Computer fairs

Built my 1st pc from a Tottenham court road faire.

Just boxes of OEM stuff, hand written receipts and jumpers for goal posts.

Don't understand how they are relevant in today's shopping environment...
 
This popped up on my FB feed aswell, I'm just down the road (Calne) and considering popping in! Not sure if I'm going to buy anything though.
 
Over my way in Leicester I used to go to the Aylestone Leisure Centre years ago where they used to hold one at least once a month on a Sunday, not sure if it's still going nowadays but I remember that it used to get really busy on the day and was always well worth the trip. I think I purchased my first motherboard & RAM from there back in the Athlon XP days. I'll also never forget the days of trawling the car boot sales when software & DVD piracy was in full swing, always one or two large stalls full of Windows XP & Office 2003 copies haha.

I occasionally see an advert on Facebook that keeps popping up regarding another fair that is regularly held at the Leicester Arena. Still, it's probably not worth going nowadays as others have mentioned about other fairs - unless you're looking to pick up consumables.

Liam.
 
Tottenham Court Road, Crystal Palace, Ashburton School in Croydon and a couple of others used to be my staple computer fairs in the 90's. Internet shops were not really a thing and mail order was expensive and slow. As we reached 2000 they got progressively worse and worse and the internet killed them. The only people who use them are luddites with no internet ability who don't know they are being ripped off.
 
Marvt74 said:
I used to laugh at the guys chipping Playstations with a pint in front of them, a cig in one hand and a soldering iron in the other!
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Used to be the normal in those days, I had to take my Playstation to the local church as it was the vicar chipping them between services.
 
LEK-89 said:
Over my way in Leicester I used to go to the Aylestone Leisure Centre years ago where they used to hold one at least once a month on a Sunday, not sure if it's still going nowadays but I remember that it used to get really busy on the day and was always well worth the trip. I think I purchased my first motherboard & RAM from there back in the Athlon XP days. I'll also never forget the days of trawling the car boot sales when software & DVD piracy was in full swing, always one or two large stalls full of Windows XP & Office 2003 copies haha.

I occasionally see an advert on Facebook that keeps popping up regarding another fair that is regularly held at the Leicester Arena. Still, it's probably not worth going nowadays as others have mentioned about other fairs - unless you're looking to pick up consumables.

Liam.
Click to expand...

I popped into that one a couple of months ago as Dad was looking to upgrade his machines ram and to add an ssd. Nothing really stood out to me. Pre-buit machines and components pretty much the same price as online, old used machines too like the old white imac G4s etc (why?). The rest was all cables, phone cases, ink cartridges etc. Decided to get the upgrades online instead in case anything turned out to be faulty, returning would be easier
 
Exactly why I don't understand why they still exist.

If you wanted to buy pc parts back then it was micromart, a local shop or a fair.

Or a pre built time/tiny
 
In the late 90's my dad used to drive me to ones and I used to love it. Used to go to Croydon, Orpington etc. All over the south east. We used to go to model fairs too. Happy days!
 
I went to one in mk last year and it was crap. They charged £3 for entry and all you got was overpriced old laptops (celerys with 2gb / 160hdd for 200+) crap mobile phone crap and overpriced PC components with the sellers knowing jack all about their products. Suffice to say I did a round, demanded a refund and left.

They didn't give me a refund though...
 
Yeah I went to one recently and it cost £3 to get in and was full of mainly overpriced or rubbish bits and pieces. I only went for 140mm case fans and there weren't any. Never did get round to ordering them either.
 
My mates dad used to take us to ones in Gateshead in 1995 / 96. There were some amazing specemins there, overweight virgin wizard types. However this was two years before I had internet at home and it was a way to get your hands on shareware often before it appeared on magazine covers. This is how I got hold of the Duke Nukem 3D preview which blew my mind at the time.
 
I used to go to one at Aintree race course. I got 4mb of memory for 100 quid, which at the time was an epic deal.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
And who can forget all the people outside with their blankets :)
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What the VCD sellers :D Used to make laugh as they had lookouts on all the inroads as it used to get raided by the Police with either HMRC or Trading Standards, 5mins after they left the 'blankets'/car boots/paste tables were back in business.
 
Last time I went to a computer fair was well over a decade ago. Picked myself up a 21" Dell Trinitron CRT which worked perfectly, sold it at a profit years later.
 
Attended one at Wolverhampton racecourse last year whilst I was on the hunt for a laptop. £2 entry, 2 minutes to walk round. 2 minutes back at the only laptop stall, realised how silly inflated the prices were for 5 year old gear that had just had the HDD upgraded to an SSD. Left.
 
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