Page 40 - Issues131-133

show had not started (I have gone through entire shows and added less than 20 bottles to my
collection).

Next morning we set up for the show and the fun
began. Normally for the show I spend a bunch of
time trying to figure out what to bring, flying in I have
a limited amount I can bring and it is always a guess
as to what will sell. I try to bring a little bit of variety
along with anything new I might have. This year I
only had 1 new “exclusive” bottle and that was a
glass Pau vodka I had found (and only seen) in
Hawaii (everywhere else including some of the
stores in Hawaii it was plastic) so other that I was at
a loss. I grabbed what I thought would sell and then
took some other things that normally don’t sell but
you never know. This year the bottles I expected to
sell, did not and the bottles that normally don’t sell, I
sold them all. I was able to find some nice bottles
(plus some killer Macallan bottles I had requested from a collector and forgot they were being brought
for me) in all I added over 100 bottles to my collection. I have heard that from other collectors that had
attended the show too, maybe with fewer people there was less competition for some of the nicer
bottles.

Adding to the show was a group from the Midwest that are part of a Facebook group called MAC, they
mainly collect Crown Royal but are open to other things. They came to the show and also had the
chance to get together for their own function and plan on attending again next year. That added
between 5-10 new people at the show. The other noticeable thing was the hospitality suite on Saturday
night normally there are 30-40 people in the room making it standing room only and very noisy. This
year there was 10-12 and so you could easily have conversations. Sundays at the show have gotten
shorter and shorter over the years. It used to be considered bargain day when you could go and make
some great deals, you still can but by 11:00 pretty much everyone was packed and gone. We moved
next year’s show to June 10-12 so that there is more time between shows. Hopefully next show things
will be such that it is easier to travel and we can have more attendees.
Ron Gabbard

= 11 =