www.asdonline.com<\/a>. It’s free to “the trade”.)<\/p>\nBut, this year, I was a bit more disorganized than in previous years.<\/p>\n
Oh. I’ve learned from year to year what I need to do, and I made our BOLO lists (Be On the Look Out) and lists of various quantities of products from our regular vendors. I did that. Printed them out, and packed them in our luggage.<\/p>\n
But, I left them behind on the first day.<\/p>\n
YIKES!<\/p>\n
We had to wing it at our regular vendors. I just hope we wung it good enough. (Wing, wang, wung…)<\/p>\n
Ha! I checked, and we did pretty good.<\/p>\n
We made some exclusive deals. We found some new vendors with new products for us. We found some promising new categories for us to research and check out.<\/p>\n
We did pretty good. We got pretty tired. But, we had a great show.<\/p>\n
Going to a trade show where there are hundreds or even thousands of vendors in various categories makes sense when you want to get into the wholesale buying business. The travel costs qualify as business expenses. The relationships you start and develop are almost worth the trip by themselves.<\/p>\n
We have one vendor we’ve been visiting and buying from for 15 years. This year, we\u00a0 chatted with his wife, inquired about their children and grandchildren, gave some advice about retirement, and promised we’d visit them next time we were in their neck of the woods.<\/p>\n
What a sweet relationship.<\/p>\n
Oh, and the shear quantity of vendors and their booths and their thousands of products in each one.<\/p>\n
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the shiny lights, the masses of similar product lines, the sales guys and gals hawking their unique show specials. But, with perseverance and determination, you can find those gems waiting to be mined.<\/p>\n
We found our gems.<\/p>\n
We can’t wait to find out what else the Lord has in store for us.<\/p>\n
John L<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sandi\u00a0 & I are here in our 29th floor room at the Encore in Las Vegas, relaxing after finishing our buying exercise for the year. It has been a fabulous show. We’ve been coming to this show for since 2002, and it keeps getting better and better for us. (You can find this twice-a-year show … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buying-right","category-enjoying","category-sourcing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6aoKM-2b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":270,"url":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/trade-show-attendance-tips\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":0},"title":"Trade Show Attendance Tips","author":"John Larson","date":"June 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"(I originally wrote this a couple of years ago for a group of Amazon Sellers on the FaceBook Group, My Silent Team. I am also a paid coach for the My Silent Team company headed up by Jim Cockrum. He is the creator and main leader for the Proven Amazon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Buying Right"","block_context":{"text":"Buying Right","link":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/category\/buying-right\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/getting-it-all-done\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":1},"title":"Getting It ALL Done","author":"John Larson","date":"April 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The secret to FBA (and any online ecommerce endeavor) is Find It List It Ship It Repeat You have to have something to sell. Finding that ONE item seems like the ultimate goal, but it's not. Products come and go. Styles, interests, fads, new technology, celebrities, even companies, all change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Processes"","block_context":{"text":"Processes","link":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/category\/processes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/who-is-this-guy\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":2},"title":"Who IS This Guy?","author":"John Larson","date":"March 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been here spouting off about various topics, big and small, and you must be wondering if I know what the heck I'm talking about. Here's something about me. I've been in business\u00a0for 50 years. First in Bricks and Mortar retail where I lived through 2 recessions but failed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Basic Info"","block_context":{"text":"Basic Info","link":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/category\/basic-info\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/covid-19-and-amazon-fba-shutdown\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":3},"title":"Covid-19 and Amazon FBA Shutdown","author":"John Larson","date":"March 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We've all been dealing with the Wuhan Virus in various ways. I hope you are all in good health. Sandi and I are hunkered down on the farm and limiting our travels and shopping. We were content to rely on Amazon FBA to supplement income, reduced, maybe, but steady. 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In March, 2020, Amazon began restricting FBA Inbound shipments to \"essential products\" only.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Improving"","block_context":{"text":"Improving","link":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/category\/improving\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":154,"url":"https:\/\/freedombyamazon.com\/blog\/doing-business-as-a-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":5},"title":"Doing Business as a Business","author":"John Larson","date":"August 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There are the 2 aspects of a business. 1. The structure and surrounding support processes - accounting, finance, and the like. and 2. The operations part - what and how are you going to do every day to make money. 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