"Historicon 2010 at Valley Forge: Better Or Worse?" Topic

Coin of the realm is appreciated. I can't pay the power company, municipal water authority, or gas company with vendor money.

Besides, who would foot the bill for the extra bookeeping for that type of system to work? And what of the time involved?

I've got to agree with coastal2 on this one.

> I can't pay the power company, municipal water authority, or gas company with vendor money.
>

How is a check from HMGS in US dollars on a US bank not real money?

Fine except when do I get the check? It usually takes HMGS quite awhile to cash the checks I send in for table fees. I shudder to think how long it would take to get a check from them.

I already wait on average 3 days for credit card purchases to clear. Now I have to wait a couple of weeks for a check too? No thanks. Keep your monoploy money.

You know, in the US we have these great things for trade and barter. They are called dollars, credit cards, and checks. We don't need something else.

Furthermore, for your system to work dealers will have to open their books to HMGS so they can figure out what sales would be. HMGS has no business in my or any other dealer's books.

Yuck to that idea. They have been trying to do something related to that at the Timonium train shows and it goes over like a lead balloon with dealers. They hate them and almost nobody takes them.

Plus with this group, counterfeiting would only be a matter of time. They already look at anything over a twenty as if it were phony, and even the twenties are suspect.

I ignored it on page 2, but since it was brought up again I agree with the other opinions and for the same reasons that "vendor money" is an ill-conceived idea.

I have a better idea. Charge the vendors and attendees enough to cover the cost of the space and no more. That will leave the attendees with more money to spend at the vendors, and the vendors won't feel like they are being made to cover the cost of the entire convention themselves, with HMGS-East receiving a gross income equal to the total price of admissions!

Con Cash is very easy to handle. The con knows in advance how much it is giving out.

The treasurer walks the vendors the end of each day and cashes out on the scene no muss no fuss.

Counterfeiting would be as likely as a bad check or credit card since it would be premeditated fraud.

>I have to wait a couple of weeks for a check too? No thanks. Keep your monoploy money.
>

That's a fixable admin issue. Speak to the concept please.

>Furthermore, for your system to work dealers will have to open their books to HMGS so they can figure out what sales would be. HMGS has no business in my or any other dealer's books.
>

Huh? You misunderstand. HMGS buys venue for X dollars. Receives Y dollars in income. Admission is "high" to assure Y > X. On the day pre-registration ends, the excess Z is known. Some designated fraction, like 90%, is refunded to the pre-registrants in the form of "dealer dollars." This guarantees dealers get 90% of Z spent on them.

And if the treasurer exchanges it for cash on Sunday, dealers don't have a messy paper trail…

>I have a better idea. Charge the vendors and attendees enough to cover the cost of the space and no more.
>

Problem is that you don't know how many attendees you will get before you incur the cost of the space.

Pat said "I don't think I've seen a revenuer or applied for a business license in any state based on attending a convention as a vendor"…………

I have a tax ID number for every state I do a show in. Every quarter, half year or year depending on the state, I send along the appropriate tax revenue based on my sales at a particular show.

It's the law according to my accountant; you sell goods in a particular state, you owe taxes on the sale of those goods, end of story.

I run a legit business and pay taxes as a result.

A tax ID number and a business license are two different things.

Geez Pat, you make it sound like there will be tax people driving around the hall in golf carts collecting money from vendors every hour on the hour.

If you sell goods in a particular state as a legit business, you have to send that state tax money; I do 5 shows per year in the state of PA and they get tax money from me for every show, plus the whopping 45.00 licensing fee at the VFCC.

At the MFCA show, I make MORE than enough money to cover the 45.00 fee.

If a 45.00 fee drives out the flea market people and a majority of the vendors, that is a pretty sad state of affairs.

PBN has a good and very workable idea.
The answer to how long you wait for your money is as simple as the BoD wants to make it. I however suggest- do not use monopoly money. For years, in SOUTH we have used Confederate dollars, marked so they are not easily counterfeited, a true thief will negate any protections if you aren't prepared to adjust.
At the end of each day, or the end of the show or several times daily, a representative of the Chapter goes around, picks up the incentives, gives the vendor a receipt and returns with a check from the Chapter.
Also the Chapter can designate that the incentives can only be spent with vendors, not the bar, Flea Market or Dance Club, etc.
This could be called the 'HMGS EAST' Stimulus package.
In the above described manner, Vendors are settled, by the end of the show, more money is available and it will work.

chuck

'Vendor Money' 'Confederate Dollars' or whatever you want to call it, is and always will be, a lunatic idea and far too cute for it's own good. Having seen it in action on both ends of the transaction, it just isn't worth it. As Evil Bob mentioned earlier, we already have a very useful system for trade and barter….

I would guess the amount per pre-registrant is on the order of 20 bucks.

So they pre-print two colors/styles of certificate. One is the main amount, the other is the odd amount.

So a $19 USD total would be one $10 USD cert and one $9 USD cert. Vendors don't make change. Should not be a problem to buy at least $10 USD worth from one vendor.

Counterfeits? Have to work fast & carry a printer… Vendors don't have to take more than one of each cert from a person. It should not be a problem to go around with your buddy if he wants to sell you his cert.