Past Shows

The last show in November is the London Gem & Mineral Show. The show is located in London, ON. It is approximately 2-3 hours drive from Toronto. We finally can rest for a few days. We visited the biggest mall in Toronto - The Yorkdale Mall. It literally has all the stores that I could think of.  The show has a very interesting live auction. The host is one of our vendors. He is very professional in the auction. When he speaks, we can barely hear what he's talking about because he speaks so fast.  We love going to shows like this one, and it's always a bonus when you can find a new wholesale customer. Lucky for us, we meet a new friend this time. They are actually vendors too. We found out that a large percentage of our wholesale customers we have are found when doing shows together with us.  Toronto is so pretty at night!!The two weeks business trip ends here, now we are heading back to Vancouver for our last show of the year.

Nelson was away that week, so Marble and I manned the booth on our own, and this blog post fell to me to write.The Delta Rockhounds put on their gem & mineral show in the South Delta Recreation Center so besides all the wonderful gemstones & sundry, we were fortunate enough to see some hockey, some figure skating practice in the adjacent ice rink, and even a ceramics craft fair in one of the other showrooms! In the gem show proper, of particular note was the terrific line-up of demonstrations on subjects as diverse as lampwork beadmaking to freeform stone carving to gold panning! The club members also hosted a terrific baked goods table as well (the cranberry scones were delicious!).All in all we had a terrific time; made lots of new friends, got reacquainted with several long-time friends among vendors and customers alike, set lots of stones and most importantly made lots of people happy!

Right after we finished the Delta Rockhound Gem and Mineral Show, we can heading to Toronto for the Gem Expo and also the London Gem and Mineral Show. These are our fifth and sixth show in a row. The Gem Expo is held at the Hyatt Regency located at Downtown Toronto. This show has already been held for several years and it is always the same location,so customers know where to find us.The show is held at Downtown Toronto. The show is quite slow for the first two days and it picked up a little bit on Sunday. We think it's because this show is held three times a year and not many customers will make big purchase on all of the three shows. Some vendors told us that they made a lot of money in the one in July. Unfortunately we can only come to this show once a year because of the time conflict with other shows in B.C.. Thankfully it covers our travel expense, we will be able to make some money in our next show in London so we will not be going home empty handed.  Finally, we want to show you some beautiful work done by Marble! We almost forget that he can also provide the help if we are not too busy.

The last show in October was the Port Moody Rock and Gem Show. This is one of our favorite club shows because we get assigned a unique and enclosed room to set up as our booth! Customers call it the "Silver Room" and we love it! The room is very efficient for us because it offers more display area and its setup allows us to actually show more items and service our customers better.           DIY Jewellery Corner During the show, we had a new banner to announce our newly setup "DIY Jewellery Corner" right in our showroom. The DIY Jewellery Corner is a place where you and mind-like jewellery enthusiasts can be creative. One of its main purpose is to teach you how to set your own stones into pendants or rings settings. So, bring your stones and purchase any pendant or ring setting that fit your stones at great prices. We will then teach you how to set them yourself. Participation and instruction are totally FREE; however you need to pay for your setting! Seats are limited, so sign up early to make sure you get a spot. The feedback at the show has been very positive  and customers displayed excitement about the idea and participation.   

In the second week of October, we go to Calgary for our second time of the year for the Calgary Rock and Gem Show located in the Stampede Park, which is also the home for Calgary Flames! The views on the highway are completely different then the one on April. The only thing they share is that they both are awesome views. We have been through Autumn and Winter when we cross the Rocky Mountain. It is good that we have winter tires on, otherwise we would be in trouble.Views on the highwaySurprisingly, the weather is very nice in Calgary. It has not got any snow yet. Calgary Downtown Entrance of Stampede Park        Mark is joining us for the show this time so it boosts the sales by quite a lot because he can set stones on our findings for free for our lovely customers so they do not need to worry about going to some local jewellery stores to make them set. The sales is good but not as good as we expected considering Calgary is one of our best markets. We think it is because we have not participated in this show for few years and customers did not know we are coming. We are confident that our sales will grow next year.  Once the show is done, we are on our way to Richmond for the next show - the Port Moody rock and gem show! Going back home! Finally, we would like to show you some of the fantastic pieces done by Mark. 

Stepping into the month of October, another show season is waiting for us. We have six shows in the coming two months. The first one is the Surrey rock and gem club show. Hall Display Some nice displays from the members of the Surrey rockhound club The show is not big but very popular, there is a lot of traffic. There are many vendors that we have met in other shows are still on a very long waiting list to get in the show.The show overall is better than we expected. The sales is way more than last year. That is such an improvement. Part of the reason is we meet some return customers in the show and it is always good to see them even if they are not buying.     

Finally, in the last week of August, we have our last show in this month - the Kamloops Gem and Mineral Show. Booth DisplayBefore the show starts, there is a vendor who is very kind to provide a performance to cheer for us.One of our vendors performs for usThe organizer have done quite a nice job advertising, many people come to the show. However, not many of them are buying, so overall, the show is not very busy. We have talked to many vendors and most of them say that they have a new lowest sales record. Luckily for us, we have many vendors come to buy from us and few return customers too. Therefore, our sales is not as bad as we think it would be. Silvia once again helping us outSilvia is doing great at the show. Many customers come to our booth to see the bracelets and earrings that she made. She is a pretty good sales after all the practices. Silvia is having some good sales at this showSilvia meets many new friends at the show. Not only her sales is doing great, she also enjoys the spare time with some of her new friends. Silvia is having a good time

We have four shows in the month of August. The first one is the Annual Rockhound Gemboree in Bancroft. Just like the Toronto gem show, we take the airplane to Toronto, then to Bancroft. It's about four hours drive. Waiting for the luggage in the airport An extremely huge rainbow        The Bancroft Annual Rockhound Gemboree is the biggest gem and mineral show in Canada. It has two halls for vendors and all the customers from Toronto, Ottawa, Bancroft, etc. We were in Building B for the last couple years. We are moved the upper building this year and everything is quite different. Biggest gem and mineral show in Canada First time in this building        Our new booth. Before set up After the set up        Bill, our neighbor, is a very good customer and friend. Many new customers come to buy from us this time. It feels like customers in the other building does not have as much interest to our items than in this building. It is delighted to see that we have better sales to cover our heavy expenses traveling all the way to Ontario.  The Bancroft Annual Rockhound Gemboree is the biggest show in Canada because it has the most vendors. Not only that it has two buildings, it also has the extra space outside of Building A for some other vendors. Outdoor vendors

July is the month when we can relax a little bit because we only have one show - Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show at Winfield Memorial Hall. Winfield, Lake Country is a small but beautiful town and it is only 20 minutes away from Kelowna. Road Views        Canada becomes even prettier in the Summer. The road condition is perfect for driving except that this year we are experiencing the largest wild fire in recent years so some of the roads are closed. We are quite lucky that the part of the highway which we are going is not affected. Great Views in Kelowna        The Winfield Memorial Hall is very hot in the summer especially when there is no Air condition inside the building. Customers are sweating a lot but they are very patient. It is grateful seeing all the customers coming to visit us in this environment. Show Display Silvia helping us serving customers        We visit our website developer Lyse on Saturday night and spend a wonderful night with her family at her house. A Feast at Lyse's HouseSilviaFindings Team