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I think I might have a good idea. Time will tell if I?m right.
I got to thinking that a bunch of us karters would have a good time holding a swap meet. I know there is a classified section on this site, but there is nothing like showing your wares in full view and in person. There may be someone looking for just what you have to sell, but for whatever reason cannot gain access to the internet. There may be some new comers to the sport of karting that are not aware of the web site and its classified section, and are looking for a used kart at the entry level. Maybe someone wants to upgrade and another person wants to get out of racing and is willing to offer a sweet deal. Dealers could show up with their brand-spanking new stuff to show or make deals on discontinued items.
I have contacted the Denver Merchandise Mart at I-25 and 58th Ave. They sent me a folder with tons of information about rental space. Unfortunately, I failed to remember to bring it with me today on my way out the door for work. I do remember that a space that is 100 feet by 120 feet rents for about $500 per day. That may not be enough room if there is good interest and a lot of people/karts/parts show up.
I?ll write again in a few days to post better detailed information, but I just wanted to get a feeler out there to see if this is even viable. If there is sufficient interest, I may be able to go ahead and put out the money up front myself and then charge entrants at the door to recover my expenses. I would rather not do that, of course, so if there are enough people willing to help out and start a fund ahead of time, it might make this fly a little easier. On the other hand, however, that could get complicated.
Anyway, please write back and let me know what some of you think. If we pass the word around well, it could be a big success and we may need a bigger space. Maybe we could make this a annual event!
Pat,
Excellent idea.
I have some stuff I would like to re-coup some money from and at the same time market Colorado Karting.
Swap meets would be good. I like JB’s space as I know he wouldn’t charge us $500.00 for a booth to sell $500.00 worth of equipment to only come out with a loss of your used equipment and time.
At this point with karting in Colorado being a secrete sport a stand alone swap meet wouldn’t get the attention that I think we could by taging along with a section of booths at some auto parts swaps that I think have been being promoted anually allready. Even if we could show at a ski swap, we would be in front of people that need something to do in the summer. Plus them people are all ready used to $80.00 entry fees. 😉I think the swap meet idea is a truly great idea.
I’m one of those newbies to karting. I have a kart and some stuff, but I need a ton of other stuff – not even sure what.
This community has been great with help and advice. A swap meet would be a great way to meet people, showcase the different karting options, and get the things I need. (Not to mention the really good stuff that I want but don’t need!)
It’d also probably be great for experienced karters to do some garage cleaning – helping their wallets, giving them garage space, and being a big help to newbies or folks on more limited budgets.
Having it at Action Karting could work great, too. Buyers could test drive karts, and JB should be able to create a real “win-win” by helping publicize the idea – more people at the track means more customers for him. (It should work at other tracks, too.)
Hope this happens soon!
GeremyAt least one person is confused about the price they might have to pay if we hold a meet at the Merchandise Mart. Each person arriving to sell stuff would NOT be paying $500. The Mart wants $500 for a space measuring 100 ft x 120 ft. (1200 sq. ft.). Unlsess you really have tons of stuff to sell, you are not going to fill 1200 sq ft yourself. If we have only 100 people, that would mean that each would need only $5. They would have a space measuing about 10 ft x 12 ft. Try getting that kind of deal to advertise through the Denver Post!
I have to agree that having a swap meet at Action Karting is a good idea. JB may not charge very much, if any. Someone brought up the advantage of test driving on the track.
One possible problem with having it outdoors is if the weather turns bad.
There is nothing saying that we cannot have two swap meets. Maybe the first one indoors and the other on a later date when weather is more predictible at Action Karting.
If any of you want to , please go to http://www.denvermart.com to check out more about prices for specific space sizes.
Okay, so math isn?t my strong suit.
An area measuring 100 ft x 120 ft equals 12,000 sq. ft., not 1200. Oops!
My thinking on a swap meet is that it should take place fairly soon, like mid to late February or early March. That way, racers can get their set-ups and changes made in ample time before racing season starts. I felt an indoor even would be good so that we don?t have to worry much about snow and /or wind being a problem, minus another ?100-year blizzard.? Obviously, JB can have his any time he wants at Action Karting. I just thought that he may wish to hold it a bit later (late March ? early April) when weather may not be as big a factor.
I?m just throwing out ideas here.
We may find that holding this at the Merchandise Mart is a little more of a hassle than it?s worth. But it does look like we could get quite a bit for a relatively small investment. The space at the Mart I?ve been talking about is The Terrace Gardens, their smallest room at 12,000 sq ft which rents for $500 per day. Their web site suggests a capacity of 60 10? x 10? booths. If we have 60 people who show up as a seller paying just $4.17 each and we have 60 people show up as buyers also paying just $4.17 we?d break even. Anything above that, of course would be profit and then what do we do with that money? Maybe donating it to a charity would be a good way to go.
The Mart provides the following at no additional cost or fees:
Free parking,
Loading docks (3 street level and 3 truck height),
A reception/registration area,
Tables (4?, 6?, and 8?) uncovered/skirted,
Chairs,
Wastebaskets,
No rental charge for 1 day of move-in and set-up for decorators and exhibitors,
Cash & carry food service/concessions (this I need to clarify with them to see just what they mean),
Banners (hanging up to 5 banners, inside the hall and outside the building),
Daily cleaning of the hall and trash removal,
Carts provided at the dock for move-in and move-out,
Event directional signage for days of the event,
Easels (to the extent of their inventory),
Stages in varying heights (to the extent of their inventory),
Podiums (5 and/or to the extent of their inventory),
House sound/microphones (5 corded, 1 cordless lapel, 1 cordless handheld ? to the extent of their inventory),
2 portable sound systems (to the extent of their inventory),
1 ? 8? x 8? portable screen, 2 ? 10? x 10? portable screens (to the extent of their inventory),
Over-head projector (for transparencies only)
3 dry erase boards (to the extent of their inventory),
Electrical services provided for A/V needs.This room is fully carpeted, so we would be required to lay down some visqueen under any karts to protect it. And, for some reason they do not allow children in the hall during set-up and break-down.
What I foresee, or maybe just wish for, is that we would quite possibly have more than 60 people who want to sell stuff. In that case, we could rent the hall for two days to allow for some to move out and others to move in, and have to come up with another $500 for the second day. Or we get the next possible bigger space, called The Mart Pavilion. Its size is 65,000 sq. ft. The big trouble is that it holds 328 ? 10? x 10? booths (unlikely we would get 328 exhibitors) and runs for a whooping $5,500 per day. CHOKE! CHOKE!
The Mart Pavilion has some advantages, like 3 drive-through overhead doors and concrete flooring (no visqeen required). It also has a reception/registration lobby with local phones, 3 private show offices, ample electrical service, wireless internet service and phone hook-ups in booth areas. But it may be difficult to make the rental fee fit everybody?s budget. If we had as many as 120 sellers and 120 buyers, we would have to come up with about $22.92 per person. Not a ton of money, but I just don?t think we would have that perfect of a turnout.
Of course, there are other places to hold a swap meet indoors, such as the Western Stock Show Complex. That is if there is enough agreement upon an indoor event in the first place.
The key thing Merchandise mart or other locations do not have is loads of people wanting to rent or purchase karts , —- on a busy week-end Sat or Sun — we would have as many as 250 excited Kart renters — and a place for people to try out their new (used) kart !
J.B.
Just so there isn’t confusion about what kind of place the Merchandise Mart is, it is a place that holds the type of event I am talking about. It is not a place like the Cherry Creek Mall or Southwest Plaza where people are there looking to buy things like clothes or music CD, etc. and would just happen to see a karting swap meet going on that they would not be interested in. If they have a jewelry event, people go there for jewelry. If they have a gun show, people who are into guns show up. So, if a karting event is held there, people who are involved in karting are likely to arrive.
Pat, I am in no way trying to discurage your idea. If it’s a gun show, computer show, or an art show. Nobody just shows up. They show up after reading or seeing an add that there is a show that would interest them to go.
The problem with go-karts is the public doesn’t even know it has an intrest in them to provoke them to go to begin with.
I am sorry I miss understud the $ amount earlier 500 bucks for the hall ant bad. have you priced any advertizing?
JB’s spot is all ready well known by motor heads from years of advertizing and has a much better chance at having people interested in motorsports showing up.
There is an event on the 20th of this month that will have TV and paper adds running soon. These adds will gather over 5,000 motorsport fans to watch an evening of racing. It’s at the Budwiser event center in Loveland.
This is it’s third year of being there. There will be a full house once again. And once again we will be lucky to get 2 local kart racers to show in the show. This would be a great time to have a tag along swap and show in the afternoon, but hay we can’t even get our own racers to an event how are we going to get the public to come too?Pat –
I like your idea as well, and have thought about it many times myself. I have put on swap meets in the past for bicycle stuff (including VeloSwap in New England a few years ago), so have some experience. My advice would be to go with JB’s offer, and just have a contingency date for the weather. With the size of the karting community, we’d be doing well to get 20-25 tables the first time out, and in an isolated spot like Merchandise Mart we’d just be talking amongst ourselves. Like JB says, he’ll have a ready audience of renters. There are other promotional opportunities there too, like bringing in a radio station to broadcast on site, etc., plus we could make it a karting “expo” and do new karter seminars or product seminars. It would be a better overall deal for promotion, and to keep more money in the family.
One additional suggestion for JB – let the other tracks have a booth there too (even George!). Co-promotion at all the tracks would help too. The more karters in this state, the better.
I’d suggest booth prices at $15-$20 for individuals, and $50-$75 for businesses. That’s way cheaper than VeloSwap, and should give JB additional financial incentive.
We can think bigger in the longer term, even hosting a national class expo in Greeley, for example, but let’s get some experience first.
Pat – PM me if you’d like to talk more. Thanks for the post, and for all of your investigation so far.
To Freezeman: As much as I would love to draw thousands from the general public to a swap meet, I know that the general public is just not that interested in auto racing. For me it?s a bitter pill that when most people think of auto racing, they automatically think NASCAR. It is a fairly small community of participants that are knowledgeable about motor sports. And unfortunately it?s an even smaller group who are interested in karting. I have no false illusion of getting a big crowd of people who would not normally go to a swap meet for any form of motor sport, much less for karting. The whole idea is just to get those already involved in karting together to share ideas and do some commerce between each other. If completely new people show up, of course that would be a dream situation.
The main forms of advertising I had in mind would simply be word of mouth and alerting kart racers on this web site as well as posting of flyers at the various kart shops and tracks. I did not feel trying to do any radio or newspaper ads would be worth the expense since there simply isn?t the level of knowledge and curiosity about karting that I wish there was to justify doing costly advertising.
I am really excited to see the karts run on the ice on Jan. 20th at the Budweiser Event Center! That ought to be a real gas! (I used to have a picture of Michael Schumacher driving a kart on ice with spiked tires as my wallpaper on my computer at work. I made the mistake of letting a guy mess with my computer one day and he lost it. I?ve got to find it again!) I wish I had known about the ice races held around here the previous two years. I?d like to find out ASAP about how to get tickets, what the price will be and where the Budweiser Event Center is. I will definitely be there that night.
To Kurt: Thus far it?s looking more and more that I did have a good idea about a swap meet, but that hosting it at JB?s Action Karting is a better idea. So I may as well do whatever I can to help make that happen. I never wanted to pit my idea of holding it at the Merchandise Mart against JB?s idea of holding it at his track. I just did not imagine that JB would allow others in who promote kart packages which are in direct competition with those which he sells. I?ve made a jerk of myself making assumptions like that in the past, so I should be careful not to repeat. Maybe there will be an open expression of a free market. It would be a noble gesture to bring in S.A.C. Motorsports from Louisville, George from CRE, Brad from IMI, and Dave Galegor with Easykart. The more the merrier, right? I think it could help the enrichment of karting in Colorado if there is cooperation rather than bickering.
I have thought that a contingency plan for weather would solve another potential problem. Admittedly, I did not bring it up. I love the idea of having a radio station broadcast on site. That might really draw some good crowds. Let?s all put our thinking caps together to see what can be done in that vain.
To everyone: Thanks to all who had their input in this topic. We ought to at least get something put together this year in late winter or early spring (whatever JB decides). If we plan ahead of time, maybe we can have a bigger event in 2007.
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