My goal is to publish new posts twice a week — Mondays and Thursdays. However, if you don’t see a new post on Thursday, it’s because I was too busy, so please look for a new one the following Monday.

The Baltimore Summer Antiques Fair closed yesterday, Sunday, August 24th. It was an interesting show for us, but the bottom line was disappointing. The show started weakly on opening day, then got stronger on Friday. We were hopeful that the weekend would be good, but it wasn’t. Attendance was best on Saturday, but we only made two small sales. Sunday attendance was fair, but we only made one sale to the public, but two good sales to dealers on the floor of the show. Sales were down over 50% from the average of the last several years.

I asked several dealers for their results. Some allowed me to use their names and others preferred to remain anonymous. Jack Ophir of Englewood, NJ, said “Our show was consistent with previous year’s successes.” Butler & Butler of Sarasota, FL remarked “Considering the market, we were delighted. We saw lots of previous customers and some new ones.” Alfred Cali of Cleveland, OH told me “We did well, mostly artwork.” An East Coast Art Nouveau dealer said “Traffic was off and I would have preferred more sales.” Sayed Hosseini of Antique Legacy of Upland, CA, remarked “It was good.” Brothers Bob and Rick Kaplan of CA said “The show was disappointing. We did 50% less than last year with unusually small crowds.” Chris Mulloy of Palm Springs, CA was happy. “The show was fantastic. All my customers came and were true to me.” Jeff Myers was also pleased. “My show was very good.” And finally one of the major dealers of the show said “We did well, but not great”.

We just decided to add a new show to our schedule, the NYC Big Flea Market. The new promoters, D’Amore Promotions, will be using the same Pier 94 that is used by USA Antique Shows for their November and March shows. This one will be substantially different, with an entirely new cast of dealers. Click here for more information. It should be good, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Click here to view our new website and look around. We always strive to offer the finest objects for sale on our website and at every show. There are many items for sale, sold items with prices and free lessons about glass and lamps.