Well, there's bad news, good news, and interesting news.
First the bad news. The Canyon show was a horrible event. Worst one I've ever had; worst one Russ has had since before I moved here. Our total gross sales for the weekend were less than $200. We didn't even make our booth cost, let alone begin to cover travel costs. My sales for the weekend were one pair of earrings and one fabric pouch, for a total of $19.
It wasn't the promoters' fault. They had done their jobs; it was just that people stayed away in droves. Customers came thru desultorily at the rate of some 10 or 12 an hour. A few people were getting decent sales, mostly those with food items or "country crafts" stuff. And yes, there was a fair amount of Blue Goose stuff, and yes, there were a couple of people selling cheap imported jewelry (but they weren't doing any better than I was).
Speculation was to the effect that "people from here will support events in Amarillo, but people from Amarillo won't support events here," which makes some sense. Also, the date of this event was originally supposed to be a month ago but they were moved by the facility -- and there's another event, by the same promoter, in Amarillo in two weeks. (Amarillo is about a 20-minute drive from Canyon.) The promoter said that this was the second event to bomb in Canyon, and they wouldn't be trying for a third one. This actually raised my respect for them considerably; they don't believe in flogging dead horses.
In fact, based on recommendations from 3 or 4 of the other vendors who regularly work this promoter's events, we actually signed up for the one in Amarillo. This is going to throw me into "panic production" mode for the next week or so! But we're told that it's a very good show, which has been going for a while and gets a good crowd and lots of people looking to buy things.
The interesting news is that we were both approached, at the show, by someone who recently opened a crafts / antiques shop in Amarillo and was trying to recruit exhibitors. Russ placed a bumper sticker rack with him -- actually, it was the one we had up at the show, we just transported it loaded and set it up in its new home. (This means we get to break in a new rack, one which doesn't tangle like mating octopi as you try to get it out of the box -- yay!) And I'm thinking seriously about putting some jewelry in there on consignment. But I have two weeks to think about it, since I certainly won't part with anything until after the Amarillo show. He doesn't have much in the way of jewelry yet, and mine (frankly) would be of higher quality than what's in his shop now. So it could be a win-win.
Now the good news. When we checked the post boxes on the way home, I had a package that looked beady. I couldn't imagine what it was; as far as I knew I was all caught up on auction merchandise, and those would have been coming to the house anyhow. So I opened it... and it was a BFNR, my very first ever! It's a nice lampwork bead from Lori Greenberg, at the behest of Margie according to the accompanying letter. Thank you so much, guys! I really needed something like that after the weekend we had.
Last but not least, the question. For those of you who have done consignment sales in the past or present, what's the standard commission rate? This guy in Amarillo wants 25%, which I think is a little high; he indicated that he'd be willing to come down to 20% if I could demonstrate that to be a more realistic rate. E-mail copies of replies to this would be appreciated, so that I can print them out for him to look at. I already have a copy of a standard consignment contract (courtesy of someone here a year ago, I can't recall who), but it leaves the rate as a blank to be negotiated between the artist and the shop owner.
Celine