gwatts wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote:
...

Most Hamfests these days start too early and end too early. That
has been a trend for several years now.

It's short sighted though. If I want to go to say the Butler or
Timonium Hamfests, both around 2.5 hours from Happy Valley, I have to
get up at around 3 a.m. so I can be there when they open.

Now it's getting to the point that unless you're a local, going to
a Hamfest can be a great way to wreck your weekend. Sheer timing is
the big problem IMO. Not Ebay or the actuarial tables.

I have to agree. I'm 4-6 hours from just about any hamfest I'd want to
attend so I have to leave around midnight or get a hotel room. Not
being in my 20's anymore it's a hotel room and that adds quite a bit of
overhead to what would be low hamfest prices, and faced with that I
usually put a search on ebay and wait for the email.

If they started at noon or even 10:00 it would be a whole different
story, I'd much prefer to buy at fests simply for the eyeball contacts.


I really enjoy the hamfest at Dayton, where they start at 0800, and
sell all day. I think how this got started was that the sellers agitated
for earlier starts, and earlier begat earlier, until we ended up with
what we have now. One of our semi local fests starts at 0700 and is over
at noon.

Obviously not going to get the church crowd either.. 8^)

So I guess they got everything they wanted - and lost a lot of the
customers in the deal.


- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -