Report from CARA Hamfest

Went to the Columbia (Maryland) ARA hamfest this morning. By far, the most successful, in vintage computer terms, hamfest I've ever been to. Arrived at 6am. Dark... Walked around through the little bit of fog, squinting at the tailgating stuff already out. Silly me, forgot to bring a flashlight. Talked to some people and got a line, maybe two, on an ASR 33. As the sky gradually brightened, made my first score, a box of S-100 cards and motherboards. The guy wanted $20. I was so amazed to find anything that interesting that I forgot to haggle and handed him a twenty. Next I found a large pile of 50 pin twisted pair rainbow wire (perfect for 8 inch floppy cables) for $1. It quickly got lighter and the fog burned off. Now I could see the following of classiccmp interest (all of which I passed on): A pile of 20 or so Commodore 64s with a sign "2 for $5" A large collection of SGI boxes, Indigos, etc. A large collection of Sun boxes and monitors. A number of Atari boxes of various makes. A table with 10 or so old Mac boxes and a Next slab. A couple of CoCos. A lot of tailgaters were still setting up, but it was 8:30 and I had to leave. On my way out, a flash of "S-100 blue" caught my eye. In an unattended box labeled "project enclosures, $5 for the box, slip money in drivers side window" was a really nice, clean NorthStar 5 1/4" disk enclosure with power supply, but no drive. I didn't need all the other Radio Shack style project boxes that were also in the box, so I just took the N* box and put $2 in the window. I hope some other CC'ers made it to this one, I'll definitely be back next year.