Hershey spaces at the gate?

[Dan Marx]

Five years ago, my last time at Hershey, you could get spaces at the gate. That was the old yellow field. Can any tell me if spots are available at the gate this year? Looks like I am going to make it there.

Thanks

Dan

[Guest Ts&As]

The yellow field was a disaster that year and was basically vacated by anyone with the misfortune of being stuck out in the unmowed pasture. I have had spaces for 28 consecutive years at Fall Hershey and I am unaware of the ability for the Region to accomodate non-pre-registered vendors. If I am incorrect in my understanding ... please let me know.

[Steve Moskowitz]

No flea market spaces being sold...sold out! Some car corral spaces available first come, first served. Flea market people are lined up to get in right now...just came from there

[mercer09]

Find it hard to believe that there are no flea market spaces. So many empty spots at the show that it isn't funny!

[Mark Shaw]

When spaces are not occupied, (even if they are paid), those spaces should be made available to others next year.... It should be a swap meet, not a land grab....

My 2 cents...

[Guest Torino75]

I agree. Better than looking at a lot of empty spaces mixed into the sellers. If a no show, then re-sell the spot. Makes for a fuller sales lot.

[Wowabunga]

I know Carlisle will re-sell spaces where they were notified in advance of an absence. I think the space owner gets a 1/2 refund of their $80, and Carlilse ends up making a bonus $40 from each resold space.

For many years I was ALWAYS able to get last minute spaces at Spring and Fall Carlise via that system. Thumbs up.

For the past 10 years I've been buying from estate sales and helping to clean out barns and garages full of old dusty parts. The stuff I bring to sell I bring to unload.... opps maybe I shouldn't advertise so openly My pal and I sleep in our vehicles, eat at our spaces and make lots of friends and have a grand time.

Hershey show gets a big thumbs up because I know the space rental money goes to a good cause plus the volunteers are super duper. And..... there is no $9 per person gate fee and that alone puts more money in their pockets so they can do what they came to do... buy our parts...!

PS: Any Carlisle promoters reading this I don't do big shows any more due to your rising space costs and gate fees... am lucky to break even... no kidding. I make more money at a one day show such as Leesport paying $15 a space, or $40 a space at Maple Grove for 2 days. I see the same faces, and actually have a few dollars in my pocket after all that loading and unloading. Oh the fun.

[michel88]

Too many spaces are being used just to park cars in the Hershey flea market for the space holders convenience. I passed by many spaces with late model boring cars in them. It used to be they made a pretense of selling parts by having a few useless rusty items on a tarp. Is there a way to cut down on this practice?

[old car fan]

I agree,tired of walking ,no parts .It can be controlled.nobody is willing to do it.Just like the carts and scooters,they say it all day ,nobody doing anything about it,police it.

[pre1939chrysler]

I think it is the time to have The Organizers of Hershey to have all vendors on the field report empy,unused or spaces where 4 people park and go walking.

If they give me a form to fill out I can provide atleast 4 misused spaces !:mad:

[Richard Lichtfel]

They advertise 9,000 vending spaces at Hershey but if you take away all the spaces that are used for parking personel cars, trucks, and buses the number of venders is much smaller. If they had only venders in the spaces you could probably fit them all in half the space and make for less walking. Iola is a good example, every space is a vendor.

[Shop Rat]

My two cents worth.

I think that if vendors are not camping at their site and they are just covering their tables and leaving at night they should have to park in a lot just for them and ride a shuttle from the parking area to the field.

Vendors are begging to get spaces. Shoppers are begging for more vendors of parts. There has to be a way to make this happen.

Also, there were vendors that are selling items that are NOT for the restoration of antique cars. One that took up several spaces was for turning antique vehicles into street/hot rods. How the heck did they get approved to be there?????

And what about the guy selling Tennessee mountain bird houses for heaven sake? Sure they were nice but come on, they weren't even remotely automotive related. At least one guy had real wren houses that had old license plates as the roofs.

Come on Hershey Region, get the non-automotive related vendors out and automotive vendors in. And make the automotive vendors that are already there stop selling stuff that belongs at a yard sale or local flea market.

And next year, go back to having obvious authorization stickers for personal scooters, golf carts, etc. Some people have every tag on their scooter/golf cart that they ever had. They are all the same for the past few years. How is anyone that is checking supposed to know who is really allowed to have those on the fields? I saw one guy riding a bike with a 2009 manilla tag on it. Does anyone else question how handicapped he can really be if he can ride a bike all day? Never mind the annoucements that bikes are not to be ridden in the vendor areas.

[Steve Moskowitz]

Susan, I respect your opinions and everyone else's. The region and national rules are one and the same. Every year violators of policy are removed but every year someone chooses to ignore the rules.

The region does not have a Gestapo force. They are beyond busy trying to just handle the crowds and get the meet organized. If you or anyone else finds violations take a picture, write down the space number and send it to the region if that is your desire.

No meet in the world is perfect. Certainly Hershey is not but trust me, no one can imagine the amount of work that goes into this meet unless you are one of the region members! I get to see a large part of it but not all and am amazed at the year long effort.

The region had a problem with traffic three years ago...problem completely solved. Last year there was complaints about the location of food vendors and I believe as far as the grease issue that was solved. The fact is that they listen and try! The membership location on the Chocolate field was a problem last year and it was moved to a perfect spot this year. Problem solved!

Thursday parking number are in and it was 200 cars short of a record!! Wednesday was down but the weather was horrid and dangerous.

I may be personally thin skinned about this event but I get to see all sides of this and still consider it the best event in the country. I did not get to go down one single aisle this year to look but from a distance there was an awful lot of business going on. Once again I had several vendors tell me it was a record year!

If you have constructive criticism send it along to the region. I do not know too many of the region members who are active here. I have attempted to say this here many times.

I have had fewer complaints this year than ever before about the fall meet and that brings a smile to my face. The vast majority of the complaints that have reached me were picky and in some cases ridiculous. This was a great year, not perfect but a great year!

[Shop Rat]

Steve, thank you for the suggestion about reporting abuses. I honestly want it to be the best it can be. I understand that they work very hard. I understand that they must deal with HERCO in what they do. Some issues have been resolved and that is great.

Maybe simply tightening up the rules about non-automotive items for sale would help weed out those items. People don't drive as far as some of them do to get to Hershey to look at things they can drive a few miles and see at any yard sale or flea market. Folks here on the forums are saying it year after year, they want to see parts and old vehicles for sale. And folks saying they want to sell those items. It is that simple.

[Restorer32]

Again, it is illegal under FEDERAL LAW for ANYONE to question the type or severity of handicap of a person with a valid HANDICAP placard. I agree it is a problem but not much AACA or Hershey Region can do about it without risking a law suit, which in PA will be happily brought by the state agency specifically empowered to enforce ADA matters.

[Bob Giles]

Make it simple, no entry to the fields without something to sell. Simple stamp would make re-entry easy. Problem solved.

[MCHinson]

Let me start by saying I was not there this year. I really hope to be there next year, and hope to make it my first year as a vendor. I have a lot of old car parts to sell, and got burnt out on Ebay some time ago. I was planning to go this year but it did not work out. When initially making my plans, it occurred to me that one vendor space would not allow enough living space to be able to camp in my space. I was going to have to get at least two spaces to make it work.

Here are my crazy off the wall questions that I would like some feedback on before I consider making a suggestion to the Hershey Region....

How many vendors rent a single space? I suspect that it is a small number. Would it be better if the spaces were a larger size, perhaps something like one and a half times as deep or twice as deep, hopefully allowing more people to simply get one space, and allowing the customers to be able to walk down the aisles have to do less walking by wide open non-vending space being used simply for parking?

Here is another, obviously a large number of people attending are handicapped. I suspect that some folks probably use very minimal vending as a reason to have easy access parking. Perhaps it would be better to admit that some of the vendors would prefer to just have premium parking?

Why not have a basically centrally located parking area that costs as much per square foot as a vendor space. Then all of those requiring that parking would be able to rent the nice parking area, and while you may have to walk straight through it, to get from one field to another, you would not waste your time having to walk through aisle after aisle of vending space being taken up by those "parking spaces"?

OK, let me have it.... What do you think?

[Restorer32]

I don't care who parks where or in what space as long as they continue to show up. Some people vend some years and not others. Some resto shops display their work and solicit business some years and not others. Clubs come and go. Illness or other obligations forces some people to leave their spaces empty from time to time. Some vendors can only be there a day or 2 each year. The continued success of Hershey is primarily due to it's "big tent" approach to the old car hobby. Not everyone brings a covered dish to the family reunion but everyone is welcome nonetheless. I personally have introduced many new members to AACA by immersing them in the "Hershey Experience". Actually heard a person complaining this year that he couldn't find the imported tool vendor he usually visited. Personally I don't see vendors as the "heart" of the Hershey experience. It's the people and everyone there is there for a different reason. Sure it's big, sprawling and darned inconvenient at times but let's not regulate all the fun out of it!

[R W Burgess]

Why not have a basically centrally located parking area that costs as much per square foot as a vendor space. Then all of those requiring that parking would be able to rent the nice parking area, and while you may have to walk straight through it, to get from one field to another, you would not waste your time having to walk through aisle after aisle of vending space being taken up by those "parking spaces"?

OK, let me have it.... What do you think?

Matt, I don't vend. I barely walk(Still hurting from last weekend). But, from what I have heard and seen in the past, a lot of vendors like to camp in their space to make sure they have product to sell the next day, thievery being what it is. :mad:

That, plus walking from a lot to their space, would probably not be popular with them.

Wayne

[trimacar]

Well, I do both. I bring some big items to sell, the last couple of years my son, now 14, has minded the spot. Then, the next day, if we sold a few things, we might just park in the spot and walk the fields. So, "mixed use" for flea market spaces is probably common.

That said, there are obviously a lot of people who get a spot or two specifically for parking on the field. I would think it would be simple to designate a certain portion of each field as "parking only," sell those spaces for, let's say, $10 less than a vending spot, and have a big "P" on the sticker. Then, those people who voluntarily want just a parking spot, get that sticker and those spots.

Yes, I like the open arrangement too, but having to walk by 20 Honda Accords or the like, which are obviously only parking in spaces, to get from one pile of rusty parts to another, is frustrating. OK, maybe only 10 Honda's and a Toyota.

[Restorer32]

Part of the problem is that you can only preregister for the SAME number of spots you had the previous year. There should be a way for vendors who, let's say, have 10 spaces but don't need them all THIS YEAR but may next year to turn them in for temporary reassignment without losing the rights to preregister for those 10 spaces the next year.

[MCHinson]

Matt, I don't vend. I barely walk(Still hurting from last weekend). But, from what I have heard and seen in the past, a lot of vendors like to camp in their space to make sure they have product to sell the next day, thievery being what it is. :mad:

That, plus walking from a lot to their space, would probably not be popular with them.

Wayne

Wayne, maybe I did not type that as clearly as I should. I was talking about the people who are vendors only for the parking space. You know, the "unattended table with a handful of parts and a sign that says put payment in jar" type of vendors. If those folks were no longer vendors and had their own separate paid parking area, We could just walk by them without having to take up all of the time to walk up and down the aisle past all of them.

I certainly did not mean that vendors should not be able to camp in their space(s). (That is what I hope to do next year myself.)

[Guest Stonefish]

How big is the waiting list for new vendors...if there is such a thing?

[Shop Rat]

Part of the problem is that you can only preregister for the SAME number of spots you had the previous year. There should be a way for vendors who, let's say, have 10 spaces but don't need them all THIS YEAR but may next year to turn them in for temporary reassignment without losing the rights to preregister for those 10 spaces the next year.

I know that some folks find someone on their own to rent the extra spaces from them in a case like that. They make sure that the other person abides by all the rules so that they don't lose their spaces.

[Shop Rat]

Again, it is illegal under FEDERAL LAW for ANYONE to question the type or severity of handicap of a person with a valid HANDICAP placard. I agree it is a problem but not much AACA or Hershey Region can do about it without risking a law suit, which in PA will be happily brought by the state agency specifically empowered to enforce ADA matters.

The guy I am talking about did not have a handicap placard on his bike. He had one of the 2009 manilla tags with the string tie. Those tags are not issued to be put on bikes because the rules are that bikes are not to be ridden in the flea market areas or the showfield. Even if he does qualify for the placard he was not supposed to put the tag on a bike and endanger others by riding the bike on the grounds.

I actually saw several folks with not only the manilla tag but they had their handicap placard also on their personal scooter or golf cart. I applaud them for doing so. I watch for them and make way for them. I will offer to help them if they would like help. The cheaters can wait their turn. :mad:

As I have stated before, I am a life member of the Telecom Pioneers of America. Our motto is - Answering the Call of Those In Need. Our organization sponsors the International Sports Jamboree for the Handicapped for kids and young adults with visual and physical handicaps that confine them to a wheelchair. It is held here in my home state of West Virginia every year. Chapters raise money to pay for the athlete and one parent/guardian to come with them when they compete. There is NO cost to them.

Because of this organization, and my involvement in it, I get very upset when people abuse the rights that have been fought for in the name of children and adults that face challenges of a physical or mental nature.

[Restorer32]

I think under current law if someone showed up with a handicap placard riding a bicycle that it might be illegal to deny them the use of the cycle. Would be interesting to know exactly what the law says on this matter. I am involved in local small town government and we spend an inordinate amount of time making sure we don't violate these laws. I have a friend who managed to get his 2 German Shepherds certified as Service Dogs so they can ride in the passenger compartment with him when he flies. He isn't handicapped, just knows how to use the laws. Not saying it's right, just saying that denying a person's right to accomodation for a handicap is serious business these days. All in all Hershey Region does an outstanding job in my book!

[old car fan]

Shop rat said it all ,congrats.If you were there ,you know,Great post