# Never TOO early H-OWES 7/15 Date? How can the meet be made better?



## bike (Nov 17, 2014)

The recent Powder Springs GA had this comment
"A better location than last year and a steady flow of folks."

I LIKE Howe's but I wonder if many people from the public would drive out- the whole region is sparsely populated- perhaps graphic ads in the pennysaver and some local papers would draw the public- that is where many good finds come from. Paul Keppert promotes Ann Arbor in local papers and TV and the show does draw Johnny q public and family.

I have to say I would only go for fun and to buy as I sold $10 (ten) last time and that was like pulling teeth- the guy had to work hard to get his wallet out and was visibly shaken. AND I gave him 2 for 1..

The only folks with "high end" cabe type goodies WERE cabers and we could have done the deals direct.

How the rat, road, bmx and muscle bike people did I do not know but would like to hear.

Thanks!


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## StevieZ (Nov 17, 2014)

????


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## mike j (Nov 18, 2014)

Bike, At the last Howe's caverns show you had a pairs of Continental cream 26x2.00 tires for 100.00. I had just gotten the same ones from Bike tires direct for around 70.00 shipped, based on that, I thought your prices were high. Bought one bike there & a lot of good parts, spent about 60x what you got from that fellow & my only regret was not buying a nice pair of chrome triple drops from Bri-in-Ri. It's one of my favorite shows, looking forward to 7/15/15.


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## bike (Nov 18, 2014)

*Trying to say*



StevieZ said:


> ????




Maybe (and maybe there is and dont know) some new media coverage (albany tv) or ads to get the flow of general public.
Only some meets have this and that is where the good finds come from.  

Also some advanced collectors within a few hours drive do not attend.

Looking for ideas as attendees that we can implement.

I did some buying but only one thing that I could not have bought directly from cabers!  The small (space wise) meet at Cyclone had more non cabe people (in addtion to all the cabers) set up with much more higher end balloon (quality/quanity) than I see at Howes- would like that to change. Maybe an east coast west coast rivalry would goad people into bringing some stuff.

Hows is great setting and fun- StevieZ does a bang up job- just saying new blood is a good thing.
*
And the date is? Not finding it in SEARCH*

As for my prices they are are most always "high"  But Ii do sell well at other meets cause I have the quality rare stuff. You can always buy the other one...
I like my stuff and only sell it if I can get a good price or I am sick of it- the fact someone finds something for less means little to me-maybe I paid too much for the tires- still have em- oh well- most anything can be bought for less if you wait, sometimes a short while, sometimes decades..


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## scrubbinrims (Nov 18, 2014)

Maybe there could be a raffle for a set of continental cream tires...

Point taken about non-collectors showing up with something to sell, seen it happen first hand and some tales are legendary as the death bike.

It's one thing to market to Joe Public or hold the meet in an area of established foot traffic and in nice weather, but its another thing to have sales to folks outside the hobby that don't know values and on the low end of spending and specialization.

High volume attendance means much less to me than high volume transactions, which seems to be a challenge at the larger shows quite frankly with a picky and savvy crowd.

The audience you want is somewhere in the middle, so where is that sweet spot?

Chris


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## StevieZ (Nov 18, 2014)

The date for the Howe Caverns show will be put out in the first week of January 2015. We are still in talks with some people to try and do some diffrent things. I think the weather this year put a little damper on things. There was 105 show bikes and 38 venders. According to the Caverns Traffic counter there was around 1500 at the show and saw this past year. If someone has any suggestions to bring in more foot traffic I'm all ears??????


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## bike (Nov 18, 2014)

*This is my closest snow and I sure would like to see*

it grow...


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## Bri-In-RI (Nov 18, 2014)

StevieZ said:


> The date for the Howe Caverns show will be put out in the first week of January 2015. We are still in talks with some people to try and do some diffrent things. I think the weather this year put a little damper on things. There was 105 show bikes and 38 venders. According to the Caverns Traffic counter there was around 1500 at the show and saw this past year. If someone has any suggestions to bring in more foot traffic I'm all ears??????




For a show/swap that will only be going on its 3rd year you could not ask for much better results than you guys had. Swaps are funny, we all always joke about bikes only being sold from vendor to vendor but the reality is that with few exceptions (thestig) John Q is not going to walk off the street and drop major coin on a rusty old bicycle. What I have seen the general public scoop up at swaps are lower end balloners and middle/light weights...basically antique shop stuff. So, the stuff that the public wants to buy and what we as collectors want to buy most likely are not the same items which leaves us with the dilemma; do we bring the stuff we like to buy or the stuff that sells? 

I for one like to bring some stuff that I know will sell to pay for me expenses and maybe put a little extra cash in my pocket but I'll always bring a couple of nicer things that I know I'll probably go home with. I sold tons of cheap parts at the last Howes, went home with all the nice bikes I brought as I knew I would. Ended up selling 2 of the bikes on here for more than I was asking there. We can't complain about there not being any quality at these swaps when many of us that want to buy quality do not bring quality. The only way to really lure the "big buy buyers" to these swaps is to bring big boy bikes there even if we know they may not sell then come home and plaster the pics of all the nice stuff on the interwebs to entice people that did not attend to want to be at the next one. That is the best advertising I can think off. I know I for one sit here and wait for pics of all the swaps I miss and dream about making it to the next one and I believe many others do the same.

As for the the the Cyclone swap, I too look at all the quality stuff in the pics with amazement then I wonder, did any of it sell? Im curious to here from some of the vendors if they went home with bins full of nice parts or pockets full of cool cash?


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