Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Bulgaria
... I would have thought two long days per year would be a reasonable tradeoff for sellers if they get enough punters in on their end of the bargain ...
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That's the crux of it. It's been a while since I've had stalls at Audiojumble and Retro-Tech (NVCF as was) but the selling side follows a very clear pattern. Early on buyers are bargain-hunting. As the vast majority of the punters come in, which is up to mid-morning, most of the genuine business is done. I make it a rule to decline offers to start with, explaining that I'd like to let everyone have a look at the goods before concluding that no-one is prepared to pay what I think they're worth. My usual watershed is lunchtime. "If it's still here then, then we can haggle" I say "but you should be aware that it may well not be ...". Most buyers will stay until lunchtime.
But after lunch business tends to fall through the floor. Everyone who's remotely interested in what you have has walked past it three times already. The ones you've promised a haggling opportunity will come back if they're serious. The folks who remain are hoping to pick up kit at knock-down prices on the basis that "You don't want to take that home again, do you ?". Often I do, so to save myself two hours of my life I decide around 13:30 to 14:00 whether to start packing up.
I don't know how many other people were showing up for the first time after lunch, but if I had to guess I would say it was certainly under 5% of the total attendance and very probably under 2%. If I still had stuff that 98% of the buyers didn't want then I'd have to be extremely lucky to sell it to someone in the remaining 2%.
Cheers,
GJ