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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 31, 2022 10:03:08 GMT -8
They had 4K people Saturday. Average for a Saturday is 10k. Yesterday did feel weird. Thr strsngest part was almost no lines at the food stations. I agree, but then I looked and $5.50 for a hot dog and $7 for french fries (stand in the Mallary complex) and I wasn't that hungry anymore. I think I said somewhere else, they were down enough vendors they likely could have moved everyone out of the Stroh building entirely. Not even counting empty tables there was a lot of open spaces in all the buildings and smaller vendors I recall there was just no sign of at all. I will say even with Tangent not there I was able to pick up some cars from other vendors. Even the newest releases there were a few people who had them on hand to sell. But the PC cabooses all sold on Saturday. That vendor even had some older stuff for bargain prices, I ended up buying an Arrowhead PRR hopper for $29 and an older Tangent gon for $25. 4000 people is still a lot, but size wise this is like four regular train shows at once so by the time you spread the money they spent out that much further, I think vendors are going to be disappointed in their sales. Sunday we just drove up to the entrance about 5 of 10 after sneaking around the back way and there was like five cars ahead of us to turn in there. Coming from the other side (towards the river) it was backed up more, but only because they only opened two parking pass windows. People were parking in the usual places in the first lot so we did too, there was no one to direct you because they were still filling the lots between the BLC and the pond. Which I didn't even know was a thing because I've never gotten there before those were full. There was exactly one person ahead of me when I bought my ticket. So I was able to find a few good flip items. Not going to get rich but for instance one Gilbert HO car in the original box I got for $10 from a dealer right next to the guy who prices his vintage HO at top dollar and had the same car without a box for more. I didn't even buy it right away, I went back for it after seeing the all Gilbert guy in the Stroh building had one in the box for like $40. But that was my gut feeling, with the crowd so down on Saturday some of the stuff I look for would still be there. |
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Post by brammy on Jan 31, 2022 10:56:14 GMT -8
4000 people is still a lot, but size wise this is like four regular train shows at once so by the time you spread the money they spent out that much further, I think vendors are going to be disappointed in their sales. \ The consensus I gathered from talking to a few vendors I am friendly with is while significantly down from a usual Springfield show, it still beat an average weekend of sales at their store. Even counting for travel costs. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 31, 2022 13:29:36 GMT -8
Sure but how did it compare to 2019 and past shows?
It's hard to predict from just attendance because there's no way to split out the types of people who come.
There's primarily three types of people who come to train shows.
- Die hards who come to every show and are always looking for things to buy
- casual hobbyists who don't go to every show and aren't necessarily looking for anything, but will buy something they need or find a good deal on
- the clueless crowd who has no idea what they're looking at but thinks the trains are cool or come with their kids. Can also be the "after Church crowd". Very little buying and need their hands held when they do
I think you get more die-hards than anyone else when the weather is bad, but short of a detailed survey of people there's no way to know which is less likely to venture out in poor conditions or find something else to do in nice weather.
The only thing I do know is the larger the show, the more clueless and casual you get. There's only so many die hards within a reasonable travel radius of a given show. So at a smaller show, with less competition, I will sell at a higher dollar-per-attendee rate than a large show with more competitors. The amount people are willing to spend doesn't rise much once you get past the die-hard crowd.
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Post by brammy on Jan 31, 2022 13:46:20 GMT -8
Well, obviously not a comparison. But the few I chatted with felt the show was worth it.
The smaller vendors, probably felt it more. But vendors who had new product seemed to do ok. I was surprised there weren't really any of the new Dash-9s or SD70ACUs to be found.
COVID kept the bigger names away. Tony's Trains I think cancelled Monday. The storm plus COVID kept the people away. On Sunday, the road to the parking area was still crappy, and the ride out was tough with salt getting on the windshield...
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Post by NS4122 on Jan 31, 2022 14:02:21 GMT -8
According to the Amherst Railway Society web site, the total attendance for the show was 5925 plus 2800 exhibiters. Since Sunday was obviously more highly attended, 4000 on Saturday seems unlikely unless they counted exhibiters which would make the paid attendee count around 1200.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 31, 2022 14:24:30 GMT -8
Road in and out was mostly bare pavement, the only place they could have done better clearing is the walkways from building to building had some drifted snow blown in under them. I doubt we got any more salt on the truck than was on it already when we got there from 3 1/2 hours of driving.
I don't know of any vendors who have avoided shows because of the covid bit. Most people are over that at this point. Myself included.
I don't know what they get for a table there now, the last I knew it was over $100. I looked at setting up there but I figured I would have two to three times the cost of my most expensive shows to get in there and while there's a good four times the attendance of the biggest shows I do, there's also four or five times the competition, so I doubted I would sell much more than some of these shows. It takes me a good four hours to cover the whole thing just shopping for myself, so I'd either lose that or need to bring a helper and MA has all sorts of extra rules there too.
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Post by brammy on Jan 31, 2022 15:33:54 GMT -8
Tony's I think is likely COVID, or they had a lot of faith in their weather man.
I'm only sort of over it. I masked up the entire time I wasn't eating.
It takes me about 4-5 hours also. One thing I was looking for was DL&W accurail hoppers which slowed down the hunting.
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Post by wagnersteve on Jan 31, 2022 15:44:59 GMT -8
Monday, January 31, 6:43 p.m., EST
Here's what I just now saw on the Amherst Railway Society Big Railroad Hobby Show 2022 website:
"THANK YOU ALL! Even with the Snow on Saturday, our "diehards" were out in force. Our gate was nothing like in the past, but was a decent 5925 for the weekend. Add the 2800 people who were exhibiting throughout the weekend and our total population was 8,725. We would love to count the folks that were watching the live streaming (over a quarter million), but alas, let's only count those that were there! Thanks again and we will see you next year!"
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Post by dti406 on Jan 31, 2022 16:53:24 GMT -8
According to the Amherst Railway Society web site, the total attendance for the show was 5925 plus 2800 exhibiters. Since Sunday was obviously more highly attended, 4000 on Saturday seems unlikely unless they counted exhibiters which would make the paid attendee count around 1200. According to a friend of mine the attendance on Saturday was 1292. Rick Jesionowski |
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 1, 2022 10:51:25 GMT -8
A couple of the bigger one-day shows I do get around 1500. A couple of the larger shows I sell at can do in the 5000 range.
Those DL&W hoppers came in a six-pack, I've had and sold a couple of them. But it's been a long time since I remember seeing one.
I went back last night and scanned through the Sunday live walkarounds and spotted my dad in one of them.
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