Edmonton gun show soft sales

Not surprising, actual sporting and hunting firearm sales to non vendors has been sliding annually for 4-5 years. Fewer and fewer people with more than the entrance fee, disposable income is shrinking steadily. So far, milsurps, the latest black guns and the very cheapest beginners guns seem to be still selling but mid range and upper priced guns only seem to change hands between vendors. Expect the Covid 19 hysteria to made a dent in gun show this year as well, not to mention the phone in provisions in C 71 if brought into force.

This was Mr. H's regard in the five or so years ago.
He told me to be very cautious as what is normal to us older folks isn't the norm now.
Plus the northern 'berta shut down has stopped the big, nonsense spending.
It's survival mode now for most of us.

I sold three guns last year and they were priced fairly.
The $100-$200 stuff sold.
Had a couple nice Cooey .410s with less than $175 on them and they came home with me.
Older Vanguard in 7mm rem mag with a $450 sticker price...……….naddah.
Nickel and dimes chit sold.

I sure don't expect anything different this coming show as well.
 
Ain’t that the truth...

Paint those guns black and put on a bayonet, they would sell immediately...
Amen brother and those Dam kids always driving close to the speed limit . Whats their hurry why can’t they just go 20 under like the rest of us . Don’t even get me started on those face blogs or insta pages


Side note . Friend picked up a nice Marlin lever in 45/70
 
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2 3/4" full choke 12ga pump in Ontario is pretty much useless.

A model 12 2 3/4 full, loaded with super light charge and payload. Perfect grouse, ditch swatter, at 1/3 the cost of 410 factory.

However, i remember when $175 was for a fair, $250 good plus.

Things dont always go up. When everyone is selling toys, the price goes down.....translation: when we have a lieberal government.
 
If bismuth was 24.95 per box model’s 12’s would be 800-1200$’s and auto 5 ‘s would be 800-1500$
I load 7/8 oz loads and shoot them from my model 12’s and a few other old vintage pumps works great on ruffies and Huns
 
At an Ontario gun show seen a used Weatherby vanguard with a $750 tag on it. Then there is the dude that selling Fake Leupold scopes for $250 with a sign all sales final. However the economy and higher cost of living has its toll
 
The eventual use of only non toxic shot has stripped old guns of value.

I think this is where all but the most saavy people miss the boat. You can pick up, as the OP mentioned, an excellent condition Model 12 for $300 (and frankly, probably less if the seller is getting sick of carting it around from show to show). That gets you in the game at less than the price of a Remington or Mossberg pump. So now you're anywhere from $300-$600 ahead of where you would be if you had chosen a new pump, and likely $800-$1200 ahead of a semi. Now, it used to be a better deal, but with a box of steel shot shells coming in at $20-$40 and a box of premium non-toxic (Bismuth or Tungsten-Matrix) coming in at a corrected $100-$140 per box (yikes! Used to be much better...when did I get this old?) you end up shooting anywhere from 3-16 boxes of shells of premium non-toxic before you catch up with where you would have been buying a new gun and shooting steel. For a lot of people, 20 shots per day is a healthy day of shooting so they could shoot for almost two weeks straight to catch up. The intangible is that you are shooting much more effective ammunition. Maybe that means that you shoot less, or that you wound fewer birds. Generally I think a person would have a more enjoyable experience shooting premium shot in a vintage gun than they would shooting a new gun and steel.

10 years ago the ammunition was much more reasonable. Oh well.
 
I think this is where all but the most saavy people miss the boat. You can pick up, as the OP mentioned, an excellent condition Model 12 for $300 (and frankly, probably less if the seller is getting sick of carting it around from show to show). That gets you in the game at less than the price of a Remington or Mossberg pump. So now you're anywhere from $300-$600 ahead of where you would be if you had chosen a new pump, and likely $800-$1200 ahead of a semi. Now, it used to be a better deal, but with a box of steel shot shells coming in at $20-$40 and a box of premium non-toxic (Bismuth or Tungsten-Matrix) coming in at a corrected $100-$140 per box (yikes! Used to be much better...when did I get this old?) you end up shooting anywhere from 3-16 boxes of shells of premium non-toxic before you catch up with where you would have been buying a new gun and shooting steel. For a lot of people, 20 shots per day is a healthy day of shooting so they could shoot for almost two weeks straight to catch up. The intangible is that you are shooting much more effective ammunition. Maybe that means that you shoot less, or that you wound fewer birds. Generally I think a person would have a more enjoyable experience shooting premium shot in a vintage gun than they would shooting a new gun and steel.

10 years ago the ammunition was much more reasonable. Oh well.

You may well be right, but the number of people wanting to shoot a 70, 80, 90 year old pump gun is a pretty small segment of the population especially when you can get a working, new auto for 1k
 
Name me how many people can fix an old winchester, either a 12 or a 97 hell a 92, 94 or 95, on their own

Very few. ME :) if I had to but I am not talking model 12's. I am talking today's guns .I just had a BPS here not feeding and it was nothing more than dirty and the guy could not take the mag tube apart
I see a lot of this now. He cleans the barrel on the gun and I could have filled a small zip lock bag from what I took out if the mag tube and receiver. I think there was a tree growing there :(. Another guy just about crying after he took a trigger out and could not get it back in
I could go on and on
Cheers
 
I was at the Edmonton gun show and spent $10. admission and $5.oo purchase of a leather knife sheath.
Majority of the products were either market priced or over-priced.
I must have made at least 6 different offers on different things without success.
Guess I really didn't need anything but went there for the entertainment.
 
Im finding im at the age between the groups general groups. The older is wood and blue old school vintage quality. The group below me is got to new 3.5" camo multi choked cheap import. I have a decent collection of firearms and it covers quite a few segments of our sports but i see these higher end doubles that my fellow shooters own and use and within the next 10 years ill be debt free with disposable income hopefully anyway and those older guns are loosing value by the day and the ones who cherish those pieces arent getting any younger. I figure i can pick up some nice doubles for about 10 cents on the dollar eventually as not many new shooters are willing to spend money let alone thousands of dollars on a double gun let alone one that needs to be reloaded for. I see some happy days in my future. Sad knowing ill never have a massive bank account but triple digits of fine guns will make me happy enough to not care.
I all but stopped going to ontario gun shows. Prices are rediculous. Scammers everywhere. Ive found i can shop online from reputable dealers that will stand behind what they sell. Even if only short term. My collection has changed direction and im looking for higher quality double guns and heavily eyeing singles so i may pass a table with model 12s on it. Catch me on a random day on the street and mention you have a good condition model 12 for $300 and well id be tempted. Can never have too many 12ga guns right
 
I've been finding the used guns market weird for a long time. People are trying to sell their "lightly used" guns for MSRP or 50 under it. It's only normal things get back to sanity after a while.


I'm sorry OP, but a 80 year old fixed choke shotgun isn't worth as much as a brand new, removable chokes, steel shooting , shotgun that i can find replacements parts for. Last black friday, I got an sxp for 370 tx and shipping incl. Just my 2 cents.
 
I collect primarily Ww1 up through 1970's sniper rifles, and circa 1900- 1925 semi-auto pistols. And have got totally out of hunting guns. So most of what was there wasn't of particular interest.

But I did buy a rare Jager pistol made in 1916. Only 12,000 were made, and it was the first pistol to use die cut stampings rather ran a forged and milled frame. Value in the states would be about $1000us. But with Canadian prohib laws the value here is much reduced. So I scored an great piece for the collection at an excellent price, and met an interesting gentleman to boot.

Good example of a gun very few people would want, and even less could buy. Guess it helps to have excentric tastes.
 
Amen brother and those Dam kids always driving close to the speed limit . Whats their hurry why can’t they just go 20 under like the rest of us . Don’t even get me started on those face blogs 70

Oh please.....give it a rest. Lots of younger dudes getting into hunting and buying vintage-ish guns, but also plenty of mall-ninjas spending on tacticool guns they use for selfies. The EE is full of “never fired” or “1 box of slugs” “shotties”.

I don’t begrudge them. Just saying there is a way to sell to that crowd.
 
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