Frankly, the reason I'm a seller is only partly to get rid of the follies of my youth. It's also not mainly so I have first look at the stuff for sale in a relatively quiet atmosphere, although that happens and I sold a couple of nice little things before the doors opened. The main reason is to avoid the queue and the crush, which seemed exceptional this year. It cost $30 to have a table there and that gets two of us in, which means only $15 each, and it's worth it just to avoid the crush of the great unwashed. In addition, it's a place where club members can leave their purchases or come and stand behind the table for a while to recover. Most of all, just about anybody who is anybody wanders past at some stage and the swap and sell is a great chance to catch up with a lot of my modelling friends. Unfortunately, I'm starting to run out of follies of my youth so if you get to the swap and sell in a couple of years and find there's nothing on my table, you know why I'm still there.
The crowd this year was exceptional. In past years the crowd had thinned out by about a quarter to 11 and it's possible to have a good look at what's for sale. This year I went for a look at about 11.30 and there were still too many people. Usually trade has dropped off so much that by about 11.15 we're thinking of packing up but this year we didn't get away until about 12 and I was taking things out of potential buyers hands even then so we could pack and get away. Maybe I should have spend a few $$$ on cheap stuff that I can put on the table next year. Perhaps not.
Leigh