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Post by HankRocks on Feb 24, 2024 6:49:12 GMT -5
If anyone in the Houston area is interested, the Clear Lake Club is having their annual Gem and Mineral Show today Feb 24th 10am to 6pm and Sunday Feb 25th 10am to 5pm. I have a booth there under Minerals at the Pavillion. Weather is good, lots of good Vendors setting up yesterday. We are on the center aisle, end booth on the left.
Henry,
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Post by liveoak on Feb 24, 2024 7:41:29 GMT -5
Good Luck at your show
Patty
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Post by jasoninsd on Feb 24, 2024 8:40:42 GMT -5
Good luck at the show Henry!
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 24, 2024 18:08:01 GMT -5
Hope you're selling lots of rocks, Henry!
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,733
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Post by khara on Feb 24, 2024 19:12:58 GMT -5
Sounds fun, wish I were closer! Good luck for lots of sales and nice people!
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dillonf
fully equipped rock polisher
Hounding and tumbling
Member since February 2022
Posts: 1,595
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Post by dillonf on Feb 24, 2024 22:24:31 GMT -5
Good luck.
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 25, 2024 6:49:12 GMT -5
Good first day, sales exceeded last years first day numbers by a bit. Petrified wood sold well, large polished slabs, geodes including a large Dugway pair. Will do a rough breakdown later this week. Slabs were a bust, 3 sold out of about 250 brought, will go to plan B for selling them.
I think having material that I cut and polished, and in a lot of cases collected myself, and being able to offer material that spans a wide price range helps distinguish me from most other vendors.
Will report on Monday and see how the weekend went. One thing for sure these Shows are an endurance contest. Every rock I bring and take back home gets moved at least 6 times, and in some case more. That's about 5 to 6 hundred pounds times 6!. That and talking all day on top of driving about 350 miles in 3 days. Saw several vendors late yesterday looking a bit worse for wear.
Henry
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khara
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2022
Posts: 1,733
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Post by khara on Feb 25, 2024 7:08:47 GMT -5
Hope you can get some sleep, or already did. Surprised about the low interest in slabs. That’d be my first look!
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 25, 2024 7:23:12 GMT -5
Hope you can get some sleep, or already did. Surprised about the low interest in slabs. That’d be my first look! I plan on moving the slabs to a more visible spot on the tables, we shall see. If I can get 5 to 6 hours of sleep I am good to go. Been doing that for 50 years. Plus I am a non-caffeine guy, so a cup of caffeine tea and some dark chocolate almonds thru the day is enough to to keep me going strong. As long as I remember to shut those down about 5:00 in the evening.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 25, 2024 7:25:24 GMT -5
Henry do you take everything home and bring it back every day? Shows are exhausting. We only did a couple a year, but our club show is a 3 day show. Luckily it is in an event center that has security at night, so we would only take home the loose opal trays every night. Everything else just got left on our tables and covered with sheets. Setting up and tearing down is the worst part of it all in my book. Sorry the slabs weren't selling. It's interesting how what sells well changes from year to year and show to show.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,658
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Post by Tommy on Feb 26, 2024 12:14:07 GMT -5
Henry do you take everything home and bring it back every day? Shows are exhausting. We only did a couple a year, but our club show is a 3 day show. Luckily it is in an event center that has security at night, so we would only take home the loose opal trays every night. Everything else just got left on our tables and covered with sheets. Setting up and tearing down is the worst part of it all in my book. I had the same question... I guess I've always assumed show vendors left their tables as they were and the hall was locked down at night. That would be exhausting moving everything that many times.
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Post by drocknut on Feb 26, 2024 12:39:16 GMT -5
Hope the show went well. It sure would be exhausting having to move that amount of rock more than a few times.
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Post by HankRocks on Feb 26, 2024 13:59:35 GMT -5
The show is Indoors at the Pasadena Convention Center so setup Friday and break it all down and pack up and load up Sunday at 5:00pm. The city of Pasadena has a Police Officer working security. The facility has started an expansion so not sure how all that will affect the next couple years or affect the pricing. One thing about the facility they really cannot squeeze another row of booth space in so the aisles are very adequate. I think they have 42 to 45 vendors.
I managed to net $33 more than last year. Polished Petrified Wood pieces were the top money winner followed by Geodes which have been languishing the past 3 or 4 years. Arkansas Quartz crystals fell to 4th on the money list. The 3 large face polished deep blue Sodalite slabs sold. They were the first thing folks noticed on that table. I will spend some time cutting and polishing the rest of the one piece I have, probably get an additional 5 or 6 thick slabs to go with the 3 I still have un-polished. Also managed to sell 4 spheres.
Did not add it up, but I suspect that 25% of my sales were to Vendors. Not sure if that means my prices are too low, or my stuff is that good, lets go with low prices. I do get compliments on the shine on all of my tumbles. I have(was) volunteered to give a presentation on rock tumbling at one of the Clear Lake Club meetings this summer. Apparently my Quartz digging presentation last year was a hit. Will definitely reference the forum.
Almost finished unloading and putting the garage back in some sort of order. Have 3 Model B's that need tending today and need to start a new load on the vibe Lap that has a larger piece of wood to be done. One of the Model B's has 30 larger slabs going to soap after polish, will get some pictures of them posted.
Sleep and rest is over-rated!!!
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