I missed the show this year. My first time at Iowa Gas was in 2003, think this is the second show I missed since then. That first year for me, I remember waiting until they moved the gate and let people into the parking lots to set up. They had the hotel parking lot and the one lot across the street with vendors. No one set up until the gates were open and people were let in. (People did complain about having to wait when they were there and ready to set up) Back then from what I recall, the auction was after the show, it was not cataloged or on the internet. If you had something to sell, you could give it to the auctioneer the day of the auction and they would sell it. Somewhere along the way, they started letting people in early, people showed up sooner to find the deals and it turned into what we have now. It is easy to make rules, harder to enforce them. You have to have dealers to have a show, bottom line. Kick out to many and the show will fail. From what I see, there are a lot of new/ younger collectors/ dealers/ pickers/ flippers in the hobby right now. This is both good and bad. If a show gets to heavy handed, people will stop going to sell.
The Peotone show is nice because the gates do not open until the promoters open them. You can pretty well plan on knowing what time to be there. Iowa and Columbus are nice because they also have the room to room vending and an on site place to stay overnight.
I always enjoyed the Iowa Show, got a lot of stuff there over the years. Just had to figure out what day to get there..
