I stood at my tables the entire 3 days. I thought Thursday and Friday foot traffic was the same as always. My sales were down slightly, but I blamed that on Monday being tax day. That said, The show is basically over at 2 on Friday, when the OGR Forum meeting happens. Most attendees leave for home then. You can see a noticeable drop in traffic at that time. Its always been like that, since the three day format began. As a seller, my head-scratcher happened Saturday when a gentleman was enamored over a prewar 027 locomotive (with 3 passenger cars) I was offering. He says, "I want the engine. How much?" "The set is $115", I say. He says, "I don't want the cars. I saw that same engine alone for $200 in the blue hall, but this one is in better shape." I said, "Well then this is a deal for you!" He replies, "I only want the engine. I'll go get the other one." "You understand I'm selling you a better engine for $115 in essence giving you the three passenger cars for free?"
"But I DON'T want the cars!" and he leaves empty handed.....
That boy's about as sharp as a bag of wet mice!
Yeah - I know that guy, I think...not really, but that sort of "logic" shows up at train shows regularly. I imagine that any hobby has these members.
The there was the vendor at a local train show who had an item that I was vaguely interested in. A $30 something...so I asked him, in a friendly way, what was the best he could do? He took the item from my hand, put it back on the shelf and then said "Well, let's see what else I have you want before we talk..."
Do I need to tell you how much of any of his stuff that I bought? I went so far as to spread the word about his behavior among other customers (that I knew), and with good effect, I might add.