Competition or Vending

[MattG]

If you had to choose between one or the other, which would it be. I’m faced with this dilemma, I have gotten the comp bug but I’m leaning toward vending so I can have money for comps and new equipment. Thoughts?

[RubMeTender]

I think just vending is more enjoyable. It's nice to have judging recognition, but having public recognition is even better.

[cgwaite]

It would be a tough decision for me, but I believe that I'd have to choose the vending side.

Competitions are great. You meet so many people and make new friendships. If you are attentive and a little bit lucky, you'll probably learn a lot about properly cooking your meat (and other things as well). But to compete, successfully anyway, you need to be extremely disciplined. I am not sure that I have that level of commitment in me.

Vending has some of the same challenges as competition, but I think the margin for error is a little bit larger in the vending area. I'm talking about the finished results. You can be extremely successful with good BBQ meat in vending, but in the Competition world good BBQ meat will leave you left in the middle of the pack. With competition, you have to shine brighter than anyone else there. Your meat has to be better than just good.

I like to compete, from time to time, but I really enjoy seeing people enjoying the fruits of my labor. For me, vending provides direct feedback (hopefully positive :icon_blush: ) and that is something I enjoy. Plus, I must say, I would like to make a few bucks off of my talents too. At least enough to cover my expenses and effort.

[ZILLA]

Why can't you do both?

[Bigmista]

I do both but I am doing a lot more vending than competing lately.