Jan and John Maggs Antiques

The Pier or Not the Pier?

Reflections on The Greater Boston Antiques Festival

Irene Stella’s Americana at the Piers has earned its place as one of the major events of January Americana Week in New York City. Held in the west side passenger terminals, the show attracts thousands of buyers from the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

We first exhibited at The Pier Show in January 2001, and had the best show in our business history up to that point. The events of the following September diminished our enthusiasm for visiting New York and were a major factor in our decision not to return the following January.

Late in 2006 we decided that it was time for us to reconsider this decision. When we saw Irene Stella at a show at which we were exhibiting, we asked her if we might return. Within a few days we had a contract in hand and had sent it off. To reduce expenses, we rented a sixteen-foot booth, without walls, planning to use the hand-planed, beaded-board walls we had built for the Pier in 2001 and had used many times in the intervening years.

On the Friday preceding the show we towed our trailer to New York, set up our booth, endured the usual hassles of exhibiting at the Piers, and stayed in one of the worst hotel rooms in memory. But by the end of the show on Sunday we had doubled our 2001 sales total. Once again Americana at the Piers was our best show ever.

In mid-September of 2007 we received a communication from Irene Stella informing us that, because of construction overruns and scheduling difficulties, Americana at the Piers had been canceled for 2008. Other dealers who have regularly exhibited at the show were as distraught as we were. We were not the only dealers for whom the Manhattan venue was especially lucrative. What should we do?

We knew that none of the other New York shows were right for us. Even if we were to be invited, booth rents at the other shows are significantly higher than our rent at the pier, and we were not likely to have sufficient inventory at the higher level, without which we could never justify the expense.

Instead, we looked to the east and Boston. Our 2008 schedule had only one show in Eastern Massachusetts, Paul Davis’ Concord Armory show in February. Marvin Getman's Greater Boston Antiques Festival was the stepchild of a great two-day show run by Davis and Getman several years ago in Methuen, MA. The Methuen show happened only once, since the venue - a large vacant shopping mall - was torn down soon afterward. The two promoters ultimately went their separate ways and Marvin establish this show in Wilmington. We corresponded with Marvin and rented an 20' x 10' booth, without walls, to which we would bring our New York beaded ones.

Our Wilmington booth - January 2008

Our booth location was perfect. On an outside wall of the Shriner’s Auditorium, it was both easy for shoppers to identify and find, and next to a large loading door, making load-in and pack-out easy and efficient.

As expected, Marvin's aggressive advertising brought thousands of shoppers. By the end of the day on Sunday, we felt that we had enjoyed a successful show. Not only were our sales better than adequate, we had handed out many business cards and spoken with scores of prospective new buyers, and we had bought two very good pieces on the floor during setup - something we've never been able to do at the Pier. On the heels of such success, we decided to reevaluate our participation in the pier show, should it recur in 2009.

On the plus side were record-setting sales in 2001 and 2007 and the prestige of exhibiting in New York City. The list of negatives was somewhat longer. First, there was the added expense of exhibiting in New York: a higher booth rent, four nights in a hotel at New York prices, tips for porters required by the facility, taxis, meals, and increased mileage and tolls. Second, exhibiting at the Piers involves what is by far the most difficult setup and strike of any show we’ve ever done. Not only are dealers required to use longshoremen as porters, the long waits for elevators and porters turned a setup that should have taken three to four hours into an eight hour task. Breakdown at the end of the show was even worse. On the advice of fellow dealers we left the Pier at the close of the show and ate dinner at a pub across the street. We returned after dinner, struck our booth, packed our van and trailer, and then, since it was already after 10 p.m., returned to our hotel for a fourth night.

In contrast, leaving the greater Boston show involved exiting through the large loading door adjacent to our booth and packing our van, which was located less than 20 feet away. The show closed at 4 p.m., and we were on our way home by 5:15.

One final factor needed to be considered. In both of our New York City shows, our success was largely a consequence of one major purchase, comprising roughly half of our gross for each show. Without these large sales, our gross for the Pier would have been far less spectacular.

It took us only a day or two to make our decision. While there are no certainties in this business, we've decided that, given the number of eager buyers who come to Wilmington and the financial risk and emotional strain of the Pier, we're just as likely to have a great show in Wilmington as we are to have a poor show in New York. We will exhibit at the Greater Boston Antiques Festival in 2009.

Click the picture to return to this month's newsletter.