Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2006 Issue
Shows: A Thousand Uneasy Pieces
The Sacramento Fair was busy all day.
The person who traveled the longest distance came from Miami but it's not certain this was his only purpose for visiting. Someone from LA actually came up for the show and the distance, per their odometer, was 541 miles. They kept track. Everyone else lived within 40 miles and a surprising number within 5. This seemed to suggest that, at least in the Sacramento area, there are many motivated collectors. Getting their attention though is a challenge.
All participants of course indicated they attend shows and on the average 2 to 3 a year. They all said they would attend more but couldn't find them. No one volunteered anything about what they purchased but the average was 2 to 3 items and almost everyone bought several things. A few seemed to labor under their weight.
They commented that some of the dealers' material were neither labeled nor categorized and they resented the time wasted looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Most dealers were well organized and visitors favored them. Everyone wanted to use their time efficiently. The typical visit was two and half hours and many stayed longer than planned.
We asked where else they buy and a solid 40% said eBay. Those in this group were noticeably proud. They view eBay as a more sophisticated form of buying. To a one they visit bookstores and like to do so. Abe was the most frequently mentioned online source. Amazon and Alibris were also mentioned several times. We asked about Choosebooks, ABAA-ILAB, Tom Folio and left space for others. Few of these show attendees had more than a passing awareness of these other buying alternatives and most consult only one online source. Their assumption is that they generally have the same material.
As to collecting resources they use few. They generally view their collecting as a spur of the moment pursuit. I think perhaps 20% felt they were making investments but for most it was strictly fun and not entirely financially foolish.
For most the show was very satisfactory. To the question "if you could change one thing about the show what would it be, the most common answer was "nothing" and the second "turn up the lighting." The average age of respondents was an estimated 62, the youngest 35 and the most senior almost 80. Women comprised 35% of respondents.
In October we'll survey the exiting audience at the Seattle Fair. This is a two day affair that has in years past attracted serious buyers and sellers and is expected to do so again.
At each of these events exhibitors brought or bring the hope of finding customers and making sales and they will continue to exhibit even in the face of uneven show performance because there are no other more effective ways to meet local audiences. In the year ahead on AE we'll be focusing on show performance and we'll offer some ways to both build attendance and sales. The audience is out there. The challenge is to connect them with them.
