This York was an eye opener for me. It seemed like attendance was down quite a bit, but the changes don't stop there. The Brown Hall is gone, the Purple Hall is an empty shell of what it used to be. Dealers in the Orange Hall seemed to have much less new product. There was considerably less new or fairly new high end product in the member halls.
What's going on?
1) The economy has peaked and, with that, we have manufacturer caution, dealer wariness and maxed out train buyers.
2) Many members are reaching the age where making the trek to York may no longer be easy enough.
3) Hobby shops/small dealers are going out of business in greater numbers.
4) The Internet has made it so much easier to get the items that buyers want, the appeal of York is diminished as it has been for many of the other train meets.
5) The cornucopia of new product has finally reached gargantuan size. How much more can the market consume without an enormous stomach ache?
Scrappy
