Doors open 10 AM - who’s going on Saturday?
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This didn’t get much traction, so I’m resurrecting it.
Hopeful, but I never know if I am working on Saturdays, until they tell me Friday afternoon.
I'll be there.
I'm up in the air - I have a ticket but may not go. In 2020 my car needed a few thousand dollars of routine repairs (was a older model) and wasn't worth repairing. Since I am fortunate to have been working at home since the pandemic started I didn't bother buying a new car. This weekend is the rare time my son needs his car both days and my wife has plans to run errands. Me wanting to go to a train show 90 minutes away doesn't carry much weight with her (nor should it). I could arguably better spend the 4 1/2 hours I'd spend on the show working on my layout.
-Greg
weather permitting....I'll be there....
I'll be there looking for N-scale (and maybe some O )
I am going on Saturday am. Not setting up our fastrack layout any longer there.
I will be there.
Gerry
Anybody score anything at this show? I walked all the aisles, a few things caught my eye, but not at prices I was willing to pay. Met Stu, and let him know how surprised I was at how many toys were available. His sage reply? ”Well, it is the Great American Train and Toy Show!
Went Saturday around 11. Saw a lot of the same stuff still unsold. There were a few vendors with blow out prices, most were way overpriced IMO. Had a short list of must haves, found none. Overall assessment, meh. High point was the raritan valley highrailers abbreviated version. Well done guys.
when I see the same stuff unsold all the time I refer to it as VISITING OLD FRIENDS
Arrived there later than I wanted to (about 2pm), and I'm a slow walker and so is my wife, but I got to see just about everything . and as 4pm neared I had to scramble to find all the N-scale stuff I saw in passing I wanted to purchase. It was a mad rush for me but I got most everything I needed. as far as O gauge stuff there were some good prices on some items , but nothing I have any room for. As far as toys go the guys with the wrestling action figures wern't there, darn! and neither was Gryzbosky's.
Did not go either day. I heard from a few folks about the empty tables and empty walls where vendors used to set up along with wider aisles.
Seems to be that increased costs in traveling costs and table costs there, it decreased the vendor presence plus only 1 large O gauge operating layout.
Is Greenberg downsizing the show there? Maybe it is just the summer version but the Edison used to be packed with vendors with no empty tables and the wall spaces had vendors set up there. I know my usual tables spot was empty and I will no longer be doing the show. Not worth my time and effort for what it costs to travel there 3 times back and forth.
Anyone who attended observed the emptiness?
A couple of colleagues had a booth there and indicated that both the number of vendors and the attendance were considerably down. Probably a number of factors had to do with this. It's not a great time to be having one of these Greenberg Shows, IMHO, as it's the middle of Summer and prime vacation time, gasoline prices (and everything else) are very high, the past weekend was extremely hot, and there is still some Covid overhang.
Pat
I was there, actually got there relatively early for me (around 10:45 or so). It was definitely a lot smaller, they had a large chunk of the floor space blocked out with curtains (there was some sort of conference thing in the space, but that was like a tiny portion of it). In terms of the aisles, they were much wider than normal and there was a lot of empty space compared to past shows I have been to there.
In terms of what was for sale, I wasn't particularly impressed by what was there or the quality (then again, I am not really buying, unless I see a good deal on Ross track or something I need; spent 6 bucks on a hobby knife). Mostly post war, as usual, and a lot of overpriced stuff, like the guy selling Menards buildings at way over original price (maybe that is the market these days, but seems crazy). More modern engines, TMCC and Legacy and PSx, seemed to be priced higher. Lot of guys with no prices on their stuff, and then you get "well, make me an offer"..which is irritating, and also somewhat sleazy, bc they are basically trying to catch people who don't know into overpaying IME.
The only thing I almost bought was a Z starter set, but given it was 350, well, couldn't quite justify that. Someone had a small Z scale layout that basically was a couple of loops of track running through a mountain, and it was like 2k........Other thing I saw were some die cast airliner models, they were pretty small (1/200), and while they are really well made (they weighed a lot, not cheap tin here), were like close to 100 bucks. If they had had a model of the Airbus Beluga, I might have budged....
I think the turnout was down as well, though the parking lot was pretty crowded. My guess would be the heat didn't help, it also is in august when people are definitely going on vacation (just ask anyone in the airline industry), there was so much pent up demand for travel, and I am sure inflation and to a certain extent gas prices kept both people and vendors away. I think November will be a much bigger test, that has to be one of the biggies with the holiday season coming up.
Geez, I was pretty bummed when I got sent out to Claysburg, 500 mile round trip. Seeing these posts, seems like working was a better way to spend the day.
Makes me glad I wasn't able to go and work on my layout instead. Would have cost me $30 for gas and tolls round trip so it looks like I made out ahead with just the $8.80 in sunk costs for the ticket. Still, it's a bit sad the show has dwindled.
-Greg
The one thing i did notice was all the tables with hess trucks trying to basically give them away. Made me glad i sold all that off years ago. Looking forward to allentown first frost.