Joyce Heilman Has Retired As Of January 1, 2012. I Wish Joyce All The Best In Her Retirement And Any New Adventures That She May Try.
My Hopes Are That The New Promoter Of This Fine Show Will Be More Open To The Concept Of Fair Play And Free Enterprise, So At This Time, My "Beef" (As Had Been Outlined Below) With The Allentown Show Is Over.
BUT, as a more recent update, the new show promoter, Sean, has told me that "he is not interested, at all" in free show advertising and free promotion of the dealers who attend his shows. Oh well, I try to provide as much information as I can to the collecting public as this benefits everyone, and this has made my show listings page one of the top search engine results when searching for these types of shows. (Thank you very much, it is certainly appreciated.) But it must be something in the water, or air, down in Allentown that makes these people the way they are. Go figure...
An Open Letter To All Of My Allentown Paper and Ephemera Show Customers
After attending the Great Eastern US Antique Advertising, Book, & Paper Shows in Allentown, PA, the past few years, I regretfully have to inform all of you of an unfair policy change, instituted by the promoter of this show, that will prevent me from servicing your collecting needs at these shows.
Recently, the show promoter has chosen to impose a new restriction in the contracts, of over 150 dealers at these shows, that limits the sales of all supplies for your collectables to one single dealer, who also just so happens to deal in a full line of ephemera too, not strictly only supplies. From this point on, no other dealer is allowed to sell any supplies in their booth at this show. This policy change does not take into account that there were several ephemera and postcard dealers attending this show, myself included, that always made it a practice to carry supplies for the types of items that we sold. It only made good common sense to be able to assist our customers in protecting their purchases, and the rest of their collections, with proper, archival safe, storage and display materials in one shopping stop.
What the promoter of this show has chosen to do is to force a monopoly on the customers of her shows, on the sales of these items. While she claims that her greatest concern is always for the customer's sake, imposing a monopoly of any item at a show does not benefit the customers, or the rest of the dealers, in the least. Monopolies limit everyone's choice to a singe decision of "take it, or leave it, at my price, or forget it". If the single selected dealer that has the monopoly does not choose to carry the brand, or the type of, supplies that you wish to purchase, then you are simply out of luck. This certainly does not show any concern for the benefit of the customer's needs or wants.
Simply put, I as a dealer expect to be able to go do a show and to properly service my customer's needs, on a fair, even, and level playing field in relation to other dealers. This is the American way of doing business, where everyone has a chance to make a sale, just like everyone else at a show. Competition in sales is the key to giving you, the customer, the greatest choice in quality, for the lowest price available.
Monopolies in any form are unfair and discriminatory to everyone involved. So it is for this reason that I will be unable to attend this show under the current conditions imposed by the promoter. Although I cannot expect you as customers to boycott a show for unfair policies as this might possibly cause you to lose out on purchasing that choice item that you have been searching for, for so long. What I would truly hope that you would in all good conscience do, is to at least please take a few moments of your time, when you arrive at this show, to express your concerns regarding monopolies that unfairly limit your purchasing choices to the promoter of this show. When you arrive, please ask to speak to Joyce Heilman, the show promoter.
I have always enjoyed serving the varied needs of all of my customers at this show, along with meeting new friends along the way. I will truly miss you all...
Thanking you for your time, and hoping to see you again at another show elsewhere (please go back and check out my show schedule here),
Stan...
PS: Why wait until a show, please check out a group of select postcards and ephemera, for sale now right here on this website…
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