IWJG June 2013 Chicago Show Report

As you all know Chicago is one of our smaller shows. This year's show was noticeably larger. The final tabulation came in at +15%. We had 500 dealers in the room over the two days. In addition to an IWJG Show, we had a very good time at the member's reception, Monday evening, hosted by the IWJG, The Chicago Jewelers/Illinois Jewelers Associations and Jewel Systems. Those members that went on the fishing trip, had a GREAT time and those of us fortunate enough to eat the fish we caught the same day had a wonderful dinner Sunday night (ask Bret K, Chuck K, Dan W (sorry Tracey, but someone had to go to work) , or Maricela R). Thanks go out for a wonderful presentation (as usual), to Carlucci's.

The show, with 500 dealers in the room, had a good buzz by 10:00 on Monday morning and kept that pattern up both days. Some IWJG Members found the show to be a little soft. Other members thought it was a very good show. Some found prices a little high. Others found merchandise at very good prices. Some members thought the selling side of the show was very good, while others thought this show presented a good buying opportunity. Several members said they used this show to buy, sell AND trade their inventory back into shape. Here is all we know, with that many dealers in the room, having paid $250.00, just to walk in, you should have been able to BUY, SELL or TRADE yourself into a good show, if you wanted to! Here is what we heard from individual members.

Byron Eder had a very good show. Felix Torres reported a good show. Richard Markow had a very good show. Paolo Manzoli had a good show (Great box and papers Paolo, thank you for showing it to us), Matt Green had a good show. Joe Akkar had a very good show (Ask Joe about his new service for watches with hard to open backs or repairing watch cases with damaged threads on the back). Greg Esses had a good buying show. Maricela Reyes had a good show (prices were a little soft and she found some good deals). Karl Urban had a good show. Billy Oyster had a decent summer show. Ron Gwiniger had a "real good show". David Brecher had a good show (hope you are feeling better). Jose Hernandez thought the show was a little slow for him, but about what he expected for this summer show. Hiro Kozuma reported a good show. Marc Abercrombi had a good show while Sam Sallum reported in" very good". Mark Nance had a good show. Rich Lopez with Betteridge had a good show. Peter Berlin reported in with a "decent summer show". Peter Chou had a good summer show. Gabe Gonzales reported a good show. Robert Ramos said his show was "OK Joe". Michael Javaheri had a good show. Bobby Arena had a decent summer show. Barry Blank had a very good show. Ariel Shimunov reported a good show for summer. Bob Maron had a good show. Newton Ng had a very good show and last but not least, Gary Zumalt said "Good show, but I always have a good show in Chicago".

What we know is, our summer shows trend a little softer than normal. So many of our dealers and their customers are on vacation at any given time, but if the above mentioned dealers can have theses results, so can you. If you are not having this kind of success, find out what they are doing. Let us know how we can help! Last word on Chicago... Thank you to all of our GREAT CHICAGO MEMBERS for making us feel right at home... Great city. Great people. Great food (Thank you Mr. Frum and Mr. Maron). Great time in Chicago, with our great membership!

About the International Watch and Jewelry Guild (IWJG)
Since 1985, the IWJG has been conducting 12 to 14 annual cash and carry trade show events throughout the US. The members only shows are supported by over 8,200 of the world's foremost professional watch and jewelry dealers from 75 countries. The IWJG members and shows stake claim to hundreds of millions of dollars in watch and jewelry inventory. For general questions or information on becoming a member visit our website at www.iwjg.com or call us toll free at 800-554-4992. You can also visit us on Facebook at http://www.iwjg.net/facebook for more information or Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/iwjg.