Attended the gun show at the Cedar Park center, home of the minor league Texas Stars Hockey team. This show was recently kicked out of the Austin city limits, but this is a pretty nice alternative -- easy to get to, and I am guessing they might have grabbed more folks from Wilco.
Parking was $5. Admission was $8. My son got in for free.
They advertised 400 tables, and that seems about right. 60% of the tables were set up on the floor of the 6,800-seat arena (you could see the ice under the boarded floor, hockey playoffs are next weekend):
I was there in search of S&W revolvers and vintage grips. There was precious little of either. I got there about 90 minutes after they opened the doors, so it is entirely possible that something was snatched up before I got there, but I doubt it. The main floor was dominated by a few large gun dealers, and what revolvers they did have were either new productions S&Ws (tons of Governors and small beadblasted J-frames) and Taurus guns in bizarre colors (white frames, pink hammer; green frame, jeweled hammer - weird stuff).
A few tables on the main floor had some pre-lock S&Ws, but they were mostly in bad shape. There was a $799 686 snubby with combat grips that looked like it had never been cleaned, and was stored by tossing it into a flatbed pickup. Really would have needed some work to clean up. There was a $699 6-inch 686 with targets that was just dingy. I saw nickeled pre27 in the case, but it case not for sale (to attract people to stop and look at the cheap knives and old off-market grips?). There was a nickeled 27-2 for $1600 with full case, but the grips were modern S&W laminate.
There were endless fancy AR uppers and lowers, and if I was in the market for a new carbine, it would have been a much better show for me. I also breezed past rifles and shotguns without a second look, so I can't speak to those, either. On the main floor, I would say revolvers were about 6-7% of the handguns showing, and used pre-lock S&Ws were about 20% of that.
The other 40% of the show was set up outside the main floor, on the concourse where you would normally buy hotdogs and drinks if it were game night. When we went in, we headed for the main floor, and almost didn't see much of the outside stuff because it didn't look that great from the door -- but about 40% of the show was there, and a lotmore S&Ws. It seemed like a lot of the smaller sellers and antique type sellers were on the outside. They had a ton of Model 19s, 10s and a few really nice 13s. There was one table where the guy was asking really outrageous prices on stuff, Gunbroker-plus. ($1600 for pre-lock 4-inch 686 in average condition). But on some of these tables, inside the wooden cases, were some nicer guns. A few were even moderately priced. Very little big bore, almost all .357 or .38s. Lots of pencil barrels.
The only gun that really caught my eye the entire day was a minty Lew Horton 3-inch 24 with combat grips. It was priced at $1095, which seemed reasonable. I don't need this gun, and for a second thought about offering $1k cash and then flipping it on Gunbroker for $1400, but I've been the beneficiary of some really good deals from S&W collectors, so I didn't feel right about trying to milk someone else for the money. Hopefully that gun will go to a good home today or tomorrow.
My son bought son freshly glazed nuts, and sampled pretty much every one of the half-dozen-plus beef jerky stands. I lived in California a few years ago, and so I was pleased to see that only about 10-15% of the show was t-shirts, flashlights, coins, and other barely-related-to-guns items. In CA it was more like 90% junk and 10% guns.
Oh, the ammo... there were two large stands selling ammo. The one on the main floor was mostly reasonably priced. The one on the outside was a little crazy on some of the prices. But what really ticked me off was the attitude of the sellers. The guy on the floor pointed out where the .44 magnum was so I could find it but then would not get off his cell phone on what was clearly a personal call (talking sports) to help me and ring me up. The guy on the outside with some of the more insane ammo prices, actually had a box a reasonably priced .500 S&W I wanted, but he had such a huge attitude like I was bothering him asking if he has .44 special or magnum and where in his disorganized table I could find them. So I skipped both. Ammo supply in central Texas isn't awful, so there was no one swarming these tables.
But back to the attitude of the sellers... This was my only real complaint. There were a ton of great people there (the lady at the El Paso Saddlery booth couldn't have been nicer) -- but there were WAY TO MANY sellers there who didn't give a ****. There were sellers where who had parked their butts into their folding lawn chairs and were deeply engrossed in their magazines and didn't care if you were looking, were browsing, or were shoplifting from them - they wouldn't look up. There were a few that seemed more interested in talking to the owners of the booth across from them (perhaps they are paired monthly and catching up?). And there were just a ton who had that glazed-out, resigned look of "sigh, no one is buying" look that you might expect at the end of the 2nd day after a long exhibition or street fair. But, again, I was in there only 90 minutes after they opened the doors! They had to put in a full day today and tomorrow. Oh the attitude those Sunday shoppers must be in for. Again, some guys were awesome. Some were really busy hustling plastic pistols as fast as they could. But some just sucked.
Kudos to Premiere Gun Shows for an overall good show. I would give it an overall B+, and a C- for S&W revolver guys. I would also give it a C- for the sellers, who really should be given a pep talk by the management to be engaged. After all, the management are the ones who pay to market the show on billboards and in print, and then when the customers come, they get the cold shoulder or worse from the vendors.