WRAM Show This Weekend!

A friend of mine and I went down yesterday. It was not nearly as interesting in the past.

The weather forecast may have suppressed people from coming down from New England (although we did and didn't have any problems). Crowd levels were way down. No significant line as the show opened. At 10 am, the tool guy at the bottom of the basement stairs was "walk up and buy", rather than "force your way to the table". At noon, you could walk around the main floor easily. The swap shop was at about 60% of normal model count, and what was there was overpriced for the quality.

A bigger issue was the decrease in booths / vendors at the show. Apparently, the booth prices were increased 40% - 50% this year. Whether this drove down the vendor count or something else did, there were a lot fewer there.. Hobby Lobby was down from 4-booths wide to

1. Lanier (who has been at the show since I started going in the mid-70s) wasn't there. The main stage, usually crammed with models, had the AMA table only. Yellow Aircraft wasn't there.

Probably contributing to this as well was the NY state tax board. I had a friend who did the show for a few years in the mid- to late-90s. Never made a whole lot of $ off it, but it got some name recognition for his business. In '99, a state tax officer came through writing tickets to all the out-of-state vendors not licensed to take state sales tax. The hassles of dealing with that put him and others out of the show. Topping it off, Hobby Lobby had a sign in their booth along the lines that the NY tax authority was ambiguous about whether sales at the show affected their mail order business staus vis-a-vis sales tax collection. As a result, they weren't selling anything at the show, but were giving free shipping for orders from it.

We walked out at 12:30 commenting it was the earliest we had ever left the show. The guys behind us were saying the same thing.

We've been going every year, more as a get out and do something model related in February than to go to the show. As were were driving home, we remarked that it felt more like an "every other year" kind of thing now. It's too bad. We've been going for a long time, and it was really disappointing this year.

FWIW, George

As for swap shops and some good vendor participation, you can't beat the SE Model show in Perry GA.

It is coming up next weekend, March 3 & 4th. It appears to be a sell-out again this year. It is now the largest in the country, surpassing the swap meet at both Toledo and the WRAMS show.

I must say that I have to agree with you on every point. But I still enjoyed the show and bought lots of stuff.

m-m

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I also agree, as well. I've been going for years and this year I did not buy one item.

Not as many vendors as usual, but I still managed to spend too much money. There are always some good deals, but it's hardly worth driving 200 miles for any more....

I had fun, though, desmobob