Despite the fact that we sold a total of one ceramic dragon at Sunday’s reptile show, I was relatively pleased. For one thing, the new locale is fantastic: huge, with a high ceiling, with room for bigger tables and bigger crowds. (Which we got; it was just as packed as the old, smaller location, which is not a bad thing. The fact that the crowds weren’t buying was another issue.) For another, I was really pleased with how our own table looked:

As for the disappointing sales, I could have been marketing the stuff more aggressively than I have; when I sold more at these shows several years ago, I had a more prominent online presence. Viz., my reptile section had pricelists and descriptions. I’ve taken those down pending the launch of a commercial reptile site at a separate address; I’m working on that new site now and hope to have it up soon.

In any event, I’ve noticed that people browsing at one show sometimes purchase one or two shows later. On the one hand, I’m optimistic for the June show as a result, because there was some definite interest. On the other hand, this can be somewhat annoying, as they’re assuming that the same stuff will be there the next time. But it’s a buyer’s market right now: we need to sell more than they need to buy, and we need to deal with that fact.

I’ve also got some ideas for the next show that I hope I can get done in time.