I went to an Arlington show around 1996 with some friends. He had one of those early 80's Gibson Flying V's (solid finish, no pickguard) that he was trying to (unsuccessfully) sell. I told him to let me have the case and he went around the building with the guitar. Mind you, it was just an 80's Gibson black tolex V case. I had about 20 people ask "what's in the case" and I would tell them, "My friend is somewhere around here with the guitar. It is sort of a light brown finish with gold plated parts and a white pickguard. He told me it was from the late 50's." You never saw a group of guys scurrying around trying to find my friend!
Once I took a nice '78 Jazz Bass that had that "soft" finish that some of them had and the first person that wanted to look at it was Norm's. They thought the finish wasn't original (it was) and that the bass may have had a 2 Tek bridge installed and filled (it never had one) After they decided it wasn't worth their time to purchase it I then went around (unsuccessfully I might add) trying to sell or trade the bass. This was around 2002. Seems like word gets around quickly among the dealers. So nobody wanted to touch the bass after Norm's passed. I had luck selling a couple of pieces in '95 but the 2002 show was the last time I've attended one.