Did anybody go to the Paris Show?

I think he meant Paris, Illinois.

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Les Robertson
Custom Knife Entrepreneur

http://www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com
 
Hi Kevin,

Paris France, hell your only a couple hours from there. You should be giving us the report.

A lot of American makers used to do that show. I havent heard a peep about the show. So that is probably an indication that it is slowing down, at least from a US maker attendance point of view. Im sure Valerie and Alan Elishewitz attended.

Actually, I had a very good show in Mesquite.
I expected nothing from the show and was plesently surprised. For me the show was an after thought, the auction was the first priority. In addition to the show I got three more Vanguard projects underway.

Wish you would have stopped by and introduced yourself.

So when you hear about the Paris (France) show let us know.

Tom, how did you know about Paris TN?

I believe there is also a Paris KY.



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Les Robertson
Custom Knife Entrepreneur

http://www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com
 
Hi Les,

glad to hear you had a good show there in Mesquite - you're the only dealer/maker I've heard from who's been even halfway positive. I was disappointed in the attendance. For a 300 seller show there were way too few folks - which is a shame because there were some really super knives and top makers. I would have been in Dallas anyway to see my family, so my expenses were minimal, but I felt bad for the sellers who flew in just for the show.

Do you think having the auction right before the show helped or hurt the show business?

I kept meaning to come by your table and say hello, but by the time I got around to it on Saturday your table was already empty. Alan Elishewitz told me his wife was going in Paris (France that is :-)) for the show there, so maybe I'll email him how it went. I visited the Paris show 3 years ago and it was packed with folks so you couldn't get down the aisles. The Swiss Show was also on the same weekend in Bern but it's a smaller show. Last year in Baden I did that show and was very succesful.

I did go to the Stae Fair of Texas while I was in town and that was pretty cool.


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http://www.wilkins-knives.com
http://www.wilkins.de
 
I have visited the SICAC in Paris on saturday. I got there at about 11.30 and there were lots of people looking at the knives and stuff sold on about 160 tables of knifemakers, suppliers and dealers. Last time i visited the show was 3 years ago and i had the impression that there were even more visitors in 1997. Surprisingly, most of the visitors seemed to leave the show around 14.00 to 15.00 and it was easy to get to any table after that. When i left the show, i had the impression that most makers sat there making long faces. There were lots of knives left on all tables, even on the one's that are normally empty at noon on saturday. Don't get me wrong, that's just my impression. I know 2 makers who were there pretty well and i will ask them and see what they tell me.

Achim
 
Hi Kevin,

I don't think the auction hurt the show. There were only about 70 buyers at the show. About 20 of those were dealers. Many of the others were hard core collectors.

I think the show had several other things working against it.

1) First year of the show
2) The show was open to factory as well as custom knives. A lot of collectors of custom knives will not travel any sort of difference to attend a "flea market". Please note, I have said in other posts that I was pleseantly surprised by the amount of custom knives, about 80% to 20%. With this in mind, attendance should be better next year.

That of course is contingent upon the custom knife makers coming back. If it got to be a 50/50 custom/factory I know, I would not return.

3) The Internet is hurting all shows across the country. As people are no longer forced to wait for shows to buy knives.

4) There are to many shows.

I had a plane to catch on early Saturday afternoon, which is why my table was empty. I didn't want anyone to think I sold out! LOL



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Les Robertson
Custom Knife Entrepreneur

http://www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com
 
Hi Les,

appreciate your views on the Texas Show.

I was impressed with the excellent job of internal organization Bruce Voyles did. I also liked the location and the room. I do think he may have done too much national advertising and not enough regional advertising.

I expect at least 85% of those coming to the show would come from a radius of about 150 miles plus Houston, Austin, Corpus and the Oklahoma City area. I bet there are over 3 million people living in thaese areas. And a lot of them are gun and knife owners, etc.

Several old friends from Dallas who I had invited to come by told me they had seen nothing in the way of ads and I saw only a small ad in the Dallas paper classifieds under "Guns and Sporting Goods". One friend of mine actually had to call the arena and ask when the show started. There was a big Gun show that weekend and they had - as they always do - billboards on the freeway.

I also think the show should be set up Friday and then saturday and sunday, with perhaps some evening hours friday or saturday. People in Dallas shop in the evenings. And they work on friday.

I think a lot folks missed a really great and well done show which they would have attended if they had:
1. known it was there
2. really understood what types of merchandise would be available.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next year.

In the meantime I'm off to do the Frankfurt show on Nov. 4/5 and I'll have a good table of wares for that show ... :-)

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http://www.wilkins-knives.com
http://www.wilkins.de
 
Sorry I'm getting in a little late on this, but felt I should clarify a few things about Mesquite.
1. Local advertising... In the exhibitior packs was a news story that ran in the Dallas Morning News about the show. We ran advertising in 14 local Dallas newspapers. We will be doing more next year, but 70% of the exhibitors surveyed said they thought we did enough advertising.
2. It was a first show, and it does take a while to build.
3. A knife show is not a "flea market" simply because it has vintage knives. There's crossover there and this business is too small for any of us to be too good to set up with other knife people, especially when you consider shows. The two largest shows in the US (and by many people's estimation the best are the Blade Show and Oregon--both have all types of knives at the show)
4. The auction pulled dealers to the show that would not have been there. Les included from his earlier posts.
5. According to the surveys turned in 80% of the exhibitors will be back next year, 19% said they might be back, and one person said for certain they would not be back. These were unsigned surveys, so even with the error factor included most of the exhibitors will be back.
6. The crowd wasn't a good as we would like, but compared with what? It was a first show, so how can the crowd be up or down with nothing to compare it to?
We welcome everyone to our shows, as long as they like knives. If a maker or dealer has poor sales, it could be our fault, it could be the time of year, it could be some people missing the ads, and it could be what the maker is making is the wrong knives for the crowd.
A dozen or so makers sold completely out, others did very well, and some didn't. That's the nature of a knife show.
Bottom line is if you didn't have good sales, if you didn't make some contacts, and the most important thing IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE A GOOD TIME--then you might enjoy another show better.
Where else could you go to a show and see in one day an indoor live pigeon shoot and a live version of "Cops" in the same day?
 
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