Sad News

[Frank M.]

Just read that the Town and Country Registry is disolving. What a shame! For many years Bob Porter served as President and did a great job. Most members

also belonged to the WPC and for a long time now the club had been holding thier annual meet within the yearly WPC Show. They would have a separate banquet on Friday nite,and then attend the WPC show on Saturday. John Slusar (t he member who was interviewed by Old Cars Weekly ) Said that most members would probably associate with the WPC ( Walter P Chrysler Club ), and the Nat. Woody Club. Too bad,but it does take a lot to head up a Org. like that and Porter had been doing it for a long time. Very likely - some of the members of the P-15 D-24 Web site knew a lot of them as I did. Hopfully we will be able to see those fine cars from time to time somewhere.

[Plymouthy Adams]

The registery is not dissolving according to their own post below...but rather the group membership is dissolving. Appears as they will be a knit group similar to the owners on this forum.

NOTICE:

Effective January 2007 "Timber Tales" has ended publication and the club is no longer fee based, but simply a loose group of individuals interested in these great cars. Consider joining the National Woodie Club, I'm sure there will be informal meets for T&C owners in conjunction with their events. The Registry will continue to be maintained so be sure to update the Registry Editor of a purchase or sale.

[Norm's Coupe]

Frank, it's sad to say but I think it's all just a sign of the times.

I think we are going to see a lot of this type of thing happening over the next few years. It's even happened to the local newspapers. More and more people are reading their news from the web and watching it on TV instead of paying the price of a newspaper. Myself, I still get the newspaper cause I'm just old fashioned and damn proud of it!

Let's face it, the car clubs only put out a monthly or bi monthly magazine. That means you don't see or hear about anything relating to that club, except when you get the magazine. If you have a forum similar to this one, you really don't need the magazine. You can get up to date info right away, get questions answered right away, find parts quicker and it's a car show everyday with the pictures. So, in the end why pay to get a monthly magazine with old news in it. Not saying that's my attitude, but is the attitude of the general public today, especially the younger people.

The same thing is happening at the swap meets if you notice. Seems like there are more empty booths the past couple of years because people are selling their junk on ebay, etc.

The same thing has been happening in the business world too. Less and less personal contact.

Myself, I like the personal contact. It's much nicer than trying to do everything via email, etc. However, we are slowly becoming a society of people who just don't want to talk to people directly, and that's sad.

Again, it's just a sign of the times. Now, I'll yield the soap box to others, including those who are afraid of personal contact.

[Frank M.]

That a great answer ,Norm. I went to the big Swap Meet at the Lincoln Nebr. Fair grounds yesterday. Its nowheres near what it used to be. Missing are a lot of the bigger vendors that would come from as far as Texas. If you were building a late model pickup-- lotsa parts. Stuff that most of us on this forum would like to find is usually snapped up by the early birds or not there at all . I guess Im grateful for what I have found in the past!!!! Frank M.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Frank..not sure of the reason the vendors did not show at your meet, but here local at our the cost of doing business went through the roof from the people renting spaces to the point that making a meet profitable for them was marginal at best. I know this for a fact as I have asked them in person when attending another swap why they no longer come to the afore mentioned site. Sad part is that the attendance is increasing, car coral attendance was up and gate fee was up...there is the ever present GREED factor running rampant. So in some degree the sponsors are forcing these people to turn to avenues like E-bay based on dollar return for dollar invested. All they care about is today, what's in it for me...not everyone has the annual return instincts like the Swallows of Capistrano...

[Frank M.]

So true,Tim. Thats the way I saw it happen at Hershey. We went for a lot of years,but little by little,the site owners ( Hershey Corp. ) were controling the Meet more than the Sponsors ( AACA ). Prices for spaces continually went up and parking ,which Herco controlled got REALLY rediculous. We would drive the 1160 mi. from Omaha to there and be faced with $50 a nite parking rental for our motorhome with NO hookups and a half mi. from the meet. We gave up a few yrs ago. Too bad as Patti enjoyed the fall trip thru tha Appalacians.

[Norm's Coupe]

Frank..not sure of the reason the vendors did not show at your meet, but here local at our the cost of doing business went through the roof from the people renting spaces to the point that making a meet profitable for them was marginal at best. I know this for a fact as I have asked them in person when attending another swap why they no longer come to the afore mentioned site. Sad part is that the attendance is increasing, car coral attendance was up and gate fee was up...there is the ever present GREED factor running rampant. So in some degree the sponsors are forcing these people to turn to avenues like E-bay based on dollar return for dollar invested. All they care about is today, what's in it for me...not everyone has the annual return instincts like the Swallows of Capistrano...

I agree Tim. The cost of swap meet spaces have gone up a lot in the last few years here too. And, that's probably one reason for fewer vendors showing up. A prime example of that is one at the State Fairgrounds in Milwaukee. They remodeled the fairgrounds, then jacked the cost up so high it not only lost the February swap meet, but also caused a lot of craft people from being vendors at one of the largest craft fairs that was there. The swap meet moved to a much smaller town to keep the cost down. The craft fair is still there but almost all of the small craft vendors can't afford to rent a space there anymore. So now, it's just the big craft people who don't even make their stuff.

That said, I also noticed at 3 of the largest swap meets in Wisconsin has lost many vendors. One is in Iola and two are in Jefferson WI. While their cost has also gone up, I know part of the reason for fewer vendors is ebay. As you walk around the meet I hear them talking with one another. Many are saying, "I make more on my parts on ebay". A few times when I've tried to talk a vendor a couple of bucks down on price their reply has been, I can get more than I'm asking on ebay. And, in some cases they are right. So, the net is taking some of those vendors out of the swaps.

Even ebay is getting greedy though. I just sold about $200 worth of stuff last month on the bay. When I got my credit card bill with the fees charged, it came out to a little over 9% of the total sales. Use to be only about 5%. Those fees are just the listing and final auction price fees, I don't use PayPal. If you were to add PayPal, the fees would jump another 5% or more. So.....maybe if ebay keeps raising their fees, that will get the vendors back to the swap meets.