Record fairs vs online shopping

I plan on getting a table at the Record Fair in the St Louis area this September. I'm frankly just trying to get rid of some albums, cd's, etc. that I don't care for anymore. Plus I'm in debt and want to pay off some bills. My question is: is it worth hauling the dollar bin type albums to one? Or are people more prone to just looking for better and more rare lp's. If that's the case, I may keep my dollar bin albums minimal.

 

Also if you are going to shop at record fairs, definitely talk to the vendors about what you want, even if you don't see it.... I have engaged in conversation with vendors before about a particular artist or title, and more than once I've literally had people say to me, "you know what, I don't have it here, but I do have it at home (or back at the store), let me bring it next week -- get in touch with me on Facebook" or whatever. And sometimes I've wound up with the records I wanted, a week or so later!

 

I recently did my first record fair as a seller. I was probably one of only a few sellers actually selling quality stuff and not just boxes of dollar finds. It actually took awhile but once people started coming over and looking at my stuff, then word got out and I got pretty busy. I sold about half of my stock and mostly at the prices I asked for. The downside was that I had a lot of careless people pawing through my stuff and I got a fair amount of hostile guff from the dollar sellers, because I was clearly sucking dollars out of their pockets, from their perspectives.

Overall I cleared about $1000 for four hours work but it was a hell of a lot of work, and I can't imagine doing all of that just to make $10-$20 profit like most of those dollar sellers did. Those guys are out there every weekend too, but that is the life of the Flipper and God Bless.

The upside of Record Fairs vs online selling is that you can't be pestered by some dissatisfied person who decides they don't like the mastering on the album they bought from you and wants a refund, but I do think online selling is just easier overall and in the long term, the money is better too. Just invest in good mailer boxes.

 

I'll probably see you there. I'm a regualr shopper at the St. Louis show.

 

Cool. Feel free to expand what this particular one is like. I've never been to it and I'm on the fence whether what I'll be selling will be worth the haul (which is a selection of a decent records including a good number of Beatles U.S. pressings along with some cheap dollar bin stuff, also some 1990's era comics, cd's, music magazines).

 

I'm more of a 45s guy, although I've purchased an album or two at the past couple of shows.

The show is always good for 45s. The September show is usually one of the better ones. I'd give it a whirl and see what happens.

 

I like shopping at record fairs much more than buying online.
When you find something you've been looking for a long time,
there's that feeling of euphoria that you can't get from an online purchase.
There's a record show coming up on August 23 in Dayton.
I don't know if I'll find anything, but I know I'll enjoy myself.

Darryl

 

I could probably count on one hand the number of records I've purchased online in the last five years. I bought three records at my local record store yesterday.

 

I buy at a lot online but record shows are more fun. There's only 4 in the area though, 2 in spring time and 2 in the autumn. I'd have to travel further if I wanted to go to more. The problem with the local ones are that they take part about a week or two apart and I can't really afford to go to both in the spring and both in the autumn.

I happened to be in NYC when the famous WFMU record show was on so I went and spent a day there. I had a lot of fun and picked up some records on my list. I found so much stuff I wanted (didn't buy it all though!) that I'm thinking of going back next year. I'm trying to get my friend to come with me but he said he would only go if it was more like a holiday and he did something else as it seems extravagant to go to NYC just to buy some records. I pointed out to him that going to NYC to buy records is like a holiday. He's not buying it though.