A Report on No Coast Craft-o-rama - how it all went, some photos, and some selling statistics too!

Above you can see my table setup before the No Coast Craft-o-rama show in Minneapolis began. It was stocked full of items of which many, many sold. I wish that I had an after photo, but I don't. I was too busy both days to take many photos. It is rare that I see fellow artists and crafters share many details about their shows, but this one was such a good show that I've decided to share some of the wonderful positives about it including some selling statistics. Below you'll see a list of the show highlights. I hope that you find them interesting and useful.


No Coast Craft-o-rama Show Highlights

• I sold over 10 times (actually more like 15+ times!!) my booth fee with about 40% of my inventory selling out.
• A little over half of my sales were in credit cards along with a couple of checks. The other half of sales were in cash.
• I didn't hear one rude comment in the entire two days from a shopper! I can honestly say that the shoppers had a real appreciation for quality handmade items and expressed great interest. They were also very complimentary and inquired about the felting process many times.
• The vendors and show coordinators were all very organized and super nice! My neighbors were You Go Girl Soaps and Sheppard Girls, both of whom were just lovely. I also got to meet several other vendors, and all were absolute gems!
• The space is superb for a show with wide open areas to display.
• The foot traffic was amazing with non-stop people passing by. Sometimes it was in crowds and sometimes just a trickle, but there were always some browsers it seemed. There was an estimated attendance of 10,000 shoppers over the two days, but I believe that there were probably more than that.
  

All in all, it was the best show that I've ever had! The only draw back was the distance that my husband and I had to travel - Minneapolis is six hours from Kansas City, but it was well worth the trip. (And, it was kind of like a mini-vacation that payed for itself too.) My goal was to make enough money to buy a new living room set. Yep, you saw right, I want a new couch, chair, loveseat, etc.! I haven't had a new set since my husband and I got married five years ago, and it is high time that I got one. Well, the goal was accomplished. We went furniture shopping last night. I haven't found anything that I like yet, but I certainly will.

A BIG "thank you!" to the wonderful members of the Crafters Local 612 who organized the show. It was truly fabulous in every way, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! Great work!!

If you are interested in seeing more photos of my table display and the show itself, please visit my flickr photo gallery and the No Coast Craft-o-rama flickr group.