Model Train Journal

The 30th train show to be held in Savannah, Georgia was held this weekend. I have attended all but the very first one and one three years ago when my best train friend, Gordon Hinkle died the previous week. I have only been a vendor six times of the last years. Please bear with me as I make a few observations. The show is from 10 AM to 5 PM both days.

On opening Saturday morning a decent size group entered the building and was fairly good until 1 PM. After that it was a rather quick downward slide.Sunday opened with the vendors present and a few attendees trickling in and then it thinned out. The weather these two days was somewhat cooler than in the past. This may have been a factor on the attendance. The show is held in the national guard armory in a gym sized room with high ceilings,
The temperature in the room was rather cool especially for the vendors. As most on this forum know, even though I do not like controversy I am not afraid to get involved. When I asked one of the officials of the club about getting some heat I was told that the heat could be turned on but the price for tables would need to be raised above the $45.00 a table that is being charged. When I talked to vendors all reported lower sales than in the past.

There are several vendors that sell all scales and some only one. Typical train show people.

Some good points. There were layouts in O, HO and N, five in all. However the best layouts were small, a Thomas O, wooden push, plastic push. a Lionel with two pushbutton operated and an HO with a hand-held control all for the kids to operate. They had much bigger crowds than the other layouts on display. Kids were running from one to the other of the ones they could operate (play with). Smiles and bright eyes. This has been mentioned before.
If we want our hobby to grow this is the way.
I only saw one dealer with any type of starter set for sale and they were HO. Nothing wrong with that but little kids need something that is easier for them to use. There weren't any O size starter sets available. Some parents did ask about them. Some dealers missed some sales.

Of course all of the above is just my opinion.

Something that I thought was a little odd. I took @ 40 books to sell about real railroading and model railroading. I sold @ 30 books but none of them
were about model railroading. ???

Thanks for the report.

We had a TCA show this weekend but unfortunately the venue is about 2 minutes from work. I won't attend because I'd feel like I was spending another day at work.

Interesting about the heat. I would think that would just be part of the hall rental.

$45 / table seems a bit dear and that heat might be a part of the cost of the hall beyond that seems skin-flinty.

Prototype books do tend to sell better that model RR'ing books, or that's what I have found over the years. Maybe folks already have enough model RR'ing books?

Good to hear that folks bring their kids and that there was something there for them. You'd think that packing a few starter sets would be doable for dealers.

I thought the table price was high also and of course heat or air should be part of that.
IMHO the club just wanted a few additional dollars in their treasury.

I remember starter sets in the past. I bet there will be next year.

rogruth wrote:I remember starter sets in the past. I bet there will be next year.

And, that will be the year w/o children & parents to buy them remembering how cold it was in the venue,

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

rogruth wrote:I remember starter sets in the past. I bet there will be next year.

And, that will be the year w/o children & parents to buy them remembering how cold it was in the venue,

The cold didn't seem to bother the kids and others look around, buy a little and leave. The vendors were stuck in the cold. Some may not return.

rogruth wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

rogruth wrote:I remember starter sets in the past. I bet there will be next year.

And, that will be the year w/o children & parents to buy them remembering how cold it was in the venue,

The cold didn't seem to bother the kids and others look around, buy a little and leave. The vendors were stuck in the cold. Some may not return.

$45/table and I would not come back.........

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

rogruth wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
And, that will be the year w/o children & parents to buy them remembering how cold it was in the venue,

The cold didn't seem to bother the kids and others look around, buy a little and leave. The vendors were stuck in the cold. Some may not return.

$45/table and I would not come back.........

The problem is that the next closest show is at least 2.5 hours away.

rogruth wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

rogruth wrote:The cold didn't seem to bother the kids and others look around, buy a little and leave. The vendors were stuck in the cold. Some may not return.

$45/table and I would not come back.........

The problem is that the next closest show is at least 2.5 hours away.

Timonium All scale show is this coming weekend just north of Baltimore. Have not been to it for quite a while, but not sure why I should do the drive up/back when I really have no great need of anything. After that I'm off to the March Meet in Chicago.....where again I really have no great need of anything, but will look for detail parts to complete projects.

"No great need of anything," I know the feeling. I have quite enough model train stuff. The need to patronize train shows evaporated quite some time ago, for me, and contrasts with my having gone to shows almost every weekend, and sometimes, two per weekend.
Not a one nowadays.

The most I have ever attended in one year is two. Most years only the Savannah show.

The last show that I attended was at the Jamil Shrine Hall in Columbia, SC last November. I found a few Bachmann On2½ cars, the first at $15.00 and the next two discounted by the dealer (without me even asking) to $13.00; I should have gotten the other three! There was a lot of HO and three-rail O but not as much Flyer as I had seen there before. Unusually there was no two-rail O at the show, usually there are a few pieces. Overall the pricing was fair to really good. This is probably the only show that I will attend from now on as it is very close and only five bucks to get in. Note that I do not know the dealer table cost. I have no interest in setting up and being tied to a table for the whole day; not to mention the aggravation of loading the car, unloading the car (twice for both), and arguing with customers that want to low-ball everything.

J. S. Bach wrote:................. and arguing with customers that want to low-ball everything.

That gets old really fast,

Guys will always try and beat you down....it's part of the game. Just start your prices a bit higher so you have room to move a bit. If they get too aggressive tell them: I can marl it up twenty bucks if you aren't happy with the current price. Have fun, it's not life of death.

Rich

E7 wrote:Guys will always try and beat you down....it's part of the game. Just start your prices a bit higher so you have room to move a bit. If they get too aggressive tell them: I can marl it up twenty bucks if you aren't happy with the current price. Have fun, it's not life of death.

Rich

There are guys that if you were to put a $100 bill on the table for sale at $10 will ask if you will take $1 for it.

After a few years of that it gets really old.