Good Weekend in Malibu

Vaughn McMillan

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We did a show this weekend in Malibu, and for the first time in a while, the sales were nicely into the black. It was a small show in a supermarket parking lot, and not in a real busy part of town, but it's a very high-end neighborhood, and the other booths were showing (and trying to sell) high-dollar pieces. When I say high-end nieghborhood, I'm talking about 1 bed 1 bath homes for $1.5 million. Houses costing in the teens (of millions) are not unusual. Have a peek on Zillow.com at home prices in the 90263 zip code, and you'll see what I mean. I saw one nice-looking home with the promising price of $45,000. Turns out that's the monthly lease. :eek:

The show was in the north end of Malibu. It was about 8 to 10 miles up the coast from the "center" of town, so it was a bit out in the sticks by comparison. But it was a nice location. We were literally across the street from the ocean. And the "street" is the Pacific Coast Highway, a.k.a. Highway 1, so there was a decent amount of vehicle traffic going by the show both days:

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Although the show was about an hour and a half from our house, about 20 miles of the trip each way is along the PCH, and the views are great. (Didn't stop to take any pics along the way, though.)

There was a sculptor with a booth close to ours. Check out what he does with a burl. (Sorry for the cell phone pics):

Here's his "booth" from the back side:

Siggy%27s%20Booth.jpg


Here's the back of one of his pieces. That's maple burl:

Burl%20Back.jpg


And here what the front looks like:

Burl%20Front.jpg


Another burl face:

Burl%20Face%203.jpg


And how's this for buckeye burl?

Burl%20Face%202.jpg


And another shot of his booth, showing a glimpse of some of his other pieces. It gives a bit of scale to see the artist (on the left in the blue cap and shirt) standing next to one of the pieces. He works in stone and metal as well as wood:

Siggy%27s%20Booth%202.jpg


I didn't see the prices he had on those pieces, but he was telling me about a recent show he did where he only sold two pieces all weekend, but made about $5,000 in the process.

Like I said, it was a small show...I think there were 35 vendor spaces. This was a morning shot when things were still pretty overcast along the coast:

Small%20Show.jpg


Sunnier in the afternoon, but still slow. This was my booth neighbor about 10 minutes before quitting time on Saturday:

Sound%20Asleep%20Neighbor.jpg


And the obligatory booth shots before some of the pieces found new homes:

Malibu%20Booth%201.jpg


Malibu%20Booth%202.jpg


I ended up selling several of my bigger, higher-priced pieces, as well as a variety of medium and smaller sized stuff. The dyed pieces (hollow forms, bowls, and vases) seemed to sell well this time, making up about half of the total sales. As I said, it was pleasantly profitable, so I'll probably be looking at doing more shows in this area. :thumb: Not only are the locals pretty affluent, but the tourists are, too. My two biggest sales were to a Canadian family and a German gentleman. There was a Texan in there somewhere, too, so that would make a total of three foreign countries represented. :rofl:

For now, I'm worn pretty thin so I'm ready for some rest. Getting 13 hours of sleep total over the last three nights is starting to catch up with me. :rolleyes:
 
Very Nice Vaughn. Glad that you had a good show and the weather was nice too. Bonus on both ends. :thumb::thumb:

I hear you with the home pricing though we have the same around here with Bear Mtn and the north end of Salt Spring. Lots of famous people having huge homes built with riduculous price tags. One hockey player has a 14 mill home. :eek: Just nuts.
 
did i see that michigan crotch hollow for upon the shelf in your booth vaughn? i thought that was stayun in your private collection...glad you had a good sale and maybe you found a niche where your talents are respected and get what they deserve..
 
Nice to hear about one of these shows working out for a change! Here's hoping it starts a trend for you guys! :thumb: :thumb:
 
Sounds like a great show, glad it worked out, hope it's a good trend as well.

Would be hard to do much for me in that kind of weather and a view of the ocean. They really have some great talent at those shows also.
 
Good news and a good day from the sound of it. Get some rest and then get out to the shop and backfill those sold items you slacker! Congrats.
 
Well Vaughn i guess you selling in the right area.:D Its so good to hear this news and to hear you selling again. At least the rich are opening their wallets.

That burl face art is unbelievable. Man that guys got such talent i would not have thought he needed to do shows. Those are spectacular pieces. Thanks for taking pictures and sharing them with us. They came out darn well for cell phone pics.

BTW your booth looks great.:thumb: So happy you had "black friday" sales.;)
 
Just curious and if it's none of my business just tell me. What's the setup fee for a booth in a high dollar neighborhood like that?

John, this one was $195 for the entry fee, which is about $100 lower than most of the others I've seen here in the LA area. The caveat is that they charged 10% commission on sales, although they cap that at $200. (If you sell over $2K worth of merchandise, the commission is still $200.) In the end, it cost me about the same as a non-commissioned show, but with a bit lower risk to me if the show was unsuccessful.
 
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