Maybe one day we'll have a flea/swap event. Perhaps even include that as a
separate day before/after the main show.
It has been a long time. It has been far too long since VCF (west)
John Craig experienced a process that a friend called "the inevitable
decline of flea-markets". They start out as a peer event, where the
attendees and sellers are the same people. Before long, realities of
setup call for sellers being allowed in before buyers. That gives the
sellers a headstart on buying the best deals. "We might as well just do
musical chairs - when the music stop, you take home whatever is on the
table that you ended up with"
Soon, it attracted vendors who are NOT buyers. In the case of computer
swaps, those were the vendors of Taiwan clone systems and parts. It was
such a good deal for them that more and more of them signed up. Soon,
there started to be a shortage of spaces (a delightful prospect for show
management!). So, the management created a multi-level pricing for space.
Competing companies offered more and more shows until there was one almost
every weekend.
Eventually, the show was ALL new item vendors, with hobbyists few and far
between. Soon the hobbyist buyers stopped coming. There was a period of
time where the show could still appeal to the general public ("great place
to buy your new computer!"), but after a while, the swaps ceased to exist.
