[Boatanchors] Hamfest Pricing

[W8KZW]

... read a bit more and would like to comment further.

So, unless a hamfest vendor is " real businesses who purchase gov't and
> manufacturer surplus and have a brick and mortar business QTH and
> advertise and so on." they are bottom feeders?

Great logic.  Most amateur radio retailers whose business model fit your
description are out of business.  I can name three in metro Detroit alone
(none left now) and probably could research a list of a couple of dozen more
across the country in a few hours.  Truly a business model worth striving
for.  Go buy your radio, resistor, or whatever from one of these guys.

Second, you can buy a 6V6 on eBay for about $5 plus a few bucks for
shipping, or spend $30 or $40 or more for one (check the completed
auctions).  Who are you to say $15.00 is too much?  Because I've paid $20
for a table, spent the prior day getting everything ready, gotten up at 4 in
the morning to get to the swap to set up, and I'm going to spend the next 6
or so hours on my feet at the table, I should sell the tube for $2 or be
cast as a bottom-feeder?

Overall, your logic defies logic.  If you don't want to pay the price, make
an offer.  If your offer is too low, move on to the next table (or to the
next Swap, if there is one).  Maybe you are the bottom feeder.



> Ebay prices at hamfests:  my observation of that is that the eBay
> price folks are what I call "professional hamfesters."  These are
> bottom feeders who go to estate sales, and think they are
> mini-Wal-Marts, and they can put a price on something and not
> negotiate.  Sometimes they even buy an item at a hamfest cheap and put
> it on their table at the very same hamfest.  They may or may not be
> hams.  Not to be confused with real businesses who purchase gov't and
> manufacturer surplus and have a brick and mortar business QTH and
> advertise and so on.  The professional hamfesters are the ones who you
> see at every hamfest, with their tables out and little neat price tags
> on everything, sometimes with a computer there to check inventory and
> prices, and these displays of stuff under glass, all used.   A regular
> ham will sell you a 6V6 for $2.  One of these P.H.s will want $15 or
> even $20.  Most hams who are simply cleaning out the shack and garage
> will set something out and dicker over the price.