Nashville Customer Hosts Saturday Night Live

Over the years at our Nashville shows, many country music stars have shopped Tailgate and Music Valley. Not being much of a country music fan, I never really thought much about it. Last weekend Taylor Swift and her family shopped both shows and she was very gracious about signing autographs and taking pictures with customers and dealers. She also did a great job of hosting SNL last night. In my book country music isn't that big a deal, but hosting SNL is. Springfield is coming up in two weeks, featuring the Horn of Plenty Antiques Market in the Youth Building. Visit http://hornofplentyantiques.com

Back from Nashville

The pace at Nashville was just too much for these weary dealers, so they just gave up and expired outside their booth during set-up. Tom and Paula VanDeest were displaying a pair of fraternal skeletons, but couldn't resist taking a Halloween themed photo during set-up. Check out a bunch of pictures from the show on our Flick account.

www.flickr.com/photos/-musicvalleyantiques/

Thanks to our photographer Michael for taking the time to take, upload and caption the photos.

Extravaganza Article

Here is the recent review of Extravaganza in Antiques and the Arts Weekly:
http://antiquesandthearts.com/Antiques/AntiquesShows/2009-10-13__09-25-28.html

Enjoy

Springfield today- then off to Nashville.

Getting ready to head south to warmer weather. This unusual early cold snap has most of us thinking early December. Just posted a bunch of new pictures on the Music Valley and Tailgate Dealer Directories. Click on the links on the blog and take a look at the fresh merch. Lot's of great stuff. Hope to see everyone there.

On a personal note, Graham is making beginning strides in potty training. Didn't think it was possible to get that excited about pee pee.

Back from Texas

Every once in a while, we put on our antique dealer hat. Here is our booth from the Marburger Farm Show in Texas. We returned with less merchandise than we took, which is always a good thing. Good results in dealer recruiting for upcoming shows and the dealer cookout at Leftovers was once again successful. No participants reported getting ill after eating the food.

Caption This??

Reviewing photos from Springfield last weekend, and for some reason, this is one of my favorites. Please help by providing an appropriate caption, winner to receive international fame and notoriety on a semi-unimportant blog of note. My best so far-

"Architectural Lost and Found" or "Look what the Extravaganza dragged in"

Your thoughts?

Springfield and the week ahead.

After what can only be described as a very good Springfield Extravaganza, I am attempting to recover, rest and get ready for the trip to Texas. Good crowds, good weather and mostly encouraging dealer reports make me think that better days may be on the horizon. We bought some really great things, including a grandfather clock, Pennsylvania chest of drawers, grain painted jelly cupboard and a few other things. Springfield continues to amaze. More tomorrow.

Nice Day for Shopping

Here is a picture from last weekend's Farmington show. Like I had mentioned, couldn't have been much better shopping weather. Finalizing the last few details for the Springfield show next weekend and eagerly anticipating the first Sunday of the NFL season today.

This Just In!!

On the road home from Farmington and Brimfield. Blogging from the passenger seat of the rental truck hoping that Pennsylvania is almost over. If there was only a way to move Pennsylvania north of Lake Erie and slide Ohio over, the drive wouldn't be so bad. Home for 1 night and off to Chicago to see U2 Saturday night. I was very encouraged by the results at Farmington. Shows still aren't great across the board, but I talked to many dealers who were very pleased with results. Wish things were more consistently good, but economy needs to keep moving in the right direction before we'll see that. Brimfield crowds appeared to be strong, but wasn't able to develop much of a consensus of how things went. I don't remember any better show weather from Farmington to Thursday of Brimfield. Hope it continues through Springfield next weekend. For those of you who have never been, Extravanganza almost has to be seen to be believed. Very busy booking spacesw and excited about it. I'll try to post photos later on today or tomorrow.

Jon

Memories of Atlantique City

Sad to hear about the cancellation of the Atlantic City show. Many years ago as a teenager, I remember reading the press release about a new show at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Maine Antiques Digest. I told my dad that it sounded like it was going to be big, and he signed up for the first show. We did the show for many years and got to know the founder Norm Schaut. He truly was a great promoter in the truest since of the word. Also got to know Ted & Diane Jones, who managed the show. Have many great memories of late nights at the casinos and early mornings at the show. Caffeine was a necessity. It will be missed.

And so you're back-from outer space

With apologies to Gloria Gaynor and her 70's anthem of female empowerment (I Will Survive), I am returning with gusto to the blog. My apologies to the one or two of you who might have missed during a short blogbatical (blog+sabbatical). My absence was complicated by the loss of a family member and writing today is a brief respite from dealing with the issues that you have to deal with.
Check out this link to cnn.com where Springfield is recognized as one of the America's best flea markets-http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/getaways/08/25/best.flea.markets/index.html?iref=newssearch

I love the smell of free press in the morning, it smells like victory.
Farmington is next weekend, hope to see some of you there.

Jon

Springfield Set up

Fun stuff found at Springfield this morning-more photos later.

Manchester-Part 1

I will break up my review into of last week's trip into several posts. I will also try to paint pictures with my words as Continental Airlines broke my camera (slowly getting over this).

The first show to open was Frank Gaglio's Manchester Pickers Market on Monday morning. Much has been made over the facility change for both of his shows, but coming from someone who recently experienced a facility change (Nashville), the new facility was tremendous. The Furniture World building was bright, well lit and spacious. The facility mandated a somewhat quirky floorplan, but the overall feel of the building and the displays put on by the dealers were top notch. Frank calls this a picker's market, but it is that in name only. Over 80 first rate dealers pulled out all the stops to put on a visually impressive display of Americana. As with most shows, the results from dealers appeared to run the gamut from "great" to "I would have liked to sold more" and everything else in between. But with current market conditions, most indicated they were pleased. I also noticed some new pricing on items that were more in line with the economy. Many dealers with pricing adjustments were rewarded with sales, and in this business, cash flow is still king. If anyone has any photos from the show, email me and I will share them on the blog.

Special Thanks to Continental Airlines!

In another post under the "up on my soapbox series", I cannot fail to thank a few people at Continental. While boarding a plane from Cleveland to Manchester, NH last week, I was told I had to check my carry on as the overhead bins were full. Now, never one to pack lightly I was faced with a dilema- our arms were full with baby gear and everything that travelling with a small child requires. I grabbed my laptop out of my bag and reluctantly surrendered my bag with assurances of extreme care. Needless to say I wasn't happy to find that my new Sony DSLR camera was ruined when I unpacked it on arrival. Now, it was in a padded camera bag inside a piece of luggage, so one would think it would be safe. When returning to the airport for the trip home politely offered the "electronics and delicate items are not covered" garbage. I will be contacting their customer service line as "sorry" doesn't cut it on a $750 camera that they insisted go into gate check luggage. Needless to say, not many pictures from the trip which means none for the blog. Please pass this story on to others so others don't make the same mistake.

Back from New Hampshire and Maine-off to Springfield

Back from 11 days on the road, including a stretch of 7 consecutive days at shows. Whew-a break would be nice, but not on the schedule as our Springfield Show is this weekend. Our August show features "A Country Gathering". Ralph and Linda Miller have assembled a great group of dealers who will display in the Youth Building as well as several hundred other indoor and outdoor dealers. Hope to see you there.

Don't be fooled by wooden watermelon!

Graham,

Althought the surface and patina on the wooden watermelon was very convincing, and promoter Frank Gaglio did a great job of finding a new facility and staging his show today- you shouldn't be fooled enough to eat it. Better luck tomorrow.

Dad

Off to Manchester- Read this blog too!

The August shows in New Hampshire represent a great opportunity for all of us involved (customers, dealers and promoters). Going up for a week to talk to dealers, do a show and try to take the pulse of the market. Hope to see a lot of people up there. Also like to point out another blog of interest. Andrew and Hollie blog at http://www.youngantiquescollectors.blogspot.com/ about being young collectors. They also write for Maine Antiques Digest as well as work in the industry. Take some time to check it out- I do and always find what they write interesting and relevant.

Sometimes a sign says it all!

I put this sign on the bench in Dad's booth at Brimfield last week as part joke/part editorial content. Found the sign at our Springfield show. Getting ready to go to the New Hampshire shows. Hope to see some of you there.

Brimfield and back!

Spent the last four days in Brimfield and the usual things happened- bought, sold, recruited dealers you'll see at upcoming shows. Resting now and looking forward to Graham's 2nd birthday party this Sunday.

New Facebook Group

Finally got around to forming a Facebook groups for our Nashville, Farmington & Springfield shows. For those of you familiar, great way to contact, discuss and meet people with common interests. For those of you not using Facebook, you'd be suprised how many people you know are. Have a great 4th.