New Orleans Pipe Show Report

[baweaverpipes]

I ate lots of oysters at Felix's Oyster Bar---they're so delicious.

[notow1]

I ate lots of oysters at Felix's Oyster Bar---they're so delicious.

I was expecting a long drawn out report but You covered all the important stuff very well, thank You, Norm.

[pipedreamer]

Well at least you are covering the good things!!! LOl. Have a great time!!!

[LatakiaLover]

It definitely has that Old School tasty look goin' on:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sit ... d4w#imgrc=_


Probably hasn't changed in 50 years (because, why would you?)

[baweaverpipes]

It definitely has that Old School tasty look goin' on:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sit ... d4w#imgrc=_


Probably hasn't changed in 50 years (because, why would you?)

First time there was about 40 years ago and it hasn't change a bit!

The venue for the show was superb.

[sethile]

My wife went with me, and we had a fantastic time in NOLA!!

I agree with Bruce--the venue was fantastic, and Toby and crew did a great job organizing the show. The traffic was a bit under what I'd hoped for, but very respectable for a first show. Sales above $300 seemed pretty slow (I was skunked on the retail side), while sales bellow $300 looked better, and bellow $200 looked brisk.

My hope is they keep after this one. I think it has tons of potential, and I'll go every year in spite of being skunked this time. I think once the word gets out about how cool it is, the middle and upper end sales will pick up. And even if they don't, there are sure a lot of ways to console yourself in that town

[2combs]

My wife went with me, and we had a fantastic time in NOLA!!

I agree with Bruce--the venue was fantastic, and Toby and crew did a great job organizing the show. The traffic was a bit under what I'd hoped for, but very respectable for a first show. Sales above $300 seemed pretty slow (I was skunked on the retail side), while sales bellow $300 looked better, and bellow $200 looked brisk.

My hope is they keep after this one. I think it has tons of potential, and I'll go every year in spite of being skunked this time. I think once the word gets out about how cool it is, the middle and upper end sales will pick up. And even if they don't, there are sure a lot of ways to console yourself in that town

I think you summed it up well. It was my first show so it was great to meet some PMF guys and get some good critiques on my pipes. Shared some tobacco and a lot of laughs. Hope to see more of you there next year.

[wdteipen]

My wife went with me, and we had a fantastic time in NOLA!!

I agree with Bruce--the venue was fantastic, and Toby and crew did a great job organizing the show. The traffic was a bit under what I'd hoped for, but very respectable for a first show. Sales above $300 seemed pretty slow (I was skunked on the retail side), while sales bellow $300 looked better, and bellow $200 looked brisk.

My hope is they keep after this one. I think it has tons of potential, and I'll go every year in spite of being skunked this time. I think once the word gets out about how cool it is, the middle and upper end sales will pick up. And even if they don't, there are sure a lot of ways to console yourself in that town

Yep, very nicely said. Not to take anything away from Bruce's awesome report.

This show has potential to be beyond epic. I do hope it carries on.

[WCannoy]

I think you summed it up well. It was my first show so it was great to meet some PMF guys and get some good critiques on my pipes. Shared some tobacco and a lot of laughs. Hope to see more of you there next year.

Congrats on winning the contest! I didn't get a chance to look at the entries, do you have a pic of your winning pipe you can share?

For those interested in how the show went from a seller's perspective, well, it was a first year show. There wasn't a huge amount of traffic, but just enough. The venue was super cool, I guess it is usually used as a night club or something like that. They had some really sweet focused, but multi-directional lighting that really made the pipes sparkle! High end stuff wasn't really moving very well, but the lower end seemed to be making decent sales. Luckily, I had my bases covered there. I took 17 pipes from my new line, and sold 6 retail.

One thing that really stuck out in my mind was the average size of pipes displayed at this show. Everywhere I looked there were big pipes. When folks passed by my table, they would comment on how small my offerings were. Well, for those of you who are familiar with the majority of artisan pipe offerings at the Chicago Show, the sizes of my pipes were about average with those!

For me, this was a great show, but it was a great show for me before the show even started. I arrived in NOLA on Thursday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by my brother, who lives across the river in Belle Chasse, and my nephew. We got settled in at his house for a bit before heading out to dinner along with his wife. After dinner, we ventured downtown and into the French Quarter where we strolled around for a while before retiring back to his house for the night.

Friday morning I decided we would blow off the Perique factory tour, and spent the day walking the quarter with my brother and nephew. It was a good decision! I did some souvenir shopping, my brother and I bought new hats, my nephew and I bought some Jackson Square artwork, we had a great lunch at a local haunt in the quarter, and we sat smoking and drinking coffee several times throughout the day while people watching (which is my idea of a good time). By the time I checked in to the hotel adjacent to the show and headed toward Manning's for the pre-show gathering, I had already decided the trip was worthwhile and that I would be attending next year!

[Zhamricpipes]

I have to second everyone on the show- The guys did a great job of pulling off the venue change at the last minute... We had to make a choice between Nashville which we did last year and The NOLA Show. Turned out to be a good choice- it was the best one day show we've had...seemed like the sweet spot on prices for most was in the $200-300 range. Seemed like the over $500 market was really tough...

Had an absolute blast at the show- quite a few carvers- the events at Mannings on Friday night and the Cigar Factory on Saturday night gave everyone plenty of quality time for socializing... It was Greta's first time in New Orleans and we made the most of it....

We'll be back...

[JMG]

Though only being about 2 1/2 hours from my hometown I was unable to attend as I was just slightly out of driving distance. However, a big congrats to my bud Tu for winning the carver's contest.