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2015 Aberdeen and Findlay shows -SAME DAYS!

HAWKMAN

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Unfortunately Findlay is too far for me to travel.I'll be at Aberdeen.....for some reason this year I'm picturing tumbleweeds blowing around to the theme song from 'Good,Bad,Ugly'..:-(
 

rickf

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Hawkman, you will have a little company, I will be at Aberdeen. Findley is too far for me also. I know some of the North Carolina crowd are coming up also. I will be retired next year so I will have more time to get there but less money so who knows. I certainly will not be able to afford Aberdeen at their current prices. I am thinking there are going to be a lot of empty spots this year. It's a shame, I have been going to Aberdeen since the start and this may be the last year. I think it will be the last year for the show if the attendance drops off as it sounds like it will.
 

CARNAC

The Envelope Please.
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Rick I unfortunately but totally agree. I use to like Aberdeen and it is where I cut my teeth for the first show. When you roll in with 8 or 10 slots of gear at $60 a slot it adds up. In the years since, I've been to other shows and saw how others went. The fact it was so expensive and never had a forklift, limited crappers and a staff that didn't seem to listen the rumblings (they supposedly could hear but wouldn't listen). This move to put this show on the same weekend as Findlay is stupid. If they still aren't listening to the stampede, then they are done for. They may or may not have an opportunity to change the weekend to the weekend before but if they don't, I fear you're correct that it's done. There are times in peoples lives where they just need to swallow their pride and made the right decision to support the hobby. Matters not if they have to find a different venue. They fail again as miserably as they did last year and the year before, that will be it. It is a leadership issue, either they give what their customers want/need or they need to be replaced. My 2 cents.
 

emmado22

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I will be at Aberdeen, but getting only 1 space. It's just not worth it anymore to buy a ton of spaces at $60 a piece with less and less buyers every year. I have to leave Friday night due to a Saturday family commitment, and honestly, Im not the least bit upset about it. If something MAJOR doesn't change ASAP, the nose dive Aberdeen has take will stop when it crashes into the ground at high speed.

I believe that the MTA's Sussex NJ Show is be best show in the Northeast now. Aberdeen is now a shell of it's former self, and it seems that everyone BUT the show's management sees it that way. Reminds me of the band on the deck of the Titanic as the ship is going down....
 

maddawg308

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Unfortunately Findlay is too far for me to travel.I'll be at Aberdeen.....for some reason this year I'm picturing tumbleweeds blowing around to the theme song from 'Good,Bad,Ugly'..:-(
Hoping less people means more deals at the show! At least, if you're buying you think that way - but if you're selling, it might not be the best thing....
 

emmado22

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Less people in general means some vendors pack up and head home early as they are loosing $ by being there..... The best days for the show are Wed and Thursday, when it is all "dealer on dealer"
 
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rickf

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Pemberton, N.J.
I know for a fact that quite a few of the people in charge of that affair belong to Steel Soldiers and have to be seeing these posts. I know a couple have defected and are even going to Findley! I think a big part of the problem is finding another venue that will accept large vehicles tearing up their fields if it rains, we all remember the mudfest. And face it, that area is getting built up FAST! There are probably precious little places to go to. Another is insurance. I have been criticized in the past for "bashing" the drinking. But when you have people drinking to the point of throwing up and then they continue to drink then that is going to far. I have been chased out of my spot in the past, my wife will never go with me again because of that one. People drive trucks, quads, scooters, motorcycles, golf carts around all night drunk. I should say race around. Little kids wandering the area at the same time. It is a disaster just waiting to happen since there is NO security there at all. Yes, I have a few beers, them I go to bed, or try to. Since I have moved to the far edge it is not so bad but we still see it from there. Just a matter of time. It does not matter what my opinions are, fact of the matter is that someone is going to get hurt, bad.Then do we blame the venue, the organizers or the hobby? I can tell you what the evening news will say. " A large group of MILITARY VEHICLE owners............".

Hey maybe all the shows are that way? I only stayed at Aberdeen and Gilbert and Gilbert was quiet. What about other shows? Maybe I will have to eat my words. And plan to stay home since us crabby old non drinkers want sleep more than drunk.
 

emmado22

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There are a few different locations that were suggested. A race track in Delaware and Army Heritage Center in Carlisle were the 2 big ones. Bottom line is the head of the event doesn't want to move from the parkinglot, and it seems to me the show management would rather see the show die than do whats best for the hobby. I heard that the club got a BIG discount on the parkinglot cost this year, but vendors didn't see that reflected in the cost of the spots..

Sussex and Gilbert are the way shows should be run, not like the current Aberdeen of the past few years. Ohio is a 10+ hour drive for me and is out of the question, Aberdeen is about 3.5, and that's a lot of time and gas/tolls invested for not that much of an experience and overflowing portapotties. Sussex and Gilbert are much shorter drives for me, offer much better venues and vendor amenities (showers and forklift and covered outside spaces), and are much cheaper with much larger crowds. When the show OIC makes it a point to visit every vendor and ask what else can he do to make it better, I heard the vendor tell him unless you can control the weather, there is nothing else that can be improved on....
 
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