To Computer Markets Or Not, that is the question.? Is going to a computer market the answer to your computer needs?
After reading about weekend computer markets in Melbourne for many years, we finally got around to checking one out.
We found an excellent guide to markets in Melbourne at the OnlyMelbourne web site which tells exactly what markets are on and where. I mention this because many web sites seem to think its enough to say a market is on the 3rd Saturday of the month and not much else. We need details when we’re travelling to markets.
I digress..
Lunch
We stopped at Bundoora Park Children’s Farm in Cooper’s Settlement for lunch. The food was good but the service, well, who organises these people? No-one it seems. 3 or possibly even 4 staff running around with their heads chopped off. They appear to flitter between serving food in the cafe and the farm entrance desk.
Given it was a weekend, possibly the busiest time of the week you would think there would be pies and pasties hot in the oven. Sorry, no they have to be nuked in a microwave we were informed. We sat down after ordering and waited a good 20 minutes for microwaved food. The food itself was ok, but not the wait. No, there were not many other diners, or people going to the farm so one feels it comes down to organisation.
I digress, yet again. Onto the computer market.
Is it me, why do they call them computer “swap” markets. Is it because we swap money for computer items?
Anyway, I digress, yet again.
The computer market.. and pirates (ahoy!)
We picked RMIT Netball & Sports Centre in Bundoora run by Technology Markets. We had a giggle at the guy on the entrance. So enthralled in his mobile phone, he didn’t look up until he heard the coins hit the table, to which we received a very rewarding chin nod.
The over-riding impression my son (12) and I had was “pirated” goods. If there were 30 vendors, there had to have been a third selling some type of pirated goods. There was dodgey software in the form of games, operating systems, graphic editing software, pretty much every type of software you can think of. Then the movies. The easiest way I can describe this.. go and look at whats on today in cinemas and that’s what was being sold. The very latest movies on DVD with bright shiny covers going for a song.
Who is to blame?
Obviously the vendor is taking a huge risk if they are caught. They will lose their stock, cash and be charged with selling pirate goods. Costly exercise.
But I challenge the market operator (Technology Markets) for allowing these vendors to operate? They are happy to take my money ($3 entrance fee) and the vendors Sellers Fee but not place any criteria on what can be sold. Many ‘craft’ market organisers’ stipulate the items must be made by the stall holder, same applies to ‘farmers’ markets, the stallholder must have grown or produced the items for sale. So, why can’t computer markets operate the same way?
Technology Markets ask vendors to tick a box to say “I’ve read and agreed to the terms and conditions”, but try and find the terms and conditions on their web site? We couldn’t find them.
Besides the pirate goods, we found computer items including:
- hardware, computers, pc’s mac’s, laptops, tablets, screens
- peripherals, mouse, keyboards, cables, head phones,
- memory, graphic cards, ram, hard drives,
- printers, ink, cartridges
Yes, the customers were a mix of bogun, nerd, neck-beards and fathers with children (moi) but they all had money to spend.
We reckon, aye aye, well worth the trip for bargain prices but ahhhhh, stay away from the pirates… ahoy!
Are we the only review: nope, see Whirlpool albeit 2007-2013.
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