was hanging onto the cops arm for support. Crazy.

I'd say if you're in the area, stop by and check it out.

Doug

[silent*anarchy]

doesnt surprise me, i hear philidelphia is almost as bad as new york city. Hopefully the old man didnt do anything wrong.

[douglee25]

The funny thing is, it's not even in the city. It's literally a stone throw away from Neshaminy, PA which is suburbia.

Doug

[red dog]

funny you should mention mechanicsburg ordnance douglee25 as that,s the dealer i help. i had previous obligations today and could not attend. will be there tomorrow with bells on. hope he is doing ok with his help, they are not the usual crew he has at the shows. word has it by phone this show is crazy busy. can,t wait to see what sun. brings. thanks for the plug btw we do try to keep the prices reasonable, they are the same at a show or at the shop. hope you had fun. see you all at the oaks. red dog

[douglee25]

funny you should mention mechanicsburg ordnance douglee25 as that,s the dealer i help. i had previous obligations today and could not attend. will be there tomorrow with bells on. hope he is doing ok with his help, they are not the usual crew he has at the shows. word has it by phone this show is crazy busy. can,t wait to see what sun. brings. thanks for the plug btw we do try to keep the prices reasonable, they are the same at a show or at the shop. hope you had fun. see you all at the oaks. red dog

Ha. Small world! He seemed to be doing OK with his crew. I tried to see if he was interested in my S&W 5903 on a trade, but he declined. Such is life.

Doug

[shrewd]

drove over and checked it out after shooting at langhorne in the morning. can't say i really enjoyed it this time. that place is usually pretty warm but this time i was sweating. it was PACKED. i guess i usually go on sundays or something, but it was especially crowded this time.

also there were less actual gun dealers than ive seen in the past. to many knick knack shit and not enough real product. i had a mind to browse 12 gauges today and only saw a handful that were affordably priced. usually there are lots of mossy500s and remi870s for around 250ish

[douglee25]

Where do you shoot in Langhorne?

Doug

[Spamchicken]

What really kills gun shows are the non-gun tables. I think it's an absolute waste of time and money for the "junk"-sellers to be there because I literally skip every non-gun and non-milsurp related table. I almost feel bad for them, then again they must make a profit or people must buy their stuff 'else they wouldn't be there! One thing that's the same for every show is the price of admission.

I went to an Oaks show a few months before the huge, 1000-table show they had this past xmas. Between the two shows, I was actually disappointed with the 1000-table show!

I haven't gone to the armory yet this weekend, but the Allentown show last weekend seemed half the size yet it took me an hour to browse the whole thing. The armory show usually takes me 15 minutes tops to complete.

Not to be a jerk, but what these shows ought to do is bring all of the gun tables (and knife tables, I guess, since the armory is advertised as a "gun AND knife" show) to the front and leave everything else at the back. Maybe if someone sees the majority of patrons completely skipping the "back of the show", someone might get the hint (not likely).

[TB215]

Again, another crappy gunshow with a bunch of overpriced ARs, plenty of cheap Mosins, and knives!

The only thing I could find made by Norinco or Polytech was a box of 20 rounds of Jing An 7.62x39.

Don't any one have Chicoms instead of those bottom of the barrel WASR?