Beaulieu Autojumble - thought?

[markymarkthree]

981Boxess said:

lowdrag said:

I phoned one of our bigger sellers at the Farnham spares day some years back to ask why, as one of our regulars, he wasn't coming that year. His reply is, I guess, the main reason for the failure of so many jumbles these days. "!Why should I bother to load the van the day before, get up at 5am to drive 100 miles, set up and stand there shivering in the cold when I can stay in bed and let Ebay do all the work for me".

You cannot fault that logic and in the case of a two day event you have an overnight stay to factor in.

Then consider that a stall holder told me the other day that he paid £600 to Beaulieu for the two days in spring and the autumn event was £800, again for two days, he also said he would not be doing the spring one next year for sure. If those figures are accurate I am amazed they have as many stalls as they do.

A single pitch for 2 days at "the autumn event" is £159.50, this is for 2 passes & a car/van pass.

[witteringon]

markymarkthree said:

981Boxess said:

lowdrag said:

I phoned one of our bigger sellers at the Farnham spares day some years back to ask why, as one of our regulars, he wasn't coming that year. His reply is, I guess, the main reason for the failure of so many jumbles these days. "!Why should I bother to load the van the day before, get up at 5am to drive 100 miles, set up and stand there shivering in the cold when I can stay in bed and let Ebay do all the work for me".

You cannot fault that logic and in the case of a two day event you have an overnight stay to factor in.

Then consider that a stall holder told me the other day that he paid £600 to Beaulieu for the two days in spring and the autumn event was £800, again for two days, he also said he would not be doing the spring one next year for sure. If those figures are accurate I am amazed they have as many stalls as they do.

A single pitch for 2 days at "the autumn event" is £159.50, this is for 2 passes & a car/van pass.

Back in the day, the price included a table and chairs!

[981Boxess]

markymarkthree said:

981Boxess said:

lowdrag said:

I phoned one of our bigger sellers at the Farnham spares day some years back to ask why, as one of our regulars, he wasn't coming that year. His reply is, I guess, the main reason for the failure of so many jumbles these days. "!Why should I bother to load the van the day before, get up at 5am to drive 100 miles, set up and stand there shivering in the cold when I can stay in bed and let Ebay do all the work for me".

You cannot fault that logic and in the case of a two day event you have an overnight stay to factor in.

Then consider that a stall holder told me the other day that he paid £600 to Beaulieu for the two days in spring and the autumn event was £800, again for two days, he also said he would not be doing the spring one next year for sure. If those figures are accurate I am amazed they have as many stalls as they do.

A single pitch for 2 days at "the autumn event" is £159.50, this is for 2 passes & a car/van pass.

Maybe he was quoting what it costs him to do it then, either way it is no longer worth him doing it.

[lowdrag]

If talking of rental prices, in 2018 Jaguar, for the Le Mans classic, decided to rent a chateau for the rich buying their replica C, D, and XKSS cars, each at over £1 miilion a pop. They have their own specialist travel agent who told Jaguar that nothing was available within a 50 mile radius, so I had a call from a director asking if I could help. Three miles from me and six from the circuit I had a chat with the lady owner who has a very good stable of cars by the way, including a new California, and a 1971 Daytona which I often see parked up at the local supermarket. I digress. Jaguar wanted 30 bedrooms but they settled for the 28 they had, so I discussed the price plus catering and free bar. We agreed on a price of £90,000 for the four nights, which Jaguar readily agreed to. The only trouble was they hadn't asked the clients if they wanted to come and Jaguar ended up placing staff, mechanics. Uncle Tom Cobley and all there just to use up the place. I too was very content with my commission.

[RichB]

lowdrag said:

If talking of rental prices, in 2018 Jaguar, for the Le Mans classic, decided to rent a chateau for the rich buying their replica C, D, and XKSS cars, each at over £1 miilion a pop. They have their own specialist travel agent who told Jaguar that nothing was available within a 50 mile radius, so I had a call from a director asking if I could help. Three miles from me and six from the circuit I had a chat with the lady owner who has a very good stable of cars by the way, including a new California, and a 1971 Daytona which I often see parked up at the local supermarket. I digress. Jaguar wanted 30 bedrooms but they settled for the 28 they had, so I discussed the price plus catering and free bar. We agreed on a price of £90,000 for the four nights, which Jaguar readily agreed to. The only trouble was they hadn't asked the clients if they wanted to come and Jaguar ended up placing staff, mechanics. Uncle Tom Cobley and all there just to use up the place. I too was very content with my commission.

Hilarious, and well done
p.s. I've usually managed to find a chateau within 20-25km of the circuit, admittedly only with 5 or 6 rooms.

[tr7v8]

Lotus 50 said:

Agree with the above... going O/T for a moment the idea of charging classic car owners to display their cars at a show also really ticks me off...

I posted this here a few years ago & got shotdown for it. It never made sense to me. Especially when they started quoting 'elf & safety & being there at the crack of dawn & couldn't leave before 4, 5 or even 6 for some shows.
Super car day at Leeds Castle was a case in point. Being lectured to by a 15 year old in a hi-vis first thing in the morning did my head in. That was enough for me. Did a few with the MX5 OC and one had a 45 minute queue to get in, all because it was a shambles on site.

[lowdrag]

RichB said:

Hilarious, and well done
p.s. I've usually managed to find a chateau within 20-25km of the circuit, admittedly only with 5 or 6 rooms.

Another one for you. There is a manor house not far from the Hunaudières straight and the owner always had to stay Victor Gauntlett who rented the accommodation for himself and friends. The owner was such. such a lovely lady, (no longer there sadly) but we used to sit and chat about "the old days". The funniest one was that one year Victor invited Prince Michael of Kent, who arrived in a helicopter with a security guard. Everyone sat down to dinner and Madame served Victor Gauntlett first. Although he spoke French fluently, Prince Michael told his guard to explain that royalty should take precedence. Madame looked up, and sharply explained that it was he who was paying took precedence. Prince Michael apparently then went and sat on another table and ate alone.

[RichB]

lowdrag said:

RichB said:

Hilarious, and well done
p.s. I've usually managed to find a chateau within 20-25km of the circuit, admittedly only with 5 or 6 rooms.

Another one for you. There is a manor house not far from the Hunaudières straight and the owner always had to stay Victor Gauntlett who rented the accommodation for himself and friends. The owner was such. such a lovely lady, (no longer there sadly) but we used to sit and chat about "the old days". The funniest one was that one year Victor invited Prince Michael of Kent, who arrived in a helicopter with a security guard. Everyone sat down to dinner and Madame served Victor Gauntlett first. Although he spoke French fluently, Prince Michael told his guard to explain that royalty should take precedence. Madame looked up, and sharply explained that it was he who was paying took precedence. Prince Michael apparently then went and sat on another table and ate alone.

They can't help themselves, can they?

[lowdrag]

RichB said:

Hilarious, and well done
p.s. I've usually managed to find a chateau within 20-25km of the circuit, admittedly only with 5 or 6 rooms.

Another one for you. There is a manor house not far from the Hunaudières straight and the owner always had to stay Victor Gauntlett who rented the accommodation for himself and friends. The owner was such. such a lovely lady, (no longer there sadly) but we used to sit and chat about "the old days". The funniest one was that one year Victor invited Prince Michael of Kent, who arrived in a helicopter with a security guard. Everyone sat down to dinner and Madame served Victor Gauntlett first. Although he spoke French fluently, Prince Michael told his guard to explain that royalty should take precedence. Madame looked up, and sharply explained that it was he who was paying took precedence. Prince Michael apparently then went and sat on another table and ate alone. Victor was told in no certain terms that Prince Michael would not be welcome again.

[I-am-the-reverend]

Please tell me that Victor Gauntlett was a splendid chap.

I bottled out of approaching him at a motor show once. I did chat with Sir John Egan who was quite charming.

[lowdrag]

From what I understand he was a real Hooray Henry. He bought 10% of Aston Martin via Pace Petroleum for £500,000 and Pace and CHI took over as joint 50/50 owners at the beginning of 1981, with Gauntlett as executive chairman. I am sure someone will know a lot more than me though.

[Bowside]

981Boxess said:

I went to the Spring Autojumble Sunday gone, it really wasn’t worth going. I know the Spring one is the ‘lite’ version but I think they really ought to cut it down to just the Saturday.

It wouldn't be a cheap day out for a family either, especially if you are not local, that isn't going to encourage families to go there for the day to get the numbers up.

I think the whole low end classic car thing is grinding to a halt - shame.

Me too, complete waste of time, hardly anything at the Automart and certainly no one looked like buying anything. The stalls were more like mini-junk yards with hardly any decent traders and those that were there were mostly not helpful or even bothered about engaging to sell anything.

[123DWA]

Lotus 50 said:

Agree with the above... going O/T for a moment the idea of charging classic car owners to display their cars at a show also really ticks me off...

We went to a show in France where you still had to pay to display but you got a meal ticket & a few drinks tickets as well as access to a seating area with a TV & toilets which were only for people displaying so not too busy & no queues. That seemed a good way to do it to me & most people stayed all day because of it as well.

[Keep it stiff]

I-am-the-reverend said:

Please tell me that Victor Gauntlett was a splendid chap.

I bottled out of approaching him at a motor show once. I did chat with Sir John Egan who was quite charming.

I met him around 1990, I was a director of a moving business and I organised his move from Gloucestershire to Scotland. It was a substantial move requiring three trucks, given his VIP status I took the opportunity to visit several times during the work and he was an absolute delight to get on with. He was exceptionally generous to the guys on the job, he had 100's of pictures that took a lot of packing, at the end of the move we presented him with a gift as a thank-you from the team, it was a picture frame into which we had mounted a 99p pack of three picture hooks and we printed into the frame "In Emergency Break Glass"! He presented me with a model Aston which I still have.

[981Boxess]

123DWA said:

We went to a show in France where you still had to pay to display but you got a meal ticket & a few drinks tickets as well as access to a seating area with a TV & toilets which were only for people displaying so not too busy & no queues. That seemed a good way to do it to me & most people stayed all day because of it as well.

From my experience going to visit anything in France, car shows, museums etc is always better value than in the UK. I am sure it encourages families to do/visit more things which can only be a good thing.

[lowdrag]

981Boxess said:

From my experience going to visit anything in France, car shows, museums etc is always better value than in the UK. I am sure it encourages families to do/visit more things which can only be a good thing.

Things may well have changed since you came the last time. I'm doing a rally tomorrow morning and the entry fee was €50 which I thought a bit steep, and even more when we found out we don't even get a coffee or nibbles.

[981Boxess]

lowdrag said:

Things may well have changed since you came the last time. I'm doing a rally tomorrow morning and the entry fee was €50 which I thought a bit steep, and even more when we found out we don't even get a coffee or nibbles.

It may well have done, I am actually in Brittany today and I cannot say the cost of shopping has increased anywhere near as much as it has in the UK recently.

[DonkeyApple]

It's difficult for auto jumbles today. They're in that awkward transition zone that well loved 80s restaurants found themselves in last decade, knowing they needed to evolve but too scared to offend the remaining customers and take that big plunge.

The question to really discuss is how can an old school auto jumble change to attract not just GenX but the GenX with money to spend?

If I look at my cars I'm just not likely to need a seat bracket for a City Metro but 80s/90s Bosch electronics, ECUs, AFMs. And with so many classics now being maintained by companies for their owners what do you offer all the people with old cars who don't work on them themselves? And that's before one considers the 100 other more entertaining venues that one can take their old car to that weekend?

It's how to redefine the concept to be of interest to the next generation who can just go online to find most of this stuff

[Hoofy]

DonkeyApple said:

It's difficult for auto jumbles today. They're in that awkward transition zone that well loved 80s restaurants found themselves in last decade, knowing they needed to evolve but too scared to offend the remaining customers and take that big plunge.

The question to really discuss is how can an old school auto jumble change to attract not just GenX but the GenX with money to spend?

If I look at my cars I'm just not likely to need a seat bracket for a City Metro but 80s/90s Bosch electronics, ECUs, AFMs. And with so many classics now being maintained by companies for their owners what do you offer all the people with old cars who don't work on them themselves? And that's before one considers the 100 other more entertaining venues that one can take their old car to that weekend?

It's how to redefine the concept to be of interest to the next generation who can just go online to find most of this stuff

Interesting thoughts.

I guess they need to combine it with a classic car/supercar show. Make it a proper day out with attractions for all the family as well.

Today was a lovely day and would have been amazing for any classic car shows running today. Everyone would have been out which would work well for autojumble stalls.