Craft Show 2004, pics
Jim Shaver Oakville, Ont
>Hello,
Once a year just at the start of the Christmas season my place of work holds a Craft sale. This year represents my fourth year in participating and I always enjoy the event. In my first few years my turned crafts were well accepted and my sales were okay, but I quickly learned that pens outsold almost everything else at a rate of better than 6:1. So last year I focused on pens and found a great market.
This year I did much the same, but with better woods and some better quality kits. I found that the better woods were a huge hit as were the more expensive pens. I was very happy to see that the investment paid off in happy customers walking away with new treasure to own or give as gifts.
I had many past customers come by my table and show off the pens they bought in the past, I asked each of them to hand over the well used pens and I applied some micro crystalline wax to each one as a small way of saying thank you to them.
Other items I sold were a variety of whistle key chains, pocket watches, cork and chrome bottle stoppers as Oil lamps.
Pens are still my mainstay for sales, I sold about 20% of my inventory. I also found that pocket watches were a hit, and the chrome stoppers did well too.
Still the most gratifying part of a sale for me is hearing back from old customers, they tell me about the gifts, where they have gone too and how much they are appreciated by their owners. I now know that one of my pens sits in the breast pocket of a University President in Japan, that a few have gone as gifts to families around the world in places like Africa, Australia, England, China, Chile and the United States. I know that several pens are in the hands of corporate leaders in my company and once last month a global email went out at work, titled, �Some One Found a Jim Shaver Pen�, its owner was quickly found. I am blessed by the simple things these gifts have given back to me, the sale is such a small part of the process.
Thanks for viewing,
Take care,
Jim
