El Floppo craft show

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Rifleman1776

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Dec 18, 2004
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Mountain Home, Arkansas, USA.
My church sponsored an Octoberfest today. Beautiful weather, great music and food, good crowd. Sales? Pitiful. Did not sell one pen. Sold one duck call. Did not sell one vase. I did give away a dogwood European with cross clip to the brother of our Pastor, he also a Lutheran Pastor who had his home and church wiped out by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Made a trade with a knifemaker. A deer grunt call and a European walnut and antler pen for a really nice knife. We both think the other guy got 'took', so I guess it was a good trade. Folks are funny at sales. One lady picked up one of my vases made from Osage Orange and said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and would "give anything" to have it. Then she looked at the TEN DOLLAR [:0] price tag and dropped it like it was on fire. Pens got lots of compliments, I'll be taking those to the bank. I dunno problem with the pen thing in my part of the country. Slims were $20.00, Europeans $35 & $45, Barons $45 to $60. I think to sell they should have been $1.00, $2.00 and $3.00 respectively. Oh, well.
 
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coach

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Feb 13, 2005
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Falls City, Texas, USA.
My wife took my pens to a Fall Festival which benefitted my brother's Lutheran camp. Lots of oooos and aaaaahhhs and everyone picked up a card and said they would get in touch with me later. Not one pen sold! Maybe it is us Lutherans? LOL[:D]
 

mrcook4570

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Mar 27, 2005
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4,098
Location
Mason, WV, USA.
I have learned quite a bit from doing various art & craft shows. The biggest lesson that I have learned is to avoid all shows that have anything to do with craft, food, bazaar, or kids. These shows attract the wrong crowd for buying pens. They are generally appreciative of the work, but suffer from sticker shock. The attendees are expecting a flea market and can't understand why any pen could sell for more than $1.

On the other hand, art shows attract people who are expecting high quality work and never even bat an eyelash at a $150 price tag.
 

melogic

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Jul 7, 2004
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Ironton, Ohio, USA.
I agree with Stan. I went to a 2 day show (Friday and Saturday). It was the Kentucky Apple Festival and we had a $900.00 show. This was after all expenses. Of course we were there last year with the same results and had a lot of returning customers this year. But this is a festival that people come to just for the crafts and apple stuff. I also met Tom (Smoky10). Had a great conversation time with him. It is really nice putting a face with a name.
 

Rudy Vey

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Jan 26, 2004
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South Plainfield, NJ, USA.
My last Christmas season was fair to good. My first spring show was very good, and the two after this were total blanks. I have my first fall show in two weeks, and just got the first cancellation letter of a craft show (that was good for me last year) due to lack of vendors and crafters. I hope this is not a sign for the coming season, money seems to be tight anyways, and with the increases in the gas price and the prediction for a very expensive heating season, I can only hope that people will show up for the shows I have booked. We are also have this year a large supply of small bowls, from some free wood I got in the last two years. If not pens, then maybe a small $10-20 bowl will make me some money. I also consider to keep my prices in the lower segment, like $ 20 for a SLimline and $35-40 for Flattops. We'll see.......
 

smoky10

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Aug 17, 2004
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Location
Shepherdsville, Ky, USA.
Frank, I'm sorry you had a bad weekend and maybe it will be better next time.
The Apple Festival that Mark went to was no little neighborhood festival. It takes in the whole mountain region of Ky. People from all over the country come home to this festival. It was nice to meet Mark and his family but customers kept interferring with our conversation.
 
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