Sarasota antique show also a good run!

But wow; doing two shows in two weekends is tough work. Just being outdoors for two full days in a row is enough to send you into exhausted sleep! So Monday is a recovery day for me - Bob, though, is back at the grindstone of his day job.

The Sarasota show was lightly participated in, yet fairly heavily attended. There were only 6 outdoor dealers including ourselves! The fairgrounds are basically a surface of chipped seashells, quite bright to the eyes, and dusty - not the most ideal of conditions. Sunday we brought a shade umbrella with us but it was worrisome as it really wanted to tip over when the breeze picked up; not the best solution (and I never was able to position my chair quite where the shade happened to be either). Seeing as the temperature both days reached 80 degrees, it's clear that being able to produce our own adequate supply of shade is really important.

As to just why the show itself was so sparsely subscribed, it's difficult to say: the promoters are back doing this and the Tampa shows after an absence of five years. Neither show was heavily advertised to the trade, and I understand that one dealer had to drop out due to family health issues. In this regard, we're disappointed. But the public turnout was enthusiastic; the Sarasota folks were ready to shop, and Bob and I were faced with our first rush, as one memorable customer went on a spree, scooping up many pieces of glass. Quite a few items of china were sold as well, satisfying as both of these categories had been largely passed by at the Tampa show.

Which brings me to another subject - what are people going to be attracted to at any given show? It's a mystery. At the Tampa show, jewelry sold well, as did French cruise menus. They were hardly even glanced at during the Sarasota show, where instead, the attractions were glass and china. I did re-merchandise the displays slightly, having determined that grouping items together by type was not helpful, but only pointed out how very much of a certain type of item we had (like, um, a surplus!). Instead, I mixed the glass pieces in with the china, varying the colors and textures, to create some visual interest and contrast. I think that this actually helped a lot... but then maybe it was just the alignment of the stars!

So now my job is to work at restocking our inventory - I'll spend this week at local estate sales (my favorite places to shop) and maybe an auction, to see what new-old treasures are out there. For now we've seen the full circle of the collectibles market - the acquisition, the research, the pricing, and the sale. It can be a surprisingly short cycle - there was one commemorative plate we sold at this show that we'd only just found several weeks ago; other items were those that we acquired in the purchase of the business from last October. I can see, though, that you have to constantly be looking for new stock - which means SHOPPING! Hurray!