Iguanadon

Great news! I’M IN! … Oh crap… I’m in… Today was notification day for a huge event coming up August 26 and 27 in Cary, NC. It’s called Lazy Daze and has been going on for four decades (50,000 attendees each year). They turned it into a 2 day event last year. 350 vendors will be there. I did their smaller version of the event (170 vendors) called Spring Daze last month (15,000 attendees), 1 day, and I sold 96 puzzles in 8 hours. It was insane and I’m trying to wrap my head around what to expect in August. Other than the fact it always seems to be the hottest weekend of the summer. I’d appreciate thoughts and feedback on the following… I now display 120 unique various animals and dog breeds at every event. I enjoy having a little bit of everything on display and yet I get the most unusual requests sometimes like this past Saturday “Do you have an otter? How about a platypus?” Really? LOL No, sorry, not with me, but I can make them for you, is my response. Anyway, I have 120 on display and in addition, I have over 200 duplicates of the most popular 25 items with me. Anywhere from 3 to 12 of various ones. 3 Yellow Labs versus 12 Elephants for example. But for this major event coming up, that won’t be enough to help guarantee I have what folks will want. If I sold 96 at the smaller 1 day event (I had 7 Rescue dog puzzles with me and sold them all), I could easily sell 200 at the big show. My “fear” is that in the first hour of the first day someone comes up asking for and buying a Dalmation for example. I usually don’t have duplicates of Dalmations, or many of the dog breedsSo, let’s say I sell my one Dalmation in the first hour and then have 2 or 3 people come asking for one over the course of the remaining two days… Missed opportunities. I always offer to take an order and ship it, but my puzzles are truly impulse buy purchases and if folks can’t walk away with it in their hand they don’t really want to order it. I make them take one of my cards anyway hoping they’ll decide to order online. So, should I make 2 or 3 of EVERY SINGLE item that I make? In addition to the 200 duplicates I already keep on hand? I’d end up with about 400 duplicates, a total of over 500 puzzles on hand. That seems a bit insane to me. But I am insane... Oh and let's see, I have numerous events between now and the end of August, so I also have to be able to make whatever I decide to stock and carry while maintaining inventory for all of the events I'll be attending the next 3 months. Yes, I know I can’t possibly know and have exactly everything I’ll be asked for, but I want to be as prepared as possible. Here’s a nice article about the event as well as a link to a video news story prior to last years. http://carycitizen.com/2017/02/03/lazy-daze-permanently-extended-to-two-days/ http://www.wral.com/lazy-daze-festival-expands-to-two-days/15951331/ What am I doing typing when I need to be cutting!

Nope, still no takers yet. I sold 4 unpainted dino's though, compared to only 1 pre-painted. First week of tourist season is coming up next Saturday. With kids here on vacation maybe parents will be interested in the paint kits to keep the kids occupied in the evenings.

Thanks Gordster. I'm fortunate I live at the beach and can count on a fresh batch of spending tourists every week. I absolutely appreciate that fact as I know how difficult it would be to sell in a non-tourist area on a regular basis and to maintain a solid level of sales.

And the funny part is that first event, I sold 21 puzzles (which included orders taken for breeds I didn't have on hand). Today I sold 27. Now THAT is hilarious!

Rain... the nemesis of all scrollers... I joke with folks when we talk about the weather... "Yes it sure is hot, but at least it isn't raining... my dogs don't swim." Hopefully tomorrow is better for you Dave. Let us know how the big event goes! I'm supposed to get word Monday if I've been accepted to a massive event in August. 2 days... $245 booth fee... I'm excited and terrified. If I get accepted I'll need 500-600 puzzles to help ensure I have enough stock for all of the "what if" scenarios. And if rain hits that one I'll be devastated.

OK, this is quite funny... I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of selling puzzles. I wondered if I had pictures of my first event June 11, 2016 to compare to today... and I did... Check these out... My first event, looks like 15-20 dog puzzles and a handful of dinosaur puzzles... compared to today... over 200 total puzzles on display and another 200 duplicates hiding behind my tables. LOL! I have fond memories from June 4, 2016, walking up to the guy that organizes the weekly farmers market and showing him pictures of my dog puzzles on my phone and him saying "Be here next Saturday." GREAT! Oh wait... I don't own a tent, I don't have a table, I don't have a banner... I don't have ANYTHING! I've never done this before!!! Thank goodness for Amazon and Vistaprint! :-) And now look at me 49 weeks later. Hahahahaaaaa

Perfect timing, the servers came back up just in time for my update. :-) Well... another event that failed to meet my personal expectations. And once again, speaking with other vendors, it wasn't just me. Every vendor said they did half or even only one third what they did the previous year. It was my first time at this event. I had a goal of 60 and sold 27. This year the Carolina Beach Street Arts Festival coincided with 3 other events on our small island... A "Hands Across the Beach" thing, a wrestling tournament held on the beach and the biggest is a Jeep event held at the north end at Freeman Park... Get this... 800, yes EIGHT HUNDRED Jeep owners all drove down for this event. They apparently meet at a location about 3 miles up the road and then caravan down. Well this created a MASSIVE traffic mess as there is only one road/bridge to get to the island... Some people commented that it took them an hour and a half to go 5 miles... This most certainly caused a lot of people to say "screw this, I'm turning around". So, I ain't whining, I came home with $600 in my pocket and the event was literally 4 blocks from my house. Next week is the first week of the weekly Farmers Market here in town, again just a few blocks from home. Coming up on my 1 year anniversary of selling puzzles, June 11, 2016 at the Farmers Market. In these 49 weeks, I've sold over 700 puzzles. Rather mind boggling when I think about it. Here are some pictures of today's setup. I made a couple of minor changes and was very happy with the look and how my overall table space was filled up. I got to thinking about something a few minutes ago... I need to find pictures of my first event to compare to my setup now. Should be hilarious. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Iggy

Wow! See, THAT is craftsmanship and artwork... Beautiful and well done.

Thanks for sharing your experience Jim. I ordered sleeves and bearings for my Type 2 DW788 last month, received them, and now just need to set aside a day to perform maintenance on my oldest one. I want to be able to perform maintenance and repairs as needed. I have 3 saws now so that I can rotate them and not have any down time. I too am not mechanically inclined, so it's encouraging to hear that you tackled the task and was successful. Next rainy weekend, I'll dedicate a day to tearing one down.

Nice work Denny. Maybe one day someone will send me a picture of one of my dog puzzles guarding their front door.

Hey Joe, That weather forecast must have been for Alaska. Here in Carolina Beach, NC the weather is going to be 82 and sunny. :-)

Hey RJ, I wrote a post about it. The rain held off, but the threat of rain and cloudy conditions reduced the crowd. Other vendors around me said they only did 1/2 of what they normally do at that event. I sold 22 pieces, half what I had expected/hoped. I'll try it again next year and hope for better weather. Thanks for asking.

I'll pay you to come down and pretend to be buying stuff all day. ;-)

You mention a good point, a lot of activities for kids at the event, so I'm fully stocked with kids dinosaurs.

My local town hosts a Street Arts Festival each year and this year there will be 50 vendors in attendance this Saturday... I have some very stiff competition for getting the visitors money. Some great looking items. Scroll down to see the various artists. Hopefully this link will work even if you aren't a Facebook user... I better lower my expectations of how many puzzles I'll sell... :-) http://tinyurl.com/l4tpa6x

LOL, I actually said to a customer this past Saturday while I was trying to find a dog on display "I really should lay these out in alphabetical order..." but I can usually find the one asked for pretty quickly as I lay them out in a similar way each show. As far as the 200 duplicates I have with me at a show... I set up a 4'x2' table behind my tent and I lay out and stack as many as I can for easy access. I still have to dig around in the large plastic tub for less frequently purchased items but not too often. If someone asks for one that's on display I'll wrap it up and then when I have time I'll dig out a duplicate, unwrap it and put it out.

I take 60 breeds of dog with me, basically every one I've ever made. I enjoy when someone comes up, like they did today and said "I bet you don't have a Cane Corso!" and I smile and say "I bet I do... right there..." It blows their minds. Malinois, Shar Pei, Weimeraner, Pyrenees, just some examples of the out of the ordinary ones I have on display and every once in a blue moon someone comes up asking for one and buys it. Here are other pics of today's setup if interested. I now put my top 3 selling dogs on the little display facing out to the crowd to catch their eye. I'll be making some minor changes to my display next Saturday. My zoo and farm animal collection has overgrown the display stand so I'm going to shift a couple of things around. Nothing major.

What, you don't have 400 puzzles stockpiled in 3 giant plastic tubs to haul to event after event? LOL I enjoy and look forward to each event. I'm somewhat a people person, but only in moderation. 1 day a week of interacting with people is plenty for me. I work from home so it is nice to interact with other humans now and again. I'm also a bit of a neurotic person and like to have things perfect, so I've enjoyed coming up with my setup and display for events. I hope I didn't come across as a total ass or bitching because I "only" made $420. That's not the case at all. I know people are giving me their hard earned money for my little pieces of wood animals.

Hi Paul, the unpainted dinosaurs were popular once again, but nobody bought the $5 paint kit I offered to them. Which is fine, I'm still "test marketing" it. I did have one set out as an example that I had my daughter paint using the kit. The psychedelic looking one in this picture.

The Strawberry Festival in Wallace, NC is now history. I spent the week checking every weather forecast tool I could to see if this would be a rainout and I'm happy to report that it rained for all of 12 minutes right after I finished setting up. I was able to cover my exposed items so nothing got damaged or ruined. I had side panels for my tent and I covered any exposed items with another tarp. No problem. Then the rest of the day was simply cloudy. Sales however were lackluster. The vendors on either side of me shared that they did about 1/2 of what they did last year. I had a goal of 40 pieces and sold 22. So, I was in line with everyone else. Crowd size was down apparently due to the threat of rain all day. Nice event, lots of vendors, food, music, etc. A good sized crowd, considering. I came home with $420 in my pocket that I otherwise wouldn't have had, so I'll never complain about sales volume. I'll make a note about this event, will do it again next year if my schedule allows, and see if sales increase next time. Wallace NC is a very blue collar, laid back community. I'm more accustomed to catering to tourists and medium to upscale events. I met more resistance than usual when I quoted my price of $25 and I'd then offer it for $20. I truly enjoy selling and making them so I don't mind offering discounts when I know someone likes a certain item. At least I don't have a lot to make this week in advance of my big event next Saturday here in my town. I want to also say I greatly appreciate the kind words many of you made on a couple of other threads about me and my work lately. You're truly too kind. I almost feel like a hack compared to the exquisite, detailed, intricate work that so many of you true "artists" produce. I know my puzzles are simply puzzles and I never want to sound like I'm gloating or patting myself on the back when in fact, I so truly enjoy making my puzzles purely for the relaxation and enjoyment. I absolutely love the smiles and comments I hear from people as they come up to my booth. I realize how fortunate I am to live in a tourist area and can sell my items somewhat easily. Enjoy the rest of the weekend my SSV friends. Next up for Iggy is the Carolina Beach Street Arts Festival with 50 artists. My goal for this event is 60. Iggy P.S. I know I need to re-center my banner on the front of the table... Mrs. Ig was quick to point that out to me earlier. LOL

Thanks RJ, I've spent the last 48 hours checking every weather site I have saved looking at forecasts, radars and anything else that gives me any indication of how much rain may come tomorrow. Right now I'm planning on going to the event in the morning and hoping for the best. I think (hope) that the bulk of the rain may miss me. We'll see... I may be reporting that I had to keep everything covered with a tarp and only sold 2 puzzles. Oh, and I'm a bit under the weather. Grand-daughter was sick last week and she infected my wife during a visit and my wife was nice enough to share it with me yesterday. She had it 100x worse than me though, at least I'm still able to function. But the good news is that my local big event next Saturday looks fantastic as far as the weather is concerned.

Nice work Travis. It was the most horrible 9 hours of my life not having SSV!!!

P.S., I just printed this thread off and am mailing it to Harvey so he can see how much folks enjoy his work. For those that aren't aware, Harvey is Amish, lives in Ohio and of course has no access to computers. He does use the phone in town to conduct business and he and I speak about once every week or two as I place custom orders with him. I call, leave a voicemail with what I need, he then calls me back if he has any questions. He or his son (Harvey Jr.) then draw what I requested and mail it to me via USPS. It's a slow process, but his work is so fantastic, it's worth the wait. Iggy

Nice cutting Paul, and thanks for the kind words. You phrased it perfectly, I found my niche, and I enjoy cutting the cute, silly things every day. I'm glad you enjoyed your first stab at it. As to other comments, you can certainly use any thickness of wood, or even vinyl. Obviously with 3/4" wood, they can stand up on their own for display. It all depends on what you want to do with them. As a reminder, I offer the patterns for anything you see on my site (except the kids dinos). They are all hand drawn by Harvey Byler and I've bought each and every one of them and I have his permission to re-sell them with $2,00 of each one going to Harvey. I email the patterns to you as soon as I receive the order. My website address is below in my signature. And lastly... Harvey has drawn over 600 patterns, they can be viewed at Wooden Teddy Bear. Be sure to check out everything he offers since I "only" have about 150 of them. :-) Here's a direct link to the main menu of his stuff. http://www.woodenteddybearonline.com/x/home.php?cat=100 Thanks again Paul. Iggy

I'm unveiling these at my May 20th event. Close enough? :-)