Tom
I can understand your frustration! The recipe for a successful swap meet is not complicated - but if not done right it is a bad experience for all concerned. a cursory look at two quasi-local (for me) swaps
Two swap meets where things are done correctly (IMHO) are at Trexlertown, PA to be held on 1 October this year and the late winter one at Westminster, MD
T-Town charges $25 for vendors (individuals) but that includes admission for 2. You have to supply your own table. Admission for buyers is $5. It is held at the velodrome which is outside so weather can be a problem. Parking is free.
Westminster charges $20 for individual vendors; this does not include admission. It is held inside at a Farm fairground complex. Admission is $5.
Both these events are very well attended and successful. The organizers make a buck cause attendance is high. Vendors come cause costs are moderate and they can count on lots of buyers. Buyers come cause they can expect lots of stuff. The key is that they are held at locations where the costs are low. NOT at a downtown convention center or a facility with high built in costs. Did I say parking is free?
just some rambling thoughts as I try to get my stuff organized for T-Town on 1 October.
For add'l info on T-Town swap see http://www.lvvelo.org/
Ken Sanford
Kensington, MD
<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 4:07 PM Subject: [CR]Swap meets
> The pricing of booth space and making it out of reach of hobbyists and
> individuals kills every swapmeet every time. Look at the decline in
> Trips for kids. They responded by completely ignoring the collector/
> messenger/ enthusiast and went straight for the joe and jane smith
> family with no bike history or experience or passion. Buyers paid for
> parking and admission, sellers paid for parking and booth space, plus
> tax, plus a minimum 20% of profits to go to TFK as a 'donation'.
> The last few years has seen the TFK swap go from a major NorCal 2 day
> attraction to a much smaller 1 day parking lot sale at a sporting goods
> in the Presidio. Bell sports, WTB, etc all have big booths, but there is
> hardly a hobbyist with a booth space, or a collector walking the lot.
> There are no longer any deals or esoteric problem solvers to be had at
> the TFK- it's all company overstock, blems, and product management
> blunders from the pervious model year. So the TFK swap has it's purpose-
> these companies HAVE to sell their pink XL DH helmets and 36h XC racing
> wheelsets, but for the members of this list, I don't think it's a good
> forum for us, unless of course we all pitch in on an island and have a
> swap within a swap.
> So to keep this on the VS thread, are these price increases the same for
> the SF swap?
> Veloswap needs a bigger space but that means more money. Right now it is
> $75, and that includes a 10x10 space with 1 table (which TFK does not
> supply). You need to supply your own chair and other props to make it
> look halfway decent.
> They also added Tri and Snow sports to expand the floor traffic. How
> will this turn out? Who knows. It might be good for the cambrias and big
> bike lines that show up but I gather there will be a lot of crotchety
> old timers(I can only wait for Bruce Gordon to talk to a snowboarding
> dude- har har har) who will not enjoy fielding questions from tri geeks,
> tech skiirs and their 12 year old snowboarding huckster kids.
>
> Has the VeloSwap priced themselves in line with the TFK swap? And gone
> after the same clientele in the same way with booth pricing?
> At least in the bay area there are lots of other options for swaps-
> Cupertino, Mill valley Swap, Bent Spoke swap in Berkeley, Grizzly peak
> cyclist club swap, and others tend to pop up and down every few years.
> Maybe a Big Giant Swap is not the best plan for enthusiasts, but how do
> you get in front of a bigger audience to buy your crap? Ebay?
> Craigslist? A garage sale? Are swaps doomed as a buying and selling
> forum?
> Is the CdO Cirque weekend, with its one day vintage only swap, better
> for the long term than just a free for all?
> I have a lot of random bike crap and am looking for random bike crap for
> any one of my 5 or 6 bikes and various project bikes, and sadly they are
> not all on topic, so a Vintage Only swap will not do much for me as a
> hobbyist/ collector/ enthusiast/ rider.
>
> Tom Martin
> Spewing forth in
> Oakland CA
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hersefan@comcast.net [mailto:hersefan@comcast.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 9:31 AM
> To: gpvb1@comcast.net; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR] Denver VeloSwap Great News Update
>
> Hi CR folks,
>
> I had a chat with the contact person (Reese Brown) at VeloSwap.
>
> The upshot is they DO NOT want to push out the individual seller, but
> they did need to raise revenues.
>
> In retrospect, Reese was not sure the latest pricing move was the right
> one to make. When I said that the little guy was being pushed out, and
> that the number of sellers was declining, he was very concerned. He also
> said that their record keeping was a bit weak and their ability to track
> declines in vendors is nonexistent. I think he is now more nervous
> about these issues than I am!
>
> Reese said that he'd be willing to work with myself or others to "flex"
> as much as possible in order to make the event work for everyone.
>
> For some math...
> Veloswap must pay $10 for each parking ticket. Therefore in the old
> days, with a $65 table (after $10 rebate), and $20 in parking and chair
> costs to them, and two "admisison revenues lost", their incremental
> benefit of a vender versus two attendees was only about $19!
>
> So what to do? Reese was open to the idea of selling a block of tables
> with perhaps some price accomodation to us vintage folks as a group.
>
> So - if you want to display at veloswap AND you haven't already
> registered and you want to jump in, email me by late day friday and I'll
> see what I can work out with him as a group. It wont be a huge savings,
> but it will be something I think and we all can have fun that day.
>
> Mike Kone in Boulder CO