Hello Jay. My impressions:

* Yes the vendor flea market attendance definitely appeared to be down

* The rain on Saturday didn't help but what really doesn't help is when the
vendors pack up early and leave .. which causes fewer buyers to venture
outside ... which causes more vendors to pack up and leave ... which causes
fewer buyers to venture outside .., etc, etc. I was out there on Saturday
shopping and the vendors that bailed out got exactly $0.00 of my money.

* The flea market vendors are not supposed to leave early but many of them
get past the lax security. Note to DARA - its only a matter of time until
someone gets run over in the flea market lot during the next rainshower &
high-speed bailout by vendors who have been sitting in their truck drinking
beer all day. Guess who they're going to sue first ???

* Note 2 to DARA. Its obvious that many of the flea market spots are simply
parking spots for people with nothing to sell but who are too lazy to haul
their big fat asses from and to a real parking spot. This makes the flea
market much bigger than it needs to be and means that the overwhelmingly
out-of-shape buyers will be able to make fewer rounds of the flea market and
hence spend less money with the real vendors !

* Note 3 to DARA. You're doing a wonderful job. Keep up the good work.

* Note 4 to DARA. If the event was held twice a year you can be sure I
would still take the 10 hour drive and attend both.

* All in all I had a fine time and came home with some new goodies.

* There were definitely fewer boatanchors to be had in the flea market this
year.

* There are always complaints about the Hara facility. I have to assume the
Hara arena is used because its the cheapest and most convenient facility
available. If it was moved elsewhere and DARA had to increase the admission
by 10 cents to cover it, I'm afraid there are a large group of hams that
would scream bloody murder and refuse to to ever attend again. So lets
leave it at Hara unless there really is a better place for it.


John



"TK41C" wrote in message
...
To those who attended: What were your impressions of the the hamvention
this
year? Even though a few more tickets were officially sold over last year,
I
would guess that the flea market was down at least 25%. Certainly, the
weather
did not cooperate, especially on Saturday.

Is eBay permanenetly eroding into the Hamvention fleamarket?

Good foreign attendance this year, with hams from the UK,Canada, Germany,
and
of course, Japan.

I managed to stop by the new Fair Radio store in Lima and was amazed at
the
size of the place over the old location. Naturally, Japanese hams were
there to

survey anything made by Collins.

Will you return next year? Comments welcome.

73s

Jay Ballard
ABC-TV NY
KB1HSE