Re: Swap fests, garage sales and other exchanges
Re: Swap fests, garage sales and other exchanges
- Subject: Re: Swap fests, garage sales and other exchanges
- From: Nicholas Pyers <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 16:33:25 +1000
Good evening!
Last night after Your Mac Life, I decided to poke about the YML web site
(http://www.yourmaclife.com) to find Sly's Web Site of the Week. (You DO
listen to YML, don't you?) I found an interesting forum there where
subscribers can buy, sell, swap, whatever they need to unload. Cool!
That also made me wonder...how do your groups handle swap fests, rummage
sales and other opportunities for your members to buy, sell, or exchange
Mac-related stuff?
Let us hear from you!
At AUSOM we provide members with a number of opportunities to buy and
sell Mac-Related stuff.
* We have a Members Advertisement section in AUSOM News, our printed
monthly magazine (
http://www.ausom.net.au/magazine.html) where
members can place classified For Sale or Wanted To Buy advertisements
free of charge. We average 1-2 ads here each month.
* We run an online community called AUSOM FirstClass
(
http://www.ausom.net.au/firstclass.html) that has two dedicated
forums for advertisements.
The first is just called Advertisements and is for members to post
non-commerical For Sale and WTB ads. We get between 10-40 of these a
month and often much discussion is generated from these ads,
particularly WTB ones where much useful info like the various
experiences members have had with particular items, stores etc.
The second conference is called Vendors Ads and is intended for
commercial advertisements and announcements from dealers and members.
We have a number of dealers promoting their goods and services to
this forum. There are AppleCentres, Second Hand Mac dealers, software
vendors (both local and international) and even Apple Computer
Australia (when they have excess demo stock to dispose of) using this
forum. For more information this service about this visit
http://www.ausom.net.au/advertising.html.
* However the biggest events we offer are Melbourne's (and we think
Victoria's) only Macintosh focused Computer Market and Swap Meet
twice a year (June and November). We sell stalls to various dealers
and gather between 10-20 new and second hand Mac dealers. We also
offer two types of "Member" stalls - a shared table for members with
a "couple" of items to sell (we classify a "complete" system like
CPU, Monitor, Printer etc that is been sold as a "single unit" as one
item. Cost to the member for trading on this stall is just the
normal "Buyers Entry Fee" which we charge all visitors (currently
AUD$3). The other option is members with a "quantity" of items to
sell can take a normal table just like any dealer and that costs the
same as a dealer table (AUD$40)
We promote these Swap Meets far and wide and for the one held just a
few weeks ago, we had a 1/4 page write up in Australian MacWorld
which said;
-- Start copy --
Down to the market
The Apple Users' Society of Melbourne (AUSOM is organising what it
says is Melbourne's only Mac-focused computer market and swap meet on
Saturday the 5th of June.
Unlike most computer markets, where you spend most of your time
struggling through stall after stall of broken motherboards, pirate
software and PC junk, to find a few Mac gems, the AUSOM market will
make it easy to get what you're looking for. Like all user group
events, it will also be a great opportunity to network and meet other
Mac enthusiasts.
Starting at 10am and going until 4pm, the swap meet will be held at
Building 4, Elgar Road Campus, Box Hill TAFE on the corner of
Whitehorse and Elgar Roads, Box Hill.
Entry costs three dollars, and AUSOM says dealer stands are still
available (although by the time this issue hits the stands you'll
have to be quick). See "Hot links" for contact info.
-- End copy--
We also had a blurb on the Apple Australia Hotnews and Usergroups
pages
http://www.apple.com.au/hotnews/ and
http://www.apple.com.au/usergroups/.
We provided an audio advertisement which was played on the MUG
Centre's User Group Report
(
http://www.mugcenter.com/usergroupreport/2004/408.html)
A paid ad in the Computer Trader (a local newspaper that just carries
ads for computer gear).
Plus we promote it through various mailing lists and our internal
promotional resources (AUSOM News, AUSOM FirstClass and our website
(
http://www.ausom.net.au/macmarket.html))
We get between 300-600 visitors through each Swap Meet and when we
had to cancel one of the November Swap meets a couple of years ago
due to the building we normally use was undergoing major construction
work at the time, there was a huge outcry from both Traders and
Members.
We have been running swap meets for nearly 15 years now and they are
always extremely successful - both from a financial boost to club
funds (raised through door entry fees and trader table fees) and from
a PR point of view.
Nicholas Pyers
Special Events Co-ordinator
AUSOM Incorporated
--
AUSOM Events (email@hidden)
AUSOM Incorporated - Australia's Leading Apple Macintosh User Group
http://www.ausom.net.au
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