2021 Columbus Show Report and Haul
Aug 16, 2021 16:48:52 GMT -5
fadingdaylight, Ronv69, and 9 more like this
Post by johnlawitzke on Aug 16, 2021 16:48:52 GMT -5
I had a great time at the NASPC Show in Columbus this past weekend. You could tell that this was the first pipe show in quite a while by the larger attendance and the amount of merchandise moving. The new location worked out great. The patio was larger than at the old place and did not feel crowded even with the larger crowd. The hotel bar and restaurant gave much better service than the old place. The ball room is bigger. Even with more vendor tables than before, all the vendors fit into the ballroom versus the old location where the hallway outside the ballroom also had to be used. Also, there are more and better food choices near the hotel than at the old location. I was quite happy to have Waffle House and Skyline Chili nearby as neither of them are in Michigan. I also found a very good mom & pop Vietnamese restaurant nearby. The only downside of the new location is that the bar is not right next to the smoking patio.
I was working at the Paul's Pipe Shop tables. Business was really really good. What we define as an average good show in sales to cover costs and make a small profit was reached in the first 45 minutes! It helped than Dan (owner of Paul's) had bought a HUGE estate cellar five days before the show. Most was priced at the low end of market average and some stuff was priced well below value. We had a good Friday night rush for the first hour to hour and a half with steady sales for the rest of the show. One thing that I noticed is that there was not the usual Saturday morning rush after opening. However, Friday night attendance was up. I think a lot of people that normally would have just come for Saturday came in on Friday since there hasn't been any shows in a while. For the tobacco we had, I had to hold myself back from putting too much aside in my pile under the table. That's hard to do when you're standing behind all the goodness staring at it.
Here are some pics from around the show: (I will make a second post here with my haul)
I was working at the Paul's Pipe Shop tables. Business was really really good. What we define as an average good show in sales to cover costs and make a small profit was reached in the first 45 minutes! It helped than Dan (owner of Paul's) had bought a HUGE estate cellar five days before the show. Most was priced at the low end of market average and some stuff was priced well below value. We had a good Friday night rush for the first hour to hour and a half with steady sales for the rest of the show. One thing that I noticed is that there was not the usual Saturday morning rush after opening. However, Friday night attendance was up. I think a lot of people that normally would have just come for Saturday came in on Friday since there hasn't been any shows in a while. For the tobacco we had, I had to hold myself back from putting too much aside in my pile under the table. That's hard to do when you're standing behind all the goodness staring at it.
Here are some pics from around the show: (I will make a second post here with my haul)
The fifth picture shows what we had out on the table at Paul's. However, we still had a lot more in boxes underneath the table. We put out 4 to 6 tins of everything and then restocked as needed or got out more if someone wanted to buy more than we had out. We sold a whole lot but still had a whole lot to take back to the store. The store customers have been chomping at the bit to look through the tobacco. Since Dan bought the estate just last Sunday, it hasn't been available in the store yet.
