Hey Ken, I'll ring in on this one with one small tidbit:
On Sunday, they made everybody show photo ID to match the badges, which cut down on alot of the riff-raff. Sunday was all business, that insanity of trying to tie up the loose ends amidst a flood of people thinking they were gonna buy a cheap instrument or get a star's autograph was thankfully gone.
I think the days of getting dealers to make appointments was gone before my time, I've never had any success with it. I've even walked the floor hunting down specific dealers that I wanted to meet.
Two of my top ten I met that way lol. That's alot of money to put into that show to think "well, maybe". I don't blame you for bailing.