Michael Shalhoub EXPOsed a large lot of fairly average container pins in 2009. As Strangeways said, he has the contacts and certainly could organise a real Expo I suspect.
Nug and I worked nights for two weeks to finish Coconut Island, then drove all Friday night to Sydney, set it up, and had a great time meeting a bunch of people. Quite a few AA guys came over for a chat, was nice to meet a few. One or two made a special effort to avoid coming near the Coconut Island area as it also was the AP area, that's OK too. Nug and I had a fun moment cornering one of them and saying hello, all in good fun.
Strangeways has already cleaned this thread up, removing some of the Forum v Forum rubbish. Those of you with an agenda on that topic, just drop it. Seriously. I cannot be bothered reading posts about it, and to this point have not bothered to comment either.
It is absolute BS to attribute the potential success or failure of a possible Expo to anything to do with forums. It is highly unlikely a forum based Expo would amount to much, because there is no commercial benefit potential (as AP is not a commercial venture). Expos are a commercial venture, hence why the MS 2009 had some success – while it was mainly a sale of a bunch of container pins, it also brought together some other industry participants sort of like an Expo, and there were as Gav said quite a few hard to get bits and pieces. When or if a commercial interest decides that an Expo will potentially have a profit result (perhaps not the event itself, but ongoing to the sponsors of it), we might see one, and hopefully representatives of both forums will participate and contribute to the Expo experience, just as AP did in 2009, at considerable personal cost to some members.
AP is a place for collectors, hobbyists and restorers, good times, and a dose of BS from most of us from time to time. Have fun and enjoy it here. There are members of both forums here - great, each offers a different member experience. I read and contribute elsewhere too. But it is not a commercial venture, would not be able to profit from an Expo, so could not afford to create one. But we certainly would contribute if asked.
