[vcf-midatlantic] Swap Meet feedback: How did it go?

[Sentrytv]

Just a comment on pricing for vendors and admission.

If you do start charging buyers admission, even a few of dollars, 
consider a table rate for the third or more tables of 5 dollars each.
So 20, 10 and 5, $35 will get you three tables and you’ll still be getting admission fees from buyers.

Mike Rosen

Sent from:
My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

On Mar 1, 2022, at 3:34 PM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

I attended the swap meet, arriving "late" to avoid the presumed early crowd and rush (Covid) and because my needs are modest. I was happy to get a variety of vintage Mac items as parts and for repair. I saw some oldest-vintage items, which is good, but I did not need them. And I bought some 20th century PC stuff to build some for-application systems, so that was good. Other than missing what apparently was a massive for-free pile, I was satisfied. People were glad to see me, and I them.

So the base question on the event, is answered that it went well. Where's one room or another, where's the free stuff - I looked around and asked and found things. I'm glad things were not crowded; Covid. There was more variety than I expected; not enough really old computing but there was some. Radio? enh, there will be hamfests, but hamfests accommodate computing; computing should accommodate hams.

When to close? It's already said: a significant part of sales is at the "don't want to take this home" end of the day. Four hours for the event is reasonable; set a soft close so people can hunt a little harder for a little longer. I'm glad the event didn't start at 6AM.

A few people urged for free admissions for buyers. I'll be blunt - that's entirely expected and expresses self-interest. If buyers want fleamarkets to attend, it's in their interest to pay a few dollars to support the people who run them. Their payback is fun, community, and savings on purchased items. If you have questions, ask hams who run hamfests; ask people who ran events (or not) during the worst of Covid.

When I saw there was no admission fee for buyers (me), I bought a couple of $2 stickers from Jeff - just to support the event. Too much money? What? I spent more on gas, I spent more on food.

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