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Old 13th May 2019, 7:21 pm   #41
NANETTE
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

NVCF An excellent day again. HOWEVER is it not time to abandon the early (expensive) entry. Very few punters. How about all in at 10AM - and we then don’t have to get up before the crack of dawn. Also possibly end at 3PM as most customers had gone by then. Anyone else agree? David
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Old 13th May 2019, 10:10 pm   #42
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

One reason for the early entry is to stop people buying a stall and put nothing on it, just so they can get into the hall early. In that way it works very well.

The last hour when it is thinning out is the best time to get some bargains as stallholders reduce prices or are more inclined to accept offers so they don't have to take the items back home.
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Old 13th May 2019, 10:28 pm   #43
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Agreed, it was a great day. I can’t say I noticed it being quieter than usual. Despite the valiant efforts of Jeff and Jeremy on the B&B stall, for which I’m always grateful, only one of my Avometers sold - has the bottom dropped out of the Avo market? It was also nice to catch up with a few old friends and meet some new acquaintances.

Paul’s right, the last hour was quieter and I did pick up a couple of small parts for very little money. It’s good that the NVCF can still yield a few odd items which I never knew I needed!
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Old 13th May 2019, 10:41 pm   #44
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

I almost bought an AVO8, Phil, but decided against it in the end, partly because I'd have to carry it home on two buses, three including the NVCF Shuttle bus, with a 40 minute wait in Stratford for the bus to Chipping Norton, then a 15-20 minute walk home from the Chippy bus stop. As it was I had a bag which was quite heavy mainly due to a pack of cassette tapes and some MP3 encoded CDs I bought (or was almost given) -a dozen for £1. Not owning a vehicle or being a driver means I cannot buy loads of items, but it also means I can't take things to venues to sell or donate, either.
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Old 14th May 2019, 12:11 am   #45
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

I enjoyed the day and bought a few bargains, mainly parts.
I do find it slightly frustrating when a stall has nothing priced, I get fed up asking how much is this, how much is that...
I also expect (and often find) that if nothing is priced it's usually somewhat overpriced so I rarely ask.

Am I alone in this line of thought? Do others ask how much or do you also think like me?
I am sure stalls with no prices shown must lose sales..?

Towards the end I had a look around to see if there was anything reduced that took my fancy and I noticed that whilst some stalls were fairly empty and had obviously sold a lot of stuff some of the others were still almost fully stocked. One, a stall full of Hacker and other high end makes of transistor radios appeared to be as full as at the start of the day, again nothing had a price ticket...


Rich.
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Old 14th May 2019, 6:06 am   #46
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

I thoroughly enjoyed the NVCF this year! It took me nearly 2 hours just to get to the bottom end of the hall, spent quite a bit of time chatting to people, I also managed to offload a few bits too, finally decided to part with some of the old oscilloscopes that I got from college 18 years ago, I put them on the bring and buy, along with a VHS machine, although one scope didn’t even make it onto the stand as I gave it away whilst waiting! I also got rid of 2 boxes of those SCSI hard drives!! Many thanks to those who took away those items, and also many thanks to those who run the bring and buy, it looked very busy there all day. I came away with a very small pile of stuff this year, no telly’s, 3 radios, a wobulator, a very odd Sony CD player, a duff camcorder and a clock. I was tempted by the Sobell Stargazer tv, but £450 was more than I had with me, and there wasn’t room in the car for it. Bring on next year!

Regards
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Old 14th May 2019, 8:01 am   #47
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Quote:
Originally Posted by slidertogrid View Post
I do find it slightly frustrating when a stall has nothing priced, I get fed up asking how much is this, how much is that...
I also expect (and often find) that if nothing is priced it's usually somewhat overpriced so I rarely ask.

Am I alone in this line of thought? Do others ask how much or do you also think like me?
I am sure stalls with no prices shown must lose sales..?
I am very much of a like mind on this. If items are not priced, I tend to ignore them unless something of particular interest. I hate having to ask and then decline when the asking price is more than I am willing to pay.

With interesting unpriced high-end items that I'm pretty sure are beyond my budget, I usually preface an enquiry with something along the lines of "Purely as a matter of interest...".
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Old 14th May 2019, 8:09 am   #48
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Same here!

Quote:
Originally Posted by slidertogrid View Post
I enjoyed the day and bought a few bargains, mainly parts.
I do find it slightly frustrating when a stall has nothing priced, I get fed up asking how much is this, how much is that...
I also expect (and often find) that if nothing is priced it's usually somewhat overpriced so I rarely ask.

Am I alone in this line of thought? Do others ask how much or do you also think like me?
I am sure stalls with no prices shown must lose sales..?

Towards the end I had a look around to see if there was anything reduced that took my fancy and I noticed that whilst some stalls were fairly empty and had obviously sold a lot of stuff some of the others were still almost fully stocked. One, a stall full of Hacker and other high end makes of transistor radios appeared to be as full as at the start of the day, again nothing had a price ticket...


Rich.
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Old 14th May 2019, 8:15 am   #49
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Regarding Avos and prices, at events like these, table top sales etc I've never spend any more or much more than £5 on one. Prices go wild on the well known online auction site, but I must limit what I spend to keep the hobby viable and I usually do come away with a few Avos, as I did on Sunday.
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Old 14th May 2019, 8:45 am   #50
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

RE: Pricing items

I've had an NVCF stall a few times and I have to say that from the other side of the table priced items do sell much more reliably than unpriced ones.

But the real problem comes if, say, I'm moving stuff on from someone's shack clearout and I genuinely don't know what an item is worth. Looking at eBay's Completed Listings can be a great help with more common items. But if the thing is unusual there may be little guidance available.

All you can hope, as a seller, is that one of the small handful of people in the country who is actually looking for the power supply for that obscure piece of microwave test gear is going to walk past your stall and notice it. He's got an unpowered, so useless, gizmo and I've got the solution to his problem. What price should I have put on it ? If he hadn't turned up then it might have been worth a fiver to someone for parts. Given that he has it might be worth £25. Or £100 if it says HP on the front. All we can do is discuss it.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 14th May 2019, 9:12 am   #51
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Quote:
Originally Posted by slidertogrid View Post
I do find it slightly frustrating when a stall has nothing priced, I get fed up asking how much is this, how much is that... I also expect (and often find) that if nothing is priced it's usually somewhat overpriced so I rarely ask.
Rich.
Couldn't agree more Rich, you just tend to think it must be over-priced and in the words of Dionne Warwick, walk on by. Also I did ponder why some of the more optimistically priced items were priced so. I would imagine most attendees at the NVCF are pretty conversed in the value of most items as it's almost a captive audience with, I imagine, very few drop-ins off the street. Admittedly, we will pay slightly over the odds for something we really must have but some items were exponentially above slightly over the odds

Anyway, a super, very enjoyable and very well run event.

Andrew
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Old 14th May 2019, 9:12 am   #52
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

I may well have seen your stall, GJ, when at the NVCF. Most years I go there, browse around, and buy a few small items, and in the process no doubt see and speak to other members of this forum and GVR, sometimes without realizing the other person is a forum membe.
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Old 14th May 2019, 9:29 am   #53
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

I always price my items, even if it is only a 50p item, it makes it much easier for the buyers who can casually sift through my stock. I am always wary of pre-selling and avoid at all costs at BVWS members events where it is against the rules, but at the NVCF it is permitted so I just say "no discounts before early birds entry at 9.00". I am always concious of those waiting outside paying £25 to get in so I try to set a level playing field to be fair to those.
I like to keep the quality up and won't sell radios with missing knobs or broken scales and all items are basically working unless marked as "display only" on the descriptive price label.
It was a great day out and most of my stock found new homes although I had to turn down the buyer who wanted the pristine EKCO 208 transistor just for the volume control and the buyer who wanted the EKCO ACT96 (which had been in the same family since 1936) just for the knobs even though it was in working order.
Many thanks to the organisers and to the many people who visited me on the day, now for RWB!
Neil
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Old 14th May 2019, 10:10 am   #54
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Quote:
Originally Posted by NANETTE View Post
NVCF An excellent day again. HOWEVER is it not time to abandon the early (expensive) entry. Very few punters. How about all in at 10AM - and we then don’t have to get up before the crack of dawn. Also possibly end at 3PM as most customers had gone by then. Anyone else agree? David
I certainly don't agree!
Whilst I couldn't attend this year, I have taken advantage of this facility in previous years and very useful it is too.
Nobody forces you to pay the premium to get in early if it doesn't suit you.

Andy
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Old 14th May 2019, 10:22 am   #55
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Another way of looking at it is that to keep the event going and provide some revenue for the BVWS a certain amount of money has to be taken at the door. If the early entry premium rate was to disappear then the replacement single entry price would have to go up. Perhaps we should regard the 10:30 price as a discount rate offered to folks who don't need to be competing for desirable rarities ? I wouldn't want that to be abandoned, even though I don't use it.

The question of start time is a separate one. In principle the whole show could be moved an hour later for those who don't like getting up.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 14th May 2019, 10:59 am   #56
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

The event does not make any money for the BVWS. Although it is owned and run by the BVWS, it is operated separately with its own accounts and bank account etc. Profits are donated to the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum.

The BVWS do have several tables (for free), one for memberships, book sales and component sales etc and others for selling items from the BVWS store. Proceeds from these obviously benefit the BVWS and the owners of the items being sold, but that is the only money the society make.

The NVCF does have to be profitable or at least break even on its own to be viable. Early entries are a part of that and there is no reason to get rid of them and lose that extra income.

For those who don't want to pay for the early entry 10:30am is probably a reasonable opening time, and being open until 4pm means that people can arrive later if that suits them better. You don't have to be there from the start, and arriving a bit later also means you avoid the queues.

The BVWS committee members do put in a lot of unpaid time behind the scenes organising and running the NVCF. If it wasn't for that (and all time was paid) the event wouldn't be financially viable.
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Old 14th May 2019, 11:21 am   #57
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

My vote is to retain the present start times and entry arrangements.

The NVCF coincided this year with a watch and clock fair held in Ryton-on-Dunsmore just a few miles away and which opens at 9.00, thus enabling me to indulge two of my hobbies and visit two excellent fairs on the same day!
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Old 14th May 2019, 11:27 am   #58
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Just to correct any misconceptions that the NVCF is a huge commercial success for the BVWS, it isn't - never has been. As it's open to the general public, by far and away the majority of visitors will be non-members so won't have access to the BVWS annual accounts, published in the Autumn BVWS Bulletin each year. Here are the figures for 2016 and 2017 NVCF events, as published in Autumn 2018 Bulletin, with the 2016 figures shown in brackets:

NVCF Income: £14,425 (£14,707)
NVCF Management Costs: £12,478 (£13,038)
NVCF Other Expenditure:£778 (£521)

Surplus for year: £1,169 (£1,150).

It wouldn't take much to push it into a loss - if very bad weather caused say 100 or so fewer visitors, or say twenty fewer tables were taken, rather than to make a small surplus, it would be into a loss.

The responsibility that falls on the shoulders on the BVWS team, and the amount of effort in organising the event by a small army of volunteers, can only be imagined. Everything runs so smoothly - the setting up of the tables, unloading and loading of equipment, the Marshalls, cash desk, B&B, BVWS 'shop', the catering, and the car parking.

Always nice to hook up with forum friends and acquaintances and to be able to put faces to names and this year was no different.

Grateful thanks to all involved.
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Old 14th May 2019, 11:55 am   #59
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Those figures also show the value of early entry. If say 100 people paid £10 instead of £25 that would be £1,500 less income.

In previous years the committee and some of the volunteers received a voucher for a free meal in the restaurant, but that was dropped this year to save money. It isn't actually free, nor are the £1 BVWS member restaurant vouchers, the restaurant charge the NVCF instead.

It is a constant balance to keep the event profitable and viable.
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Old 14th May 2019, 12:35 pm   #60
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Default Re: NVCF Warwickshire Sunday 12th May

Hi all,

I'm late coming to this but I'd just like to add my thanks and appreciation to the organizers, BVWS members and all that are involved with this event, it truly is a one of a kind event and I pray that is continues to be successful for many years to come.

I came away with a Clarke & Smith Schools reciever in very good condition but missing it's cabinet, it is the '88-20' FM, MW & LW reciever that uses 4 x EL84 in parallel push pull in the output, a bargain at £65 I thought!

I also came away with a quirky Teleton 625 line UHF/VHF B&W 12" portable TV (The one with the tuners and loudspeaker above the CRT) in excellent condition that was reduced at the end of the show, I also bought some capacitors from the BVWS stand.

I think it's only the lack of space and funds that prohibit me from going wild on a spending frenzy!!!

Until next year...

Cheers
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