Thread: Wot I got at www Melbourne

I would love to be able to go to another show. In the 10 years or so I've lived in Oz my opportunities for show visits have been slender; I have only managed the 2004 show in Melbourne and the 2009 show in Perth. Every other year I was either away at sea or living somewhere like Darwin. Even though now I'm on land and settled I have to contend with the annoyance that my shifts are always non-conducive to things I want to do like visit shows, attend concerts, be home for my birthday for a change... And that's before I even think about the eight hour drive there and back.

The Melbourne show was fantastic; even though I had stuff all money to spend it was highly enjoyable. The Perth show was smaller but by then I knew of most of the companies and personalities in the Australian woodworking community and thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with Neil Erasmus, Richard Vaughn and Stan Ceglinski. I'm a huge fan of Neil's work and to actually talk to him about the school he runs was the highlight of my day. Having just spent 6 months in the Middle East I was a bit more flush with funds so I bought my first lathe at show price plus a few other shiny things; to be honest there wasn't much of a discount offered anywhere but wasn't the reason I wanted to go.

If the next show I actually get the opportunity to visit is smaller still I will still go; yes the specials are good incentive but where the hell else are you able to see the wide selection of tools and toys? And to meet some of the people we talk with on these forums? I'd do time on the forum stall just to put faces to names and see how they compare to my imagination (Avatars help fuel the mind here; Big Shed bring back the falcon!).

If attendance drops more and more over the years then it's a sad fact but the shows WILL STOP. And that will hurt.

Oh, the report that the Adelaide Show had a loss of $60K? Um, isn't it the nature of commerce that every now and again you end up spending more than you earn? By the end of the year, when all the shows have finished, I doubt there will have been an overall loss. When Ross Gobie still owned Timbecon he used to load up a truck in Perth for each show and drive to every show, and deliberately flogged every machine off on Sunday Arvo so he didn't have to load it back onto the truck. I suspect that when you took into account all his outlay for all the shows he never showed a cent of profit at that time, but being there and talking to the customers was the best advertising he could have ever done.

And in any case; I'd rather that money were lost entertaining those who did make it to the show. It could easily have gone towards the fight for land rights for gay whales held in detention centres...

I need to add my 2 cents worth now,

I gained free entry to the show just for volunteering on the forum stand, it was surprisingly easy and a ton of fun.
I got to meet other forum members, watched a few demos, drooled over fancy tools, sussed out the bargains, got to make my own mallet and I had luckily won the volunteer raffle of a chilly bin full of uBeaut products!

Sunday I went again, this time with my 11 yo friend Maddox. Watching him enthusiastically make his own mallet, learn to use various hand tools and enter the saw cutting comp at Stans show was priceless. We bought some tools for him to continue his new hobby and came home to play with them over a tub of ice cream.

He told me he had the best day ever. And so did I.

So I don't particularly care if people will or won't come next year. I'll still go, with my more experienced 12 yo friend Maddox.

Originally Posted by Mike B

So what would you class as a "dramatic" improvement... and how much more would you be willing to pay?

Mike, its not about how much I would be prepared to pay. It s how much of my time that I spend and what I feel the return is for that time.

This year i actually paid to get in for the first time in many years. I could have gotten in for free in a number of ways but at a cost to my time. Nobody can own me for $12 per day. In the years when I have had the time to work on the Forum stand I would have happily paid my own admission too but chose to accept the offer of free admission.

If I could attend a show like the first one I attended in Brisbane 10 years ago I would cheerfully spend $25 or more for admission. It was worth it back then. Heaps of exhibitors all keen to offer a deal or an incentive to open your wallet. There was none of the "no show specials this year" comments. you could get deals you could not get in their regular place of business.

So why was nobody offering show specials? Well its really obvious if you think about it. The shows have gotten smaller and smaller over the years that now we are left with each exhibitor being the "last man standing" in their class. They have no fear that you are going to be offered a better deal by a competitor. Their competitors have all decided not to come any more.

As an example, take a 14' bandsaw and compare what Carbatec, Laguna and Felder are offering. Could you credibly say the the Laguna man that you have been offered a better price by Carbatec when the products are not comparable? That's where the show specials have gone girls and boys. The dominant company in its class had muscled out the others and now they have nobody to compete with. Or so they think...

I think it was about 8 years ago at the Brisbane show, when Triton was at its peak, Gordon and the boys were selling Multistands and Superjaws at a ridiculously low price in comparison to normal retail. I think you had to buy something else to get the price but IIRC that's why I have so many superjaws and multistands now, and I don't regret buying a single one of them..

Three shows back in Melbourne I bought a 21 inch bandsaw and negotiated a very substantial discount. Nobody would budge a dollar off their set price at this year's show. "No show specials this year."

As I said in another post, I left the show with nearly $2000 burning a hole in my pocket, just because nobody gave me an incentive to open my wallet. Unlike previous years, I can now negotiate a better deal at their showroom than I could at the show. i can do that any day of the year at my convenience without paying an admission fee for the privilege of being three deep in the crowd as opposed to having the undivided attention of the salesman any Saturday morning at their normal place of business. .

While they may have no direct competition at the show, these "last men standing" seem to forget that their competitors often hold sales throughout the year. The attraction of the shows was that they all exhibited, they all competed for the money you had in your pocket and there was an incentive to go to get deals you cold not get at any other time away from the show..

What would I class as a Dramatic improvement? Competition, to drive deals. I see no point in paying to go to a show where at best you get an exhibitor's regular price. Ease of access/parking so that I can pick up big items and timber at the venue (and preferably not have to drive and park in the CBD to do so) , edible food at an affordable price.

I would pay a lot more than $16 to get access to the range of timber tools an machinery that were available the first time I attended the show in Brisbane where exhibitors worked hard to get the business of the attendees instead of assuming that they are the only game in town and they will got my dollar anyway, because if that's their attitude they wont.

It's my time and its my money and i reserve the right to spend either or both of them the way I choose. And what other people think of me is none of my business.

Cheers

Doug

Well said Doug.

That's the same view and experiences that I've had. I can remember when I was looking for a band saw quite a few years ago and I was able to compare 5 brands at the same place, get prices and bought the H & F one at a great show price with pickup later that day from their Clayton store.

Now I could get a better price from from CT a few weeks before the show at their sale with free parking at the door and no entrance fee. I could also get a 10 % discount from H & F this weekend because they are not at the show and Pop's shed gives me a 10 % discount all year round. Those are my show special deals whilst not at the show.

I know for me, being retired, time is relative and the value I place on it is also different then when I was working but the hassle of transport to the city and it's associated expensive parking hassles, unlike the showgrounds, is what has killed the show of as a yearly event.

May be different to others, but in a few months I'll be officially a grumpy old man and I can do what I like. Just started a few month early I suppose.

Peter

I'm from Adelaide - sent my wife shopping and attended Saturday.

My experience:

Met Chris Vesper, bought a marking knife. Will I use it? Probably not as it was intended......just wanted to support a young Aussie bloke with great products having a go...

Looked at the Shelix cutters - I've read about them, but after being shown how quiet they are, I'll buy two this year for my buzzer and thicknesses .

Watched the bloke turning bowls using "tongue oil" - educational and entertaining!

Bought a couple of router bits I don't see on display (or in the Carbatec catalogue) in Adelaide at a discount.

Will I go again?

Absolutely!

Originally Posted by Sturdee

...... unlike me for I will never go to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre for all the money in China......

WOW do you know how much money that is?


I guess you are right, money is not everything.

Originally Posted by Christos

WOW do you know how much money that is?

Actually not that much Christos - they've lent it to the rest of the world....

Originally Posted by Christos

I guess you are right, money is not everything.

You're damn right. Money isn't everything but my health and well being surely is.

Having to walk long distances just to get there and back, with my reduced lung capacity, is not looking after my health and being cooped up in a closed hall without any natural light doesn't do my well being much good.

The time when I worked in closed up offices is well and truly passed and I have no intention to ever spend any length of time in such place.

Peter.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Actually not that much Christos - they've lent it to the rest of the world....

Its a funny old world isn't it.

When countries are poor we GIVE them money in foreign aid until they are rich and WE are poor. Then they LEND us money and charge interest.
If we had done that to them we would still be rich and they would still be poor.

Thats what happens when we live in a system where politicians are telling us that global warming is responsible for the bushfires yet the cops are arresting little kids and blaming them.

So which is it?

It cant be both global warming and little kids that are at fault?

Originally Posted by doug3030

It cant be both global warming and little kids that are at fault?

Yeah it can. Who said the pollies aren't little kids?

As a New Australian and Woodworker, I attended the show for the first time. Having no previous instances to compare it to, I was very favourably impressed.
For me, it meant seeing and handling tools that heretofore have existed only as 2D representations on a computer screen (or catalogue).
I confess I felt a little starry-eyed meeting Colin Clenton, whose work, by the way, is simply not done justice by the aforementioned LCD images.
I had a great chat with David Eckert and the other chap at his stall (whose name temporarily escapes me) after several prior email exchanges, which again, cannot capture the immediacy and banter of a Real Life conversation.
I saw a lathe and a bandsaw for the very first time! Seminal stuff.

I am lucky enough to live in North Melbourne, so can get to the show on a single tram. I am also a bit of a Neander at heart, so the difficulty of trying to cart off a thicknesser or drill press was not first on my list of gripes, and until I got there I didn't even realise you could buy timber at the show (in retrospect, dur...), but rapidly recognised the difficulties inherent in manhandling a few choice boards on the 57 home.

Hey ho, with an imminent wedding finances are not exactly at triple A status, so purchases were only going to be kept to a minimum. SWMBO, my future wife and Australian Pearl Without Price, believes such financial transactions were limited to "a ruler". This was, of course, being slightly economical with the truth (no pun intended). The nice thing about chisels, they're small enough to smuggle into the shop

The best thing about the show for me, however, was actually meeting, and talking with, woodies.
None of my friends share this passion, the only wood they're interested in is the walnut panelling in the Merc (ok, I don't have that many rich friends, I'm thinking of one in particular), that which comprises the footy goals, or the stuff of which the bar in the local is made.
The Minister of Domestic Affairs is tolerantly indulgent of my hobby, given the potential gain to her in terms of custom items (although if she had any idea the real term cost of, say, her bench seat, she might change her mind. My argument is that each project will be cheaper because I will need fewer new tools. Oh, doublethink...).
Even walking up to the centre, I could instantly identify fellow sawdust-makers (I had just come from work, so was undercover in a starched business shirt, but people forgave me pretty quickly). Being able to talk to people, and ask their advice, to me was worth the admission.

I did notice that everything was very much "list price", which surprised me somewhat as I expected there to be some kind of 'show deal' ethos, but until I read this thread I assumed that was the way it was! Seeing, and handling, the tools was again quite a treat for me. I had a fiddle with the Veritas small plough plane (Ah! that's the depth adjuster... That must be - yeah, ok!), and handled pretty much every LN tool going (how good does that Brian Boggs spokeshave feel! So weighty, such balance!) and was a pig in a poke.

Will I go next year? Yes, if I can get out work early on Saturday!