I had my final two November craft fairs on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 18. As I've already written a couple craft fair posts this fall, I decided to wait and post about both shows together. Interestingly enough they were respectively my best and worst shows in terms of sales for the fall season so you get something of a comparison here.
This was the November 10 show. I have gotten really comfortable with my 2012 open square layout.
After my back to back November 3 and 4 shows during which I sold only a handful of button magnets, I had a wake up call that I needed to change something. During 2010 and 2011, they had their own display. When I started making glass magnets, I put them on the same display. I didn't think much of it, but it has definitely affected the button magnet sales. So I revamped part of my display for these two shows.
I've been planning to package my glass and bottle cap magnets like this forever and finally got around to putting some packages together and put them in their own display. I still have smaller sets as well in close proximity, as you can see
here. A lot of people don't get that these are magnets when they are in sets as opposed to on the dry erase board display. I need to create some better signage for magnets my 2013 shows. With that aside, people still liked the packages, and I have sold a handful of the small and large sets.
In past years, I have had a much fuller button display and did again for the 18th show. This is what I had this weekend. I sold all but 15 or so of this selection.
My small items have done well this year, and I restocked pins and rings for this show. Most of what you see here sold during the day so I did some major restocking before the 18th.
In order to give the magnets packages their own display, I rearranged some of my jewelry. I am deeply conflicted about how much higher end jewelry I want to display for my 2013 shows. I don't want to cheapen my entire display and not showcase some of my jewelry making skills, but the bottom line is that I sell a very small amount of pieces at shows that are $35 or more. I don't see that changing any time soon. I think that it would be more beneficial to expand and showcase some of my less expensive ($10-$25) lines. I'd appreciate thoughts on this.
I have done this show the past two years and was excited to be back again. As I previously mentioned, it was my best show to date for the fall. We had steady traffic all but the final hour of the show, and I had a handful of people give me positive feedback about items the items that they purchased from me last year. All of the revamping for small items paid off and most of them did well at this show. I sold a decent number of larger items, too.
Having such a good show put me in high spirits for my November 18 show.
For those who wonder why my banner photos are never in the same arrangement, thanks to Velcro dots, they are removable. I simply take off the photos before I roll up my banner after each show. I don't have a set arrangement so it constantly changes.
My new friend Steve also vended at this show. At the last minute we were able to talk our way into neighboring booths.
Ironically enough, the other show that we had vended together at this fall was also one of our worst. It is always nice to have good company at shows, but it is especially nice when sales are terrible. The short of this show was that it was primarily filled with older clientele shopping from older clientele. A couple other 20 and 30 something vendors came over to us during the show to commiserate.
Meanwhile, since we didn't have a lot of sales, particularly in the afternoon, we had more time than usual for taking pictures.
It's been frustrating to have such a mixed bag of shows this year, but I have to keep reminding myself that I'm still very new to the Milwaukee scene. I have had some good shows that will be worth repeating next year and can add recommendations from fellow vendors. Hopefully each year I can keep taking it up another notch.
The other mixed blessing of not having a lot of sales is that I'm already well stocked for my final 2012 show, which will be in early December. I am looking forward to not spending time gluing lots of small ticket items during this holiday week.
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