ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
MAYBE IT WAS THE good weather or the change of venue. But business was just flat.
Had you shopped the Antique and Collectibles Expo at the Salem Civic Center on Sunday, you could have gone home with carnival glass candy dishes and sterling silver fish knives, beaded handbags and 1930s wooden furniture.
But the 65 dealers, who came from as far as Pennsylvania, ended up taking most of their wares home with them at the end of the two-day fair, which drew a sparse crowd.
"We have really a lot of lookers," said Edith Spangler of Roanoke, watching as shoppers would stop for a moment at her booth, look through her children's books and glassware and move on without reaching for their wallets.
Spangler shrugged. "To me, it's not so bad if I don't do quite so well." She doesn't depend on shows for her income, and she had to drive only a few miles to get to the civic center. She felt much worse, she said, for the out-of-town dealers, who had to cover lodging, food and gas for the two-day event.
But the traveling is the best part of the business for some of the dealers, such as Jim and Gloria Maddrey of Chesapeake. They started traveling the antique circuit when their daughter went off to college and left them "sitting around looking at each other every night, crying," Jim Maddrey said. Now they have a time-consuming hobby that earns them a little - sometimes very little - money.
"But we have a great time together," Gloria Maddrey said.
"We love to do these shows," said Emil Goldsmith - who, despite his name, was selling sterling silver pieces. He and his wife, Joan, live in Charlotte and do about 35 shows a year. "You meet so many nice people. In this business, you either love it or hate it. There's no in between."
He laughed and said, "I just hope we make enough to cover the booth fee."
Dealers paid $80 to $200 for space at the expo, depending on the size of their tables; $160 was enough to rent a 16-by-10-foot booth.
They all had their own takes on the weekend's poor showing. A man selling glasswares blamed the thin crowd on the back-to-school rush that drained parents' pocketbooks. Others said the weather was too nice - "Too bad it isn't raining" was a common refrain. A woman at a booth packed with dishes and jewelry figured that local antiquers had spent all their money at the glassware show - also at the civic center - Friday and Saturday, or else they were saving up for the gigantic antique expo in Hillsville in a few weeks.
Part of the problem, Spangler said, could be that the expo changed venues recently. Until January, antique and collectible dealers gathered at the Roanoke Civic Center for the "Big Flea," a combination flea market/antique show/collectibles expo held three times a year.
"It will take time for people to get used to it," Spangler said.
"The trouble," said Joan Goldsmith, Emil's wife, "is that you can always find reasons for having a bad show, but when you have a good show, you never know why."
The January show had a much better turnout, said Sandra Clark, with D'Amore Promotions of Virginia Beach. "We need to get community support," she said. "If we want to keep bringing in top-quality dealers, we need local people to come out for this.
"Every promoter would love for every dealer to do great every show," Clark said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen."
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Most people at the Salem Civic Centerby CNBfor the Antique and
Collectibles Expo on Sunday were just having a look around, thank
you. color.