so im finally gonna make it to a hamvention this year, been saying i would for like 4 years and never went. trying to figure out if its worth driving all the way from ohio to xenia just for the flea market portion or if you really gotta do the whole thing. last hamfest i went to was a local club swap meet and honestly i scored a pretty clean kenwood ts-430s for like 60 bucks so my expectations are maybe unrealistic now lol. anyone been recently and have tips, like is it worth getting there friday or can you skip to saturday and still find decent stuff in the flea market before its all picked over

go friday. seriously dont even bother saturday morning thinking youll get the good stuff, its gone. i went two years ago and by like 10am saturday the decent gear was all picked through and it was mostly coax scraps and old handbooks. friday afternoon is when the serious dealers are still setting up and thats when you can sometimes haggle better too. also bring cash, a lot of vendors dont do venmo or whatever

our club does a swap meet every april, nothing like hamvention obviously but we usually get 40-50 people and theres always decent stuff on the tables. if youre in the midwest midwest area check your local arrl section website they list the smaller regional ones and honestly sometimes those are better deals because the big dealers dont bother coming and its just hams selling their own junk. i got my antenna tuner at one for $15