What Are Your Feelings On "Trunk Dealers" at Pool Events?

Kickin' Chicken

Kickin' Chicken

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As the title asks, I am curious to hear what your thoughts are on people who attend pool events like DCC, SBX & Vegas where vendors pay for booths to display and sell their goods while competing with the many individuals who operate out of their car trunks and hotel rooms, the so called "trunk dealers".

I have mixed feeling on trunk dealers - I will explain later.

What say you?

best,
brian kc
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
As the title asks, I am curious to hear what your thoughts are on people who attend pool events like DCC, SBX & Vegas where vendors pay for booths to display and sell their goods while competing with the many individuals who operate out of their car trunks and hotel rooms, the so called "trunk dealers".

I have mixed feeling on trunk dealers - I will explain later.

What say you?

best,
brian kc
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I think trunk dealers are great, I know its kind of a double edge sword but must trunk dealers have maybe 5-10 higher end cues so its not like they are peddling 100's of items out of their car.
 
I have never seen any trunk dealers at the Super Billiards Expo and I have been going there for over 10 years. Anybody selling out of their trunk at this years expo just let me know as I would love to see what you have.

Side note for all of the dealers / seller that have a booth at any expo or event. Don't forget to smile and treat every customer with respect. You never know when that person may be your biggest buyer of the event.

Thanks

Kevin
 
I have no beef with trunk sellers! A guy used to stop at our shop every Friday with his trunk open and he had everything from steaks to seafood to car stereos! I picked up all kinds of deals from him......just know what you are buying.

G.
 
Kevin Lindstrom said:
I have never seen any trunk dealers at the Super Billiards Expo and I have been going there for over 10 years. Anybody selling out of their trunk at this years expo just let me know as I would love to see what you have.

Side note for all of the dealers / seller that have a booth at any expo or event. Don't forget to smile and treat every customer with respect. You never know when that person may be your biggest buyer of the event.

Thanks

Kevin
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Be sure and let Allen Hopkins know if you see a trunk dealer. I am sure he would be interested in seeing their cues. :)
 
Most of your wheeling and dealing at the DCC,Vegas for Highend cues is from " Trunk Dealers " to the vendors like Sureman, Salazar etc....:smile:
 
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Pretty tough situation. Many come with the intent to trade or upgrade and occasionally make an out right sale. The vendors in my opinion benefit from these trades and do not want them to go away???

The vendor can't have it both ways! Access to great deals on trade in's and exclusivity? Implement a no trade in rule and watch the screams! I agree the vendors should not be competing with spectators out of their trunk. But, with this economy half cash half trade in is not frowned upon!!!

Vendors get a larger amount of inventory via purchases from out of trunks. So, when the vendors are willing to forgo the trade in's and the inventory accusations. Then I would see the out rage as justified.

As a consumer being offered 50 cent on the dollar at the beginning of a show and walking by the vendors booth at the end of the show and seeing the retail price on your recently sold item nearly double what you received sucks BIG time. That's why some trunk sellers do what they do.

It ain't right in my opinion but this is capitalism. Buy low sell high!

KD
 
Brian,

In the consumer electronics custom installation business we used to call them trunk slammers. In my early sales days, our store used to complain first about 1 - 800 dealers. Brick and mortar stores who sold over the phone using print ads in the various audio magazines. Then came the "Big Box" stores. Then came the internet. Then came the guys who sold product and installation services from their cars. There will always be trunk slammers.

There will always be customers who want to see, hold and try pool cues and shafts. There will always be dealers like Joe Salazar and Omega. Just a couple of well known names. There will always be people who roll their twelve or twenty four cue cases through pool events. There will always be buyers who stroke the authorized dealers for information and trials then seek out slammers to buy for a few bucks less. Isn't capitalism wonderful!!!

Lyn
 
Kevin Lindstrom said:
I have never seen any trunk dealers at the Super Billiards Expo and I have been going there for over 10 years. Anybody selling out of their trunk at this years expo just let me know as I would love to see what you have.

Side note for all of the dealers / seller that have a booth at any expo or event. Don't forget to smile and treat every customer with respect. You never know when that person may be your biggest buyer of the event.

Thanks

Kevin
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Kevin,

Surely you jest. Never seen one guy rolling a twelve cue case around the floor at SBE (only 15 years or so)? Guess I must have been hallucinating! Been seeing them there for years. Also seem to remember a thread about last years SBE and those non registered dealers.

Lyn
 
Here is my two cents on the subject. If people are paying for booth space and you want to sell your used cue then you should only sell to the dealers who buy and sell used cues. If you build cues yourself or are a reseller, get a booth. It is not fair for the people to pay $1100 per booth and then have to compete with those who did not pay.

I will give you an example. I used to set up at all the Atlanta pro tournaments to work on cues with my lathe in the late 80's and early 90's. I paid to set up. There was also a pro player who always brought his lathe and and set up in his hotel room up the street. He would run work back and forth doing work between matches. I never said anything about it. But when he would ask players to come to me to buy a ferrule for a brand cue he did not have. I would tell them the price for the ferrule is the same as the price to install it.

Another guy always showed up at the events selling Meucci cues out of his trunk. I never said a word to him even though I was a Meucci dealer. But the owner of the room barred him for life.

As far as selling cues in normal pool rooms. If the room sells cues you should not go in there selling cues that they carry. I think it is okay to sell or trade your personal playing cue to a friend. If you are a cuemaker they usually overlook you selling your cues. But they often bar resellers, AKA Trunk Dealers!
 
I remember Grady doing this at the BC Open in 1985. A friend bought an $800 Schon from him. The next year Grady was selling Shulers. I also have mixed feelings on this.


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Several legitimate vendors are finding it hard to justify booth costs when guys are allowed to bring in a big case of cues that they intend to sell in the aisle ways. Sometimes they sell right in front of a vendor's booth.

Sure, it's a double-edged sword, but with the market such that it is, it just makes these shows tougher and tougher for a legitimate vendor to do.

And it's not just a few people with a few cues.....it's a quite a number of guys selling quite a number of cues in the aisles. In my mind, that shows a total lack of respect for the event itself, but what's new with these guys. The saying really fits, "Pool eats its own."
 
The TRUNK DEALERS use to make the rounds of the Local Pool Room, Sports Bars, and Bars with Pool Tables when I was still going out once a week to play in Tournaments in great Phoenix area.

They in many case performed a service, of being know to be in “X” Place on a certain night. Many of their customers could not drive to the one or two Brick & Mortar Places because it conflicted with work schedules.

They were IMHO like the traveling salesman who use to cris cross the USA selling various product to people in rural towns with no big stores to go too close to where they were located.

If you don’t like TRUCKER, don’t buy from them. As far as TRUCKER at Big Events it is IMHO the responsibility of the people incharge to police the Trunkers, and deal with them.

Allow they to do business, or shut them down.
 
Pushout

Grady was getting Richard Blacks,then schon's then schulers,then bloodworths,then he got a james white .Who knows ,only him. Rich
 
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I've heard of people being 86'd for dealing cues at these events.
Vendor booths are expensive and if I spent $3000 for a booth, and a trunk monkey was taking away business, it would definitely be an issue.
If a guy just wants to wheel & deal a few cues, to trade or upgrade, and another guy just wants to wheel & deal a few cues, I don't have a problem with it, but that should be done out of the way of the vendors.
If you have a dealer case full of cues, then buy a ****ing booth.
I would take some balls to wheel a dealer case into a convention center if you weren't already a paid vendor, or involved with the event.
 
Kevin Lindstrom said:
I have never seen any trunk dealers at the Super Billiards Expo and I have been going there for over 10 years. Anybody selling out of their trunk at this years expo just let me know as I would love to see what you have.

Side note for all of the dealers / seller that have a booth at any expo or event. Don't forget to smile and treat every customer with respect. You never know when that person may be your biggest buyer of the event.

Thanks

Kevin
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Well we have a friend who is a trunk dealer lol but he only goes up with a couple high end cues. I've never seen anyone have more then a couple cue's in a case for sale.
 
A lot of the "trunk" dealers are good customers for high end cues, saw a "trunk" dealer trade 3 SW's and buy a Szamboti from a booth at derby,
 
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I don't agree with allowing the trunk dealers. as a buyer it may be great but for the guy who forked over a lot of dough for a spot it's tough and over all not good for the future of the event. Allen needs those vendors to buy the spots to pay the rent for the expo so I have no problem if he sees it happening that he tosses the person out for fear of losing his vendors in the future. That being said you will never stop someone from having some cues out in there car or a cue or two in a case.
 
Most of the "trunk dealers " around my area are selling stolen things. I'm not a fan of purchasing what could possibly be stolen, last thing I need is to get involved with the law in a bad way for what I thought is a good deal.
 
I sort of take a practical view about it. If it's not illegal, no point getting worked up
about a reality you cannot change. People have a right to find the best possible
location to sell their goods, unless some law requires them to get a license or something.

The theory behind paying for a booth is, you will get 10,000 pool fiends walking by your product.
You are paying to get eyeballs on your cues, and even with the trunk dealers,
you WILL get those eyeballs... because anyone who bothers going to the parking lot of the event,
will also stroll through the venue and look at the vendor offerings.

It's up to you to convert those eyeballs into a sale.
You are already in competition with all the other vendors plus whatever else is out there online.
So your job is still to offer something that the competition can't beat.

The math is simple when deciding "should I raise a stink" or "should I quit buying booth space
because of the trunk vendors"... if you spend more money than you earn,
then you stop buying booth space at that event.
And you let the right people know "I can't afford to do this anymore, and I suspect it's
because of lost sales from the trunk vendors."
 
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