Thanks to a lot of individuals and shops, this swap was another rousing success.

We brought in a bit less gear from shops this year but up nearly 1000 pieces to over 3000 pieces of gear from individuals for a total of about 9,000 items. We did more advertising this year but the serendipity of snow falling and ski areas opening was great advertising as well. In addition, Newport's own Cynthia Flash of Flash Media Services did our internet advertising. With the impact of our weak economy causing more people to look for better deals, the weather and additional front end preparation, over 4,000 people attended the swap Friday night between 4:30 (we opening a little early) and 9:15-ish. On Saturday, we also had nearly 4,000 people attend, together giving us nearly 3,000 more folk than attended in the last couple years.

Friday evening was a total fabulous, crazy flipping fun, nearly 5 hours of madness while Saturday was smooth sailing with a few less customers but over a 10 hour time frame so had nice pace providing more time for individual customer care. There was still many fabulous bargains available even late into Saturday evening. We probably still had 2000-3000 inventory items as we were closing. The price point for gear was lower than in past years but the increased number of customers and the additional 3 hours (closed at 3 hours earlier on Saturday in past years) pushed our total sales up by just over 9%.

Yes, by early count, we sold over $370,000 this year in the Newport High gym, up from $335,00 last year. An incredible for an all volunteer, high school based swap.

Thanks again, everyone for buying, selling and helping. It all contributes to making Newport a better place to get an education and gets more people out of our crazy life for a bit of sanity checking time with yourself, your friends and family, and the incredible beauty of winter in the mountains.

Sincerely,

Don Meyer,
Newport High PTSA Swap Chair