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posted 08-22-2016 10:31 AM            

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[26-2588]

Heading out to the Baltimore Antique Show this week. This will be our first time attending this show. We did the past two Miami shows and thought Baltimore should be interesting. Curious if any others on this forum are planning on attending.

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posted 08-22-2016 11:14 AM            

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Baltimore is an interesting show.

Dealers from the south will go north to Baltimore but no farther north.
Dealers from the north will go south to Baltimore but no farther south.

The antiques world of shows is changing. So the promoters are trying things; most of the things they try don't seem to working very well.

The Miami Beach show is moving to western Miami and so many dealers are saying they are not going to set up, so I suspect the Baltimore show will be busy.

The Baltimore show tends to have a fair presence of silver, jewelry so we attend. Plus we have some good friends that live in Baltimore.

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posted 08-22-2016 12:05 PM            

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Interesting perspective, Baltimore sounds like the Mason-Dixon line of antique shows.

As to the Miami show- I have heard the same concerns. The new location is not the only issue. Some of the foreign dealers are fed up with the current laws affecting antique ivory and are reluctant to return to the states. Nonetheless, we will likely give the new venue a chance since we live just up the road in Orlando.

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posted 08-22-2016 12:15 PM            

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Orlando....That reminds me of a show we use to do often because my Mother use to live in Mount Dora (north west of Orlando).

In the old days it was great ... we haven't been in years. How is it now?

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posted 08-22-2016 03:13 PM            

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Lets just say it was a great place to grow up......I am 53 years old now!!

I guess it is always more difficult to handle the growth when you remember "how it was." Fortunately we live in a rural area on the outskirt of town, so we we get the best of both worlds. As to the economy, it has generally been strong.

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posted 08-22-2016 07:18 PM            

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Scott - Renninger's is not what it used to be, or at least that was true the last few times I visited (has probably been 3 or 4 years) - I live north of downtown, not a long drive to Mount Dora, spent a lot of time there for a lot of years, probably visited your booth...

Vetdaddy - moved here 45 years ago at age 13, Orlando is my adopted home town, still love it, but miss the old 'small town' feeling, where it seemed everywhere I went, ran into someone I knew (and the traffic just kills me now!)

~Cheryl

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posted 08-22-2016 11:46 PM            

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Cheryl, residents in central Florida are either BD or AD- Before Disney or After Disney. Sounds as if both of us are the former.

Renningers- we stop in maybe once a year.

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posted 08-23-2016 02:13 AM            

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We moved here a month before Disney opened, part of and witness to the changes that ensued - as child of a vagabond father, this was the first place I didn't feel like 'the new kid', since there were so many others. Our first house was on 13+ acres out Goldenrod/Oviedo way, very few homes, could ride my horse anywhere,same story when we moved to the Altamonte/Longwood area - it really was a great place to grow up...

~Cheryl

[This message has been edited by dragonflywink (edited 08-23-2016).]

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posted 08-23-2016 09:04 AM            

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Cheryl, Similar here. Spent the first two years of my life in the Winter Park Pines, then my parents relocated to a ten acre parcel off of Dean Road. Great area to be raised in and very few fence lines in they way of a wandering kid.

My daughter did the horse gig for several years... I am still recovering!!

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posted 08-23-2016 11:31 AM            

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I love that area. I briefly lived in Altamonte Springs near the intersection of 434 and 436. I like that area.

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posted 08-23-2016 02:28 PM            

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A silver dealer friend of mine that does the Baltimore show was disappointed because he had heard that many of the UK dealers were not coming. He thought that the exchange rate was too unfavorable for them.
Hopefully those that do come will sell well.

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posted 08-28-2016 11:30 AM            

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One London silver dealer did show up at the show. He said it was a good show for him as you stated, other London dealers did not attend.

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posted 08-28-2016 04:55 PM            

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Overall it's still a very nice show.

This year there were many fewer dealers. The possible exception was that there may have been more Fine Art dealers.

Every dealer was complaining about the fewer attendees but the dealers were doing business.

Nearly every dealer felt the show promoter was slowly killing the show by making it too upscale. Generally dealers shop each other during setup. There wasn't that much dealer to dealer setup business happening. And regular more established dealers felt that the promoter was not allowing lower end/start up dealers so there was less pre-show and less entry level sales.

One silver dealer did say they had a great show, so great they felt it may be time to return to buying inventory.

Up scaling the food was an improvement but not the sky high prices.

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