[Milsurplus] Timonium Hamfest

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis Gibbs" <R390A at Cox.net>

> I think the decline in hamfesting is being brought about by many factors.
> First and perhaps foremost, Ebay....

I disagree.  If you take a poll of a cross-section of the ham population,
weighted for those who have regularly attended hamfests over the years,
you will find that the overwhelming majority of them do not 
sell on Ebay.  The aging of the ham population and the drastic
decline in interest in the hobby are the primary factors.
Ebay is a secondary factor.

Ebay has impacted hamfests in an unfortunate,
unnecessary and unwarranted way,
and the fault lies with the *hamfest sellers;*
People do not understand the economics of market scale,
so they continue to demand Ebay prices without providing 
Ebay's market.  The same thing is happening to little antique
shops all over the country.  If you put an item on Ebay, 
it will be seen by hundreds of thousands, providing pricing pressure
and the opportunity for high prices to be realized.  
The same item at a local hamfest is seen by a few dozen or so,
and they cannot drive pricing to anything like
Ebay levels.  At the last hamfest I attended (Irving, Tx), I even
saw people with print-outs of Ebay listings of the items they 
wanted to sell, using that as justification for their high prices.
Everything there was priced "Ebay-ish," and as a result, little sold.
The Ebay/Hamfest pricing vs. market size issue 
is discouraging attendance, not selling on Ebay.

73 DE Dave AB5S