いまは同人イベントがどういうものかは理解が広まってきた感じですが、
当時はまだ「なんで利益が出ないのに本を作ってお店を出すのか理解できない」みたいな感覚だったようです。
もちろん死ぬほど儲かってる人たちもいましたけどね。
脱税する人なんかも出るくらいに(^^;)

These days, it feels like understanding of what fanzine conventions are about has spread, but at the time, the general sense seemed to be, "I can't understand why you'd sell books or open a shop even though you don't make a profit." Of course, there were also some people who were profiting like crazy, though. Enough of them that you got some who committed tax evasion. (^^;)