Buying life insurance and windows at a show?

[Jeffredsfan]

I don't if this is a growing trend as I only attend one major sports memorabilia show in my area, but it irks the hell out of me to see booths set up for life insurance, replacement windows, physical therapy, etc. The problem is, the people manning the booths stand out in the aisles and try to get people to fill out "contest" cards or other types of informational pieces, not unlike the workers at mall kiosks.

Has anyone else encountered this type of situation outside of the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania area?

[CampWest]

There are not many sports memorabilia shows in the Kansas City area anymore, and the ones they do have are 20-40 tables and not worth the time and expense for those types of vendors. I do however see a bit of it at gun and knife shows it seems more and more as time goes on. And I always complain to the show organizers when they are there. Nothing worse than paying admission to a show and being hounded every 10th table for something completely unrelated. Of course I also see too many tables unrelated to the theme of the show, like scented candles, homemade salsas and jams, etc. but at least they don't hound you too bad most of the time.

[sox83cubs84]

At the Mounted Memories shows in suburban Chicago, a sponsor (Chicago Sun-Times) has a sign-up booth for subscriptions. At another show college students had taken a space to do trivia quizzes with attendees, paying them with cash and gift cards for correct answers. That one was fun, although many, if not most, aren't. And, of course, while not survey or quiz related, who among us over age 30 can forget (however much we'd like to) seeing Teeny Turds...I mean, Beanie Babies...scatter around the convention floor at a number of booths?

Dave Miedema