Jan and John Maggs Antiques

Sticking it out 'til the end

We exhibit at a lot of shows. When things are going well, you wish it would last forever; when they're not, dealers count the hours and minutes until closing. Although the urge to pack up and go home as soon as things slow down can be strong, most dealers honor the terms of their contract and stick it out to the bitter end. After all, customers pay an admission fee and often travel a distance to attend the show; it's grossly unfair to them not to be open as usual. Less obvious, but no less important, is the sight of dealers packing their things during show hours, which is quite deflating to the prospective buyer and consequently detrimntal to the business of other dealers. The pros stay in their booths, engage shoppers, and try to keep a cheerful countenance, regardless of their bottom line.

The events described below both happened since our last newsletter--one in Connecticut, the second in England. We think that they speak to the same issue.

The Rude Neighbors

The first occurred at the Danielson, Connecicut show last month. Perhaps because it's run by a dealer, this little show has just about the most dealer-friendly format in the business: a Friday afternoon setup, and short Saturday hours -- 10:00 to 3:00 -- designed to get everyone home at a reasonable time. At about 2:00 on Saturday, an hour before closing, two dealers set up near us decided to start moving some of their fairly large pieces out to their truck. Unfortunately, the path to their truck required them to walk through our booth, which they proceeded to do. Though they made a valiant effort not to bump into shoppers looking at our things, their presence was both annoying and distracting. When I suggested that they should wait until the show ended, I was met with icy silence. The final half hour of the show was tense, but free of disruption.

A Near Miss

The second incident took place earlier this month at the giant Newark Antiques and Collectibles Fair in Nottinghamshire, England. We were at the fair as buyers, and had been dashing about since morning in an attempt to see the wares of as many of Newark's 8500 dealers as possible. The show was scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m., and at 5:00 we had visited all of the dealers from whom we had bought to pick up and pay for all of the things we had committed to earlier in the day. Our last mission was to be a return to a stall where we had seen an interesting ring in the morning. It was not terribly expensive -- £170 -- but it was quite lovely, had good value, and filled a hole in our inventory.

When we arrived at the dealer's stand, he was just placing the last of about one hundred ring boxes, each closed and with a ring inside, into a large plastic container. Our ring was in one of them.

When we asked to see the ring, he stared at us for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to humor us. Finally, he began to re-open each tiny ring box and place it in his case, much as he had probably done at the beginning of the day. By the time he found the ring -- among the last dozen or so -- his case was nearly full, and he looked open for business again. We inspected the ring and purchased it.

End of story?

Not really. While he was restocking his case, another ring caught the eye of a passing shopper. Before we had left, she had purchased it for £220, a sale that would not have taken place had we not asked for another look at a ring.

The result for the dealer was an additional £390 ($760) for his day's total -- after he had decided to call it a day.

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