Haven't seen much mention about the wide variety of goodies from the nearly 50 vendors found inside the new Exhibition Hall at the hotel. Perhaps that's called the new "Ballroom". The Exhibition Hall vendors are only able to begin setting up at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The doors to the hall are locked up until that time. I heard more than one person say they weren't aware there were inside vendors at the meet! There wasn't any signing in the hotel lobby or in the outdoor vending area to indicate "Many more vendors inside".
To me, it seemed like foot traffic was down a bit this year, but that many sales were still being consummated. I heard some vendors saying it was their best Iowa Gas ever....while other sellers felt it was their worst. I think it's possible that individual vendor pricing of their stuff was the major influencing factor in these two different outcomes. As one vendor who indicated this was his best Iowa Gas ever noted to me, "I work hard to find good stuff, and then I PRICE IT TO SELL". My observation was that the vendors not happy with their sales hadn't followed the second part of this other seller's equation for success.
There was certainly plenty of money available in buyer's pockets this year, and the economy (good or bad) didn't seem to be a factor in someone making a purchasing decision.
As has been mentioned, for all its "warts", there's still no place like Iowa Gas. What a wonderful place to go to improve our collections, renew friendships from the hobby, and to finally put a face on some of the Old Gas ID's many of us have seen here throughout the year. It was great to see many of you in Des Moines this year. John
