I wrote another post about this subject, but didn’t post it as I
thought I needed to shorten it and didn’t have time. Larry made all
the same points and apparently we had similar experiences as I used
to attend the Dallas show with my parents back when it was a really
big deal in the early 80’s until the early 90’s when it started to
peter out.
We saw one of our customers there too, but she wasn’t a banker or
even a metalsmith. She gained admission through her tax number and a
phony business card, which is all you needed back then. She was a
florist. We used to buy flowers from her for the store and we had
always considered her to be a good friend as well as a good customer.
She had sought out one of our vendors at the show and we walked up
just as she was buying a piece she had been eyeing at our store for
some time. For our cost, from our sales rep.
I wonder what her reaction would have been if she saw us buying
flowers from her supplier’s truck driver or if we made a deal through
her supplier for a small weekly delivery so we could do our own
arrangements. Actually I don’t have to wonder, her vendor’s driver
told me exactly what she would do sometime before this incident took
place, without me even asking. He had dropped a few flowers on the
ground as he was unloading and I bent over to help him pick them up.
He told me to please leave them right where they were. “If she sees
you holding those flowers out here…” Apparently, she would not have
viewed the practice as a satisfactory business arrangement.
But the other way around was just fine. Everybody knows the
exorbitantly high markup on jewelry. It’s not like jewelry grows on
trees, like flowers or leaves or something.
That’s the main reason there are such rules for admission and
setting up accounts. The businesses and organizations that have these
rules are there to serve the retail brick and mortar jeweler and
their vendors, primarily. They are not there for the home-based
metalsmith or lapidary artist, or really anyone that’s not fully
engaged in the brick and mortar jewelry business. My guess is that
most home-based metalsmithing business owners would not find much of
interest at a JCK style trade show anyway. I own a retail brick and
mortar jewelry store and I still don’t. Maybe some tools, but that’s
a very small part of any show like that. AGTA, well, again, they are
there for the professional jewelry trade, and people that work from
home, regardless of the type of work they do there, are generally
not considered to fit in that description. Fair or not, it is what it
is.
Selective admission is not an arbitrary or vindictive action on the
part of these organizations, it is a well thought out business
decision based on the needs and desires of their core customers and
membership. No different than SNAG and Metalsmith. Or even Orchid and
Ganoksin.
As others have said, there is no shortage of trade shows,
organizations and gatherings aimed more towards the individual artist
and craftsman, and trust me, if you’re creating jewelry in your home
for fun and/or profit, you aren’t missing a thing being shut out of
the big-shot shows. Two or three hours and you’re outta there, most
likely with nothing to show for your time and effort. They offer very
little you want or need that you can’t get somewhere else a whole lot
easier.
If someone really wants or needs access to the goods and services,
or the industry-perceived prestige and credibility afforded by
membership in these organizations and businesses, they will have to
do what Larry and I did, and what every other business that is
permitted access did, open a brick and mortar jewelry business. Then
they will happily let you in. They might even offer you a free drink.
That will be a very expensive free drink though. Be careful what you
wish for.
Dave Phelps