Originally Posted by
deltadelta48
Good points about inflated prices. Saw that last weekend. Milwaukee just finished hosting a huge international bead show sponsored by Bead and button magazine. This is about the 10th year. It has at least 400 vendors, plus classes by well known authors etc.contests, etc. Ran for more than a week.
Well this is the first year I attended where a huge crowd was not breaking down doors to get in. Much smaller crowds. Money is extremely tight now.. But many vendors who drove across country to bring their wares did not take the hint and got very few sales. They stocked $50 strings of gemstones, high end pearls, etc. Lots of sad faces, as most payed something like $4000 for the booth and few people shopped there.
Just as this discussion mentioned, some dealers stuck to their guns and did not lower prices, did not have a "sale", just waited with their $25 strings of freshwater pearls while the other vendors with the $3 ones got all the sales. And when a crowd gathered in the "cheaper" booths, then more shoppers ran over, looked and bought. After a while I just went with the crowd.
That is what happens here and on other auction sites. High prices, excellent goods, no sale, no discount, no effort made to lower cost a smidge, and no sales (at least they do not have to haul 10,000 lbs of strings of beads back to Florida). You can sit on your stuff, not wanting to bend your principles (this should be worth XXX, even thu I paid only 1/2 X) or you can have a sale and move the stuff out earning some much needed feedback. i.e. the guy with the $25 pearls probably paid $1.50 or $1.75, and took them all home. The other guys paid same, and sold all, just doubling their priceto $3, instead of trying to make a HUGE profit. In tough times, we all have to do this..
I do have more expensive items, that sit for a while, they are a bargain but people obviously can't afford them, and it takes a month or more to get a bid. That happens, meanwhile the $3 stuff is selling. That is fine. Just so sellers know that having all high end things means they may sit and, like I always say, now is the time to slip in a lot of $10 and under items until things pick up.