I think it may be a sign of the times. I talked with someone in the know who mentioned membership in the MVPA has gone to half of what it was a few years ago. As for the dealers, why travel all the way to anywhere, and have to pay the shipping costs associated with it, if most of your customers are just sitting at home and hitting the "add to cart" button.
I also heard some talk that with the newest wave of releases, from the Humvees to the M939, and everything in between, there is more of a market for the newer stuff's parts, where businesses are keeping theirs going, than with the collectors of the older equipment. This woudl not be applicable to all the dealers mind you.
When I went to the Portland show a couple years ago, it was the same thing. Many of the larger dealers were not there, there were whole blocks of tables empty. The reason people gave then was that it was on the West coast, and too far away for a lot of the dealers. With Topeka pretty much geographically dead center in the US, I would have thought there would be more dealers.
Then you have to look at an example like Wallace Wade, who specializes in the military tires. He does have a lot of them pre-ordered, so gets STA to ship them directly to the show. He also brings a lot on spec, and if they don't sell he has to pay the shipping back to STA. These days, you can go to a company like Summit racing, or Simple tire, get the same tires for the same price, and shipping to the border is either included or very cheap.
Perhaps the days of the brick and mortar military vehicle show, much like so many of the clubs, is numbered. I sure hope not, I like the opportunity to bargain, barter, and find those things I didn't even know I needed.
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