GTE Novi Show- 1/31 to 2/1

[TrainWatcher]

Just about 2 weeks away from the big Detroit Mega show, Great Train Expo at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

http://www.greattrainexpo.com/shows/2015Novi.html

Love this show every time I go I usually walk out with something, and quite a few out of state dealers and one's you don't see too often like Steve's Hobbies in Blissfield and the like.

[Racer]

This show is indeed one of the best! I will be there for sure!

[TrainWatcher]

This show is THIS Saturday. Hope to see some familiar faces.

[Ypsi]

Quite the disappointment this year, less then an hour and we've seen it all basically. Not a lot of vendors, and price gouging to get in. $5 to park and $9 for tickets. Plus the floor is pretty empty. Not a lot of great prices on much so far either. Lots of shirts and large scale as well as kids around here. Overall beat to be here I guess but for the price I paid to get in I am very disappointed. Most shows are $5-10 and free parking..

[ConrailMan5]

Worst show I've ever been to. At least from an ho perspective, and even then the other scales seemed pretty bad too. Price gouging for sure as ypsi mentioned. Barely half full with vendors, And some of them weren't even train related. Some ok deals to be found at best. Will not be making the trek ever again.

[LJK004]

At least I wasn't the only one who was disappointed. Last year it was at least twice the size.

If I'm going to pay full retail, I'd much rather support a local hobby shop than some vendor at a show.

[Ypsi]

At least I wasn't the only one who was disappointed. Last year it was at least twice the size.

If I'm going to pay full retail, I'd much rather support a local hobby shop than some vendor at a show.

Right.. And I did forget to say, the display layouts showed were subpar compared to previous years. The lego set up is kinda neat, but after seeing that at every show in SE Michigan it's kind of old at this point. I'm not sure what exactly the G scale layout was, so neat to see a new group, but it is kind of hard to have a traveling layout in such a large scale and make it interesting. Not taking away from what those two groups did but it would have been nice to see one of the larger HO or even N scale layouts there too. Overall just an overhyped show, and waaaaaaay overpriced. (Not trying to be super negative about everything, just my honest opinion and attempt to prevent other people from being taken by the high prices for no reason, this was all basically hobby shop prices at a train show)

[TrainWatcher]

Agreed. Managed to get a few things, but mega disappointed. Here's hoping to the local shows this year are much better!

[PlymouthStationGuy]

Well the next Train Show on this side of the state is the Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club Flea Market
Feb 14th n Feb 15th at the Saline High School http://a2trainshow.com I'm taking a Vacation Day on the 14th from work and going with a couple of guys from my Tuesday night Group

[Racer]

As everyone else said, this show was overwhelmingly bad. Especially compared to the other annual train shows that come to The Suburban Collection in Novi. It's always expensive to attend any show at that place, but were always guaranteed huge areas and with hours of stuff to see and do. Our group was through the whole show in less than 45 minutes! The N scale selection was decent, but tons of the HO and O scale stuff was either old 60s and 70s Tyco junk in shrink-wrap (That is commonly seen at local swap meets) or very limited new models at retail prices. Very few deals at this show where I could have gone to a local hobby shop and saved money. I bought a few items, but they were common items I would have found at shops like G&G Trains or Empire Hobbies.

The variety of layouts on display was terrible as well. The Lego modeler's layout was smaller than usual. The G-scale layout was cool, but basic and the other layout was on the floor on carpet (Really? ) Some of the vendors were not even train related. One vendor was for a local roof shingle business that I have seen at the other shows held at The Suburban Collection. Their display took-up 1/8 of the show! Many HO and N scale clubs in the area that attend with their layouts to EVERY local show (Including the past Novi shows) were not present.

Last year's show (World's Greatest Hobby) blew this one out of the ballpark and was so shocked at how small and empty this one was.

Hopefully Train-O-Rama this upcoming March will be good as that show is starting to improve since last year.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

As excited as you guys were about this show, I was starting to wonder if I should have gone after all, even though our N scale layout wasn't. It's kind of disheartening to read what it was really like, although I had heard (and forgotten) that they only had one section of the display area for the show. Something makes me wonder if the vendors who normally travel with these shows might have not come this year thinking the Detroit area was played out after the night shows the past two years here.

[iandt]

I noticed lots of new Lionel stuff if you were into that, though most of it was overpriced. Lots of new HO stuff too, but the same case. I guess I can't add anything to the list of complaints already, too much for parking, not many tables, overpricing... though I must say that I did like the huge G scale autoracks on that layout. I left the show with two Beatles 45's, far from what I expected from a train show, but the man selling them was very nice and a joy to talk to.

Is this the descendant of the show that used to be at the Novi Expo Center, then was moved to the Rock Financial Showplace a few years ago? That show was always around this time, and was always packed with great layouts and many sellers. If so, then that show has really gone downhill.

[hoborich]

The Novi Expo Center became the Rock Financial Showplace, became the Suburban Collection! Three names over the years. Same place.
The show could have been a bust due to the economy, or the new owners may have raised the exhibitors fees to the point where the vendors couldn't make any money. The new owners may also have changed the rules, and required the vendors to buy expensive liability insurance. They did that to us at the state fair.
I used to exhibit and sell at the Michigan State Fair, and I saw the mismanagement and greed destroy the nations oldest state fair, which was over a hundred years old.

[fmilhaupt]

Is this the descendant of the show that used to be at the Novi Expo Center, then was moved to the Rock Financial Showplace a few years ago? That show was always around this time, and was always packed with great layouts and many sellers. If so, then that show has really gone downhill.

Yes, it is the descendant of one of them, but there were three different shows that used the Novi Expo Center.

The first was the show Bob Reckinger used to run. It had its beginnings in the train show he used to run at the Plymouth Cultural/Hockey Center, then grew into the train and toy show he held at the Novi Expo Center. This was the one that was most like a typical SE Michigan train show, but bigger. That show had lots of layouts- my former club (Rails on Wheels) used to show our sizeable HO layout there pretty regularly.

The second was the Greenberg Train and Toy Show. Based in Maryland, this was a traveling show that covered much of the eastern half of the country, usually coming to Novi every two or three years. I didn't pay too much attention to this one, because the first one they held was mostly tinplate dealers.

The third was the Great Train Show, which was the traveling arm of the big show that runs ten times a year at the DuPage County fairground in Wheaton, Illinois. This one combined with the former Greenberg shows from the east coast into the organization that put on this last weekend's show.

I'm pretty sure that the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour didn't enter the mix until after the old Expo Center had closed and the new site opened.

[GreatLakesRailfan]

The second was the Greenberg Train and Toy Show. Based in Maryland, this was a traveling show that covered much of the eastern half of the country, usually coming to Novi every two or three years. I didn't pay too much attention to this one, because the first one they held was mostly tinplate dealers.

The third was the Great Train Show, which was the traveling arm of the big show that runs ten times a year at the DuPage County fairground in Wheaton, Illinois. This one combined with the former Greenberg shows from the east coast into the organization that put on this last weekend's show.

Train Show Inc. is the company that puts on the Wheaton show, the Great Train Show, the Greenburg show and the WGH show that was at Novi last year. I believe they just took over the WGH show last year, as an announcement was made during the show about the new management/manager. Something was also said last year about the Detroit market being a little played out. My understanding is that once they've put on a show in a certain market they like to give it a couple years to let the market cool off and recharge before they come back.