Knives at gun shows?

freedoom

freedoom

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Jan 31, 2010
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There's a gun show this upcoming weekend and i'm not really a gun person but i'm wondering what i might expect to find in terms of knives for sale at a gun show. I don't really want to pay the entry fee if i'm not going to find anything there.
 
It really depends on where you are at in the U.S. I'm in Tennessee and I go to GunShows here alot. This is how it is: Every other gunshow that comes to town will have a good knife booth. Some shows will have NOTHING, and others will have all kinds of good knives. Its a gamble everytime.. I went to one this past weekend and they didn't really have anything, one guy had a Microtech OTF. But I have been to them where there are Spydercos, Emersons, ect.
 
In my experience the quality of knives at gun shows is usually pretty low.
 
I have called people out at gunshows for selling fakes also, especially fake Emersons, so you have to watch out for that..
 
In the few gun shows that I've been too (most of them pretty large with hundreds of vendors), the knives were mostly wartime vintage knives and cheapo off shore weapon type knives, daggers, swords, and some marital arts stuff. SAK's were probably the most recognized name brand of knife there, and there were few of those.
 
At the Alabama Gun Collectors Assn. shows at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic center, I have found and purchased:

A NIB millenium large classic Sebenza

A custom 5-1/2" Ralph Madd Maxx

A few Greco's from John himself (although he hasn't shown up there in the last few years.)

There is always a vendor of Randalls there. Two or three local custom makers of good repute. I have also found a couple of Busses there, but only two over many years.

There is also a vast selection of junk.
 
We often have a few dedicated knife dealers set up at the larger local shows. Some of the smaller ones are kind of lacking for the sharp pointy items though.
We're also lucky to have a local Busse Combat dealer if you're into that kind of thing. But there's always at least 2 other selling production stuff.
I don't know that I've seen any stellar prices on the guys selling production stuff but they're there.
 
I go to a lot of Ohio gun shows & it's hit/miss. Some have a lot of knives with some very good prices, and some have almost no knives, or mostly junky knives. The great thing about gun shows is you never know what you'll find.
 
freedoom said:
There's a gun show this upcoming weekend and i'm not really a gun person but i'm wondering what i might expect to find in terms of knives for sale at a gun show. I don't really want to pay the entry fee if i'm not going to find anything there.
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Every gun show is different. Go, check it out and have fun. Just don't expect any bargains.
 
I've found some of my best deals on knives at gunshows, and made some great trades too - but agreed, it's usually pretty spotty. Let the Law of Averages work for you, go to a lot of gunshows - I try and get to at least one every other month...
 
There are almost more knife dealers at Mid-Atlantic gun shows as there are gun dealers.

Usually 3 or 4 vendors with quality knives; and about twice as many selling off shore, low quality stuff; and a couple of vendors selling fantasy swords & the like.

If you take the time, you will usually find most brands of quality blades spread out through the show.
 
At the show here in Orange County there's always a huge knife vendor that has everything, from the large manufacturers to Sebenzas and Striders. The prices are list, but you can try out a wide selection of knives. Then there's a large Kershaw dealer, and a few smaller booths.
 
Tsujigiri said:
At the show here in Orange County there's always a huge knife vendor that has everything, from the large manufacturers to Sebenzas and Striders. The prices are list, but you can try out a wide selection of knives. Then there's a large Kershaw dealer, and a few smaller booths.
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In Ohio, most gun show knives are below retail prices.
 
It depends on what kind of knives you are interested in and not all gun shows are the same, so it is hard for anyone to say unless they have experience with the particular gun show promoter and locale. That being said, the larger gun shows in my neck of the woods (Central Texas) usually have at least 2-3 large knife dealers, another half dozen or so small dealers and/or makers as well as some knives scattered amongst the guns, ammo, tactical gear, jewelry, coins, military collectibles, jerky, etc. The knives range anywhere from absolute junk to quality collectables with much greater representation on the junk end of the spectrum. Some of the production knives I can recall seeing at a recent show are Benchmade, Ka-Bar, Cold Steel, Spyderco, Almar, Emerson, Mcusta, Chris Reeve, Moore Maker, Kershaw, Case, Boker, Ontario, ESEE, Puma, Buck, CRKT, and Gerber. There was one dealer with a nice selection fixed blade customs, mostly works of Dozier & Crotts.

My personal observations are that most the dealers know very little about the knives that they are trying to hawk at close to MSRP and that somehow makes me feel better about using them to handle a knife that I will end up buying elsewhere for considerably less if I like how it feels. I enjoy talking to some of the makers and knowledgeable dealers and have picked up some of their knives at bargain to fair prices, but most the time I leave without buying a knife.

Knife shopping at gun shows is a mixed bag and may not be for you but fondling knives to the sweet aroma of beef jerky and cinnamon-vanilla roasted pecans on a Saturday morning sure sounds better than mowing the yard. Of course the yard still needs mowing and you just blew maybe $15 on gas, parking and entry fee just to fondle a few overpriced knives so keep that in mind.
 
We have a couple good dealers here for new stuff.What i look for is collectors thinning out or selling off their stuff.Like was already said,it's a crap shoot.But i like to walk them anyway.I take a "tradin' bag" with me too.Gun shows rock! Enjoy them while you can.Present administration would love to ban them.
 
Some of the big shows have a pretty good collection of knives. I've seen some real nice selection of Cold Steel knives at the Atlanta shows a few years ago.
 
I haven't seen any good deals at the local gun shows with exception of the Kershaw guy that sells factory blems and new knives.
He had some screamin' good deals.
Everybody else seemed to have factory catalog prices that were easily beaten by online stores.
If there were other good deals I'm not knowledgeable enough to recognize them.
 
I have gotten some great deals on knives from gun shows. Whenever there is one locally, or even if there is a large one far away from me, I do my best to make it out to them.
 
Hissatsu1 made some good points...gun shows are hit or miss. That said, I have found some good deals. Usually after I strike up a conversation with the seller its easy to tell if they're a dealer or a collector. I have had better luck with collectors, I think they feel better about selling to someone else who collects. I have also mentioned that I was looking for a specific knife or brand and have had a few pull out a box from under the table they have for sale. Usually hear that they don't display them because they are higher end knives and don't want them to walk or be finger fudged to much. I scored some nice Spyderco balisongs and vintage Case that way. Good luck and happy hunting.
 
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