Arttista Missing from York

It must a long recovery. 

Arttista was not at the York TCA Show in Spring 2016 or the Fall Show.  Not sure why they no longer attend.  They always had a steady stream of customers at York.  I always purchased something from them at each of the York TCA Shows. 

Their website is still active so they must still be in business.

It's a shame that they have missed 3 Yorks in a row. There are 2 train stores that I know of that sell their figures...N.Smith in Broomall, PA, and the shop next to the Choo Choo Barn in Strasburg. I know you can get them from Arttista on line,  but unless you are ordering a good number of figures, the postage will add a lot the cost. Scenic Express used to catalog them, but stopped due to having to tell their customers about continuous "out of stocks" on certain items.

I always preferred buying them "in person" because many of the figures come with different clothing color combinations to choose from.

I can confirm that they are still in business.  I e-mailed them on Monday (on their website) asking about some figures and bringing them to York.  They responded quickly saying they would not be going.

Very glad to see them continue in business.  They have an excellent product.

George

Consider that it costs many thousands of dollars for a dealer not in the immediate area to sell at York.  Salary for employees, table rental, transportation , membership, insurance, food and lodging costs.   These costs must be recovered before you start making money.  The sales are not the deciding factor, profit is.   Profit most often relates to attendance and the buying mood of the membership.  Members go there for fun.  Dealers go there to make a living.  Not every dealer at York makes a killing.  Look at the Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Bachmann and OGR booths and imagine what it costs to transport everything, set-up, and pay the salaries for 4-5 people for 4-5 days?   Point is that selling at York it comes down to a return on investment.  I cannot speak for Arttista but it may not make good business sense for everyone.

Dennis LaGrua posted:

Consider that it costs many thousands of dollars for a dealer not in the immediate area to sell at York.  Salary for employees, table rental, transportation , membership, insurance, food and lodging costs.   These costs must be recovered before you start making money.  The sales are not the deciding factor, profit is.   Profit most often relates to attendance and the buying mood of the membership.  Members go there for fun.  Dealers go there to make a living.  Not every dealer at York makes a killing.  Look at the Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Bachmann and OGR booths and imagine what it costs to transport everything, set-up, and pay the salaries for 4-5 people for 4-5 days?   Point is that selling at York it comes down to a return on investment.  I cannot speak for Arttista but it may not make good business sense for everyone.

And this is why the York meet must and will evolve in the next year, I agree totally with you!

Big shows are always a balancing act of exposure to your customer base vs. your costs. You would at least wan to break even.  Yes, I like to see what I am buying always.

There was a guy in the silver hall who was selling Their figures. 

Dennis and others are right on the point, it is not just the sales but the profit.

if you just consider the following

20x10 booth with electric             320

Hotel 3 days at 100(good deal).   300

meals                                               150

Van rental and gas and tolls          500

so one person shop by themselves no payroll is at 1270 before the first sale.

so if you have a 50% margin you have to sell 2540 to break even.    Or in another way if say figures are $5 each you have to sell over 500 to break even.  If a dealer type sale and the margin is say 20%(generous for some items) you have to sell $6350 to break even, also must pay6% sales tax and a local tax.  As Dennis notes add in an employees or two and the numbers need to double or triple.

if this takes you out of your office shop for a week and unable to serve everyone who is not at york, you can see how quickly staying home and conducting your normal business can be appealing.

 Also I would say that less than 40% of people going to york are building layouts where they need scenery, buildings figures and so forth.  I would estimate a good third of all attendees buy very little and are there for the social aspect.

Don't get me wrong  york is indeed a great meet and during our time operating Korber it was an important part of our year, but you really need to drive volume to make it worth while.

They make awesome figures.  

Well stated Rich and Dennis. People don't realize what it cost for vendors to do these shows. I'm not surprised at all that more and more vendors do not make the shows... any of them. It is a huge expense and they are lucky to break even. When you are a staple in the hobby and continue see the same folks in a shrinking crowd, you have to decide whether the marketing value is worth it. Knowing full well that you're probably not going to break even let alone make a profit. 

I've had so many people ask me about taking The O Scale Hauler to York. I just haven't been able to justify shipping inventory and all my show display items from California to York. Even estimating that I would sell everything I could get there, I wouldn't break even. Sure great marketing, fabulous social aspects, but I just can't eat that expense as a small part time hobby business.

Laidoffsick posted:

Well stated Rich and Dennis. People don't realize what it cost for vendors to do these shows. I'm not surprised at all that more and more vendors do not make the shows... any of them. It is a huge expense and they are lucky to break even. When you are a staple in the hobby and continue see the same folks in a shrinking crowd, you have to decide whether the marketing value is worth it. Knowing full well that you're probably not going to break even let alone make a profit. 

I've had so many people ask me about taking The O Scale Hauler to York. I just haven't been able to justify shipping inventory and all my show display items from California to York. Even estimating that I would sell everything I could get there, I wouldn't break even. Sure great marketing, fabulous social aspects, but I just can't eat that expense as a small part time hobby business.

Why would you have to take a lot of inventory?  Take a display and limited amount and ship orders.....can offer a deal on shipping during York, etc.  Several dealers don't take much inventory....aka Mianne.

Just offering suggestions....you have a great product...I imagine the exposure would be good.

Or maybe you could do a deal with a vendor who would sell your product.

-Greg

The whole point in me going to York would be having product on hand to sell to avoid the CA to east coast shipping cost. That is the why people have asked me to take them. So they can purchase them completely assembled and no shipping. If you can see it and touch it, you'll want to buy it right now.... not order it and pay $50 for shipping when you could carry it off.  I would never go all the way to York just to display them for internet sales with shipping. That's what YouTube, Social Media, magazine ads, and the website is for.  

Arttista took their entire line when they went, and I stocked up the last time they were there. They don't go now and I'm guessing for the same reason as Rich explained above. Having dealers and their own website, the expense of traveling to a show in York (which is in the middle of no where to begin with) just doesn't make sense. Everyone knows who they are, what their products look like, and how to get it. Public Delivery track, same thing with added reasons for not going.

When I started this little side gig as I like to call it, my 1st goal was to get them to York. After a year now, and 90%+ of my orders going to the Midwest and east coast with high shipping costs, the numbers just don't make sense for me to take them to York. I understand why more and more vendors stop going, and the Big Three told the TCA something needs to change. The two times that my wife and I have been to York, we spent over $3k per trip just to visit and check an item off my bucket list. Going as a vendor to setup and sell a product........just doesn't add up.

Many have stated in various ways, a big part of York is the social aspect of it. You see the same people every year (although a little less every year) and most of those "regulars" already have layouts. Just like here on the forum. The regulars contribute often and the many newcomers chime in from time to time. There's a whole world of O scale/gauge people out there beyond  the York meet and OGR Forum. I can't tell you how many people I have met out here in the west that have no idea about either of those two, yet have a substantial amount of money in this hobby. For $3k I can run my add in all the magazines for over a year and reach far more people than attending York. The World Wide Web is a fabulous marketing tool as well, with many options to explore.

That's just my observation looking at the whole scene through a different window now

The toy train market is evolving in to a different market place and will continue to do so.  Shows like York and big industrial shows are hard to evaluate as to how effective they are. A lot of money  for a medium to small outfit with limited cash flow to justify today. Especially from the west coast.

My information, during a conversation about Arttista not attending the Meet, from someone who buys a lot from them, was that after 30 or so Meets they've just had enough. 

Greg Houser posted:

Why would you have to take a lot of inventory?  Take a display and limited amount and ship orders.....can offer a deal on shipping during York, etc.  Several dealers don't take much inventory....aka Mianne.

Just offering suggestions....you have a great product...I imagine the exposure would be good.

Or maybe you could do a deal with a vendor who would sell your product.

-Greg

When I go to a train swap meet, it's not with the expectation that I'm going to be placing mail/web orders "in person" with dealers/manufacturers.  I might as well stay home in my sweats and bunny slippers and fill out order blanks, then.

The exception would be companies like Mianne, as their product is relatively bulky and essentially custom order.

Rusty