LA Pen Show, pics

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PenWorks

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Aug 18, 2004
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Scottsdale, AZ
Just getting back into my groove from the LA Pen Show. It was the best show in 5 years. :) All the vendors I spoke with did very well. Brian & Mark Gisi were there with their ussual display of outragous beautifull pens, as were a couple other turners. I know Nick from Scottsdale had a table. I met Steve from IAP and Pen Man and his wife stopped by. It seems I was busy everyday and had little time to go around to visit & shop, the only thing I came back with was a Vintage Wahl wood grain ebonite desk set. [:p] So here are a couple of pics from the show.



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My 2 table display


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I brought other stuff besides pens, ink, paper, nibs & stuff


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My Pen rep for Stipula and my honey were my helpers.


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I showed the Curtiss & Loiminchay lines as well.


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A we bit nervous having $60,000 in 6 pens on my table


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Besides the big main ballroon, I am outside in the lobby, this was the calm before the storm.


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Sunday's crowd is bumper to bumper most of the day


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Sailor display, they have a few new pens coming out


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Conway Stewart display

Well that's about it, can't wait till next year. Makes me want to do the DC & Chicago shows now. ;)

PS. I owe Virgil a thank you, he sent me a referral who came by and bought a pen :) And last, I know all you guys read Oprah magazine :D but I had one of my pieces in the Febuary issue.
 
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Wow Anthony, thanks for the pictures, I enjoy seeing them every year. Your display looks great and I'm glad you had a good show. Someday LOML and I will get there.
 
Ditto what Becca said. I really enjoy viewing your pictures of the show and I really enjoy looking at your display and inventory. Congrats. on the show!
 
Thanks for the pics. Come to DC. You may not sell many pens, but you'll meet a bunch of fine folks from the east.
 
Anthony really nice setup. How was the show compared to last year?(Sales up/down) Just wondering. Philly was off by about 20 -30% again nothing new being right after the holidays.
 
Seems the closer you get to our nation's capital, the worse they believe the economy is. Glad to hear LA is still out "spending their money"!!!
 
Alan, my sales were up about 40% from last year's show. Howard Bexley brought up a good point about the LA show. You guys have a bunch of shows, Philly, DC, Chicago, NY, Ohio. When you get west of the Mississippi, how many really big shows are there? So the LA is ussually well attended with buyers coming from many states. I had 4 customers from the Phoenix area. that had no idea I had a store near them. I met about half a dozen from Tucson alone. So if you are traveling from another state, you have intentions on spending money, instead of being a looky Lou. Also another thing that helped (I think) the Hotel was packed. there was a PEZ convention going on and several soccer teams were also in the hotel. If you though PEN heads were weird, you ought to meet some PEZ heads :D They had the right idea on how to sell. I was on the 3rd floor with them. They had about 20 rooms in a row and they turned their rooms into stores, you just wondered the hall way going in and out of rooms, signs all over the place covering the hallways and doors. They have 4 such conventions a year. Another thing that helped, I had items from 5.00 and up, so I was able to pull in a slightly larger range of shoppers.
 
Originally posted by alamocdc

But hows come 'nuther guy is huggin' on yer Honey? I'd never allow such a thing.[}:)];)
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Billy, as long as he's buying dinner every night and helping sell my product, he can hug whoever he wants :)
 
Anthony!

Thanks for the pictures! This is probably as close as many of us will ever come to attending a pen show. So I really appreciate seeing what goes on. I didn't realize you were selling Curtis and Lominchay. What do you think of the Curtis pens, overall?

Thanks again!

Scott.
 
Hey Anthony, conrats on a great show! Looks like you brought some very nice stuff there. I told Amy about it and she said maybe we'll head there next year and take a vacation in. If we do, I'll be your pack horse, it looks like you need one![:0]
 
Originally posted by Scott

What do you think of the Curtis pens, overall?

Scott.
Click to expand...

I think Curtiss is doing some of the nicest silver work out there. Nice castinggs and hand work. I dis-like their use of the smaller front sections and small nibs. Also, the price point is a little high. The large Loiminchay pens are amazing, but really out of reach for 99.9% of buyers. I did sell a Mini Qian,
 
Originally posted by Tanner

If we do, I'll be your pack horse, it looks like you need one![:0]
Click to expand...

Tim, I could not have found room to fit one more pen into the pen mobile when we left :D Took 2 full cart loads to haul the stuff back and forth to the room every night.
 
Anthony thanks for the report back. Yes on the east coast we have a lot of shows. The one good outcome from the Philly show was to get my name out. A 40% gain over last year is great. I know the economy is not the greatest but I also have been through when it was much worse.
I mainstream media has been scaring the people out there. I am doing Atlanta and hopefully our sales will be up. Again thanks for reporting back and great job on the show.

Alan
 
Alan, getting your name out there is important. I noticed my sales increased every year because I get the same customers buying from me from the past year and the referrals from them. It is just like addvertising, your first couple adds do not do much, but when they start seeing you every year, it finally starts to click. Good luck in Atlanta.
 
This was the first show I attended - it helped focus my thinking on what collectors value. It was great to meet some fellow turners. Anthony didn't leave with too much of my money (but LOML might think differently if she sees the bill!)

My favorite overheard quote from one of the big companies, "We only use precious woods in these pens." Must be some new definition of "precious" that I haven't encountered before. Compared to what goes on here, they have no idea!

Steve
 
Can you believe it? The only Oprah magazine Amy doesn't have is that February one. Anthony, which of your pens was in the magazine? Congrats on getting one of your pens in Oprah's magazine!!!!
 
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