Gun Show @ OC Fairgroungs

[moyneur]

I went w/ some buddies to the Crossroads gun show today, Friday 3/26, took an hour to get it. My buddies waited in line for ammo for 3 hours and were about 1/2 way through it when the decided to go to LAX instead. They paid lower price and waited to get in for 10 in. Not a whole lot to see at the gun show, this will be my last gun show, pretty weak not a lot to see gun wise, and a bunch of over price crap.

[DentonandSasquatchShow]

You are where I was about 6 years ago.

[Dario562]

I'm glad I didn't go on Fri. Thanks for the info.

[Ignatius]

Was there anything good Saturday and Sunday?

[SomeGuy75]

Unfortunately Reno gun shows are going the way of California. The last couple years have been getting bad.

[SanDiego619]

I've never been to a gun show, I heard all they have is beef jerky and fake nazi stuff.

[theduracellbigd]

Originally Posted by SanDiego619

I've never been to a gun show, I heard all they have is beef jerky and fake nazi stuff.

HA HA, that's pretty much what i saw 15 years ago and stopped going. All kidding aside , if you are looking to buy guns or ammo, better off at a store selling guns.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Originally Posted by SanDiego619

I've never been to a gun show, I heard all they have is beef jerky and fake nazi stuff.

FUD.

Lots of airsoft grade accessories, stun guns, and opportunities to acquire a ccw in every southwest state except CA. Get there early and you may see some higher end swap meet grade leather goods before it all gets snapped up.

[Supersapper]

I got an email response to a question I sent to MiWall asking about prices they were going to charge and even if they had any primers or powder. The lady replying from MiWall said they won't be at the gun show

I'm bummed...it always seemed like they were there no matter what.

[moyneur]

This is what to expect just to get it at the fairgrounds. Look closely the line wraps around the parking lot.

[ocabj]

Originally Posted by DentonandSasquatchShow

You are where I was about 6 years ago.

And where I was about 12 years ago.

[oc16]

The OC fair grounds have nothing to offer. Guns are over priced and ammo is just another can of worms. That Gun show always have the same sellers trying to sell their junk at premium prices, realistically I think that they set up tables just so they can brag about their stuff they will not sell. Every show it seemed like the gun tables were being phased out and were getting replaced with jerky, kitchenware, women's clothing and fake jewelry.

2016/2017 is when I stopped going.

[CAL.BAR]

Originally Posted by moyneur

This is what to expect just to get it at the fairgrounds. Look closely the line wraps around the parking lot.

I love the folding dolly guy thinking it's 1985 again and he needsa CART because he was going to load up on all the cheap ammo! (sigh) I remember 1985. Good times.

[bigchinner]

I remember the shows in Pomona with the army jeep, people in realistic era period clothing and the black powder exhibition. People were friendlier and honestly were not just there for the $. I was happier back then too. : )

[gumby]

Originally Posted by bigchinner

I remember the shows in Pomona with the army jeep, people in realistic era period clothing and the black powder exhibition. People were friendlier and honestly were not just there for the $. I was happier back then too. : )

Also known as the good old days.

[wamphyri13]

Originally Posted by ocabj

And where I was about 12 years ago.

And my Axe!

[PacificElectric]

Now im scared to go lol

[Batman]

Here's my One-Star Yelp review I put back in 2019. I still stand by my review.

Why as a consumer I fired Crossroads of the West Gun Shows

Let's start out by saying I'm a firearms enthusiast. I enjoy shooting, whether it be at targets both paper and steel, clay pigeons, etc. There's something fundamentally satisfying about hitting your target. I look at it much like golf, except I'm trying to get a hole in one with every shot. Shooting is also an expensive hobby, and I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on guns, ammunition, targets, range time, etc. I've been going to gun shows for years, and while the price has steadily increased and the number of vendors has decreased, there was always a chance of getting the bargain, finding the deal, or getting the part you didn't even know you were looking for. And as most people, since I don't have a money tree in my back yard, I would often sell one gun to finance another. Gun shows have been a great resource in this aspect. Where else would you find a group of like-minded individuals that like myself would be looking for "the deal"?

So the last time I went to the Orange County Fairgrounds to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show. I brought along two guns to try to sell. I brought them up to the counter to get them checked in, and I was met by Tony at the firearms check-in desk, whose first words to me were "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you. You can't have signs saying your guns are for sale."

"Excuse me? I had called the Utah office and asked, and they said it shouldn't be an issue."
"Yeah.... It's not us. It's the Fairgrounds. They're requiring it."
"So why did the office tell me something different?"
"They probably didn't know, but you can't have signs."

Now, to be fair, Tony was completely and 100% accurate when he said "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you." Since I'd previously called the Utah office, I was even madder. Selling guns through osmosis isn't really a proven strategy. Hell, anything through osmosis is sketchy at best. He kept telling me to stand down, that they're doing what's required (incidentally, for the married guys out there, have you ever had any success telling your wife to calm down after you said something? Me neither! That's how I felt. But I digress...) So faced with the choice of walking around with a gun slung over each arm to hope that someone asks vs. no guns or signs, I chose the first option.

So ¾ of the way through the show, I see the promoter's table. I figure at least let them know my experience, since they didn't bother to write down that there weren't signs allowed in their site. Tracy, the main promoter was there speaking to a customer, so I patiently waited. The girl next to Tracy with the red and pink dyed hair motioned for me to come over. I explained how I was disappointed with their policy. She told me that there was no such policy, that signs were allowed, and that she'd told them up front that several times. As mad as I was at Tony, now it was worse. Because someone was lying, and that's not cool. "So why did Tony tell me no?!!" At this point, she basically shut down, saying that I interrupted her conversation with the other customer (even though she called me over since I was in line waiting), but that she would talk to Tony. I said "Great! I'll go with you so that we can get this settled once and for all." Of course, she had to take care of a few things first. I said, "no problem..... I'll wait."

We went out to see Tony. She spoke to him, but I couldn't hear the conversation. The girl said that yes, I could have the signs. All I could do was look at Tony with the "You gotta be kidding me" look. His response? "Don't be looking at me with that attitude!"

"Yeah, I'll look at you with this attitude. You were supposedly told that people could come in with signs and wasted my time since I found out I could in fact have signs!"

His response floored me. "Well I can ask you to leave then and give you a refund. How do you like that?!!"

Realizing this was a no win situation, I walked away, and as I left I heard him say "Yeah... I thought so!"

Congratulations, Crossroads of the West. You won your battle, but lost the war. If this is your idea as to how to bring more people to your shows and provide customer service, you missed the concept completely. As a customer, however, I'm simply not going to pay for you as an entity I spend my money with. There are plenty of local dealers that I'll be happy to spend my money on, because that's why I come to gun shows. Otherwise there's Calguns, Gunbroker, Armslist, and heck even Amazon and Ebay.

Or to put it in simpler terms, you're fired.

[CamW]

Miwall was back at the OC gunshow, and they have PRIMERS!
Large and small rifle, large pistol and shotgun primers.
NO small pistol.
Prices were $68-78 per thousand depending on the brand or type.
Limit 5,000 primers.

[Russian Bot]

Originally Posted by Batman

Here's my One-Star Yelp review I put back in 2019. I still stand by my review.

Why as a consumer I fired Crossroads of the West Gun Shows

Let's start out by saying I'm a firearms enthusiast. I enjoy shooting, whether it be at targets both paper and steel, clay pigeons, etc. There's something fundamentally satisfying about hitting your target. I look at it much like golf, except I'm trying to get a hole in one with every shot. Shooting is also an expensive hobby, and I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on guns, ammunition, targets, range time, etc. I've been going to gun shows for years, and while the price has steadily increased and the number of vendors has decreased, there was always a chance of getting the bargain, finding the deal, or getting the part you didn't even know you were looking for. And as most people, since I don't have a money tree in my back yard, I would often sell one gun to finance another. Gun shows have been a great resource in this aspect. Where else would you find a group of like-minded individuals that like myself would be looking for "the deal"?

So the last time I went to the Orange County Fairgrounds to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show. I brought along two guns to try to sell. I brought them up to the counter to get them checked in, and I was met by Tony at the firearms check-in desk, whose first words to me were "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you. You can't have signs saying your guns are for sale."

"Excuse me? I had called the Utah office and asked, and they said it shouldn't be an issue."
"Yeah.... It's not us. It's the Fairgrounds. They're requiring it."
"So why did the office tell me something different?"
"They probably didn't know, but you can't have signs."

Now, to be fair, Tony was completely and 100% accurate when he said "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you." Since I'd previously called the Utah office, I was even madder. Selling guns through osmosis isn't really a proven strategy. Hell, anything through osmosis is sketchy at best. He kept telling me to stand down, that they're doing what's required (incidentally, for the married guys out there, have you ever had any success telling your wife to calm down after you said something? Me neither! That's how I felt. But I digress...) So faced with the choice of walking around with a gun slung over each arm to hope that someone asks vs. no guns or signs, I chose the first option.

So ¾ of the way through the show, I see the promoter's table. I figure at least let them know my experience, since they didn't bother to write down that there weren't signs allowed in their site. Tracy, the main promoter was there speaking to a customer, so I patiently waited. The girl next to Tracy with the red and pink dyed hair motioned for me to come over. I explained how I was disappointed with their policy. She told me that there was no such policy, that signs were allowed, and that she'd told them up front that several times. As mad as I was at Tony, now it was worse. Because someone was lying, and that's not cool. "So why did Tony tell me no?!!" At this point, she basically shut down, saying that I interrupted her conversation with the other customer (even though she called me over since I was in line waiting), but that she would talk to Tony. I said "Great! I'll go with you so that we can get this settled once and for all." Of course, she had to take care of a few things first. I said, "no problem..... I'll wait."

We went out to see Tony. She spoke to him, but I couldn't hear the conversation. The girl said that yes, I could have the signs. All I could do was look at Tony with the "You gotta be kidding me" look. His response? "Don't be looking at me with that attitude!"

"Yeah, I'll look at you with this attitude. You were supposedly told that people could come in with signs and wasted my time since I found out I could in fact have signs!"

His response floored me. "Well I can ask you to leave then and give you a refund. How do you like that?!!"

Realizing this was a no win situation, I walked away, and as I left I heard him say "Yeah... I thought so!"

Congratulations, Crossroads of the West. You won your battle, but lost the war. If this is your idea as to how to bring more people to your shows and provide customer service, you missed the concept completely. As a customer, however, I'm simply not going to pay for you as an entity I spend my money with. There are plenty of local dealers that I'll be happy to spend my money on, because that's why I come to gun shows. Otherwise there's Calguns, Gunbroker, Armslist, and heck even Amazon and Ebay.

Or to put it in simpler terms, you're fired.

I used to run a table at their shows. Policy at OC and Ontario changes with the wind. I was once told at Ontario that I couldn't bring my air soft guns in even with no gas simply used to display what I was selling on Friday by venue staff at set up. Saturday morning my wife brought them in by mistake and as I was putting them into our back pack Tracy asked if we were packing up to leave, I told her no venue staff told me we couldn't have these here even though they're only displays. That was my last show with them before other thing happened with a supplier and then Covid.

[MattB]

Gun shows in California are generally terrible relative to those in less restrictive states from my experience. I went to one once and won't be going to another.

[moyneur]

Originally Posted by Batman

Here's my One-Star Yelp review I put back in 2019. I still stand by my review.

Why as a consumer I fired Crossroads of the West Gun Shows

Let's start out by saying I'm a firearms enthusiast. I enjoy shooting, whether it be at targets both paper and steel, clay pigeons, etc. There's something fundamentally satisfying about hitting your target. I look at it much like golf, except I'm trying to get a hole in one with every shot. Shooting is also an expensive hobby, and I've spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on guns, ammunition, targets, range time, etc. I've been going to gun shows for years, and while the price has steadily increased and the number of vendors has decreased, there was always a chance of getting the bargain, finding the deal, or getting the part you didn't even know you were looking for. And as most people, since I don't have a money tree in my back yard, I would often sell one gun to finance another. Gun shows have been a great resource in this aspect. Where else would you find a group of like-minded individuals that like myself would be looking for "the deal"?

So the last time I went to the Orange County Fairgrounds to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show. I brought along two guns to try to sell. I brought them up to the counter to get them checked in, and I was met by Tony at the firearms check-in desk, whose first words to me were "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you. You can't have signs saying your guns are for sale."

"Excuse me? I had called the Utah office and asked, and they said it shouldn't be an issue."
"Yeah.... It's not us. It's the Fairgrounds. They're requiring it."
"So why did the office tell me something different?"
"They probably didn't know, but you can't have signs."

Now, to be fair, Tony was completely and 100% accurate when he said "You're not going to like what I've got to tell you." Since I'd previously called the Utah office, I was even madder. Selling guns through osmosis isn't really a proven strategy. Hell, anything through osmosis is sketchy at best. He kept telling me to stand down, that they're doing what's required (incidentally, for the married guys out there, have you ever had any success telling your wife to calm down after you said something? Me neither! That's how I felt. But I digress...) So faced with the choice of walking around with a gun slung over each arm to hope that someone asks vs. no guns or signs, I chose the first option.

So ¾ of the way through the show, I see the promoter's table. I figure at least let them know my experience, since they didn't bother to write down that there weren't signs allowed in their site. Tracy, the main promoter was there speaking to a customer, so I patiently waited. The girl next to Tracy with the red and pink dyed hair motioned for me to come over. I explained how I was disappointed with their policy. She told me that there was no such policy, that signs were allowed, and that she'd told them up front that several times. As mad as I was at Tony, now it was worse. Because someone was lying, and that's not cool. "So why did Tony tell me no?!!" At this point, she basically shut down, saying that I interrupted her conversation with the other customer (even though she called me over since I was in line waiting), but that she would talk to Tony. I said "Great! I'll go with you so that we can get this settled once and for all." Of course, she had to take care of a few things first. I said, "no problem..... I'll wait."

We went out to see Tony. She spoke to him, but I couldn't hear the conversation. The girl said that yes, I could have the signs. All I could do was look at Tony with the "You gotta be kidding me" look. His response? "Don't be looking at me with that attitude!"

"Yeah, I'll look at you with this attitude. You were supposedly told that people could come in with signs and wasted my time since I found out I could in fact have signs!"

His response floored me. "Well I can ask you to leave then and give you a refund. How do you like that?!!"

Realizing this was a no win situation, I walked away, and as I left I heard him say "Yeah... I thought so!"

Congratulations, Crossroads of the West. You won your battle, but lost the war. If this is your idea as to how to bring more people to your shows and provide customer service, you missed the concept completely. As a customer, however, I'm simply not going to pay for you as an entity I spend my money with. There are plenty of local dealers that I'll be happy to spend my money on, because that's why I come to gun shows. Otherwise there's Calguns, Gunbroker, Armslist, and heck even Amazon and Ebay.

Or to put it in simpler terms, you're fired.

Nailed It!