7th Annual Pennsylvania Drum Show

Sunbury, PA

10/27/2001

Click here to see more pictures of the show. 

The following is a review of the show from a vendor's perspective (mine)!

The PA drum show this year was held at 'The Peppermint' bar and night club in Sunbury PA and was hosted by Jack Lawton of the Lawton Drum Company.  The vendors arrived at around 7:00 AM to set up and the doors opened to the general public at 9:30.

When I arrived at around 7:30AM  I first located Jack Lawton to find out where we (my wife came with me) could begin to set up my 60+ snare drums that I had carefully packed into the back of our  Ford Excursion.  I had been planning for this show for the past three months and was pretty excited.  This also was the first time that I had gone to a drum show and I was going as a vendor.  This was going to be cool!

I felt just a little bit of panic when Jacked announced to me that there was a slight problem.  It seemed that more vendors had signed up for the show than there was space for downstairs...we would have to set up on the second floor.  As we climbed the two sets of landings to get to the second floor of the old nightclub I was doing the mental math to figure out how many trips it would take in order to carry 60 snare drums up the stairs to our booth (3 drums each trip = 20 trips but if I can manage 4 at time I can reduce that to 15....).  But when we reached the top of the stairs a whole new problem confronted us.  

There were only two 100 watt light bulbs in the ceiling to light up approximately 2000 square feet of space and there were no windows.  I expressed my deep concern about the whole thing.  Hauling up all my stuff was one thing but if folks can't see details they are not going to drop $600+ dollars on a drum.  A very nice fellow who had worked the show in the past and was helping Jack with the show set-up told me, "If you leave you're going to be missing a big opportunity.  Hundreds of people come to the show and what?...they're not going to climb the stairs to see the 7 other vendors that are up there.  Besides, I can rig up a couple of spot lights on your booth if you want?

So, he rigged up a spot light.  Not much better.  He rigged up a second and then a third.  Though the booth was still dark and there were heavy shadows whenever someone passed in from of the spots, I made the decision to unload.  It did, in fact, turn out to take 20 trips up those stairs but Jack Lawton was quite the gentleman and helped us carry up several loads for which I am most grateful.  By 9:30, as the first buyers arrived, I was finally ready to start selling.  I changed my shirt (I was soaked in sweat after those 20 trips) and readied the cash box for some serious selling.

The traffic was actually pretty good in the morning with a lot of people looking, asking questions and kicking the tires.   A fellow came up and asked the price of a Vistalite tom.  $75 bucks.  Will you take $50?  Meet me half-way at $65.  How about $60?  Sold!  Wow, we made a sale!  It going to be a good day after all!

By 2:00 in the afternoon the crowd had pretty much dissipated.   I had promised John Aldridge of 'Not So Modern Drummer' some pictures of the show so I told my wife to mind the fort while I went downstairs to take some pictures.  I told her that many of those people who had asked questions in the morning would probably return at the end of the show to make some deals.  Everyone knows that's when all the bargains are to be had.  Who wants to haul 60 snare drums home. 

There was still a really nice crowd downstairs and I took 20 or 30 shots of the booths and the drums of interest.

I returned upstairs and waited for the crowd to return.

2:30

3:00

By 3:30 I was getting nervous.  No one had returned to make those last-minute offers and the prospect of packing up my, did I mention, 60 snare drums and hauling them down those stairs to my truck loomed ahead of me.

By 4:00 there was nothing left to do.  We silently packed our drums and began to load up the Excursion.  After about 4 or 5 trips one of the fellows who had asked questions earlier returned.  "Hey, you wouldn't know where that Supraphonic is that I was looking at, would you?  The drums were all packed in their cases and I had only brought around 8 Supraphonics.  "No, I'm sorry", I said.  "They're all packed up and I don't know which case its in."  "Ok, Thanks", he said and walked away.  I know I may have passed up my second sale for the day but at this point I just wanted to go home.

I think the moral of this story is obvious... 

Its a lot more fun to go to a drum show to buy instead of sell. 

And that's exactly what I'm going to do next year!

Here's a picture of some of my drums at the show.

Click here to see more pictures of the show.