Pheonix Gun Fair

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bewildered
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#21 Post by bewildered »

To go with the 50 gazebos at £50 per go as suggested by 1066 could I also suggest a shooting related car boot sale for £5 a table (bring your own) so that we can recycle some of the tens of thousands of pounds worth of shooting stuff we all have stashed away in cupboards and which we will never use but someone would find a home for.
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Dark Skies
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#22 Post by Dark Skies »

Pete wrote:
RDC wrote:
Could have 100 people criticising an idea is x, y or z because of a, b or c (usually about pricing out your average person...) and the NRA will just point to the few people they claim are fully supportive of the idea.
Sounds a bit like our government when a question is raised about cuts to funding health, education, etc.

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Sounds a LOT like our government!
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MistAgain
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#23 Post by MistAgain »

The way I see it , the NRA has three options .

1. Learn how to run , organise and promote an affordable gun show.

2. Swallow their pride and phone Shaun Hopwood.

3. Finish it now before it sinks any lower .
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Sim G
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#24 Post by Sim G »

I suspect they’d like to kill it. Probably be able to take a booking for a Bank Holiday Yoga Retreat rather that a gun fair and shooting comp... BoC!
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#25 Post by Christel »

There is no doubt that the NRA is a money making machine these days. There is no place for nostalgia.

Is a shame however these days money talks and if the Phoenix is deemed a waste of space then the NRA will not do anything to support it.

We went twice as stall holders, first year was full of people, it was a delight to be there, didn't make any money, totally not important when such a good time could be had, we met so many lovely people, you know who you are. Second year our Samoyed cross was lying in the grass sometimes surrounded by people saying "hi" to her. Johngarnett, Bradders, Strangely Brown and many more, s'funny because she was going deaf but it did not matter, the company suited her down to the ground. Fond memories from both years.

We went the third year as visitors, not many people and there was non shooting related tat being sold. Feedback since has been an event that is going down hill. I will not go back.
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#26 Post by Daryll »

25-06 wrote:I found vast variations to prices as in one item I was after on many items, as in one item was £35.00 on one stall, £32.50 on another and £28.00 on the third, its not really a cheap way of buying there when the Internet is out there now on everything really, I went really to avoid paying postage on Lead Bullets which is sooo expensive, but I did hear from one stall holder that it was to be £800 ish per day for his original idea...at that rate its going to be hard to carry the event of a small trade fair on, retailers will have to sell vast amounts to nett their way out of stall hire alone let alone the rest of the expense. At that rate it will or could be history, Saturday afternoon was dead..
Yes, there aren't many "show specials" any more...

My son was looking to buy a press (Lee Challenger Breechlock) to start reloading... the only one we saw on a stall was £99. While we were at the stall my son googled and found CDSG sell them for £69... a no-brainer..
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#27 Post by Fedaykin »

I was talking to a good friend and RFD last week, he is all but giving up setting up a stall at any form of show. Aside from the cost of the stall the reality is there sales tend to be low and that is largely down to the attitude of the punters coming to these shows. The punters tend to split into two groups both of which don't lend themselves to making much money:

Group 1: Tyre kickers, there to browse and look at stuff but rarely buy - will spend much time on the stand pontificating about stuff and wanting to handle your products but not buying
Group 2: Bargain hunters, no real plan for what they want and only interested in heavily discounted bargains - will spend much time on your stand asking for you to discount an item that is already for sale at a price that offers barely any margin for a profit

British shooting show appears to be where the gravity is now, in other words one really big show a year that lends itself more to the big players like Sportsman Gun Centre with their economies of scale than the small guys.
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#28 Post by artiglio »

In the NRA’s defence, yes they are on a mission to make money but they are then spending that money, the investment in bisley over the last 5 years is considerable and clearly visible, there is also a visible increase in range use, so difficult to say its not working.
The electronic targets are very popular and generally very good (the exception being the 600yd targets which seem to be getting shot out quite quickly, hopefully the nra will get on top of the maintenance periods for these and get it sorted)
However the cost of a night in the ABC lines has now increased to nearly 50 which for effectively an “indoor camping “ experience is steep, but if its to finance their replacement then its different.

I walked around the fair, very quiet, but just about every stall had people talking to the vendors. Without knowing the cost of the marquee its difficult to guess as to wether the stall costs are extortionate. Shooting wise fclass seemed to be better attended , but overall it seemed quieter than i’ve experienced in the last 6 years ( my shooting started after the phoenix glory days). When you speak to people the trend seems to be that they come down for the weekend and shoot lots of different comps, the view being that for the amount of shooting they did it was good value.

In the era of the internet, its difficult to see how anyone can attend show and undercut the specialist online retailers, especially if they take their time into account. The fairs become a shop window , which will be expensive if the follow up trade is’nt there. So for anything that comes in a box or packet and is new is hardly a realistic prospect for good sales at a show.
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#29 Post by TattooedGun »

artiglio wrote:In the NRA’s defence, yes they are on a mission to make money but they are then spending that money, the investment in bisley over the last 5 years is considerable and clearly visible, there is also a visible increase in range use, so difficult to say its not working.
The electronic targets are very popular and generally very good (the exception being the 600yd targets which seem to be getting shot out quite quickly, hopefully the nra will get on top of the maintenance periods for these and get it sorted)
However the cost of a night in the ABC lines has now increased to nearly 50 which for effectively an “indoor camping “ experience is steep, but if its to finance their replacement then its different.

I walked around the fair, very quiet, but just about every stall had people talking to the vendors. Without knowing the cost of the marquee its difficult to guess as to wether the stall costs are extortionate. Shooting wise fclass seemed to be better attended , but overall it seemed quieter than i’ve experienced in the last 6 years ( my shooting started after the phoenix glory days). When you speak to people the trend seems to be that they come down for the weekend and shoot lots of different comps, the view being that for the amount of shooting they did it was good value.

In the era of the internet, its difficult to see how anyone can attend show and undercut the specialist online retailers, especially if they take their time into account. The fairs become a shop window , which will be expensive if the follow up trade is’nt there. So for anything that comes in a box or packet and is new is hardly a realistic prospect for good sales at a show.
The thing is, it shouldn't be the traders subsidising the electronic targets, or the Stupidly expensive mobile homes that get put up. What people here are saying is bang on, if you price it more realistically for traders to come and put stalls, you'll encourage people to put up more realistically priced items, specialist vendors and bring in a much more variety of items available, further increasing the numbers of people coming to the camp and spending money.

If someones coming down to visit XYZ trader to have a chat and finalise some details on their custom work, for example, or as a central meeting place to hand over something that needs work, rather than just somewhere to try and sell trinkets, surely that's got to be better.

If you've got a reason to come see someone whose going to do work for you, and it's not costing them the earth to sit on a stand, talk to customers, or prospective customers about work they want done that can't be done then and there, then it might prompt people to have their face to face and go spend £20 to enter a comp whilst they're down there.

If everything is traders trying to claw back the money it cost to set up on the stand, and its a losing battle and before too many years the NRA will be charging the remaining 3 big traders the whole cost of the marquee and they'll stop coming.

It smacks of people in the office or those higher up not wanting to do the legwork for a big show, if they charge 5 traders £1000 it's only 5 sets of paperwork to fill out, rather than 50 traders at £100. that's 50 sets of paperwork, for the same money... As long as traders now keep paying it, they'll keep charging it, because it's less work for them, it just shows the lack of enthusiasm for it to be bigger and better, rather than smaller and less effort. :bad:
MistAgain
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Re: Pheonix Gun Fair

#30 Post by MistAgain »

Daryll wrote:
25-06 wrote:I found vast variations to prices as in one item I was after on many items, as in one item was £35.00 on one stall, £32.50 on another and £28.00 on the third, its not really a cheap way of buying there when the Internet is out there now on everything really, I went really to avoid paying postage on Lead Bullets which is sooo expensive, but I did hear from one stall holder that it was to be £800 ish per day for his original idea...at that rate its going to be hard to carry the event of a small trade fair on, retailers will have to sell vast amounts to nett their way out of stall hire alone let alone the rest of the expense. At that rate it will or could be history, Saturday afternoon was dead..
Yes, there aren't many "show specials" any more...

My son was looking to buy a press (Lee Challenger Breechlock) to start reloading... the only one we saw on a stall was £99. While we were at the stall my son googled and found CDSG sell them for £69... a no-brainer..
To be fair , did you ask the stall holder if that was a mistake , or did the price include a specific set of dies ( as I think it did )

Suggested retail for that press is I believe about £84.00 .
Two online dealers who are undercutting that price are also direct importers who buy at Distributer price to undercut everyone else , they are not interested in giving a service to your local dealer .

When Tim Hannam was the sole importer for Lee he did offer extra discounts for dealers who wanted stock for Pistol AD , but with conditions .
The same discount was available to any other dealer whose account was in good standing , who paid with order and did not advertise stupid discounts.
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