Another day at the Musical Collectables Record Show in Mississauga...

...and a particularly disappointing one. Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the first ever Musical Collectables Record Show that was held at the York Farmers' Market in April of 1976.

I had expected this to be quite a birthday bash, but unfortunately, I was somewhat let down by the whole experience compared to last year's October show.

Onto the roses and thorns:

Roses:
-A great selection of records overall, including 45s
-Lots of familiar faces from the past, e.g. Graham Whitehead, Star Records, Randy Sharrard
-Lucky draw competiton for a giveaway of $100 to a randomly selected participant every hour

Thorns:
-Not enough parking for an anniversary event
-No party decorations in the banquet hall. Come on people, this was a birthday event on the heels of Record Store Day! Where's all the balloons and cake?
-No live entertainment from developing artists and few (if any) special offers
-OUTRAGEOUS prices for some very common vinyls, e.g. "The Pack Is Back" by Raven which comes up all the time and often for very, very cheap... I paid 75 cents for it at the thrift store and it's going for like $20 at the show!!!
-Some very obvious fakes of "Introducing... The Beatles" going for big bucks - obviously trying to take advantage of collectors who just can't tell the difference between what is or isn't worth collecting!
-Crowded vendor tables; this made for lots of pushing and shoving, and it was difficult to browse for long without getting into somebody's space
-Not many of the vendors' tables were marked as to who they were; I lost my map on route and couldn't find Kops Kollectables!
-Absolutely OVERHEATED in the main room of the banquet hall... made me wanna run out for air, which I did a few times!
-Some impatient vendors who did not appreciate my looking at the deadwax or the vinyl condition; guess they're hoping for people to buy their stuff sight unseen
-Prior to the show, visitors were asked to email their wantlist for vendor review, and they promised that if they had what you were looking for, you would be contacted by email and directed to that vendor at the show. This didn't happen with me! I spoke to one of the vendors and they said that they had problems accessing the list. This was VERY, very annoying for me because I hoped to have a more organized shopping experience, but, in the long run, it was just as confusing as ever. I had to shop without a wantlist, so I likely missed some of the stuff I was looking for...

Well, that's about it. I will be making a finds video soon to share whatever I found at the show. I'm hoping for a better show this October... BUT, this one left me feeling very cold and incomplete. Overall, I would rate it 2 out of 5 stars. There's always room for improvement!

Ryan