Have you ever seen...

[anonymous-user]

A stall selling digital camera paraphernalia at any "events" you've been to? By events I mean motorsport races, air shows, county shows, anything along those lines.

The reason I ask is that on Sunday as I was rapidly running out of space on my CF cards at Silverstone, I had a quick scout around to see if I could buy another one - knowing full well that I'd end up paying over the odds, but I was a captive audience as it were. But, alas I couldn't find anything (lucky for you lot, or you'd probably have been bombarded with even more photographs ).

So my thought processes have turned to wondering if anything like this exists. And if it doesn't whether there'd be enough trade in selling memory cards, batteries, tripods, monopods, maybe the odd cheapish consumer digicams or even dSLR lenses...

[Ex-biker]

I reckon this could be a nice little earner.

Little van selling a few tripods / monopods, cards, cleaning stuff & gadgets. Add disposable cameras and other bits . . .

[woody]

Ex-biker said:

I reckon this could be a nice little earner. Little van selling a few tripods / monopods, cards, cleaning stuff & gadgets. Add disposable cameras and other bits . . .

Don't forget that PH users will get a discount (after giving the correct password and hand shake....)

On a serious note - seems like a good idea, although I think the 'ground-rent' at somewhere like silverstone could be quite high.

Chris

[LongQ]

woody said:

On a serious note - seems like a good idea, although I think the 'ground-rent' at somewhere like silverstone could be quite high. Chris

Overcoat with deep pockets wouldn't attract much ground rent but could hold a lot of memory card value.

Might need a couple of minders for security though!

Can you get hardware for credit card reading and checking via mobile phone?

[2 Smokin Barrels]

At Goodwood Revival, FOS etc there are some large trade carvans doing this.

[simpo two]

You see stalls like that at airshows. I'm sure the stuff they sell is double-prices but I expect they get caned for the rent. Don't give up your day job!

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for all the info guys.

I shall have to keep my eyes open through the summer and see if there are enough events that don't have stalls like this already to make it worthwhile looking into further.

simpo two said:

You see stalls like that at airshows. I'm sure the stuff they sell is double-prices but I expect they get caned for the rent. Don't give up your day job!

I'm counting on the fact that as people want it there and then and can't exactly order it off the net, they'll happily (well, maybe grudgingly) pay over the odds making it profitable even with the high cost of renting a pitch. Looking at Silverstone, it appears to vary from anywhere between £5 per square meter to £35 for something like the World Superbikes.

Thanks again all.

[Bee_Jay]

LongQ said:

you get hardware for credit card reading and checking via mobile phone?

Complete, self-contained unit for Credit Card transactions via GSM/GPRS using paper and PIN =~£35-40/month rental.

A friend who does trade shows has one - quite cool.

[Ex-biker]

Be nice if such a place rented (chargred) batteries too.
You could pay full wack for a charged battery, then get a refund on (-£5) on it's return.

[simpo two]

Ex-biker said:

Be nice if such a place rented (chargred) batteries too. You could pay full wack for a charged battery, then get a refund on (-£5) on it's return.

I thought of batteries too, but every make/model of camera has a different type (unless they take AA of course - which is dying out I think).

You could consider adding new AA batteries to your stock list though.

[406]

If you have a D70, you get a battery holder which takes 3xCR2 batteries.

Welcome to the light side - The Farce is stronger here

[simpo two]

406 said:

If you have a D70, you get a battery holder which takes 3xCR2 batteries.

If you have a boat, you can smash it up and make a raft

[anonymous-user]

There was a large drop sided van/trailer at Duxford airshow the other week selling loads of CF Cards etc. Quite a bit more expensive than buying via the internet though.

[chris.mapey]

simpo two said:

You see stalls like that at airshows. I'm sure the stuff they sell is double-prices but I expect they get caned for the rent. Don't give up your day job!

Caned on the rent...you're not wrong.

I used to manage a stand at the BTCC & F1 selling Ford / Benetton clothing. I'm trying to recall what we paid to Silverstone for ground rent for the stands in 1993 - the figure of £27500 + VAT is the one in mind...12 years ago

(bear in mind, all that go us was a 10m x 10m patch of earth behind the start line grandstand & two kiosk stands at Stowe & Woodcote)

That's alot of memory to cover that...