Agree in theory, but I've yet to hear a PA in any hotel or convention center that is understandable. Even when it's audible, words get lost in the echo & din of a show.

Love your idea for the tall signpost, though. I bet at least half the attendees this year didn't know the Spanish/auction/overflow room existed.

Didn't play it this year, but it's been appearing sporadically at Expo since at least 2001. More neat/cool than fun.

Yeah, during load-in I wondered aloud how it could possibly be worth hauling all those pachinko machines around. Unfortunately the pachinko guy was standing right behind me.

Pizza was good, but the sliders were dry. They kept replenishing, so maybe I got lucky and came through when the pizza was fresh. First round of food was probably sitting there waiting for the event to begin.

VFW show sells out via word of mouth but he still drives to Chicago & back just to plaster Expo with flyers and measure dicks, I mean count machines. That's dedication.

Wow.

I feel like vendor sales will only continue to drop. Old school collectors kept a list of stuff they needed and picked it up at shows. New school collectors are astoundingly impatient and order everything they want the minute it’s available online. Sure, there will always be impulse purchases, but even an old fart like me isn’t waiting ‘til a show comes around to buy a board if one goes down.

The new west entry door to the vendor hall certainly made it harder to pop back & forth between free play & vendor. Didn't keep track but I bet I spent less time in the vendor hall for that reason alone. The old north side entry was super handy, made that one hallway feel like grand central with a buzz of people. I guess now with the tourney gone from the hallway, it makes sense to use that larger space for vendor entry, but maybe it's too much space?

Everyone's different, but the things that open my wallet in the vendor hall are wearables/art/etc. I spent a hundred bucks on limited screen-printed posters at the Logan Arcade booth, and bought an enamel pin at the Circus Maximus booth. Would have bought a couple things from Rage Tilt, but I already have the stuff I want from them and didn't see anything new. Would have bought Ryan Claytor's book if I didn't already pick it up at PATZ.

As for mods, I'm not into them at all, but even if I was, I'm not waiting for Expo to roll around to buy pinstadiums or whatever.

It's too bad the Westin bans outside food sales, because the PATZ soda pop guy and ReplayFX chocolate guy would probably both make a killing. Those two alone would drive foot traffic to the vendor hall as a whole. People eating chocolate-covered bacon are happy. And happy people spend money.

I'm not sure, and I may very well be wrong, but I've heard that the hotel has a no-tolerance policy for outside food & drink sales. I guess if you pay them enough anything is possible.

Well, you're being a pain in the ass. Rob's a busy guy. He sells you a game and thinks he's done. Now he has to refund you, pull a mod out of a game, box it up, ship it back to the seller, then Pinstadium has to refund you for a used mod. I think you should just eat the lost mod dollars. Maybe if you feel the burn you won't back out of a deal in the future.

Sorry if my post seems a bit harsh; just an objective assessment from someone not involved in the deal.