dknelson wrote:Here is a piece of bad train show advice -- when you see the "------" you have been looking for [fill in the blank: car, locomotive, book, magazine, video, detail part, photograph, tool, paint, whatever], don't buy it! Go ahead -- take a walk around and come back later to buy it. Of course it will still be there -- who would want it other than yourself?
Actually I've had that happen. There was a number board from a B&M RDC9 for sale at the white elephant table for 20$
Alex
Sellers: Fire up the old PC the night before the show and make up plenty of signs that read RARE!, VINTAGE! and of course, please don't forget L@@K! It works every time on Ebay, doesn't it??!? : )
dlm
This is the best thread ever, I can't stop laughing. I'm very lucky that where I live, I have access to 5-10 shows a year, I love going, sometimes just to walk and look.
I have one to add, (wink,wink), if you do bring guests who don't share your intense desire for everything that is our hobby, have them pass some time in the lovely dining facilities that are provided. Clean and spacious, there is always enough seating to accomodate the crowds and the cuisine is top notch. There is a wide range of quality, fairly priced food to choose from and it's never an inconvenience to sit for long periods of time while others stand and dribble mustard on their clothes.
Dan
Hi!
Glad someone brought up "fun and games" at train shows! I used to go to every show in the area but haven't been to a major one in 5 or so years. One (there are several) of the reasons is the "yuppies" (meaning the sophisticated, well to do 30 somethings with kids) typically have no real interest in the hobby, but brought their very young children to play. Certainly nothing wrong with that, but why do they have to bring their sport utility sized buggys and block up the aisles - or worse yet - block access to those vendors with "the good stuff".
Wish I could come up with a funny about the above, but the coffee hasn't kicked in and breakfast is almost ready.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Well, elbowing little kids is amusing but I tend to let them have front row seating to the trains.
Pricing is a challenge. I go to one particular show and enjoy the Dealers, Clubs and the People there. Having said that; I might proceed to examine one item somewhere... Tyco Boxcar, Candy Scheme, Price 20 dollars. Examine this item long enough until Dealer stops thier activity and gets up off the chair and approach.
Just before they reach range, put the item down and mutter "Yech!" and examine another item. They usually stop dead and express distate at such a interruption or loss of thier chair time.
Now to be fair, some of my favorite dealers are very hard working and on thier feet all day. I only target the ones who have a chair far away and some sort of non-train activity away from the customers.
I love people who stand at the train table looking over the items. Picks up each and every item and examines them painstakingly. Usually this person is near a building support or other device that creates a blockage in the walkway between tables. Watch and see two lines of people form paitently waiting for this person to move on.
Look over a rubber band drive equippted engine and see the dealer light up thinking yer a dummy who was born only 20 years ago and never heard of or seen such a monstrosity. (No offense please. bear with me here) They dance right up to you and expound on the wonderful top speed qualities of that 50 dollar engine all but salviating at such a easy hit.
Examine a One Gauge engine on rollers rolling away making suitable computer/DCC noises. Point a finger near the cab (Or near the florescent sticker that has a very large price written on it) and ask "How much?" or "What is the price?" See the person exhibit high blood pressure or other tics.
Ignore the shine on the obselete and worn out equiptment being displayed. Drop down below the table and examine the various boxes asking "Is this for sale?" several times. This works best when there are several others trying to buy and sell above you.
I recall a customer who had to have the choo choo. He calls the spouse or someone else on his or her cell phone and loudly (Forgetting that he is in a public place) whines and begs to buy this beauty (Insert sum total of few hundred dollars) and barters soul and 3 months honey do projects and asks for credit card that was left at home.
All of this loudly near large groups of people who are politely trying anything they can to pick up thier food and GET clear of the trouble. Makes me wonder why the lout cannot get to his or her car and have the converstation in private.
What really makes it rather amusing is to witness said choo choo bought for cash by another before the converstation is concluded.
Only then does this person ask the dealer while leaning over the small sign "CASH ONLY!!!" while holding the precious (Paid for in blood and sweat) credit card number.
Finally but not least. Hit the dealer with either a large dollar bill and watch them scrape trying to dig up proper change. Or pay them in large amounts of change/small bills from all of your pockets while many people gather behind you waiting thier turn to buy.
Oh one more thing. There is no vile word that blashemys harsher than "Ebay". This is the one word that riles em fast.
Hey, make sure you straighten up the slanted whistle on all those steam locomotives where it is at an angle. If it breaks off, just set it back down and walk away, he won't mind, you were just doing him a favour trying to fix what he probably bent when he packed it to bring to the show.
It doesn't matter that the prototype had the whistle mounted at an angle so the loco would fit through tunnels and under bridges.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Print out "Interactive exhibit: Please handle everything!" and "Take One!" signs the night before the show. Tape them to any club layouts and dealer's tables, respectively, where you're treated rudely.
Snort loudly while leaning over boxes of brand-new locos, as if it's all you can do to keep your nose from dripping all over them.
Loudly tell those dealers demonstrating their "miracle" 2-part adhesive in front of their customers that you know it's really just CA and baking soda. (It's an old model maker's trick.)
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
dknelson wrote: Here is a piece of bad train show advice -- when you see the "------" you have been looking for [fill in the blank: car, locomotive, book, magazine, video, detail part, photograph, tool, paint, whatever], don't buy it! Go ahead -- take a walk around and come back later to buy it. Of course it will still be there -- who would want it other than yourself?Dave Nelson
Here is a piece of bad train show advice -- when you see the "------" you have been looking for [fill in the blank: car, locomotive, book, magazine, video, detail part, photograph, tool, paint, whatever], don't buy it! Go ahead -- take a walk around and come back later to buy it. Of course it will still be there -- who would want it other than yourself?
Dave Nelson
It's like a friend of mine said about his hobby of deer hunting...it's not getting out there at the crack of dawn that's hard, or sitting for hours waiting for the deer, or even spotting the deer. It's knowing when to pull the trigger - shoot too soon when it's too far off, and you'll miss, wait to long hoping it'll come right up to you and it'll probably run off. Flea markets are the same way, I always keep a mental list of two or three things that I'm looking for, and if I see one and the price is OK I get it. I've had too many times I've passed up buying something and later regretted it.
Today I went to the Newport Model RR club fleamarket at Woodbury MN high school (heck it was only -4F at 11:00 a.m., might as well go out and get some fresh air!). Got in the door, waited for my eyes to unfreeze so I could move them, bought my ticket, walked up to the nearest vendor table...and there was the Milwaukee FM "Erie built" A-B set I've been trying to track down for maybe a year. Guy wanted $65, I didn't haggle just gave him the money and put 'em in the bag. Heck I could of turned around right then and gone home and it would have been one of my more successful flea market trips!!
BTW the comments about showering (or not) before the show... A gal I work with's husband was a model railroader, and she told me that on train show day he would get up at the crack of dawn and take a shower, slap on some aftershave, then go to someplace for breakfast with his other train buddies, then go wait in line for the flea market or train show to open. He'd spend the whole day there, sometimes stopping by a local hobby shop and comparing prices. Then after he'd go out to eat with his train buddies, not getting back til evening.
Funny thing was, I was at the same events and never saw him there...plus, although I like to keep clean, I usually don't worry too much if I didn't take a shower or shave the morning of the show, let alone put on aftershave.
Well, eventually turned out he was just telling her he went to these shows, he was using the trainshows as an excuse to go visit his girlfriend!!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
C'mon guys I know you can think of more. There are alot of guys who go to these shows that just do the stupidiest or annoying things. Theres more
More?
I dont know about More (As a take on Oliver Twist holding bowl... "MORE?")
I really love the dealers who group crap-0-rama into one lot and put a 100 dollar price tag on the bunch and then a second peice of paper who say "All one lot, no exceptions"
With that in mind, always the people ask this dealer constantly.. what about this one engine? (Usually one or two that are jewels in swine)
The dealer isnt a good people person by afternoon time.
I try not to look too closely at the people. Once I examined a engine properly and set it down without doing any damage to the side rods. A grubby person took his turn and grasped the engine in his oily hand and greased it all up and slapped it down without any regard.
This year Im carrying hand sanitizer.
The dealer's emotion showed in the purpling near the temple. Time to clear the range, that red flag is flying.
Every time a train stops in front of a child and toots, the kid has to get past the 2 foot rope gaurds, through the parents and around 5 other people to get to touch the thing. Usually tipping a axle off the rail. Parents dont offer much in way of .. well... disclipine sometimes when junior gets a hold of a engine that equals a month's pay or a year of lunch money.
If you have very small children, or if you can borrow some small children from your neighborhood, buy one of those "double wide" strollers where the kids can sit side-by-side. If they make such strollers for triplets, that would be even better. The big pouch area behind the children will be a good place to put your purchases. The aisles at the train show are always plenty wide and everyone will be so overjoyed with your parenting skills that they will gladly get out of your way. If they don't see you coming, a light bump of the babybuggy bumper on the back of their ankles will suffice. After all, really little kids need the enrichment of seeing the different sights, and they will always remember the nice soldering job on that Sn3 locomotive. The crying of the children will be uplifting to the crowd, and make them realize what poor parents they are for having asked a relative or babysitter to watch the kids during the show.
Bill
For the modular layout folks:
The bigger the better, use every module you can get, it might still work after three years in the back yard shed.
Plan on using the corner modules owned by someone who won't show up with them until five minutes before the show opens.
Sure, you can set your two hundred car coal train on the main line! And we don't mind if you have to put each car carefully back into its own box.
Your four year old is perfectly capable of operating his train without supervision. We all enjoy seeing Thomas the Tank Engine running into the back of our trains.
Don't worry about the other operators, they'll watch out for your train while you answer that pretty young lady's question.
Make sure that the areas with the most derailments are in the darkest corner of the hall. Thats what the light on the DT400 is for.
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
There is some good advice on here.
might come in handy for the next show i go to.
here's another 1 :go to a bar half way through( if not 1 on site) then haggle with traders ( just a thought)
Gav
Here are my Dos and Don'ts as well as some helpful hints.
Do not worry about personal hygiene as it is unimportant, and highly overrated. No need to do anything special that you don't do on any other day. Why buy costly deodorant, soap, shampoo and tooth paste when you can spend the money on trains?
Do not forget the broken Tyco, you need something to display on your table and why bring the good stuff when the markup is better on junk?
Do not leave your table to eat. This is very rude as customers enjoy interacting with you as you consume your food. It's a great ice breaker!
Do not negotiate with any customers on price, it they want it bad enought they will pay your price. Besides, you can always haul the stuff around for the next 10 years. Somebody, someday will buy it.
Do stop at Walmart and pickup some 1/87 autos to sell. Make sure the markup is at least 300%. No need to remove the annoying price tags, just mark over them.
Do monopolize the dealers with as many questions as possible, the more inane the better. Just because you have no intention of buying anything is not an excuse for being anti-social. Others can wait their turn to make a purchase or better yet come back to the next show.
Do wear your best vest, complete with every button and patch known to man. Ditto on the engineer and 3 piece conductors attire. Bring the wooden train whistle and blow loud and blow it often. What is a train show without strange stares from the masses?
Do stare with your mouth wide open at each and every female you see. Don't forget the wolf whistles. Just because they are somebody's wife, GF or daughter is no reason for a little discretion. What better place to meet the girl of your dreams? I'm sure they will understand the hygiene issue.
Do congregate in the most high traffic area as possible with your friends & family. Show goers can always go around using the next isle.
Jim
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
Worst possible train show advice:
Don't go to train shows.
More useful advice.
If you see a female member of a train club running a train slide up to them and tell them that, "Girls don't run trains." She'll thank you for it. ***WARNING!!!*** DON'T do this at the Mad City show. I will not be held responsible nor will I have empathy for you as my wife beats the living HECK out of you. Two years in a row is two years too many.
If you see a person holding a plastic box in his hand and concentrating on the layout in front of him, they are person to ask any questions to. This is especially true if the layout is having bugs.
For club members. When the person who is in charge of the DCC is getting more frustrated at the system and is quickly losing his temper. That is the time to ask him what's wrong and how fast will be it be running. ....hums to himself, "Kill da rabbit, Kill da rabbit...."
**Pet Peeve, but understandable one** When about to purchase a $200 engine that the guy wouldn't budge on, please have the curtisey to allow the purchaser to make sure it WORKS. I was willing to leave my CC's, my wallet, my checkbook et al, to be allowed to take the train upstairs to the club layout to see if it worked. The response, there is no upstairs to this train show. There was, we were there, he still has the engine.
Be sure to ask the people holding the plastic box the same question three or four times in a row. He won't mind.
Find a person that is actively engaged in rerailing a train and ask them if they find it difficult to keep so many wheels on the track.
Berate a customer for the item they selected, because you know that thier self-esteam should be kept it check or tell them that they could have bought the item from them for 1/3 less than they paid for it. Got to keep those ego's in check.
Inform customers that the item they are looking for doesn't have a high enough mark up for them to stock and then proceed to tell them how horrible they are for even considering purchasing from that manufacturer.
Ring up the purchasers item and then slip them a different item, because that's what they really wanted. Yeah like I collect anything from south of Illinios... Thank god for cops that listen to reason, an independant set of eyes, oh and my gf's dad was there too...did I mention he was a lawyer.
Tell train clubs what they are modelling is stupid and they need more (insert odd, out of character items here) and that until that happens they aren't really a train club.
Tell modern clubs that their diseals are stupid and all they are is motorized boxcars
Tell steam clubs that they are stupid and need to grow up and move away from the overgrown teakettles.
Tell traction fans to get a life.
Be sanctimonious when you spot a brothel, house of ill repute, or even a run down motel and then loudly tell everyone that is listening that everyone that is looking or is responsible or happens to be within earshot, or maybe in the hall that they are going to Hell because of what was on the layout.
Just maybe the car was supposed to be in the drink and is not the result of some 4 year old and that you don't need to be well meaning and put the car back where it "should be". We have a spot where a pair of lovers forgot to set the parking brake and thier car rolled into the river (based on a true story of a brand new van and prom night). About every other hour we have to put the car back into the drink because some parent thinks thier kid moved it.
Sure go ahead and ignore that 3 strikes rule (three problems with a car and it's off the layout until the owner inspects AND fixes the problem) we like seeing trains breakdown every quarter lap.
Your wife will love you if pick purchase that Milw EF1 ACBD set.
Don't forget to take THE DOG!! If you don't have a dog, get the meanest, biggest and least friendly dog you can borrow. You don't want to keep the dog, just use it to make space for you. Maybe a muzzle to avoid those pesky LAWSUITS also. And use the statement "I can't remember the last time he bit somebody, it was last week or last month!"
Maybe go for the GRAND SLAM......Killer the dog out front, followed by a side by side stroller(with at least one kid in it, second child is optional) and a case of BO that would knock a buzzard off a garbage truck. (There's another old saying about the buzzard, but not used here!)
The GRAND SLAM is guaranteed to work in any Train Show/Swap Meet that one can get into.
jeffers_mz wrote: Sword fights with flex track.
Sword fights with flex track.
I just about spit out my lunch when I read this one...the visuals it provides! LOL!
ThatNScaleGuy wrote: Don't forget to take THE DOG!! If you don't have a dog, get the meanest, biggest and least friendly dog you can borrow. You don't want to keep the dog, just use it to make space for you. Maybe a muzzle to avoid those pesky LAWSUITS also. And use the statement "I can't remember the last time he bit somebody, it was last week or last month!" Maybe go for the GRAND SLAM......Killer the dog out front, followed by a side by side stroller(with at least one kid in it, second child is optional) and a case of BO that would knock a buzzard off a garbage truck. (There's another old saying about the buzzard, but not used here!)The GRAND SLAM is guaranteed to work in any Train Show/Swap Meet that one can get into.
The Shock and Awe part would be having out-of-control kids running and running into every person's legs in the place, slamming into the corner tables cutting the corners at full speed.
Add the yelling in the high pitches at full volume and interject a tearful begging for every little engine in sight that resembles Thomas. Beats me how they think Docksiders from 30 years ago is Thomas.
Falls Valley RR wrote:Beats me how [the young 'uns] think Docksiders from 30 years ago is Thomas.
Beats me how [the young 'uns] think Docksiders from 30 years ago is Thomas.
FV:
Indeed. Our 18 month old saw a little of one episode and plays with a Thomas noisemaking book at his grandma's, and somehow he figured things out enough to coo "Tho-mas!" every time he hears the engineers blow their horns across town.
(He also lines up his Duplo blocks and says "choo choo". )
Trynn_Allen2 wrote:For club members. When the person who is in charge of the DCC is getting more frustrated at the system and is quickly losing his temper. That is the time to ask him what's wrong and how fast will be it be running.
For club members. When the person who is in charge of the DCC is getting more frustrated at the system and is quickly losing his temper. That is the time to ask him what's wrong and how fast will be it be running.
Be sure to offer helpful advice, but only if you've never touched a DCC controller (or any technology) in your life. Saying "why not try turning it on!" and "is it plugged in right?" may be just what the operator needs to hear.