SAR East - How was it?

[D-boy]

Can't make it this year. Let me know what I missed.

 

[Noah Zark]

NOTHING.


I was there all Friday afternoon, and it was a bit of a letdown.

LOTS of "junk" -- wood carvings, jewelry, SCORES of cheap Chinese knife dealers, wonder metal protectants, what have you.

A surprisingly small number of plain gun dealers, but not so surprising when the table fee is like $20 per table higher than the standard fee for the same venue the rest of the year.

A few MG dealers stayed away this year, but there's still a good many of them. I spoke to several and they are all poor-mouthing about lackluster sales of MGs in the down economy. With prices dropping on MGs, many dealers are not selling guns they bought just a year or year and a half ago at higher than present market prices in some cases. Apparently MGs aren't the sure-fire, can't lose, prices-are-always-going-to-climb-so-buy-now recession proof investment they were made out to be only a couple short years ago, and this coming straight from the mouths of several horses.

Friday afternoon is never crowded, but the aisles seemed a bit more full this year than the past two years with tirekickers. Not a lot of 4473s being filled out. There were TONS of ARs and AR accessorties, but not a lot of business taking place in ARs, either. And AKs were in very short supply.

One dealer had dozens of those $350 M1 Garands from SOG, and they appeared to be freshly dug up. From the earth, not some warehouse. Anyone buying one of them, you are taking a huge chance.

Another dealer had a number of ex-police 92FS Centurions, SIG 220s, and some manner of H&K pistols. He was selling a few of each flavor, it appeared to me each time I walked past.

There were two or three bulk ammo dealers there and not many "johns" were carrying out cases of ammo.

There were just a few empty tables in the whole place on Friday afternoon, maybe eight or ten tops. Some dealers were still setting up at Noon when the place opened.

Late Friday afternoon they announced that some two-person team had lifted a suppressor, and hinted at something else that had gone missing. Saturday, when I stopped at the Sellersville, PA show south of Allentown the gun-checker told me that the York show had an AD Sat AM, but he had no details.

I paid $7 with a coupon (reg $8) to enter. I sold a couple rifles I had with me and all I brought home was a free copy of the June issue of SAR that was being handed out.

I failed to do my part to prop up the economy, I'm afraid.

The big disappointment was the sheer amount of JUNK. Many of the regular York show gun dealers stayed away because of the significantly higher table fee as I mentioned above. Had I known just how much junk was there, I may have blown it off.

YMMV.

Noah

 

[D-boy]

Just great. It's a haul for me, now I don't know whether or not to go next year. Probably not

Did you run into any fat guys? Sorry I couldn't make it

 

[mike]

Yep , everything Noah said. But me and my wife did have a nice talk with Sam and his wife Tina of Practical Solutions which was nice. Sam's burning the midnight oil trying to get his 40rd mags for his 22 kits perfected.
Mike

 

[D-boy]

Yep , everything Noah said. But me and my wife did have a nice talk with Sam and his wife Tina of Practical Solutions which was nice. Sam's burning the midnight oil trying to get his 40rd mags for his 22 kits perfected.
Mike

That almost would have been worth the trip. Wow, I didn't know those guys were out of MD. That's crazy.

 

[Noah Zark]

Did you run into any fat guys?

This is Pennsylvania. Enough said.

Noah

 

[Nate7667]

This was my first SAR show. I thought it was like any other show with a few more Class3/Title2 dealers.
Helped out my dealer. Lots of tire kickers and educating people on what they can own. I dont mind that, gets the word out that these kinds of weapons are just as legle to own as they are fun. Alot of mis-informed people.

The Thompson display at the far right wall was very nice. Neat to see all the diff configurations thru the years.

Had a few "grumpy" people giving their opinion on why NFA stuff should be outlawed.
My dealer carrys alot of the Serbu Shorty shotguns. A rather round, street clothed LEO (or so he says) came up to me and told me i was an asshole for selling those items because he may have to run into those on the street. Trying to be polite as i could for being called an asshole by a complete stranger, I told him from his point of view i can understand his reasoning. But the ATF superseds his opinion and i can sell what i want. And this is also my home protection weapon. He told me to get a real hand gun, take cover, and wait for the cops to show up tp take care of the situation. i told him its easier to carry my Shorty than him on my back. He called me a "fucking smart-ass young punk" and stormed away. oh well, cant sell em to everyone. lol

Had a great chat with Sam and Tina from Practical Solutions.
Great looking products. Cant wait to see some more use and abuse of their 22 kits in everyones hands. Good stuff.

Got the meet up with Greg from Carlson Comps. He has a few new items that are on the horizon.

I picked up some ammo and powder at what i thought was a good deal for the current market.
Almost picked up an Uzi from a guy walking around, but i passed.

 

[StooperZero]

:lol



Sounds like a mall cop

 

[Z06]

Wow, $7 to enter (with coupon), SAR West has $10 parking (each day) and $20 to enter. Must be an Out West thing.

 

[Kramer]

NOTHING.


I was there all Friday afternoon, and it was a bit of a letdown.

LOTS of "junk" -- wood carvings, jewelry, SCORES of cheap Chinese knife dealers, wonder metal protectants, what have you.

A surprisingly small number of plain gun dealers, but not so surprising when the table fee is like $20 per table higher than the standard fee for the same venue the rest of the year.

A few MG dealers stayed away this year, but there's still a good many of them. I spoke to several and they are all poor-mouthing about lackluster sales of MGs in the down economy. With prices dropping on MGs, many dealers are not selling guns they bought just a year or year and a half ago at higher than present market prices in some cases. Apparently MGs aren't the sure-fire, can't lose, prices-are-always-going-to-climb-so-buy-now recession proof investment they were made out to be only a couple short years ago, and this coming straight from the mouths of several horses.

Friday afternoon is never crowded, but the aisles seemed a bit more full this year than the past two years with tirekickers. Not a lot of 4473s being filled out. There were TONS of ARs and AR accessorties, but not a lot of business taking place in ARs, either. And AKs were in very short supply.

One dealer had dozens of those $350 M1 Garands from SOG, and they appeared to be freshly dug up. From the earth, not some warehouse. Anyone buying one of them, you are taking a huge chance.

Another dealer had a number of ex-police 92FS Centurions, SIG 220s, and some manner of H&K pistols. He was selling a few of each flavor, it appeared to me each time I walked past.

There were two or three bulk ammo dealers there and not many "johns" were carrying out cases of ammo.

There were just a few empty tables in the whole place on Friday afternoon, maybe eight or ten tops. Some dealers were still setting up at Noon when the place opened.

Late Friday afternoon they announced that some two-person team had lifted a suppressor, and hinted at something else that had gone missing. Saturday, when I stopped at the Sellersville, PA show south of Allentown the gun-checker told me that the York show had an AD Sat AM, but he had no details.

I paid $7 with a coupon (reg $8) to enter. I sold a couple rifles I had with me and all I brought home was a free copy of the June issue of SAR that was being handed out.

I failed to do my part to prop up the economy, I'm afraid.

The big disappointment was the sheer amount of JUNK. Many of the regular York show gun dealers stayed away because of the significantly higher table fee as I mentioned above. Had I known just how much junk was there, I may have blown it off.

YMMV.

Noah

It sounds about the same as last year including the NFA dealers and their MG prices and the tons of AR parts. One of the big PA NFA dealers last year must be on crack, I asked him how much for the 20mm Lahti, beat to crap and no numbers match, he responded with a stupid look and said $20K! I said wow I guess that mine must be worth $25-30k!

The AD was actually a suicide! Some dude bought a shotgun and rounds and did himself in. Yeah according to Gemtech someone has a surpessor lifter but it was not theirs.

The M1 Garands are out of Korea...again and in the same shape as the Blue Sky units of yesteryear!

 

[attherange]

I did not get to get around the whole show, I was on a 2 day road trip with my brother comming from TN going to MA. I was glad to meet a few people I have talked to over the years including Sam and Tina from PS. Nate it was also nice meeting you as well, to bad about the attitude on the rent-a-cop, I thought that was a fine defence weapon. I will say I spent most of my time trying to figure out how I could afford the twin 50's I saw.
Thanks, Greg

 

[Nate7667]

Yeah Greg, its too bad you guys couldn't have hung out for dinner. But you did have another few states to get thru.

Eh, the rent-a-cop pissed me off for a few min, but then after that it makes for a funny story.

Affording the twin 50s will be ALOT easier than feeding them LOL

The damn Mini-gun was sitting across from our table all weekend....."pppssssttt.....Nate....Nate.....look over here"

 

[trek45]

My dealer carrys alot of the Serbu Shorty shotguns. A rather round, street clothed LEO (or so he says) came up to me and told me i was an asshole for selling those items because he may have to run into those on the street.

I didn't know that criminals were so into NFA registered short-barreled shotguns. You'd think they'd be put off by the FBI background check, $200 tax stamp, and long wait.

 

[Nate7667]

I didnt say he was an NFA educated LEO, i just said a LEO. LOL

Besides, those are AOW w/a $5 stamp :tongue

 

[D-boy]

The damn Mini-gun was sitting across from our table all weekend....."pppssssttt.....Nate....Nate.....look over here"

Was that the one they had last year that looked like it was pulled from a helicopter crash with subsequent fire? And dragged back to the US on a chain by oxen over a land-only route?

 

[gearlogo]

I scored some nice 1919 stuff:

1. Prewar trunnion (no hardened plug in the feed way).

2. A rare purpose made 7.62 RIA Booster

3. A USGI rear sight leaf

4. a nice a6 latch

5. assorted small parts

I never look at the new stuff for sale and prefer to sort through the greasy bins.