St Augustine Antique Show

[kodydog]

Spent 4 days last weekend at the Altusa Clubs 41st antique show. Held at the Mark Lance National Guard Armory in historic St Augustine Fl. This was our second show and first at this location.


Thursday was set up and after 3 hours we were ready to go.


Our main goal was to meet new customers and sell enough merchandise to pay for the booth and maybe walk away with a little cash in our pocket.

Normally when I think of an antique show I think furniture and I found it odd that we were the only booth with furniture as the main theme. The other booths were glass/china, silver ware, jewelry and two booths selling vintage post cards. And of course there were antique tools scattered through out.

Friday morning we were raring to go. My wife sat inside the booth answering questions and I stood outside handing out cards and telling people about our business. Around 10:30 I spied a sight for sore eyes. Mojo's wife is not only pleasing to the eyes but interesting and personable also. Chris ain't half bad himself. Unfortunately they had to get home the next day so our visit was cut short. But I enjoyed the meeting and hope to see them again real soon. We sold a few items including 1910's brass surveyors instrument in original case.

The interesting thing about handing out cards was everybody said St Augustine could use a good upholsterer.

Saturday was a little better in that we sold this chair


We delivered it Sunday morning to a nice historic house. And when we did the lady there asked for estimates on 6 or 7 pieces of furniture. We'll start them in 3 weeks or so.

All in all it was a good experience and the chair paid for the booth. Would we do it again next year? Can't. When we got there the lady running the show said this would be the last one.

In hindsight three questions to ask before entering a show.
1. Will there be many furniture venders there? They should know.
2. What kind of gate traffic have past shows experienced? There were times that got very slow.
3. How many venders do they expect? This one had 18. That seems small to me.
4. How do you advertise. We asked this question and she was vague in the answer. They had no web site which was surprising to me.

[sofadoc]

What is your feeling about having a lot of other furniture vendors there? Do you want them? Or would you rather be the only one?
I did a few shows back in the 80's. It seems like there was always one other furniture guy there, and they put us as far apart as possible.
Sounds like you did pretty good if you got 6 or 7 orders out of it.
When I did mine, I had a nice give-away item that they had to sign up for. They put their name, address, and phone# on an entry blank, and dropped it into a box.
I kept those entry blanks and alphabetized them (there were over 600).
When I got a customer, I would check the entry blanks to see if the job came from that exposure.
I got very little business from the show at first, but business came in steadily over the next 3 or 4 years that matched up to those entry blanks.

So Chris has a hot wife, huh? Man, there's no justice in this world! ;)

[kodydog]

My feelings are if the show was known to have a lot of furniture venders then the people who are looking for that type merchandise would be more likely to come. Across the isle from me were two jewlery merchants right next to each other. I thought that odd but they didn't  seem to mind, they both stayed busy and were very friendly to each other.

We also met two designers who were very interested in our work.

The box idea is a good one. You could also follow up with a mailing several weeks after the show.

As far as Mojo's wife, would you expect anything less from him  :) (good lord I hope she doesn't read this)

[Mike]

So Chris has a hot wife, huh? Man, there's no justice in this world! ;)

she's probly after his money;)

[Mike]

But for the last couple gears I've done boat shows last gear I was in the hospital and befor that had a death in the family. After s couple goylurs of strsgle INS it got s good steady flow about ten to two. Talked to slot of people made apointments for quotes and gave out cards and flyers.
Each year the turnout has gorgon less and fewer dealer also have been going.
I wouldn't go now even if talking wasn't a problem for me.
I did t have anything to sell that paid for the booth so it was alway a good hit for 4 days and I wasn't producing any work either.
But when thebeconomy was good it was good to go