MTFCA Forum

I realize we are still planning the 2021 event, but I wanted to give you a "Save the Date" advance notice for the 2022 event. It will be April 22, 23, 24, 2022. That is Friday, Saturday, Sunday with "move-in" dates as early as Wednesday. The event will be held in conjunction with the California Antique Farm Equipment Show. The shows are always held on the week/week-end following Easter Sunday. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have an opportunity here to truly have a world class event, but, its only possible with YOUR support. 2021 will be a transitional/growing year and I sincerely hope we can build on success after success. Remember, this notice is for NEXT year, 2022. Thank you again for the positive responses. Kind Regards, Bill

Count Me In


FJ

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Giddy Up!!!
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Move in dates wednesday? So it will be a wednesday meet now? If you are not buying on wednesday, there is nothing left for thursday. Between venders & ebay pirates, hobbiests dont have a chance.

This was a mistake the B/F started years ago. Fellow club members who still work realized the folly of going saturday to a meet that is over friday afternoon. Many stopped comming.
I was able to adapt & get there early friday. that worked, but saturday is a ghost town. I have made it a 1 day, friday meet occasionally. You guys know - look @ chickashay.

Then B/F did the late thursday arrival. Despite the "rules" a lot of stuff changes hands thursday. My chances for success dropped further. It became a strictly friday meet. Will it get to the point to not be worth the trip?
you are shooting the hobby in the foot.
Another nail in the swap meet coffin. My humble opinion.

John, Thank you for the response. I too have a hard time trying to "balance" the mid-week move-in stuff. I truly want to make this event enjoyable for all. The actual event will be on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Move-in will be encouraged on Thursday or Friday, but it will be "available" as early as Wednesday. As a young man I attended many swap meets on Saturday-Sunday. I was in elementary and high-school and couldn't take Fridays off! As the age of the hobbyists grew older, the meets seem to shift to Friday-Saturday or as early as Thursday. (Hershey PA starts on Wednesday). I truly believe this hinders the hobby for people that are still working 5 days a week, or are in school. Exactly the "young folks" we should be encouraging. I'm working with the event promoters with that thought in mind. We have a full year to try and get this worked out. I'm very optimistic about the possibilities. As the event comes together I'll post up-dates. Let's concentrate on 2021 right now and discuss 2022 in earnest in mid-May. Thank you again. Kind Regards, Bill

I am glad you share my concerns. B/F & long beach have been the BEST west coast meets since i can remember. I selfishly want that to continue.

speedytinc wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 22, 2021 12:22 pm

Move in dates wednesday? So it will be a wednesday meet now? If you are not buying on wednesday, there is nothing left for thursday. Between venders & ebay pirates, hobbiests dont have a chance.

This was a mistake the B/F started years ago. Fellow club members who still work realized the folly of going saturday to a meet that is over friday afternoon. Many stopped comming.
I was able to adapt & get there early friday. that worked, but saturday is a ghost town. I have made it a 1 day, friday meet occasionally. You guys know - look @ chickashay.

Then B/F did the late thursday arrival. Despite the "rules" a lot of stuff changes hands thursday. My chances for success dropped further. It became a strictly friday meet. Will it get to the point to not be worth the trip?
you are shooting the hobby in the foot.
Another nail in the swap meet coffin. My humble opinion.

You Wanna Blame Someone ?

Don’t blame the event or the host.

Blame the folks that sell their stuff
wholesale to retailers before the swap
meet gates open to the public.

If they didn’t do it in the parking lot
they would do it down the street in
another lot before the swap meet.

It is an aspect of the swap meet.

Don’t Like It ?

Don’t Go


FJ

If it gets to the point where there is no deals to be had from VENDER swapping. There will be no RETAIL buyers. that has been the increasing problem. No retail buyers & the venders wont show even for themselves. I have had to become a vendor to get a shot at stuff. Have you not seen the trend??? The swap meet game needs to be FAIR or fairer to all. The promoters should help promote this fairness or we all lose.
Back in the day, sat am. was setup, say 5:00 to 7:00. That made for a pretty even playing field.
Meets, in practice, are ONE day events. Exception of hershey. (maybe because of its size) Is that not the case? chickashe is friday & done with the best deals gone thursday. I am not pointing the blame just a possible solution.
I have enjoyed the swap meet aspect of the hobby for over 40 years.

An attitude of F.U. if you dont like it does not help the hobby, thanks.

If it gets to the point where there is no deals to be had from VENDER swapping. There will be no RETAIL buyers. that has been the increasing problem. No retail buyers & the venders wont show even for themselves. I have had to become a vendor to get a shot at stuff. Have you not seen the trend??? The swap meet game needs to be FAIR or fairer to all. The promoters should help promote this fairness or we all lose.
Back in the day, sat am. was setup, say 5:00 to 7:00. That made for a pretty even playing field.
Meets, in practice, are ONE day events. Exception of hershey. (maybe because of its size) Is that not the case? chickashe is friday & done with the best deals gone thursday. I am not pointing the blame just a possible solution.
I have enjoyed the swap meet aspect of the hobby for over 40 years.

An attitude of F.U. if you dont like it does not help the hobby, thanks.

FreighTer Jim wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:03 pm

speedytinc wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 22, 2021 12:22 pm

Move in dates wednesday? So it will be a wednesday meet now? If you are not buying on wednesday, there is nothing left for thursday. Between venders & ebay pirates, hobbiests dont have a chance.

This was a mistake the B/F started years ago. Fellow club members who still work realized the folly of going saturday to a meet that is over friday afternoon. Many stopped comming.
I was able to adapt & get there early friday. that worked, but saturday is a ghost town. I have made it a 1 day, friday meet occasionally. You guys know - look @ chickashay.

Then B/F did the late thursday arrival. Despite the "rules" a lot of stuff changes hands thursday. My chances for success dropped further. It became a strictly friday meet. Will it get to the point to not be worth the trip?
you are shooting the hobby in the foot.
Another nail in the swap meet coffin. My humble opinion.

You Wanna Blame Someone ?

Don’t blame the event or the host.

Blame the folks that sell their stuff
wholesale to retailers before the swap
meet gates open to the public.

If they didn’t do it in the parking lot
they would do it down the street in
another lot before the swap meet.

It is an aspect of the swap meet.

Don’t Like It ?

Don’t Go


FJ

You’ve got that right, FJ.

If you have a 9-5 job, then model T swap meets are not for you, or tours either. You need to be satisfied with tinkering alone, buying only from retail parts vendors, online classified ads, or just get another hobby. This hobby doesn’t want folks like you.

Eric
(still working towards retirement so that I can play in your reindeer games)

For a little personal background, I was a big fan of the Bakersfield meet for the last decade or so. Drove two hours to get there multiple times, always on Saturday morning. Never found anything worth buying that wouldn’t fit in my pocket, but it was a good place to pick up stuff that I had bought from afar, closing out pre-arranged online deals. Good place to put faces to the names.

Went to a few meets that were farther away, but since my availability has been limited to Saturdays, most of the fun of the meet is watching people pack up or imagining who or what might have been in the empty spaces.

When I heard that Bakersfield was moving to Tulare, my first thought was to jump in and support the new venture. Luckily, this discussion has given me the opportunity to compare my feelings about these meets to my experiences of them in real life. It makes more sense to use them only as a drop point for previously made deals until I don’t have a day job.

It’s too bad that things are this way, life was once different, but now things have changed. Personally, I’m a lifer. My family was very active when I was young, we largely stopped playing after the political kerfuffle when the MTFCSC split up and the MTFCA was founded. I’ve been playing, mostly alone, since almost 20 years ago, when I became the caretaker of the “1916” Bitsy touring that my family drove on the 500-1000 mile tours that were more common back then. I’ve now got 2 more T’s, a pretty accurate ‘14 Touring, and a modified ‘27 roadster. So even without much contact with others, I’m committed. I’ll keep doing the day events (on weekends) that happen in SoCal. All in all, it’s a good hobby.

Keep crankin’
Eric