Tevroc98

I started going in 1990. I went every year till 2015. It just got to be too expensive. They all did it to themselves. Hotels wanted you to stay four nights. The fairgrounds wanted your money 8 months in advance. Turnpike keeps raising their rates ( not Carlisles fault). But it does all add up. The last time I went i was selling. I was cleaning things out. Not trying to squeeze the last penny out of my C2 parts. I ended up losing $600.00. I would have been better throwing the parts away that I sold and stayed home. That’s what I’ve done since.

BGBoncke

This was my first time in a flea market space since it was "Fall Carlisle", before the specialty events like Corvettes at Carlisle. I had a great time. Last time at CatC was probably 30 years ago. I could have cleared some of my parts off the shelves online with associated fees, shipping effort, etc. I quickly realized how much I missed meeting, talking to people and, yes, even bartering a bit in the process of selling parts. Realized how cold the world has gotten in the cyber parts world. Yes, all the observations on why things are not what they once were and spot on. But, for me, the car hobby has put me together with a lifetime of friends and connections. I even tuned up some skills on reacting to obvious roving vendors trying to low ball parts to bring back to their space or home for internet sales. I'm not the guy to tell there has to be a little skin in the game for them!

I was asked by someone buying a couple parts what I thought about the volume of vendors or buyer foot traffic, in comparison to a couple years ago - pre pandemic. Told him I was not a good judge of that, but I was having a great time.

3JsVette

Lots of good strong points. Nothing to disagree with. My thoughts....1st we're getting older and for some attendance is no longer possible. Expense. It's gotten to be expensive to attend any weekend event. Factor in travel, hotel, and food. By the time you get back home the cash flow has taken a pretty good hit. That's not even factoring the "virus". Whether you attend Corvettes at Carlisle or any major weekend event you have to consider the entertainment factor is worth what ever it costs. After all at this point in our lives we should be where we have worked to live and no longer have to live to work.

JrRifleCoach

And 3- most young people couldn't change a set of points if their life depended on it.

gbvette62

Let me start by saying I've been a vendor at every Corvette Carlisle except one, last year. I still drove out on Thursday last year to pick up some orders that I'd had brought to the show to save on freight (freight on 6 sets of calipers from Lonestar, at 52 pounds a set, gets expensive!), I just didn't vend.

Ten years ago I had 8 vendor spaces and rented a 20x30 tent. I'd bring my son and a friend to help out and we'd be busy from 7 am till 7 pm. I'm down to five spaces now, but only used three, letting friends park in the other two, and the only help I had was my wife, who'd never been to Carlisle before, even though we've been married 41 years (she's retired now, but in the past said she was working full time, and wasn't going to "work for me on the weekend"). I didn't open up till 8:30 and was closed by 5 every day.

I will say that business wise it was fairly steady, and I did better than I have in about 3 or 4 years, but my sales for the whole weekend wouldn't have been a good Friday 10 years ago.

Have you ever called Long Island or Doc Rebuild, some vendors are just always pissed off.

As far as leaving Friday, that has more to do with the show being over on Saturday now. Having been a vendor at shows all over the country for many years, I've seen this happen over and over. When shows drop Sunday, it just moves the whole show earlier by a day, vendors and serious shoppers show up earlier and leave earlier.

Many vendors skip the last day of a show, because it's usually the slowest day sales wise. The serious buyers show up early, and the lookers and bargain hunters come the last day. Lots of vendors travel a long way to get to the show, and the last day's often not worth staying for. These days sales on the last day of the show, often don't even cover the cost of the night in a hotel. It's still a three day show, with most full time vendors showing up a day early to set up, meaning many have to leave Tuesday now, to get to Carlisle. Staying till Saturday just adds expenses for many vendors, that are hard to recover.

The threat of rain, and the thunder and lightening at 3, had a lot to do with everyone closing up early Friday too. When the thunder started I tarped everything, like those around me, but I didn't leave, and still managed to have a few more sales.

Actually I was really surprised this year in that I didn't have as many people trying to beat me up over prices as in some years. The worse year ever at swap meets was 2009, when the whole economy went to crap. I had people offering me $1 for $2 spark plug grommets, and $3 for $10 mid year heater hose T's.

Having the show earlier in the year, won't help with the weather. I've vended at GM Carlisle in June and the old (now long gone) Summer Carlisle in July, and I can tell you it's usually hot in PA in the summer. Pop up thunder storms are also a common summertime occurrence in the Northeast. Weather is always going to be a problem at any outside show. It snowed in April at Spring Carlisle this year, and who knows what October's Fall Carlisle will bring. I've also experienced snow in March at the Knoxville TN Corvette Expo, and 100 degree temps in June when Bloomington Gold was still in Bloomington.

Before the internet, weather never effected a show. It use to be that we had no choice, and were happy to spend three days walking the muddy isles at Carlisle in the rain, looking for what we needed to finish our restorations (there was a time when only row A and J were paved and the rest were knee deep mud when it rained, which it always did).

vettebuyer6369

I will say I went as a vendor twice in recent years, maybe 2017 and 2019. I pd $105 for a space in Row C near Gate 2, parked my SUV behind my spot and filled my table with stuff off my ‘63 and ‘69 both years, plus extra stuff like collectibles and diecasts that people insist on giving Corvette owners as gifts. But most of the stuff was take offs from both cars, wheels, interior stuff, glass, engine compartment. Decent parts but not huge dollar. The ‘63 stuff was pretty desirable. Anyway, I sold pretty much every single thing I brought both years.

It was great fun and Id do it again. I think that stuff would sell again, too. Plus parking there eliminated and event pass and parking, so the spot cost was negligible. Those days are over for me, though.

petdoc

Dang! I'd love to have that '69 front bumper!

knockbill

I went to the Carlisle events since they started, on and off,,, last time I went with my son was Fall 2019... We made plans to go Friday from his place, but decided Thurs night it may not be worth it, due to heat and weather forecast... Read some of the posts from members that were there Thursday, and that convinced us... Will try to make the Fall meet, if all goes well...

Eric Cahill

I was lucky to live an hour and a half away in the 2000 decade and I always went. All their events were packed. With that said, I hope to drive my C2 there and hang out with folks that still enjoy going even though the glory days may be fading. Are they fading because folks no longer want to drive their cars? Perhaps that is some of it. Enjoy it while you have it, you can't take it with you.

EC

ettev

I’d go the opposite direction on the calendar……..move it to the third weekend in September. Great weather around here that time of year. Good for older, hotter running cars too.

vettebuyer6369

I agree, the weather for Hershey is usually much better, although theres still the possibility of rain.

gbvette62

Something else to consider when talking about the size of the crowd at Carlisle this year, because of COVID and COVID related travel restrictions, there were no Canadians, Europeans, South Americans or Puerto Ricans there this year. In the past, I always encountered a few German, Swiss, Brazilian and Puerto Rican customers, and plenty of Canadians. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Fall Carlisle attendance, since there's usually a large contingent of Europeans and South Americans who come to Fall Carlisle and then stay for Hershey the following week.

vettebuyer6369

Thats a good point.

vettebuyer6369

This is purely my personal opinion, but I think if you would hesitate to go based on the heat, then Carlisle probably isnt a good target to attend. As bad as the heat was Thur and Fri, at least the show was going on and you could periodically hide from the sun. My biggest problems with Carlisle has always been the annual threat of torrential rains, some lasting all day long. Nothing worse than driving 13+ hours one way and having to go over to the Antique Museum for something to do because the fairgrounds are empty of buyers & vendors due to the volume of rain. That’s happened to me more than once.

Corvette ED

I am the Corvette Specialist at a Chevrolet store in Hazleton, Pa. We have the big white tent outside the car pavilion A. We also have some spaces under the pavilion. The costs start with spaces which have to be paid in full by the end of November. Next the tent rental, Hotel Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Meals, Transporting the Cars. We sell our new Corvette trades C6's & C7's we sell out every year. We bring top quality Corvettes and (DON'T OVERPRICE THEM) so Carlisle works for us. Many of my dealer friends stopped brings cars to the car corral. They say it's just too expensive to come.

I have been to every Corvettes@Carlisle since they started. I remember the days when every big and small Corvette vendor would attend. There is nothing like finding that NOS part to complete your restoration sitting on a table on vendor row J. Myself and ettev(post above) would have shopping lists of parts for our Corvettes and walked for 3 days trying to find what we needed. Along came the internet, E-bay, and online shopping and that slowly killed off the vendors plus some the older guys just can't do it anymore. I will keep going as long as I an alive or Carlisle folds tent and becomes a housing development!!

gilbybarr

Having attended all but two C@C events since 1993, I can say this year was a good one. Friday at around noon, the fun field and crowds were tremendous....walking the vendor area became an exercise in caution. Saturday was busy as well with what I thought was a great turnout, the exception being the flea areas. Yes, there were many empty spaces....I looked at the C@C website two days before making the trip to see what slots were still available for sale and there were literally many hundreds not sold (I believe the minimum charge was about $115.00). In the old days, the slots were very coveted and hard to get. As someone said above, Carlisle has evolved into a cruise in and car show with national vendors showing their stuff, GM engineering showing their latest works, collectable items for sale and finally, the flea area vendors also being there. That said, most of my buddies who make the 8 hour trip up to Carlisle are most interested in the flea market/parts vendors and head to those rows first thing. In any case, its a great weekend with our favorite cars and also a chance to spend time on the road with friends. I'm glad they have the event and wish them continued success.

vettebuyer6369

Kind of disappointed I have not read a single word on the LEO tribute, anywhere.

jasonsamara

Am I the only one who has contemplated buying a space in the pavilion, marking my car up ridiculously high just to sit in the shade?

vettevt

I was really hoping to attend for my first time with a few buddies. We tried to book a few months ago and the motels were either booked or outrageously priced dumps. We decided to stay one night at a friends house a couple hours away in PA and he and his family came down with Covid. So in my case, I didn't attend due to lack of reasonably priced lodging and Covid.
I know motels will jack prices up when the demand is high, but it's so much now, the average Joe is priced out. A few years back we paid at least triple the price for a room when we went to Barrett-Jackson. Wasn't worth it.