It's been my experience that dealers at gun shows tend to be a little more motivated to sell, than a gun shop would.

At least that's the way it's been in the past. But now, with the way things are going, all bets would be off.

In my neck of the woods, we have a beautiful Cabela's firearm store, 2 Gander's, and some smaller firearm shops........In all of these places, firearms are very expensive.....you can purchase cheaper on line.....I would love to give locals my business, but the markup is too much to absorb.....recently, at a local gun show, there were a few private sellers......a local firearm store owner called ATF and complained about the private sellers, even though they were legal....they were all paid a visit by ATF and harrassed. Word has gotten out about this dealer, and I think that his business has been affected by his actions. I, for one, would never patronize someone's business who "squeals" on others for legitimately trying to sell their firearms. It seems that local store owners here, hate the " big box" places that sell firearms. I went into a firearms shop close by me, wearing a Cabela's hat....the first thing I heard from a patron standing there was, " I can't believe you wore that hat into this store." They wonder why they can't sell any firearms........

Supposedly, Wal-Mart is the biggest firearms seller in the USA. I've never found it necessary to purchase a firearm from them yet. I've purchased a few boxes of ammo, but that's been it.

I have purchased some firearms form local dealers, but do most of my business on-line with one company in particular. When I want to buy a firearm, I do my due diligence and research everything about it, including what it's currently selling for. 99 times of of 100, that company that I choose to do business with, always comes thru for me.

I went to the gun show we had locally last week. All of the prices were a lot higher than I wanted to pay but people were buying them up quick. I talked to one dealer that brought 200 handguns to the show. Almost four hours into the show he had around thirty left. The next day I went to lgs and bought my m&p 9c for $60 cheaper than I saw at the show.

But there were a lot of great accessories at the show that lgs does not carry.

One of the first things I do when I go to a new vendor at a gun show or a new gun store looking to buy something specific is play dumb. I ask questions I know the answer to so I can A) see how knowledgeable they are and B) see if they try to sell me something more expensive because I'm "new" to handguns. If they pass that little test, I buy from them. If they don't, I politely correct them and take my business elsewhere.

I HATE when vendors/LGSs try to take advantage of less knowledgeable customers.