It’s almost that time of year again, the annual trek north up IH-35 to Plano, to attend the largest Hamfest in Texas.
HamCom 2010 will be Friday, June 11th and Saturday, June 12th. But if you want the best deals from the flea market areas, you best be there on Friday morning when they open. The event is more crowded on Saturday, for obvious reasons, but most of the vendors arrive on Thursday night, or Friday morning, ready to wheel and deal.
Parking is free, admission is $10 at the door. Hotel room info is available from the event website, www.hamcom.org by clicking on the Hotels link.
I’ve seen some hams make great deals on Friday, then turn around and sell them to another ham on Saturday for a profit! Or trade in what they got on something even better.
One eyewitness example of an expert in action, was watching Jeff N5MNW last year. He strolled up to a flea market vendor, looked over their selection and asked the wife (of the ham) how much for this box of tools. She said $5. Before Jeff made it back to the building where his wife, Lori, was holding down his multiple tables, he sold 75% of the tools separately to other hams who saw what he was carrying, and he ended up keeping the one tool from the batch that he wanted, and making about $25 on the deal. Then he found a ham giving away those connectors you use with the fiberglass pole sets, bought the whole box for another $5, and started selling them for a $1 or two each over the rest of the day.
Last year, Al Field KE6LGE and myself (N5NTG) rode up in style in his RV, and camped out on the grounds of the event for free. We drove up Thursday afternoon, and came back on Sunday. This year, Al doesn’t have his RV for us to use, so we’ll drive up in Al’s van on Thursday afternoon, spend the night at the hotel nearby, and show up bright and early Friday morning for the fun to begin. We’ll stay around thru the close of the event around 4pm on Saturday, grab a bite to eat on the way out of town, and head back south to San Antonio.
Al says we have room for a couple more hams to ride up with us in the van. You can help us with gas and bunk on the floor of our room, or reserve get your own room. We’re staying at the Ramada Inn Plano, for $59.95/night +tax, for two nights. Rooms with just 1 bed are $10 less a night. This is a special rate arranged by HamCom that you won’t match thru the web, and can’t get by calling the national reservation line. You have to call the hotel direct for this rate.
If you think you want to go, we’re taking off around noon on Thursday (our current plans, subject to change) so that we can up there during daylight hours. We might scout around for some other hams to see if we can get a sneak peak of what’s to come, maybe hang out at the hotel’s swimming pool, or just get some sleep.
Call Lee @ 210-771-7075 (cell) direct, or email at info@sanantoniohams.org
Time is running out!
