"A question to the trade......" Topic

Here is an interesting question to the trade.

Do any traders in this hobby sometimes use their trade agents or people selling their products to act as a collection point, for trade shows they don't happen to trade at?

I'm really keen to get other people in the business's thoughts and views on this.

Cheers

If you have to ship it to any address, why not send direct to the customer? Not many will have orders ready to go to their "agents" for many reasons. Unless the supplier is local, it's just not practical in most cases. Good idea but difficult in practice to work most of the time.

I only sell direct so my answer is no.

Not really trade agents but we have passed customer show orders to other traders if we're not attending a particular event ourselves. Crisis was a good example where we no longer attend but were able to take pre-orders as normal, and another trader was kind enough to hand them out at the show.

I'm with Dye4Minis. I assume you save shipping because this other trader is local. So instead of mailing Tom's order to him across the country, you drop it off with Pete who is driving there next month? Just seems like a lot of risk for such a small gain.

I *have* considered working a "display" option. It works like this:

I identify a partner who gets to shows too far for me. I ship to him (once) a display stand for him. I buy a table to a con he's going to that is part of his booth. He puts op the display for me and keeps the catalog/brochure/business card rack full. Con customers get free shipping using a special code. My display master gets a commission on every such sale (including any he takes at the show).

For a company to provide stock to a store at a convention is very common in the USA. It is up to me to sell the items and no returns.
I have also represented companies on a consignment basis which means they send more stock than I could afford. I sale their items at the show and then return the excess with their portion of the sales. My discount level on consignments was much less than a normal purchase.
Seldom have I been told to pick up money unless it involved a delivery. I am out of the loop in regards to book keeping (money).
Since I have been in the business for so long, I have participated in many differentprojects. Currently I have hundeds of new Osprey books from a warehouse that closed. I take them to shows and sale them for 1/2 price. I then pay the owner his portion of the sales. This has increased my selection and many customers have no idea how much of a great deal they are getting. It also allows me to carry ranges that I normally would not such as the RAID, Weapons, Aviation, Command and Orders of battle.
Rudy
Time Portal
In Business since 1983.

Randy, Contact me at (msc1d@aol.com) I have a question for you.

Yes, all the time. It's a service for the customer.

Ok Doug

Some people like collecting at shows, and it saves postage too.

I've done it for other companies as well as have other companies do it for me. It's just a nice thing. :)