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One of my specialties is the work of San Diego area painters and local collectors of such material often manage to find me there.
Unfortunately the show was canceled in November for not having enough dealers and it looks like the April show is in danger now as well.
We have 31 dealers at last count, we need 45 for the promoter to break even.
If we lose the next show, chances are that we never have one again. Once they are gone... This is a very sad turn of affairs. If you know a dealer that might want to show there, please let me know and I will give you Dolphin's contact info. We have lost all the shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco is hanging on.
Are people more happy sitting in their cubicle and manning their keyboard than they are having a walk around a building and checking out the wares in real life? It is very sad, brick and mortar and tangible goods are apparently so passe.
If every dealer could bring one other dealer in, the problem would be solved. Cross your fingers...
3 comments:
So sorry to hear about this. It's hard to hear that something I dedicated a good portion of my life to is about to disappear. If I was only younger then I might want to come back and try to rescue the show, but I have to be honest with myself and realize that I can't save everything. Dolphin is no slouch when it comes to producing a quality antique show and I have to admire that they are keeping the quality high. Towards the end of my reign, I got a lot of criticism over some of the dealers I allowed into the show, but my job was to get enough money to pay the rent, buy good advertising, and basically get people through the door to buy the items offered for sale by my dealers. That was always the bottom line, to get stuff owned by my dealers to be bought by someone who walked through the door. If the dealers left at the end of the weekend still had the same things they brought with them well, then I failed at my job. That happened to a lot of dealers over the years, as I'm sure it did to my Mom and Dad when they were running the show. All any promoter can do is take their knowledge and try to parlay that knowledge into a win for the dealers and themselves. Sometimes it just doesn't happen and some dealers leave and don't come back. The problem these days is that it isn't even close to being the same playing field we had years ago. Everything is more expensive these days: hotels, food, and gas (especially gas). With all of this happening (and just getting over the pandemic) is it any surprise that existing show dealers are getting as scarce as hen's teeth and there are fewer new dealers stepping up to get a "ticket to ride"? I am so sorry for the dealers like Bob who are still trying to have a good show in a great area like Del Mar, but I really don't have any idea of what else can be done at this point. All I can do is to wish everyone the very best and Good luck! We're rooting for you guys!
Nice comment. And happy birthday, Michael!
Sad. I have loved that show for thirty years.
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