I see posted that its $12.00 to get in.  I guess I'll check it out Sat. morning. Anyone else plan on going? Want to meet up anywhere?
I've ordered ammo online this week. We'll see what's available at the show.

So Me Shooters had some American Eagle 100rd Val packs for $36.00 today.

I'm gonna try out the one in Independence this weekend and see how it goes..

The one in Columbia blew...worst yet. I'm going to spend my money with the new promotors next time, I'm tired of wasting it at RK shows.

I was at the one in Colombia. Lots of guns. And a horse show?

I have gear at Metcalf. Stop by and say hello

Were we at the same show? The shows in Columbia continue to be eroded by things other than firearms on display. I'd say a full 2/3 of the tables had no guns and 1/3 had little to nothing to do with guns. I'm tired of giving them $7 and not even getting an hour of entertainment walking around.

Well lets see Dieaners from St joe was there with full tables of guns and gear. Guy from West Plains Mo was there with 26 tables of nothing but guns. Ammo dealer from Iowa had 25 tables of ammo and supplies. Patriot Supply was there with AR gear. Couple guys from the Springfiedl area had a ton of guns.

And there was the tables of jerkey, "HI CAN I CLEAN YOUR GLASSES GUY". But thats at every show. If you are looking for a gun show with just guns your not going to find anywhere in the country. I can say that because I travel all over the country attending and showing at gun shows.

The only one that is close is the Missouri Valley Arms Collectors Ass show and there you will have usually older curio and relics. I was at both shows and Columbia had more guns on the floor then the KC Show.

As far as the  bucks. The gate was $10.00 and the most off for a coupon would be a 2 dollar coupon. So 8 bucks. You can't get into a bad habit for 8 bucks.

And there are the guys who come in that want to low ball you for a quarter but act like what they have is worth 3 times what it actually is.

But that is a gun show.

Nevermind

Good show over all, my legs are killing me from working it all day

We must agree to disagree then. I would still maintain that about 1/3 of the tables had any firearms on them, when I was there there were even some tables with nothing on them Saturday morning. Ammo was one strong point of the show, everything else was a fail for me. I'm tired of paying to get in the show and find nothing worth spending my money on (and my wallet opens pretty easy for firearms).

I went sunday morning. I  was dissapointed with the ammo selectiom. Maybe I went on the wrong day, but the gun selection was poor and high priced. The ammo they had looked like old beat up boxes bought at a garage sale. If you were in the market for a knife or some homade fudge it would be the place to be. I thought the Independence event center was much easier to get into that the shows at the airport. Maybe i expect to much but it will be a long time before i go back to another gun show.

Anyone attend the Independence show?

Independence show  was the one I was at.

I was at the Independence Show: I have been doing gun shows since the early 1980's, am currently doing 47 gun shows per year over 5 states, and might have an opinion

Keep in mind that this was a first time show at a new venue by a promoter new to the area. So, as long as the promoter does their job it will do nothing but improve over time. There were a few gaps in the items offered, but this is symptomatic of a new show, and gets plugged rather quickly as capitalists fix it by nature. Example for this show: there were no large ammo dealers there (If you showed up next show with a truck load of ammo, you most likely would go home with an empty truck).

There were also a rather large number of empty tables that had been reserved, but the vendors did not show as promised. This too is symptomatic of a new show and tends to correct itself real quickly by an experienced promoter.

Location of and parking at the new facility were awesome.The crowd was huge and stayed late (the show even ran an extra half hour on Sunday due to the large crowd still shopping and buying).

Overall, I think the new Independence gun show will evolve into an awesome show, for both the public and the vendors.

Glad to have some input on the show. I was there and I also had representation at the Colombia Show. I like the last person who posted have done shows across the country for a long time doing 40 to 50 shows a year.

I have also had retail stores and have been invloved in wholesale/ retail shows of different products.

Every year is different. Depends on buying trends and economic conditions. This year money is tight. The midterm elections coming up have put a squeeze on spending. Every time there is a major election the economy slows. This midterm election has the same footprint as a Presidential election. Bottom line is people want the most bang for there dollar.

If a promoter of any kind is going to make it and survive the business of old can't continue. I talked with a lot of the vendors at the Metcalf Show.

They sold a lot of inexspensive items. The crowd on Sat was estimated to be at 5,000 through the door. But that was expected because of the massive advertising blitz that was done for this show. There were a lot of new faces. New money.

This was a smart move on the promoters side. The down side was the small showing of vendors.

The down side on the advertising is that the promoter touted the Independence show as being a massive show through its advertising. The videos on TV showed tons of dealers and massive crowds. When the massive crowds showed all they saw was a handful of dealers. I have seen more dealers at the Gardner, Ks show. But you expect to see a small show in Gardner, Ks.

This may be the reason the attendance on Sunday was majorly lacking. The promoter even closed the show a half hour early on Sunday.

The Colombia show is a small show.  Its not advertised as a large show. For the size of the show it had a good door. But again the same old vendors you will see there at everyshow. But you go to that show knowing what is there.

The gunshow business is growing through some growing pains in this area. The Missouri Valley Arms Collector Show has let Chuck Samuel go. He has ran that show for close to 40 years. Maybe its good, maybe its not.

There are going to be a ton of shows in this area in the near future. This should drive prices down for vendors. But vendors also have to know that they are going to have to offer deals to the consumer in order to stay in business.

i didn't think it was bad.  got a bird barrel for my 870 for a little over 100 and a 240 rnd can of greek m2 ball for my garand for 160.  also finally found someone local with stripper clips.  what i didn't find was an h2 or spikes buffer.

does anyone know the guy that was there with all the garand and m1 carbine parts?  i got a card but lost it.

other than the round going off at the section next to me, it was pretty good on my view point, sold everything I had, GunStuff4U im working on the cash for that "kit" dont forget to post some stuff on my site hint hint nudge nudge

SilverSam1 POST more LOL

My buddy told me about that.  He said that they were standing there and someone dropped a reload or something and a round went off about 8 feet away from them.

Man nothing like hearing a loud bang with a live projectile flying to jump start your day.

Metcaf had a good show.  We moved more product than expected, and met some nice people.

The vendor's first name is Randy. Please send me a PM or email if you would like his phone number.

Here's the scoop on the discharged round. It happened about 10 feet from my tables.

A customer had bought a bag of loose packed .45 reloads in a plastic bag. He set the bag on a railing, and it slipped and fell about 4 feet to the concrete surface. When it hit the floor, 1 round of .45  ACP discharged making  a loud bang, and I believe a minor surface flesh wound on someone who caught the brass.

The guy was covered by police and show staff immediately, and due to the nature of no one at fault there were no citations or arrests.

ya i was there when that went off.  i stopped by kid that was selling ammo cans and he was saying the bullet landed about a foot from him on the concrete floor.