Michigan car shows

[ZTSUPPLY]

Hello,

We have always sold on eBay, and wholesaled to distributors, but we want to start selling at car shows. Since we have no experience in the car show circuit we were wondering if any garage journal members could let us know which shows would be good to go to to sell tools. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ZTFAMILY

 

[astroracer]

What kind of tools?
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I am in the Flint area and there are a Ton of shows in this area, big and small.
The Sloan Show has a large swapmeet area and is a 2 dayer.
Back to the Bricks is a whole weeks worth of shows. Getting on the flat lot would be good.
Durand's End of Summer Show has a small swap meet and about 400 to 500 cars typically.
Mark

 

[Red Green]

There is a Stock car swap meet at Ionia fairgrounds every OCT that might be worth going to.

 

[ZTSUPPLY]

We carry name brand hand tools, cutting tools and abrasives. We do quite well on eBay and supplying wholesalers closeouts. We are looking to pick up new dealers. If we can't do over $1000 at a show or meet dealers I don't see how it would be worth it. What does the average guy do there selling? Also, we are only interested in large turn out shows. We tried two motorcycle shows recently and it was god awful.

 

[1950mercury]

State fair grounds. Goodguys in kzoo. ford restorers club in belville. Good luck

 

[Burl]

If you want to venture into Ohio, Springfield and Canfield have large weekend events a couple times a year.

 

[Kevin54]

Springfield, Ohio has the Mod-tiques swap meet coming up on March 2nd, but it's a one day only.

Here is the info for the Cars and Parts Swap Meet in Springfield, Ohio in May. It does bring in a lot of people, especially if the weather is going to be decent http://www.ohioswapmeet.com/vendor_info.html

 

[astroracer]

You have to go into this with an open mind. Doing a grand a show is high expectations. It will depend on your prices and how much you want to deal. The only thing I can tell you is you have to get out there and get your product in front of the masses. Have catalogs and a web site and be willing to do some haggling.
You know you can't sell product when you aren't displaying it so sitting home won't make any sales...
I did a lot of traveling selling model car parts that I produced and some shows were good, some were meh and some bad but you have to take that risk to feel out your customer. I usually made up for slow show sales with a lot of mail orders after the fact. Usually just getting the product out there, so the guys could see it would make the sale later if they don't have the cash on show day.
Mark

 

[ZTSUPPLY]

Since we usually deal with wholesalers and ebay customer, would you be kind enought to view our ebay store. The link is below, do you think these items we carry would sell?http://stores.ebay.com/Zeitlin-Industrial-Supply

 

[astroracer]

Looked through your store and did some comparison pricing. The supplier I use for most of my abrasives has you beat hands down on some of the items and vice-versa for you on others. Not knowing the quality of your abrasive products will be a damper on large purchases initially.
From my experience as a vendor the product needs to be priced to a point where the customer can't get his wallet out fast enough. Make some profit on onesy/twosy sales but the real money is made in bulk sales.
A lot of the product in your store would be ignored by most swap meet guys. I am just going by my own experience and opinion here. I do a lot of shows and swap meets and see a lot of the same stuff, show to show, hauled around by the same guys. It just sits there until the proprietor starts giving it away.
Swap meet guys are looking for DEALS... That is what this all boils down too. They aren't looking for a $12 pair of tweezers or 5 dollar back up alarm. Give them a deal on a viable product and they will buy it.
I hope this helps. I don't want to scare you off, I just want you to realize car guys are basically a bunch of cheap bastards (I know I am!) and the swap meet guys are even worse.
I think you should do a few shows just to get the experience and get a feel for the market. The Sloan Show is a good one to do as well as Back to the Bricks. Lots of foot traffic/multi-day events.
Mark

 

[ZTSUPPLY]

Thanks for taking the time to look through the store. In regards to the abrasives you wont find nicer abrasives than PFERD/ADVANCE BRUSH. Its all USA made and it is of the highest quality. You type in USA abrasives and compare USA to USA we are by far the cheapest online. We only buy name brand products, we dont deal in junk tools and we do well with the formula we are using right now. Our market is not swap meet, from what youre telling us. We have our nitch and we do well with what were doing. We like to model ourselves after are good friends at Harry Epstein Company. We are not going to water the market down surplus pricing. Are customer come to us because they know if they buy a 10" knot wheel brush its going to arrive at their door step as described and on time. If they order a 1/2" williams round head ratchet it comes on time and as described. A lot of these companies online dont stock their stuff, a lot of drop shipping is involved. We carry everything in house. Sounds like your an intelligent guy and we would be excited to be a vendor of yours. Thanks again for the help.