Leaving TIAS

We've decided that after a six month trial at TIAS to admit defeat, pick up our marbles and leave. A single sale in January can't justify the monthly fee that we're charged; the company doesn't seem to be seller-oriented in their support (just read about my recent experience with them trying to process credit card transactions as an example); and their cloodgey, clumsy search engine that prevents getting a good result a couple of times a day means that even if someone ever found us on the World Wide Web in the first place, they can't always get the search engine at the site to work properly. Here's an immediate example of how they aren't oriented towards serving their dealers - I sent them a message yesterday afternoon about terminating our service with them, and here it is, the next day, and I have yet to receive an acknowledgment or reply from them. It really says it all. On the Information Highway, TIAS has been a Dead End for Time Travelers!

I'm feeling defeated by this decision, but at the same time, greatly relieved. It was so disheartening to check my emails every day and NOT see any orders. It was discouraging to write press releases twice a week, only to have them swamped amongst the scores of others on the TIAS site within hours. It's really, really hard work to take good product photographs and write the appropriate copy, only to have it sit unread and unseen in your store. I've learned how to take great pictures! And I'll continue to post my best ones here for people to enjoy.

The reality is that our antiques and collectibles business is quite successful - the shows that we've been doing have been getting better and better with each time out, as we refine our product selection and learn our customers' wants and needs. This after only 4 months of doing shows. It makes sense to cut back spending money where it's not being used wisely, and concentrating more on the areas where we are doing well.

Upcoming for Time Travelers: Memorial Day weekend we'll be close to home at the Sun, Sand and Swing event at our very own Treasure Island. Right on the beach! Music! Food! (I wonder if we'll sell anything??!!) We'll just have to see.

The last weekend in May we'll be doing a one day show in Arcadia, Florida - surely the last outdoor one of the season!! This is a regular event that gets great reviews from all the dealers we've spoken with.

Gainesville was Bloomin'

OK, so I obviously don't know anything about the economy - it would seem that people are perfectly willing to spend small amounts of money on antiques and collectibles (in Gainesville). It was a lovely show, well attended and promoted, with a good number of vendors, though not as many as we had hoped to see. The show was situated in an outdoor shopping area, like a cluster of small buildings, with covered walkways and park areas that connected them. On Friday and Saturday, the shopping center itself is a busy place and so there were plenty of people coming and going, and we had lots of ambient traffic. Sunday, however, was a different story; all but a handful of the stores were closed, and even though there were signs on the street directing traffic to the show, it was very lightly attended - a real disappointment.

But, having said that, it was our best show ever. It also had our highest cost to us, given the 2 1/2 hour drive to get to it (the gas prices are only getting higher and higher, and we paid $3.66 a gallon to fill our minivan's tank); and we had to pay for one of the two nights' stay in a hotel, the first being covered by Bob's hotel points that he'd accrued. Throw in the cost of eating out versus being able to dine at home, and you can see that it's a different kettle of fish to do these out of town shows - they pretty much HAVE to be lucrative, or you'll be hundreds of dollars in the hole. If the weather had turned, as it threatened, then it would have been a bust. So, we were lucky, very lucky.

We got to talking to some other dealers who do this as their full time jobs, and got some more insight as to how people keep their costs down. Tips on where to find new stock (we should be looking at more flea markets, which abound in our area), and were warned away from certain auctions, which advice we took with a grain of salt, since we already keep our bids at the lowest end and drop out early if they climb too high. We're also fortunate to have so many garage and estate sales constantly going on where we live - there really isn't ever a time when we're strapped for places to find more items for inventory.

OK, whacked out story of the show: one couple, who sleep in their van during the show so they save money on hotels. Um, toilet requirements? They keep a piss pot in the vehicle, and empty it sometime (somewhere? I was afraid to ask) during the day. She claims to wash her hair using a particular brand of baby wipes; uses the same as a sponge bath for her body. I'm afraid that my eyes glassed over in horror as the stories went on - we shared a table at a restaurant for dinner one night - their one extravagance during the shows. It was a view of a lifestyle that neither Bob nor I have any desire to sample, and we did get kind of quiet talking with them after that admission from them. Baby wipes. Hmm.

Things of note at this show - nobody paid with high value notes ($50 or $100 bills) - more checks were written. It was the first show where we offered the option of payment by credit card, and we made several sales because of it (though I don't think it was ever a deal-breaker). Still trying to figure out how to process those sales through the TIAS website, which is an enormous worry for me at the moment. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night, worrying about this very issue.

(I am less than impressed overall with TIAS - from their twice daily reindexing of their database which prevents someone from getting a good search result. You type in an item that you're looking for, and the search results in garbage! Reply heard back from the CEO is, "Too bad!" Nice! Thanks for answering! And I haven't done any credit card processing until now because I was a bit afraid about how to go about putting the transactions through the site. Lo and behold, last night I tried to do the first one using the manual transaction slip from the sale, and the TIAS site is asking for the customer's billing and shipping information. Well, I don't know about anyone else, but if I'm paying for anything "live" with my credit card (as opposed to on the internet), all I expect to do is give my card and MAYBE my phone number to the merchant. I would never think of supplying my address in order to make a simple transaction - it defeats the whole purpose of the convenience of offering credit card sales. You can see that I'm quite upset that I might have lost all this revenue, and I hope that TIAS will surprise me with a happy answer back this time. Not expecting it!)

So, what sold at this show? Most everything - jewelry, again - low priced, nice costume jewelry pieces. Nothing precious or high end - and we can't keep enough of it in stock. Have now sold out of the menus from the S.S. Normandy that we acquired from Mort and Anita Trautman's cruise. Books. Glass. Teapots. Teacups. A McCoy string holder. A monkey bank (people love animal shapes!). Some silver plate. It was a well-rounded show.

Here are some pictures of our booth at the show. A photographer from the Gainesville Sun newspaper came by on Sunday morning to take some photos of us, and said that we'll be in Thursday's edition. If we show up, I'll link to the edition!