Reflections on Spring Beaulieu.

[Stuart Joseph]

Good morning all. Once again my son and I made our pilgrimage to Spring Beaulieu. First of all many thanks to the users of this forum who stopped to say hello - without them the silence would have been deafening.
The usual old lags were there. It was good to see Jamie of the 7WS out for the first time since his indisposition, Tony Betts who tried to run me over (tip Tony, after I have paid you), Dave Wilkinson with his mass of parts and Willie McKenzie the quality of whose parts is amazing.
The number of unoccupied pitches suggests that interest in this event is on the wane, helped by over-officious organisers. Autojumbles need Autojumblers a basic business fact that seems beyond Beaulieu's comprehension. As for the public were there any other events taking place on Saturday? I heard of a wedding and a football match but did these affect the attendance? There were the usual tyre-kickers and ice-cream lickers in attendance, one of whom proclaimed that my lamps were made in China! The response that the last time I looked Staffordshire was not a province of China met with the reply - whatever..................

Best regards from Staffordshire the creative county.

Stuart

[Tony Betts]

Hi Stuart,
As always it was good to see you and the other stall holders and public alike who attended.

Sorry for "nearly" running you over, but flapping around in the middle of the Isle you made an easy target

I take it by your thread, beaulieu was less than ideal. I had heard from many around me, and others with signage interest it wasn't good. All I can suggest is with the signs, if you look to buy from auctions and sell at shows. It leaves the chance of very small profits, less than 10%. Many of the stalls I sore with signs on we're hopeing to double there money.

I did count around 25 known faces this year, to perhaps 12 last. but if selling austin 7 parts only, this would never made a show work!

On my own this year with one stall only, you may not want to hear I done very well this year. As you know I didn't bother with new spares, as I didn't feel the customers would be there for it. I had a very healthy mix of original car parts, many hard to find bits, Badges, mascots, signs, slot machines. You name it, most at very sensible prices. And the very varied mix brought in a larger crowd.

It was sad to see the empty spaces, and high stall prices don't help. And many are now just doing the junk traders on Sunday at beaulieu. ( captive ordiance? ).

Biggest annoyance of the weekend, beaulieu are now charging to take large items back to the car park. That should KILL all large part sales for the future. And WILL limit more stalls for the future.

Remember USE IT OR LOOSE IT. Tony.