[Gary]

Noting that Warley picked up a score of 3/10 elsewhere for show bargains it has made me wonder what constitutes a show bargain.

The days of being offered pacific locos for £50 seem to have gone.

To those of you who are regular show junkies what are your expectations of show bargains?

Dynamis for £70 seemed like a Warley bargain to me however all the other traders who had Dynamis were offering it at list (1p above list in one case!) or as near to list as makes no difference. This might explain why there was still Dynamis on sale at the show end.

The lowest priced Hornby 4-6-0 was £63. Have you seen better?

I expect small traders to each have a stoncking show bargain to draw crowds to their stand. If they did it they very badly promoted. Where were all the dayglow banners? The Americans have a reputation for being very good at this yet where was the big splash on the Digitrax stand or any of the American HO trade stands?

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (Gary @ 3 Dec 2007, 23:47) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Noting that Warley picked up a score of 3/10 elsewhere for show bargains it has made me wonder what constitutes a show bargain.

The days of being offered pacific locos for £50 seem to have gone.

To those of you who are regular show junkies what are your expectations of show bargains?

Dynamis for £70 seemed like a Warley bargain to me however all the other traders who had Dynamis were offering it at list (1p above list in one case!) or as near to list as makes no difference. This might explain why there was still Dynamis on sale at the show end.

The lowest priced Hornby 4-6-0 was £63. Have you seen better?

I expect small traders to each have a stoncking show bargain to draw crowds to their stand. If they did it they very badly promoted. Where were all the dayglow banners? The Americans have a reputation for being very good at this yet where was the big splash on the Digitrax stand or any of the American HO trade stands?

Happy modelling
Gary

Sorry - Finger trouble yet again.

Gary, I think that if Mfrs and Resellers are holding price and concentrating on showcasing themselves and their products then its a mark of respect for the show - in otherwords, they see the chance to strut their stuff product wise as the key reason for attending.

Certainly smaller traders should take advantage of a chance top maximise results but consider this:

***The cost of attendance is relatively high (stand costs at Warley really are at a limit for many, and expenses are far from little)
***Traders MUST make good margins to ensure that they have enough in the till to justify attendance....
***They can't discount therefore unless they get a real deal from the distributors
***Distributors are perhaps now seeing the show as a presentation, not a big carpark or boot sale so they don't offer the deals for sale at Warley as it'll dilute their primary marketing intent.

Perhaps its time to either reconsider what kind of show Warley really is so to speak?

Any significant show needs the main brands very much, needs the layouts to bring the people in and needs the traders to make it a satisfying experience to modellers who feel like failures if there's no good deals or special items to fil ltheir bags with.

The brands will always come, and so will the layouts if properly invited and compensated.... but I do know several of the traders are really wondering if its worth all the hard work and stress for very little real "net-net" profit at the end of the show....

So...to keep the mix right - it might be time to consider giving the retailers a bit of a break cost wise as they are important to the show but not certain of making money from it, and let the "Brands" carry the can.

Just a thought

Anyway - from the reactions I've had on and off list it was generally held to be a good event, so I'd not worry too much what "other" lists say

Richard.

 

[7113]

Surely what constitutes a show bargain is down to what the individual is looking for. An example of this is at a show last year I picked up a Wiking Opel Blitz (Bedford CF in English) minibus for 50p - the previous one I had seen reached about £6.50 ex p&p on Fleabay, to my mind thats a bargain.

Thus I would say that the bargain is something that the individual wants at a price they think is fair, it does not have to be new or even mainstream.

Regards

 

[Gary]

Britho has hit the nail on the head to an extent. Everybody has a different idea of what a bargain is. However Britho's bargain was more of a "find" I suspect than a stonking show offer.

Show offers to me are banner headline jobs of 4 for the price of 3 or 30% discount if you place a show order today. There is no issue for the small trader with stock as he has time to fill show orders taken. A prime example was the guy with the baseboard kit (for me one of the most interesting new ideas at the show!). He had none to sell so why not take show orders anyway and build up 6 months of work filling firm orders with deposits taken?

There was absolutely nothing to stop traders taking orders for stock they did not have. If I had been a trader at the show I would have had a wopping show stopping offer on the Hornby Class 56's for orders placed at the show to be shipped out whenever. Or does the way Hornby now operate prevent this type of spectacle?

All you do as a trader is plan ahead and order 500 Class 56's in advance knowing that you will be appearing at Warley and knowing that your Hornby rep will love you forever.

And what about DCC? Very little by way of offers at all anywhere! Nothing that I could see on the Gaugemaster stand for example. Nothing obvious at Bromsgrove Models. And so on.

Have the days of encouraging show visitors to spend spend spend and shop until you drop gone forever?

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Jennings]

I picked up a Bachmann NSE 108 off the Bachmann returned section at Warley for £40 and the day after spent £20 on some decoders to fit into it, and eventually i ended up with a DCC 108 for a mere £60 which runs like a dream (With full lighting as well). I would class that as a bargain considering modelzone are selling the 108 on its own for £80 and it doesn't have DCC.

 

[dwb]

Like BritHO I think I would be looking for something that has eluded me in the past, probably Bachmann Mk 1 coaches in Blood & Custard with eastern region running numbers I haven't already got.

I did pick up three books from Booklaw for a shade over £20

Great Northern Railways - Engine Sheds: 3 - Yorkshire & Lancashire
Great Provincial Stations - Leeds Termini (This was full price

LNER Lines in the Yorkshire Ridings

The back cover total price for those three was £47.97.

I resisted the temptation to buy a couple of Booklaws colour photo books at 25% off, normal retail £23.99.

You can expect information gleaned from these books to inform my future contributions. That reminds me I have a small correction to make elsewhere....

As for placing orders, we placed one for a class 66 sound decoder because the 21 pin versions had sold out.

David

 

[80class]

Right at the death on sunday I did manage to pick up a nice j39 from the returned stock pile for £22.50. Its in perfect condition and runs very well. For me thats a great deal, even if i do plan on stripping it to concert it to an Irish J15 some day...

 

[ME 26-06]

Bargain is the approximation of "want to have" and "don´t want to pair with money".

 

[ozwarrior]

Whilst traders have to make a profit I would have thought that some items listed as show specials are in keeping with the spirit of shows. If I see a trader with everything at retail I just keep on going. And I'm not from Yorkshire either!

 

[Brian Considine]

Just a thought ;

How many people who never pay retail/insist on discount, work in a trade/proffession/business that never gives anything off themselves ?

 

[bike2steam]

Wow guys, spare a thought, the cost of a pitch at Warley is horrendous, how are retailers gonna make it pay?????????????
Paul M.

 

[7113]

QUOTE (bike2steam @ 4 Dec 2007, 10:19) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Wow guys, spare a thought, the cost of a pitch at Warley is horrendous, how are retailers gonna make it pay?????????????

A very valid point and one that has been made elsewhere.

Regards

 

[Ravenser]

Surely the point with the small traders is that you only get to see them in the flesh once or twice a year. It's the opportunity to buy that specialist item they carry.

Big shows mean big public venues , big bills for the organiser , and therefore relatively high stand charges. It's difficult enough getting the small traders to big shows in the first place without trying to slash their revenue as well . It's sobering to see the list of traders who decided to go to the GOG event in Reading instead of Warley , and I'm sure the Warley show management team will be anxious not to do anything which might make the numbers for a trader at the NEC look worse

 

[Gary]

QUOTE Surely the point with the small traders is that you only get to see them in the flesh once or twice a year. It's the opportunity to buy that specialist item they carry.

And its a marketing opportunity lost with 15000-20000 walking straight past your stand. Many small traders were so low key and just sitting watching folk walk past. I'm sorry but this doesn't do it for me. I need to be drawn in and those who were sitting down could have been doing demos or other things to create interest and sales. Society stands were similarly static. Come on folks. Lets put more life into it!

Mr Hafix glue man is one example of somebody who was selling at list because he had a crowd watching his demo.

That forest in a box thing. 100's of boxes could have been sold if the stand had been doing a demo of what was possible. And there were some great backscenes for £10 but could anybody see them? Again a demo giving ideas of the possibilities with these backscenes would have sold 100's!

If you are not going to offer an obvious stonking bargain then do a demo instead! Stop people walking past and tell them to wait for 5 minutes as the demo is about to start. As a crowd forms more will be drawn in. At the end of the demo you reveal your show offer!

The bottom line is traders need to be more active rather than passive.

Showmanship as it applies to exhibitors also applies to traders.

I am going to suggest that next year the demonstrators are plonked right next to trade stands where you can buy the materials, etc, being demonstrated!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[7113]

QUOTE (Gary @ 4 Dec 2007, 15:36) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That forest in a box thing. 100's of boxes could have been sold if the stand had been doing a demo of what was possible.

A good idea Gary, but do you realise how much space hundreds of boxes of "forest in a box" takes up? (not to mention actually transporting it)

Regards

 

[Brian Considine]

As a trader I prefer arrangements where traders, exhibits & demonstrators are mixed in together. I have often seen shows where people simply walk past the trade stands when they are bunched together - this way everyone loses.

Incidenty, in our own experience products like "Forest in a Box" do not tend to sell well at exhibitions - they are bulky & easy to damage, not the best sort of item to be clutching on the way out. (They are an exceptionally good value item though),

 

[Gary]

QUOTE As a trader I prefer arrangements where traders, exhibits & demonstrators are mixed in together

That is a sensible arrangement for both traders, demonstrators, exhibits and visitors. If there was a good exhibit and nearby a demonstrator showing you how to do part of that exhibit and next door to the demonstrator a trader selling the stuff being used by the demonstrater that seems perfect! What I was being told over the weekend by the demonstrators was that so and so was available on a stand 100m away. Sorry but the impulse to buy was lost by the time I'd walked that 100m.

QUOTE A good idea Gary, but do you realise how much space hundreds of boxes of "forest in a box" takes up? (not to mention actually transporting it)

What is the betting that if there was a vanload of "Forest in a Box" and that was the one product on the stand and thats all that the trader sold over the weekend with demos etc they would have been very successful! 500 sales of "Forest in a Box" would have made for a very successful weekend for any trader!

The BIG mistake traders make at shows is that they bring along a load of stuff in small quantities that does not sell rather than limited stuff in large quantities that will sell!

Try it and see!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Gary @ 4 Dec 2007, 17:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>What is the betting that if there was a vanload of "Forest in a Box" and that was the one product on the stand and thats all that the trader sold over the weekend with demos etc they would have been very successful! 500 sales of "Forest in a Box" would have made for a very successful weekend for any trader!
Try it and see!

Those figures just do not add up at all Gary.

Working on the assumption (probably wrong, but I would like some confirmation) of a 6' stand, with no electrical supply, table or chairs of £200 & travel of around 100 miles you would be lucky to make £300 if you sold 500 boxes - not what I would call "a very successful weekend" as you would need to tie at least 2 people up for about 3 days. The only thing I'm not certain of is the stand costs - as we import scenics I do have actual figures to hand.

Why don't you try it Gary ?

 

[Martin71]

Are the margins really that tight....hmmm just doesn't seem worth it. I was not interested when in manufacturing in a customers job if I didn't make at least 80 gp and that was for high volume.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Martin71 @ 5 Dec 2007, 09:33) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Are the margins really that tight....hmmm just doesn't seem worth it. I was not interested when in manufacturing in a customers job if I didn't make at least 80 gp and that was for high volume.

For the "non box shifter" they are for most products.

It's just as well I do not depend on Euroscalemodels for my main income !