Dayton, here I come!

On Mon, May 10, 2004 at 01:29:40PM -0700, SHAUN RIPLEY wrote: Not so much indoors, but lots of the flea market stuff is computer-related. They also host a computer-only show in March and August that's 100% indoors... there used to be lots of flea-marketish stuff, but a few years ago they changed the table rates and made things too expensive for people selling $5 motherboards to effectively show up. I do buy a lot of connectors and cables, though, at the ComputerFest. Sometimes modern RAM, CPUs and blank media. If you can arrive at the opening bell on Friday (presuming you aren't a seller and browsing on Thursday night ;-), you *might* be able to find a classic bargain or two. The other scrounge time is Sunday right before closing time - people abandon stuff rather than take it home - that's how I got my first PDP-8/L for 20% of the marked price... the guy didn't want to load it in the trailer in the rain. Over the years, I've found PDP-8 hardware (more in the past than recently, though there was an -8/a last year), an RCA VIP, an ASR-33, DECmates, C-64 and VIC-20 bits, a hand-held proprietary bar code scanner with a 4004 inside, machine pin sockets, crystals, even bags of parts that were later turned into GG2 Bus+ boards. Pound for pound, though, most of the computer components in the flea market, are recently obsolete Intel hardware, Macintosh and Sun boxes. Oh, yeah... weather has *lots* to do with how good a HamFest it is... hot and sunny days can really hurt. People tarp things up in the rain, but an on-and-off rainy weekend can force some real bargains out of the sellers. And watch where you park... I prefer to pay for a spot in the grass by the BBQ restaurant that's to the left of the arena as you leave (can't remember what cardinal direction that's in)... get there early. It's not a bad place for lunch and a beer when you walk back with your morning haul, either. Enjoy! -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 10-May-2004 21:00 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -71.5 F (-57.5 C) Windchill -115.4 F (-81.90 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 9.9 kts Grid 059 Barometer 681.4 mb (10571. ft) Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html