Antiques Journal: In My Opinion

We’ve just come off a run of three shows in four weeks. Results for us: OK, very good, poor. And that, I suppose, is a snapshot of the times we live in, though the “very good” might put us a bit ahead of the pack. Three shows, particularly if they’re slow, produce a lot of dealer gossip, which translates these days into a lot of dealer grumbling.

Repeatedly, dealers grumbled that show sales have gone down, but show expenses have gone up. Almost all dealers have cut back on the number of shows they do, mainly because expenses and receipts have gotten so far out of whack. Mostly in this column, I write about ways to increase sales, but the dealer vehemence about expenses has prompted me this month to turn my thoughts in that direction.

Let’s face it: Sales are going to continue to be tough, slow and spotty. We’re hit by a double whammy: The moribund housing market (and the housing market has a greater effect on the antiques market than any other single factor) and the anxiety and ill-will caused by Washington. The second may abate when the presidential election is decided (regardless of the winner), but I’m afraid the first will be with us long after next November. Given that, and given that the success of a show depends largely, if not solely, upon the dealers who sign up for it, it’s time to look at ways of reducing dealer expenses.

So this month, I shall distill, and, for the sake of clarity, exaggerate, some of the ideas I’ve heard from disgruntled dealers. I’ve never been a show promoter (praise be – it’s the most thankless job in the business), and so I have no idea of the economics of show promotion. What follows, then, is unabashedly biased toward the dealer point of view. It is also directed primarily at the mid- to high-end shows, which are the ones most hampered by traditional models that they seem unwilling to let go of.

1. No show should last longer than a ball game.
If 70,000 people can get to a game during its scheduled hours, 1,500 can get to a show. Come to think of it, an antiques show is a bit like baseball: Long periods when nothing happens, then, Bam! The game changer! Or not, as the case may be. OK, I’ve exaggerated, let’s compromise, and say that no show should last longer than a day, unless it has a gate north of 1,500, when it might just justify a second day, though not necessarily. There is, as far as I am aware, no direct correlation between the length of a show and the number of sales.
Multiple-day shows typically have one day in which 90 percent of the business is done – usually Saturday. The minimal business done on Friday or Sunday would, I predict, be done on the Saturday if customers were given no alternative. They can’t choose which day to go to a ballgame, and nobody has thought it a good idea to play a game over two days in order to give them that choice.

The one-day show has advantages all round. It keeps the aisles full, which leads people to feel that others may be after the item they’re hanging their noses over. By focusing the buying, it provides a sense of activity that will lead to more buying. If people see goods being wrapped, furniture being wheeled to cars and people carrying bags full of smalls, they’re more likely to be put into a buying mood themselves.

The condensed show also fits better with today’s lifestyles. Fewer and fewer people today cruise leisurely around a show and then return the next day for a second helping. People are rushed, they want to focus their antiquing, get it done and get on with the next item in their busy schedules. Be-backs no longer come back – these days, it’s now or never.

2. Never on a Friday.
Fridays invariably follow a Thursday night preview party. The idea used to be that the ladies would come through on Friday to spot what they wanted to buy, and then bring their husbands on Saturday to buy it. That no longer works, see the next point.

3. Be a party pooper.
No preview party. Once upon a time there were charity shows with expensive preview parties at which the dealers benefited as well as the charity. Party goers actually bought antiques. This means that many charity supporters were also antiques collectors. No longer. Today, it’s one or the other. The few, very few, who still buy at a preview, would come on the regular day to make their purchase if the preview didn’t exist. There was once a time when rich preview partiers would buy antiques that they didn’t necessarily want in order to support the dealers who supported the show that supported their charity. No one thinks like that any more. Preview parties benefit the charity, not the dealers.

Preview parties had to be on a Thursday, because people had other things to do on a Friday evening – hence the useless Friday of a three-day show. Preview parties actually mean two useless and expensive days for show dealers. Cut ‘em! Or, at the very least, hold ‘em on Friday evening.

4. Vetting out.
Vetting also requires a non-productive, expensive day and has no measurable benefit whatsoever. To replace vetting, all the promoter has to do is to require every dealer to guarantee every sale in writing and to offer 48-hour return privileges with no questions asked. This will encourage buyer confidence far more than vetting, which is always incomplete, always contentious and means absolutely nothing to customers. When I tell customers that they are at a vetted show, they look blankly at me in incomprehension. As with all dealers, what our customers want is our guarantee: That means something to them. Together, we will go over a piece far more thoroughly, accurately and knowledgeably than any hastily assembled batch of so called vetters could possibly do.

Vetting is a hang-over from the charity antiques show, when its main function was to reassure the committee, who, by and large, were ignorant about antiques, that their equally ignorant but classy friends would not get taken to the cleaners when they “supported” the show by buying something. Serious collectors want to come to a decision personally with the dealer about authenticity, they want to judge it for themselves and have no interest in the opinions of anonymous vetters.

For different reasons, vetting is equally irrelevant to furnishers who simply want “the look” to go in their eclectic interiors. When I point out restorations to this sort of buyer, they invariably show no interest. At one of our recent shows I started to open the lid of a coffer to show a lady the interior. She stopped me. “I don’t care about that,” she said. “If the height’s right, I’ll buy it.” Obviously it wasn’t, because she didn’t.

Mind you, if we had the French system, I might think differently. In France, all higher level shows are required to provide an expert (or more, depending on the size of the show). L’ expert is an accredited professional with many years of graduate study and experience. He or she is hired by the promoter and provides buyers, free of charge, with a written appraisal of any item they are thinking of buying. L’ expert remains personally liable in law for his or her judgment for a period of five years. Try rounding up a batch of American volunteer vetters when they have to put their opinions in writing and accept legal responsibility for them! Vetting is negative; it’s mere fault-finding. A professional appraisal is a positive document and is far more helpful to the buyer. It’s a value-add for the show and for dealers who knows what they’re doing: I wish American shows would adopt this system.

5. No early buying.
What on earth is the point? No other retail business on the planet charges its best buyers a premium for the pleasure of being a good customer. Early buying is a hang-over from the days when buyers used to compete eagerly over antiques - remember? Now shows are desperate to attract good buyers in order to encourage their dealers to sign up for next year - and the way to attract good buyers is, wait for it, to charge them extra!

Early buying actively discourages genuine customers who don’t want to pay the premium (which can be significant, especially for a couple) or those who have to drive for two or three hours and can’t get there before the regular opening time. Yes, there are collectors who will drive three hours to a show, and they are precisely the ones we want to encourage, not discourage. Allowing others the chance to pick a show before they can get to it is just about as good a discouragement as anyone could possibly think of.

Early buying is not quite the same as my other points, because it doesn’t cost dealers any money, though it may cost them a customer or three. It benefits promoters, but it does nothing for dealers.

So, dealers, let’s urge promoters to condense our shows, focus the activity and reduce our expenses. Then we’ll be more likely to sign up for next year.