Vintage Computer Festivals???

Are we talking ?John Craig who used to have the 59 el camino?...ed# Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Date: 4/18/2016 4:36 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Vintage Computer Festivals??? It has been a long time.??? It has been far too long since VCF (west) John Craig experienced a process that a friend called "the inevitable decline of flea-markets".? They start out as a peer event, where the attendees and sellers are the same people.? Before long, realities of setup call for sellers being allowed in before buyers.?? That gives the sellers a headstart on buying the best deals.?? "We might as well just do musical chairs - when the music stop, you take home whatever is on the table that you ended up with" Soon, it attracted vendors who are NOT buyers.? In the case of computer swaps, those were the vendors of Taiwan clone systems and parts.? It was such a good deal for them that more and more of them signed up.? Soon, there started to be a shortage of spaces (a delightful prospect for show management!).? So, the management created a multi-level pricing for space. Competing companies offered more and more shows until there was one almost every weekend. Eventually, the show was ALL new item vendors, with hobbyists few and far between.? Soon the hobbyist buyers stopped coming.? There was a period of time where the show could still appeal to the general public ("great place to buy your new computer!"), but after a while, the swaps ceased to exist.