Now that the dust has settled, I'd love to hear how the show was. Sleepers? High points of the weekend? Auction?
Shoot me an email or a comment, and I'll be happy to pass on your thoughts as an update to this post.
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OK gang, here is the first "guest opinion".
Let's keep them comin'!
#1)
Hi
Bruce.
The
Sacramento National was a good show overall. The entire event from Thursday was
jam packed with activity and had something for everyone. The "General's
Reception" was nice with hamburgers and great socializing. There were
seminars too with my favorites being conducted by John Shroyer and Tom
Jacobs.
The
line to get in the show on the first day was huge and attendance by the public
on Saturday was unbelievable. This had to be a record turnout for a
National.
I
bought extremely well but actual sales were disappointing. Maybe my prices were
too high but most tables had bargains which sat for the entire show. Had my
money not run out, I could have really loaded up.
Forgot to mention the displays...they were amazing and well presented. I particularly liked the Gold Rush artifact and Benicia glass displays.
The
auction was kind of odd with conflict between bidders and the auctioneers, a
very late start time and painful cadence. I left at 11:00 pm and the auction
was only a little more than half completed. The alcohol was flowing and did not
mix well with glass. The bids were super strong though, and I am sure a few
bidders woke up the next morning trying to justify the expense for damaged or
common bottles. Pretty surreal event.
Regards,
Anonymous
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Here are a few results of the whiskey portion of the auction mentioned above;
A darn respectable showing, if you ask me, when the hammer price and the "juice" are added together!
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Back to the comments:
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Bruce,
I attended the FOHBC show in
Sacramento and sold from part of a table generously offered me by Dale Santos,
major demi-john collector. The overall planning and operation of the show were
just about perfect. The Bottles & Extras ads, the Facebook ads, the
reception, the breakfast, the seminars, the opening, the auction,
the exhibits, the banquet all went perfectly. The only aspect
which wasn't perfect was local advertising. I didn't see any ads in the
Sacramento Bee, in which all the stamp, coin, gun, rare book, paper, and
antique glass shows (in fact, glass show will be at the same venue as the Expo
this weekend) advertise. Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House, once said,
"All politics is local." While that may not be true of
bottle shows, since people from all over the nation come, it is true that
if bottle shows don't alert locals, including newbies, flea market hawks, and
bring antique collectors, they won't be there. I hear all the time that we are
in a dying hobby and we need new people. If we don't put the carrots in front
of their noses, they won't be motivated. The few locals I saw heard about the
show by word of mouth. Nevertheless, I did hear that the show broke all early
looker fees, so advertising among serious collectors was effective.
I think too much praise
cannot be given to the FOHBC, Ferdinand and Elizabeth for the efforts,
Likewise Richard and Beverly Siri who spent an enormous amount of time
and effort to run the show, pretty much flawlessly. The exhibits were all well
done. What else to say? A great weekend.
Steve Abbott
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And another view
Hi Bruce,
I attended the FOHBC show Saturday morning. Didn't have an extra
$60 for the Friday afternoon early lookers. We got there early waiting in the
restaurant adjacent to the show entry hall.
Saw people starting to get up before 9am to buy tickets and get in
line. Was in the first 20 folks in line. Soon after they opened the doors and
let everyone enter.
I made it through most of the aisles before even making an offer.
Prices for scarce local clear-glass druggists were often $30-50+ !! Jakes and
spice bottles were nice to see but nothing I couldn't leave on the tables for
$35.00.
By 10am many sellers were ready to deal. I asked about Friday
early lookers. Sellers usually said they did OK on Friday for the most part.
I came home with a "full face embossed" SF hutch from
Astorg Springs, a tooled crown from Mayfield (seller also had a Mayfield
hutch), and a tooled crown from Imperial Ginger Ale Oakland.
Jason P. from San Jose
2 comments:
Bruce,
The entire 4 day event of the 2016 FOHBC National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo was a huge success. On Thursday the American Bottle Auctions open house was filled with collectors for four hours, many of them bartering with Jeff and Dennis on the purchases of bottles from collections they had bought recently. Jeff was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds that showed up. A really great time with food and drinks.
Following this event was the General's House two hour reception for dealers, displayers, seminar presenters & pre registered early admission folks, about one hundred were expected, it turned out to more than double that, a fantastic time was had by all with craft beer, wine, lemonade, bbq chicken, hamburgers, hot links.
Following this was the Sacramento Shootout bottle contest with just incredible entries from all three categories. Really fierce competition between the U.S.A Hospital Dept bottles and the Hostetter's Stomach Bitters, a crowded ballroom for this event!
Friday saw three absolutely incredible seminars presented by Tom Jacobs, John O'Neill & John Shroyer. The best I've ever seen, O'Neill produced a book on his California Pottery that rivalled our 2016 Souvenir Book, which by the way is the biggest, best program booklet ever produced by the FOHBC since the Nationals began in 1976!
The aisles at the show were crowded with the onslaught of early admission people as the show opened. Many people commented that the displays were the best ever presented at a National, they were indeed over the top to say the least!
The banquet was great fun, with collectors chatting with each other at the tables and listening to Betty Zumwalt give a very stirring and emotional at times talk on the early days of the ABCA.
Saturday brought more crowds to the show with the general admission folks. After the show was another cocktail hour before the 49er Bottle Jamboree auction started. A good crowd was present for a spirited bidding war between internet, telephone & bidders. Strong prices were realized and the auction outperformed what Holabird had expected.
Everyone that I spoke with had a great time. It was the best antique bottle event ever held in California, for sure!
Bruce: We will be dedicating a good portion of the November December 2016 issue of BOTTLES and EXTRAS to the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo. I asked for candid comments from all attendees I had email addresses for and received sixteen (16) 8.5 x 11 pages of great, constructive material. Gina Pellegrini took 5,000 + super pictures too. The Sacramento team headed by Richard, Bev, Warren & Eric are second to none.
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