James2 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Model Swap Meets! I have been attending and setting up to sell at least once a year sometimes more for several years now. I enjoy getting out and seeing friends and talking to people. The conversations for the most part are model related but often times bridge into other areas, sports, health, food and of course politics. My observations include but are not limited to, 1. We can be a strange looking group indeed. 2. Some will eat just about anything, almost always leaving something in the beard or on the shirt. 3. We circle the arena like vultures at least four times, just in case we missed something, while keeping watch for that one thing we came for, or the elusive holy grail deal of a life time. 4. My favorite- Vendors are the best! The pros get there early and set up there tables. Then the systematically watch for more vendors to show, like lions at the watering hole, ready to pounce on parts and kits before anyone else does. In fact they are so eager to be the first to attack they can't even wait for you to unpack and set up your own table! I have had guys dig through boxes while I retrieve more boxes! God forbid one should need to use the bathroom! I'm sure there are many more, so how about it. What quirks or other things would you add to my list? Edited January 18, 2015 by James2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsDano85gt Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 wouldn't know theres no shows in south mississippi I am My OWN show and tell model operation lol I feel like my own hobby shop when i go to my storage unit Even if there was no intent of grabbing Model kit anything I always seem to end up dragging at least 3 more boxxes home to the apartment lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 my observations from yesterday's show: dealers were not giving any deals. people too fat to walk were using electric scooters. smart folks brought trolleys so they didn't have to lug their BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH around. no one needs beer at 10:00 am. toilet humor should be left there, not printed on stickers, pins, & shirts. knife, hatchet, & samurai swords should not be sold to anyone under 100. there's certainly a lot of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH in the world. and more people who think they need to bring it home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 In my experience, your observations are accurate. And they would also apply to just about every gun show I've ever been to, as well (more than 40 years worth). I'll bet it's just about the same for any sort of hobby or interest involving American males. (Or maybe all people of all kind everywhere.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Handley Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Forget just funny looking, more than a few that I've been to have included funny smelling people too.................lots of them. In the August shows I've been to, it can get a bit staggering, on the level of a room full of teenagers playing Magic, The Gathering on a Friday night in late May/early June............before school lets up for the summer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drball Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Personal hygiene seems to be an issue with some attendees. I use to collect vinyl, the attendees were very similar to the model crowd at the record meets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Yes... it seems like the "locker room" odor is prevalent in any sort of indoor gathering- especially when it's hot and humid and the building doesn't have the greatest ventilation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Renewal time with old friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyfink Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 The way I usually describe the shows in Buena Park are, The Sights, The Sounds and The Smells! As a vendor, I usually give some pretty good deals and the thing I notice the most is folks not asking for prices or asking if I could work on the price of something. I am amazed how many times someone will pick something up and look at it, even asking me if they can open the box to look at it, and still start walking away. Then I will call them back to inquire as to why they did not ask for a deal or just walk away. Most don't think you are willing to budge on a price or assume it will be too much. Most of the time they end up buying it!! I once thought about selling bars of soap at the kit shows and my friend Skip told me it would be a waste of time, they would just carve them up in to bunkers or sandbags for dioramas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 You left out: The oblivious talkers who have no clue they are standing in the middle of the aisle, slowing down traffic in both directions. The vendor asking $30 firm for the open RC2 era AMT '49 Mercury kit The lonely vendor who will talk your ear off just to have conversation with a human The guy who forgot to bring a bag and is now bumping into everything and everyone while carrying his newly acquired 1/8 Lindberg Bobtail T kit The vendor who brings all sorts of odd items not even remotely related to the show/swap's theme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Lectro Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 People like to talk about the types of people who attend sci-fi cons and other nerd-fests, about their poor hygiene and other quirks. I often wonder why nobody mentions those types attending the more "socially acceptable" venues, like sporting events. Every ball game I've ever attended sure had their fair share of weirdos, loons and stinkers. The last sci-fi con I went to, I didn't notice a single person with obviously poor hygiene, and not a single person drunkenly trying to incite a riot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watertown Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 All of these observations are spot-on, clearly some aspects more desirable than others, but it's the quirkiness of life that gives it its 'patina.' As a wise man once said, "You gotta take the rocks with the farm." Heading to NNL West in a couple weeks, and quite frankly it's the characters as much as the models I look forward to seeing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtx6970 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Especilly like the people who absolutly have to talk you down,,no matter if its a $100 kit or a $5 kit. I learned long ago, If I want $5 out of it,,I price it at $10 . Then on the plus side some pay the $10 without question. A few years ago I was selling a bunch of $5 builers/builtups. When this girl maybe 8 or 9 walked up and wanted a kit I had but she only had $3 left. I gave her the kit on the promise that SHE had to build it . That little girl had a smile a mile wide when she walked away. And ,,,you gotta love the ones who feel the middle of the isle is the best place to start a group conversation with a dozen or so friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemodeler Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 All have been spot on and accurate! I took my wife with me a few years ago to a swap meet to unload a bunch of kits. She was thrilled to spend the day with me without kids as I travel with my job. Outside of me and a few others, she really doesn't know too many model builders so she didn't know what to expect but she found all of the above in one community center in South Carolina! She walked the table and looked at the models on display and very nicely said it was a shame I didn't bring any of mine to show, they were just as nice. She also commented on the lack of wives/girlfriends or women present and I explained that we tend to travel in packs of males only! She did talk about a few of the "characters" from that swap meet for a few days afterwards but was really more interested in what "we" were going to spend that new found fortune on! LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vettecote Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Just reading these made me feel like I just went to a model swap meet! ..LOL.. All of these ring true!...Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbwelda Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 what I love are seeing the same vendors over and over, with their kits priced about 4X what anyone in their right minds would pay, dragging the same stuff there for the past 10 years and probably wondering why no one is buying their "holy grail" kits. wake up to ebay you vendors! the other thing I like to do while standing in the middle of the aisle blocking traffic both to and fro, is to see how many passerbys have cannabis cologne on, smelling like they got a pocket full of skunks. its funny. jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramfins59 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Oh yeah...... So true... all of it. I can't wait to get to the NNL East show again in April to bask in the odors of those gymnasium sized vendor and show rooms and to fight my way through the packed aisles of the vendors rooms, getting pushed and bumped by endless streams of people. Don't forget about standing in line for 20 minutes or longer to buy something cold to drink at the refreshment counter because the vending machines for drinks are either sold out or don't work..!! Then, be sure to bring and wear your rubber boots to wade across the wet, soaked, paper strewn floors in the rest room...... and bring a clothespin for your nose in there too..!! Try to find a place to sit for a few minutes because your feet are killing you from those endless walks around the vendor and show rooms (Thankfully the show room has the bleacher seating area). Laughing quietly (?) when you see the ridiculously high, 3 figure prices that vendors want for old kits and promos. People watching is very entertaining there too. So many gray haired old guys (I'm one of them), So many really overweight people that you'll see every year who seem to get bigger each year...... who stuff themselves into clothes that are at least a size or two too small..!! (I just lost 20 lbs. -- Yeay..!!) People who stand by their model to talk to anyone who stops to look at it to tell them all the work that they did to it... (Like I really care..!!) I look forward to the fun and camaraderie and seeing old friends and making new ones each year. The Margaritas at the Tilted Kilt restaurant ain't bad either..!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highway Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) 2. Some will eat just about anything, almost always leaving something in the beard or on the shirt. Haven't you ever heard of "saving some for later"!?!?!? people too fat to walk were using electric scooters. I'm sorry, but being overweight myself, I find that comment quite offensive!! I don't use electric scooters, but just because one may be overweight, it doesn't mean that is the ONLY reason they may use a scooter. You, in my opinion, are just being crude and judgmental with that statement! You don't know their story or problems, you just see an overweight person in a scooter and think "just another lazy fatBLEEP"! I weight 360 lbs, walk and stand on my own, but with my past, should actually use a scooter sometimes because I have a very bad back thanks to a compression fracture to my L1 vertebrae that I suffered in a fall down steps in December 2012. It is people like you with your narrowmindedness that I would rather suffer through the pain I get in my back that sometimes is so bad I can't move the day after just for some of the most simple things in life even at one time I took for granted like grocery shopping rather than using a scooter and being judged by idiots like you! Take some time to think (that may be hard for some) before you judge, there may be a more serious reason a person is using a scooter to get around! Edited January 18, 2015 by highway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Marischal Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 This thread made me smile. Everything stated here has been said about attendees at UK model railway exhibitions. The only one missing is the rucksack wearer who bumps into everyone obliviously... steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 The worst (IMO) is the narrow aisles. People do tend to gather in the middle to BS instead of going to the side somewhere. If they could just rent out a larger room so the aisles could be wider I think may help a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Eh? Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I agree with you Ray. Sometimes there is barely enough room to allow you to crouch down to see what is under the vendors' tables as well as what is on them. I guess that shows are trying to maximize the number of vendor tables sold, as that is one of the ways that shows make money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordairgtar Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Haven't you ever heard of "saving some for later"!?!?!? I'm sorry, but being overweight myself, I find that comment quite offensive!! I don't use electric scooters, but just because one may be overweight, it doesn't mean that is the ONLY reason they may use a scooter. You, in my opinion, are just being crude and judgmental with that statement! You don't know their story or problems, you just see an overweight person in a scooter and think "just another lazy fatBLEEP"! I weight 360 lbs, walk and stand on my own, but with my past, should actually use a scooter sometimes because I have a very bad back thanks to a compression fracture to my L1 vertebrae that I suffered in a fall down steps in December 2012. It is people like you with your narrowmindedness that I would rather suffer through the pain I get in my back that sometimes is so bad I can't move the day after just for some of the most simple things in life even at one time I took for granted like grocery shopping rather than using a scooter and being judged by idiots like you! Take some time to think (that may be hard for some) before you judge, there may be a more serious reason a person is using a scooter to get around! I agree with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 how did you get to 360 pounds? i don't think overweight people are riding around because they're lazy, i think it's because they eat ho-ho s and mountain dew rather than have an apple and walk up the stairs. it's not lazy, it's bad judgment. and just like all shoppers paying for shoplifters, we all end up paying higher insurance rates because of societal obesity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunkypeanutbutter Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Take this to PM, or end it now. I hate when these threads get locked over pointless arguing. I've never been to a show. Closest ones are in Massachusetts, and they're not very common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpier Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 we should hold off until the alcohol troubled chime in (after the football game). that slap on the hand still stings, huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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