There were two black ovals for sale for around the £5k mark, neither of which remotely tempted me, despite having the cash about my person. There was a LHD '67 for £4500 which I was seriously thinking about, but when I went back for a third look (after the white stuff had melted) it revealed itself to be not quite as good as I'd initially thought... damn good car in relation to almost everything else there, but at least £1000 too much for me. That £50k bus was the biggest laugh of the day.
The parts aspect of shows has gone to the dogs right across the board, it's been going that way for a while now, but the problem is that parts have always been DF's raison d'etre, so it's suffering much more than something like Stanford (which isn't very good for bits either compared to the old days, but at least has nice show cars and scenery to make up for it). It's not the fault of the show organisers, it's the fault of the public. If they've got stuff for sale, they put it on ebay or advertise it on a forum (and then do all their trading in the show car park). So that's the small stall/autojumble side knackered.
For the large traders it makes more sense to stay at home and deal with the online orders which are streaming in, rather than loading half their stock into a van, driving to the other end of the country to load/unload/set up/discount stuff/take down/load/unload... and taking three days out to do so. You can't blame them. Things have changed, at least as far as the VW parts industry has gone. If you go to one of the classic bike shows at Bingley Hall, they're absolutely thriving - the trade takes up the entire grounds, with all the public car parking over the road. I'm not sure why, but old bikey people just don't seem to 'do' the internet as much, therefore their shows/autojumbles are still worth going to.
I was frustrated that I didn't find any of the parts I need yesterday, but I wasn't exactly surprised. We skipped the show last year, and sadly it's going back on the 'not bother with' list for 2013, and beyond (basically leaving Stanford and nothing else, as Tatton was the only other show I tended to bother with, and that's gone badly downhill for trade too). A big shame, especially after it being such a ritual in the old days, but that's the way it is. As I say, not really the fault of the people who put shows on, just 'progress'.
Edited by user
13 years ago
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Reason: Not specified