Last night we conducted our monthly meeting as normal, but I just wanted to share some of the prices I saw at the High Caliber gun show in Houston at the George R. Brown convention center this past January 26th. If you have never attended an event at GRB, then you may not appreciate just how large the complex is. It’s subdivided up into 5 partitions on the main ground hall floor, depending on what event is there and how many partitions they need.

I arrived at the show miraculously at 8:45AM after parking in the underground garage across the street and paying $15 to park! I don’t recall it ever being that high before. Oh well, after determining that the show was being housed in Hall A, my friend and I walked towards Hall A to discover no ticket vendors out front like normal. Instead, we were directed by Harris County Sherrif’s Deputies inside and up the escalator to the second floor. Yep, no more Houston PD working the show. It seems HPD Officers are no longer allowed to work the High Caliber gun show. So, I had heard this the day before but it was interesting to see it in action. I mean, there were all these jacketed Agents of Harris County and they were all seemingly in good physical condition. I had expected portly fellows with the letters HPD on their backs eyeballing everyone. Instead, I saw physically fit Deputies. Hmm.

Anyway, we entered and go in line. We arrived in line near the end of Hall C and close to the beginning of Hall D. Over the 15 minutes prior to the show opening, we chatted with people around us. When the line started to move for entry, I looked back and saw the steady stream of new people going to the end of the line nearly all the way back at the end of the convention center at Hall E! Wow, that’s a lot of people. Since we arrived relatively early, I was able to walk the show floor in about 45 minutes checking prices of everything. By the way, the show was in a single room on the 3rd floor with a permanent cinder block wall. The vendor turnout was so small, they didn’t even put it on the first floor like normal.

Here are some of the prices I saw at the show:

$40 – Glock 22 magazine

$150 – Glock 17, 33 round magazine

$400 – Chrome Bolt Carrier Group for AR-15 (no milspec models to be seen)

$700 – Rock River Arms complete AR-15 Lower

$875 – Kel Tec SUB2000, 9MM

$1500 – Draco AK Pistol

$3000 – Sig Sauer SIG716

$3200 – Colt LE6940 AR-15 in Flat Dark Earth

$25-70 each for Magpul PMAGs

$1000 – BetaMag 100 rounder.

There were no primers or powder to be had. The usual reloading supplier did not even show up. There was a single guy with some used dies and some 100 packs of various bullets on a half sized table, like he was selling from his personal collection.

All in all, it’s representative of the what the panic buyers have done to our beloved industry. They have created such an artificial and immediate demand for items out of their fear that they have forced the market prices of gear to previously never seen levels. In short, if you don’t already have it, you won’t find it.

My personal backorders for some additional magazines are still on backorder. I’m set for most everything. Most, but not all.

If you are lucky enough to be able to purchase directly from the CMP, they have just instituted a new 10 box per year limitation on their HXP Greek 30-06 ammo. 10 cans is still a great deal for most shooters, but it is representative of just how many people they have on order. They have a 30-60 day shipping delay for ALL orders as well, so don’t expect to get it fast if you can even get it in.