Popham Aerojumble Bank Holiday Monday

Great for repro cast signs and cheap new tools….only a couple of decent stalls…Thankyou Mr. Goosey,you’re a gentleman!!!

I went once, at least ten years ago, and didn’t know then why I had bothered. It has been said so many times – but the aerojumble scene is dead sadly. I doubt we will see its like again.

Popham was never a regular of mine, but like Whitwick which I went to, could come up trumps, and always worth the drive from the South Coast.

Sadly pricing is something it seems more and more not considered properly by organisers. When I first went to the War and Peace show years ago, there used to be many small stalls there for a day or so, just people having a clear out or selling some one off stuff. Eventually the pitch prices became so high, these people were priced out, and now it is mainly the big dealers selling incredibly high priced items, added to an ever climbing entry price, I stopped going a few years ago due to it’s decline, for over 10 years I went every year, also as well now, are the closed traders days where stuff is snapped up between traders and prices increased. This particular aspect the last time I went to the Military Odyessy at Detling made for a pointless visit, dealers told me of stuff that I was looking for, that had sold on these days, and was now on other stalls with massive mark ups.

I considered the entry fee for the early pass at Brenzett far too high for what was an event that was being relaunched, and after about an hour there I was finished leaving empty handed. If they have another I am not sure I will bother.

Organisers seem to overlook sometimes the most important factor in their events these days, and that is attracting the customer, in the case of Popham, few aero traders brings fewer punters, but as this is a smaller aspect of the event I suspect they are not really bothered.

Similar to a point Gokone has made, I do believe an aerojumble event which would allow collectors/buyers to turn up ad hoc and having paid a small fee allow people to sell odd pieces from their car boot would not only encourage more people to attend and sell (who normally wouldn’t) but also put new stock into the market. The success of this (over time) would encourage more buyers to attend the event. Most people will have a few aviation related items to sell but not enough to warrant paying Multiple £££’s for a pitch.

The jumble element is definitely in decline. I have been a Popham fixture since the early 80’s and been to every one of these events. Personally I am there for the aircraft, full stop. Im a spotter, and so were 2/3rds of those arriving by road on Saturday and Sunday. This year was ‘good’ on Saturday, but not quite the ‘excellent’ we had 2 years ago, because of the weather. Management has changed a couple of times at popham recently and hopefully this event will improve in future? Trouble is it always seems to be bad weather on the Monday!

You seem to have missed out the huge spread by the Cats Protection & British Legion. All very useful I am sure but not why I attended!

POPHAM POOPER CONTINUES

We wanted to speak one of the organisers called Keith, about future pricing of aeroboot tables (again) but ran out of time as packing up was a bit involved with 3 stalls to help with and rain threatening near the end. The bias towards bikers is still painfully obvious @ £5-£10 for a table later in the year, but if you want to come to the aeroboot for just the day its £45 – not everyone can do 3 days for the same cost however, so it needs to be £20 a stall for the day or the one-off people who want to get rid of a few aviation bits and pieces who can make a buyers day and who can only do one day due to ‘family matters’ etc will just cry off and go to a general boot for £1-£5 max. Previous dealers from afar won’t pay the fuel costs and the time travelling when they can do better elsewhere and more cheaply.

I also heard that charging £5 per landing some years ago put micro-lighters off as it was previously free and it certainly seems to have affected the amount of aircraft/micro visits to the airfield, its nothing like as busy these days and a fair amount of these people were buyers from aerobooters at past events, even micro exhibitors seemed down along with foreign visitors from talks I had with some old-hand sellers – who in themselves have declined alarmingly in the last 4-5 years. Many can’t be bothered to treat it like a social anymore either.

Up to 3-4 years ago there was an evening band on the Saturday for aeroboot sellers which was something for the costs involved, but only the bikers get that now despite paying far less for their pitches – why? After a derisory attempt at a ‘disco’ for a few years that only a few kids attended after live bands were ended, there has been nothing to tempt some sellers for some kind of social after the day’s events and they are clearly less regarded than bikers for some reason who DO get a live band (and a very good one too, after I attended a bike ‘Mega-meet’ show a year or so ago).

The organisers just don’t seem to get this along with the £45 main day cost and its evidently a general boot now with lots of tool sellers, some flowers, motoring/motorbike/nautical and general bric-a-brac etc taking precedence with the main cluster of aviation in the marquee; a fair amount of book sellers though and good to see the Aviation Bookshop tent doing OK re photos and other old publications. There were some mint grips like Scimitar and Sea Vixen besides a ‘rare’ gun column for Defiant/Halifax turrets and I got a nice MB torque spanner for £10 and some plastic inserts for flight suit leg pockets besides photos and other bits like cutting disks and steel rulers, but yes there’s not enough general aviation sellers and they ought to be encouraged more as the title can be misleading for people attending who are new to Popham.

A contact e-mailed me after saying: “Were you at Popham? Didn’t see you but then I did spend most of my time wandering around with my head down muttering ‘bloody aerojumble indeed!’ Bit poor I thought, all I got was an ARC52 control box I don’t need, an autopilot repair manual I don’t need, a dimmer switch that might come in handy one day, an overpriced steam engine and some Lego! Not exactly what I hoped. Hope you did better.”

I persuaded a then-new organiser by e-mail a few years ago along with accompanying comments from sellers to reduce a planned increase to £45, but this has now been disregarded and actioned on top of costs being too much already for what the event offers to sellers. Yes hosting such an event has to be costed and be viable for the hostees, but I’m afraid its just a bit too tired these days and too expensive as reflected in seller attendance and not enough people attending and buying over the three days.

And after a few rounds of stall-hopping there is nothing to encourage them to stay longer on the Saturday and Sunday before the vehicles arrive for the Monday. The usual food/drink prices put some people off too (myself included), at over £2.50 for a coffee and £4 for a bacon roll (no doubt cursed by the English practice of stone-cold rolls because sellers can’t be bothered to offer a better product*), and there has to be more thought given to attract more aviation sellers to the event.

* This Howard, is where the NAM Cheese Toastie reigns supreme in terms of customer satisfaction! 🙂

Thanks for the update, Runway06. I was also tempted to make the journey from Wales but drank too much with Sunday lunch and had to abandon my car on the mean streets of LLandaff, so no stupidly early start. Hopefully Old Sarum will be better. Only a fortnight to wait.

Well having attended today the weather held off which was a relief to everyone. Low cloud and wind prevented visiting aircraft, the airfield opened about midday with the arrival of an Auster and other aircraft then followed, There were about a dozen stalls selling something or other aviation related from instruments, models, clothing, books, memorabilia etc. Must say that the quality of stuff for sale was not as good as previous years, and similar to the golden years of aviation the golden years of the aerojumble just ain’t coming back! Still it was worth going just to browse around and meet like minded people. Probably my first year or even event of coming back empty handed. Thanks to all the stall holders who made the effort of turning up. Still a worthy event to turn up too if only to browse and chat and I’ll be there next year (hopefully!)

I have been there about 9 each day and been on the second row of the car park each time, entry is £7.

From memory gates open for early bird tickets at around 8am. The mainstream entry is either 9am or 10am. I know of one aerojumbler who will be having a stall there for tomorrow so I guess other stall holders will turn up just for the Monday to add to the 20 stalls already there.

Have been at popham for the last two days for the microlights. Very few traders to be honest, less than 20. I know that tomorrow is a different event but I think the jumble part has really shrunk? Although aircraft bits are not my thing and there could be some real bargains, who knows?

Any idea what time gates open? Can’t see info one their website

I’ll give his event a go tomorrow, weather forecast not too bad till 2pm then 50% chance rain. Fingers crossed for a good aerojumble event !

I was talking about the builder

That’s offcast’s thankyou.

But at least they are not built from rejects or re casts

Some of those Triumphs are quite collectable now Tim…

It is always a very marginal event anyway, last time I went was poor, nuts and bolts and repro Spitfire junk

I usually start a Popham thread about this time of year but I didn’t attend in 2015 and it looks unlikely that I’ll be there this year.

The three day weekend can be tempting if the forecast is good but the reality is usually cold and breezy weather (if not wet too) and I find it tends to drag, particularly on saturday and sunday. It’s too far for me to consider just the one day of the aerojumble, especially now as I believe they discourage people from staying over on monday for an early tuesday departure.

Still, I hope those who do attend have an enjoyable and successful time of it.