I think that anyone that has camped out for blade should get first shot at the tables, but the reality is the vendors don't really care about there true customers but the $. Just the way it is.
Am I the vendor that we're talking about?
I agree that anybody that camped out for a blade since Tuesday should be able to get whatever they want. I'm on board with that, in theory, although perhaps not in practice.
As a rule, we do not sell knives until the show starts. That's the best I can do. Most of the makers there do sales the day before and the hours before. They'll sell to anyone at any time. And I absolutely have no problem with that. However I do not. I understand that there are people that have come from a long ways and I'm not going to selling inventory before the show starts. At which point it becomes first come first serve.
I do have some special long-term customers that have helped me get where I am that were supporting me back when I was a nobody and I will not apologize for taking care of the people that have helped to take care of me. If someone like Roland Proctor or Martin (Woodysone) wants something, they can have it. Period. I don't care what anybody else thinks about that. They have been with me from the very beginning.
If somebody like Jack who placed a large order that funded our move and then I was over a year behind delivering it and he never said a word wants something. He can have it.
But the number of people like that is vanishingly small, they're not flippers, and they're not buying up all the cool stuff. And if someone's getting preferential treatment, there's a reason for that. For example if my mom wants something she can have it. She doesn't even have to pay.
I don't like flippers. Nobody does.
The reason I don't like flippers is because they swoop in and take the work, and then sell it to the end user that was going to get it anyway, adding cost which diminishes the value of the work. I like to think that my work is worth what I sell it for. And when people start raising the price to the end user, that diminishing the cost value ratio of the work and it's not fair to anybody. I don't like that. So, as a rule, I try not to sell to the flippers. Unless you're talking about a distributor. And that's pretty much the business model. But we're not having background checks at Blade Show.
Am I in this for the money? Of course I am. I'm not altruistically pouring my life into my work without hope of something in return. I've only recently started making as much income doing this as I was in my '30s working as a plastic design engineering consultant at TekRep engineering. I'm not price gouging anyone.
I'm at Blade Show to sell knives. I'm not in the business of turning away people with money in hand.
I also understand that people have come from far and wide to attend the show and these people have a reasonable expectation of coming there and getting something.
I had knives for sale on my table the entire weekend. We even brought a couple home. Me and my crew have worked our ass off the last month and we brought more knives to the show than we have ever brought. We did not sell out.
I'm not going to not sell to people with exhibitor badges. I'm not in the business of discriminating against people who want to buy something based on their badge.
Is it ideal? No, probably not. Am I in a position to fix this? Absolutely not.
I wait till the show opens to sell. I can't help that there are people at my table. What am I supposed to do? I'm not the one who set up the show, I'm not the one who decides how it works but I do feel bad for somebody that has been camped since Tuesday and I wish I could have sold him what he wanted. I really do. I feel bad about that but it's not possible to please everyone and at the end of the day I'm very overwhelmed during the start of the show and I'm there to sell my work, so once the show opens I start selling.
Lastly. This is a drama free zone. I don't know the rules and customs and other subforms. I don't really go to other subforms. A lot of people don't go to other subforms because our subform happens to have the best culture here. This is the best group of people and knife nuts on the entire internet right here in my sub. Don't mess that up with drama or I will send Tanto Quantavius to your home to strip the wiring.
for the various knife models over the past years even though they can be a PIA. 
