Thoughts on Atlantic City 2016

[bcornell]

Originally Posted by mrvster

A/C will be what you make it! if everyone thinks it's going to be "beat" , then everyone will stay home.......AC is fine.....you don't even have to leave the boardwalk! your whole family can just stay right on , basically, the boardwalk....the gambling, beach/ocean, food, shows are ridiculously fun.....tell your kids to get boogie boards and do a little surfing......great fishing.....

You're not getting it. The point is that AC is a terrible location for anyone who isn't in NY or PA. I have 2 options coming from the Bay Area: 1) take 3 flights (LAX-DET-AC) over about 10 hours or 2) hope that Mark M. is willing to have me go cross country in his car.

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by bcornell

You're not getting it. The point is that AC is a terrible location for anyone who isn't in NY or PA. I have 2 options coming from the Bay Area: 1) take 3 flights (LAX-DET-AC) over about 10 hours or 2) hope that Mark M. is willing to have me go cross country in his car.

Berkus and his crew have screwed up this event so badly that I would love to see anyone else take over.

Option 3... Fly straight thru to Atlanta and lets roadtrip there!

[mrvster]

Airport! direct flight into Newark.......it's a 2 hour drive south from Newark .....or 1 hour from philly.......

telling you, AC is fine! no worries....i'll protect you

[skelly]

In reference to post #80. To say that Atlantic City makes Camden look like Sesame Street is insane. Atlantic City has seen better days, but the only place I have ever seen that was as rugged as Camden... Maybe Gary Indiana. The Badlands in North Philly and The area around Dunbar Ave in Baltimore also in the running. I agree with many of the posts that AC is perhaps not ideal, but the are a tremendous amount of collectors within driving distance that will likely attend.

[buymycards]

I read some interesting info recently. I don't recall if it was from Rich Klein or if it was on the National website.

Chicago requires a commitment of 5000 hotel room bookings. Many other venues, such as NY and Las Vegas, require a guarantee of 10,000 hotel room bookings, and the National cannot make that guarantee.


There are several cities that require union labor to load, unload, and set up. Apparently this could cost each dealer as much as $2000 extra to pay for the union help.

Rick

[Cozumeleno]

Originally Posted by buymycards

There are several cities that require union labor to load, unload, and set up. Apparently this could cost each dealer as much as $2000 extra to pay for the union help.
Rick

This is absolutely true. In a couple of instances, I've seen trade show organizers not even allow you to plug in your own booth/display if it had lighting. Literally, you had to fill out a work request form and pay someone like $50.00-$100.00 to do come over to your booth and insert a plug into a standard outlet.

$2,000 seems a bit steep based on the trade shows I've coordinated with in the past - typically, my companies wouldn't need more than a few hundred dollars of service. But if you've got a giant display and required a bunch of services (i.e. assembly, etc.), I wouldn't completely rule it out. That could easily be a deterrent for many dealers and the organizers.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by buymycards

I read some interesting info recently. I don't recall if it was from Rich Klein or if it was on the National website.

Chicago requires a commitment of 5000 hotel room bookings. Many other venues, such as NY and Las Vegas, require a guarantee of 10,000 hotel room bookings, and the National cannot make that guarantee.


There are several cities that require union labor to load, unload, and set up. Apparently this could cost each dealer as much as $2000 extra to pay for the union help.

Rick

Rck:

The article you mentioned was linked to from one of my Rich's Ramblings stories on Atlantic City. My editor, Rich M, interviewed Mike Berkus and that is where you read that information.

[packs]

AC is only an hour from Philly, so if you fly into Philly you can take a train into AC. Also most major cities involve driving out from the airport to actually get into the city. SFO is like 45 minutes away from San Francisco.

[the-illini]

Originally Posted by mrvster

Airport! direct flight into Newark.......it's a 2 hour drive south from Newark .....or 1 hour from philly.......

telling you, AC is fine! no worries....i'll protect you

The problem is taking a 2-3 hour flight to Newark then topping that off with a 2 hour drive to AC and then repeating the whole process to get home is a royal pain in the ass, and that is if all the traveling goes off without a hitch.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

Option 3... Fly straight thru to Atlanta and lets roadtrip there!

I think this is a great idea for west coasters. I do a road trip to North Carolina each year, via a direct flight into Atlanta from Seattle. Granted, NC's not near as far, but if you have 3-4 collectors doing the Atlanta/Atlantic City drive, I think it would be a lot of fun. You also have the option of stopping at antique shops along the way - generally older stuff than you see on the west coast, and many, many more of them. Plus all the culture shock stuff! Could result in a lifetime of interesting memories.