I attended the TMRA Hamfest earlier today. Here are a couple of things that happened.
Got up at 6:00 am, so that I could eat something and have a cup of coffee before hitting the road at 6:30 am. It takes an hour to get to the hamfest site from where I live, and I wanted to get there by 7:30 am to purchase my table and get set up by 8:00 am.
Traffic was very light this morning, and I made it in plenty of time. I’m always amazed that they actually drive slower in Ohio. As soon as you hit that state line, the average speed drops at least 5 mph.
I get set up and meet the guy whose table is to the left of me. He’s a really nice guy, and among other things, we discuss the new ARRL proposal to give Techs more HF privileges. We pretty much agree that this measure, should it be adopted , won’t really do much to encourage Techs to be all that more active.
The first item I sold was an old TV set that had been collecting dust in my basement. The young-ish guy who was interested in it asked if it worked. I gave him the standard hamfest answer, “It did the last time I plugged it in.” That got a chuckle out of him, and I told him to take it and find an outlet somewhere.
He did, and when he returned, he said, “Well, it seems to work. Would you take $8 for it?” I was only asking $10 for it, so I said, “Sure, but only if you have a five and three singles.” As it turned out, he didn’t have the three singles, so he gave me a $10 bill.
I finally sold the Vibroplex bug that I’ve been carting to hamfests for the past couple of years. I was asking $75 for it, but that seemed to be too much for most guys. This morning, about 9:00 am, a guy came over and looked it over and asked if I’d take $50 for it.
I told him that if I didn’t sell it by 10:00 am, that I’d consider selling it to him for that price. Well, I guess he really wanted it, because he came back twice before 10 o’clock, and the second time, he peeled three fives and three twenties off his wad.
I was really glad to get $75 for it. I purchased it at Dayton several years ago for $50, then found out that someone had taken a file to the contacts. Having new contacts up on the thing cost me another $55. So, the guy got a decent deal, I think.
I didn’t sell any of my study guides until 10:00 am. I was getting a little antsy about that, but I ended up doing OK. I guess those that come early are the more experienced hands looking for bargains. The attendees that come later are the less experienced folks who still need to upgrade.
At about 11:30am, I decided to pack up. I got everything back in the boxes, then took a quick trip around the tables. I hadn’t had a chance to do that at all prior to this.
I found a guy selling a Viking Matchbox for $100. Having had a little experience with one of these before, I thought it would be a nice addition to my shack.
Being so late, I thought maybe he’d give me a good deal on it, so I asked the guy, “Would you take $80 for the Matchbox?” His pained expression told me that he was expecting more. He replied, “How about $90? It’s in pretty good shape, and I’ll guarantee that it works.”
I wasn’t so hot on paying $90, and I was tired and hungry, so I said, “Well, I’ll look you up at the next hamfest.” He replied, “No, you won’t. This thing isn’t going home with me. When are you leaving?”
I nodded towards the boxes on my hand cart and said, “I’m on my way out right now.” He said, “OK. How about $85?” “Deal,” I said. And, with that, I paid him, plopped it on top of the boxes, and headed out to my car.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Those are nice matchboxes, and are pretty useful for matching to balanced lines. I saw it, and except for its large size, I thought it might be something nice to have, but I’ve sworn off bringing anything boat-anchor sized into my crowded shack. I have a couple of boat-anchor type items I need to get rid of, come to think of it — an HP frequency reference, and an HP spectrum analyzer. I have newer, solid-state versions of those things now.
Thom W8TAM says
Dave, the matchbox is my tuner of choice when portable. Imagine that! :D
I believe the people who built those back in the day would be shocked to know I value it enough to stick it in the back of the car for portable radio operations.
I like it so much, I have 2 of them currently.
73,
-Thom
w8tam