I'm having a hard time understanding what you want. It sounds like you want to have early access to the show. Which you can do - all you have to do is pay the vendor admission fee. You chose not to. This is simply how swap meets and hamfests work. I can understand the frustration, not getting a chance at something, or seeing someone else walking off with something you wanted to buy, but, that's just how sales of anything work. You can't not allow vendors to have early access to buying stuff from each other, because, well... they have to be in there early in order to set up. Not to mention, most of the sellers already know each other. Many trades and sales were worked out days ago. One source of frustration that I see a simple solution to, is how many sales happened before the show, privately, via email, based on uploaded spreadsheets and lists of things vendors were going to bring for sale. Sure, it's frustrating if you're not checking the spreadsheets regularly, and miss out that way - but what's worse is when the item in question is physically at the show, there at a table as if it's out for sale, with no way of knowing that it's already been sold. I know at least one person that stood at a vendor's table for an hour, waiting for the vendor to return, trying to buy an item, only to find that it had been sold days before. Simple solution to this. If something is sold, either don't bring it in to your table, or put a SOLD sign on it. It should be easily clear to anyone walking around if an item is available or not. You can't pretend you can block presales, vendor to vendor sales before the event, etc. It just needs to be done in such a way as to not mislead other buyers. -Ian On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 4:03 PM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

Nothing in your response changes the fact that sellers are granted exclusive early access. There is no way that can be called fair, regardless of what is done wherever else.

I was going to stay out.of this conversation. But upon hearing repeatedly how vendors should own the whole show, And then there was those who brag about reselling items found the very same day at a significant markup. I just couldn't keep silent. Don't get me wrong most of the vendors I dealt with were fair and respectable. There is no way to prevent every instance of impropriety. But you don't have to lay out the red carpet for those simply looking to gouge. I guess I'm not supposed to use words like that. Oh and this is not about "money", mine or someone else's. Nor is it about "anger". I did leave the show a little angry, still am. I'm actually grieving at this point. I passed up 2 items, 1 was free, the other was 20$ and didn't work. Maybe neither did. It wasn't that I could have made a killing on either. I just wanted them.

On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 02:39:50 PM EST, Dean Notarnicola <dnotarnicola@gmail.com> wrote:

“One person’s trash is another’s treasure” holds true here. What one may consider a golden discovery may have been overlooked by many others. I was finding things I wanted well into the swap meet. Speaking strictly for myself, my three tables were not nearly enough space to display all I had for sale, so it came out in batches over the course of the morning. Persistence was rewarded for those who came back for second or third looks.

On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 2:25 PM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

I was not exhibiting anger, but a measure of frustration at continually hearing how vendors are the whole show. I had a reasonably good time at this show, more so the last albeit.

There's nothing wrong with suggesting the rules be made more fair. Feedback was requested and provided. If ⁴4people want to pretend that something less then a gushing review constitutes anger, that's their business. On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 02:09:17 PM EST, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

...

skogkatt007 at yahoo.com skogkatt007 at yahoo.com Wed Mar 2 11:19:11 UTC 2022

A lot of anger in that response. It's fact of experience, that some people will be angry about money; theirs or someone else's.

This poster, myself, and others, have suggested a number of rules followed by various organizations at various times. To me that makes a point, that there's not a single classic solution to these matters of what is sold when to whom, or who is charged for access to these events.

Resolutions and rules won't please everyone; and as pointed out, rules can be circumvented. Practices and rules state an intention, and intentions are half the battle. The rest is up to individuals, as they act or not.

That's what I draw from the discussion.

Regards, Herb Johnson

-- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net