International BEAULIEU 2019

[Stuart Giles]

Stuart,

I've found another tray with new old stock big 7 parts. Inc brake drums, pistons, shells etc.

I may even make up a third tray on the stall of new old stock.

There is a set of boxed BRIVEC big 7 kingpins and bushes, no wear shims or cotters. But I may have some new cotters in stock.

Come and see me at beaulieu.

Thanks Tony.

Thanks Tony, will do.

[Lance Sheldrick]

Thanks Tony, I shall be in touch this week.

[Zetomagneto]

Does anyone know if John Barlow will be there, if so Stall number and colour please

[Tony Betts]

Hi gene,

I'm not 100% sure if John will be there.

And someone may have time to find his stall number tonight.

But if not, John is usually red field behind Graham becket. Other end of the Isle from seven workshop, stuart Joseph etc.

Number is around R150

I can dirrect you on the day from our stall R333.

Have fun.

I've been working on what I'm taking for nearly 4 weeks. And fingers crossed for the first time in 28 years. I have everything everyone have ordered. Finished, ready, and in the van.

I've even got a little spare time to watch find it, fix it, rid it.

See you all there, Tony.

[Tony Betts]

a review of the weekend.

first off it was great to see you forum members and have a joke with many.

the rest may sound a bit negative.

for us, and many other stall holders we spoke to. felt it was very guiet?

and many people who were walking around, were not even looking at the stalls?

i had several people point out AS USUAL on friday how many empty spaces there were. this continued into saterday. were previously many of these stall holders would set up first thing saterday. probably because they are looking round friday.

even worse for the future of the event, we had several customers point out the number of empty stall.

there was even a full row of 16 tented stall removed in green field? and alot of comments over the empty spaces in yellow field?

for our sales car parts interest was down, and signage interest was still boyant. but this is mainly with the serious collectors on friday.

maybe its time to do the same as others, set up thursday and sell the signs. pack up everything saterday evening. and set up a smaller stall sunday on the trunk traders to catch the crowd thinking they are buying bargains. that way we could get away at 4.30 to drive home. instead of 5.40.

has beaulieu finally killed there golden goose with there prices??? or is beaulieu just following the trend of other previous boyant events that have died off.

a couple of people even told me they attended nettly marsh, a previosly boyant event close to beaulieu on the friday. and commented it was dead?

are we seeing the death of autojumbles?

back to a more possitive note, it was uplifting to have customers and traders alike offer support for our projects we are trying to complete over the winter. if succesful, these projects will keep prices sensible for you car owners.

ill finish with the apoligy that this review is not all possitive, just trying to give an honest view.

did you attend, and what did you think.

tony.

[Stuart Giles]

Hi Tony,
Firstly, thanks again for the Big Seven kingpins, not easy to find these days.

There was a huge number of empty stalls in our part of the Red Field -R747 etc. I didn't think that the numbers of visitors were actually down, but like you, we saw loads of people walking straight up the centre of the aisle on both days; can only think that these people were only interested in old toys, vintage luggage or all the other similar non-autojumble stuff that seems to be increasing year on year.

My brothers and I do Beaulieu as a social event rather than for profit, but if we were doing this commercially, I can't see how the numbers could be made to work selling secondhand autojumble parts taking into account the high costs of renting the stalls and the constant issue of theft of small parts from said stalls.

[Stuart Joseph]

Hello Tony, good to see you, Tracy and a number of old friends. There seemed to be a good public attendance but they were spending very little. Sunday had the usual brigade of 'tyre kickers and ice cream lickers' whose only interest would be in furry dice for their eurobox.
Other traders said the same, trade was definately down but some prices were eye - watering, SM5 switch panels at £200 plus, AT201 rear lights at £90each, dog rough R47's at £440. The upside was that thanks to your goodself I was able to restock with headlamp glasses and a number of MK11 Ruby headlamps for refurbishment plus lots of odds and ends that I didn't know I wanted until i saw them.
I am not sure of the direction that our interest is taking, I have bought very little on the internet for 12 months because there has been little of interest advertised so is the demand for parts declining?
Is the price of the cars stalling? A number of cars seem to be advertised for a long time and I'm uncertain that they ever actually sell.
There were certainly more empty stalls this year, someone known to me only tried to book a stall last week and was rewarded with a prime spot on red field. Another issue were the number of traders who packed up and went home on Saturday, the Beaulieu authorities apparently take action against these folk but to what end? Beaulieu enterprises have their 'rent' and if they can't fill the available stands they can't hold 'we're full' as a sanction.
Still there was bright sunshine so we packed up in the dry.
Regards from the creative county - Staffordshire
Stuart

[Austin in the Shed]

I haven't attended the autumn Beaulieu for a long while.As a member of the public,rather than trade I know most desirable bits will already be gone by the time I get in at 10 am on Saturday.
It is too big to get around in the public hours,and I think you get " jumble itis" where you go blank after so long and end up just walking ?
I have attended the spring Beaulieu however.last year I did both days,this year I couldn't be bothered to go Sunday as I thought most was expensive /and or rubbish .
I think I bought more off the two stalls at Loton than I would have at Beaulieu.

[robert regan]

I did a bit of empty stall counting myself and in the yellow field there was a block of fifteen empty stalls ,lots of jumblers parked an array vehicles there so the huge gaps were not so obvious , plus there were very many empty spaces around that field.The amount of gaps in the red field is truly worrying for the future of this flagship autojumble ,I have been going there since 1972 and been a stallholder for twenty years or more ,but no matter how bad it gets you can guaranty that Beaulieu enterprises will put up the stall prices next year as they have done year on year since I took a stall.under this new management another of their "ways to annoy", was to start charging any stall holder £20 to stay Sunday night where as there was no charge to stay if you wanted to stay till monday morning for the long drive home it seems to me that if you are a stall owner any stick is good enough to beat you with. best regards to all and as we used to say in the old days long may they rumble , Robert Regan.

[Tony Betts]

Hi Robert,

Some very good points.

I didn't want to add to, or go on to much.

But yes, many are not happy with all the extras, it's like flying with Ryan air.

£20 for sunday night.
£70 for setting up Thursday afternoon, so if dave thinks all the bargains are gone by saterday. You may be to late if you get there friday.
Extra money to be a trunk trader.
At spring, they started charging £1 to take large items back to the public carpark.
More money if you want to camp in the car park.

And yes, the big one. As there are less and less stall holders each year. Wer are they going to make up the difference. Bang it on the stall holders.

This year was £145.00 per 12ft x 15ft stall. Which isn't as big as it sounds?

Let's see what happens in January, when they start asking for there money 8 months in advance.

It's all not good, Tony.