Printed from EventLister.com - Website Phone Support: 570-504-4304 PROMOTERS MUST BEWARE! In the last year or two, there have appeared 'BUY/SELL GANGS', groups of criminal conspirators, that seek to fraudulently apply to shows that they can RAPE, Site Newsletter - Release Date: 1/7 08 MORE Event RATINGS / COMMENTS Visible! 16,000+ event ratings total are in our database! The site has been updated to support event chaining throughout the years and now carries forward any comments of past listings for display on current and upcoming listings! The first 100 events in my area went from 7 with comments shown, to now 40+! - All these comments were previously available, if you looked at a promoter's past events, but now they are automatically carried forward on any listings that we can connect together as being for the same event, just for  different dates or years. --- PROMOTERS MUST BEWARE! In the last year or two, there have appeared 'BUY/SELL GANGS', groups of criminal conspirators, that seek to fraudulently apply to shows that they can RAPE, PILLAGE, AND PLUNDER, STEALING SALES FROM AUTHENTIC ARTISTS, and DRIVING SHOWS INTO THE GROUND by demonstrating to customers that the show is now a flea market, not an art show! These gangs are not mythical, they EXIST! I have seen them myself at shows and multiple promoters have told me of the their experiencing the same. The gangs take multiple booths, not just multiple spots, at each juried events and bring buy/sell of an entirely different category then they applied under and sent photos of. Promoters must know that there ARE now foreign import product regimes where one  person fraudulently applies to events for their many teams of people that then go sell at whatever events the booker(s) can get the gang's sales teams accepted into! These con artists are skilled at getting past juries. They do it for a living. Many, no-joke jury procedures, precautions, and steps are required to keep these folks out. Specifically, I have seen the apply with one item category, then bring another product type, twice now with South American's or Mexicans hawking an array of yarn sweaters, yarn hats, and sweater-like, yarny coats. Both of the 2 events that I saw them at were in NJ and are very good and very strictly juried shows. At both events they even took two different booths under different names so as to have 2 widely spaced spots at each event. One event was a street fair and they even hung multiple sweaters abt 15 feet up and 7 or so feet out into and now above the street so as to attract more customers. NOTE: These people are NOT applying to shows with sweaters! They are applying with photos of workshops and under-construction items for entirely different product categories. Both of these shows claimed day-of, walk-around inspection. They both in fact made their day-of inspection sound quite official, serious, etc. in their application as it would commence at a certain time and be of a team that would force removal, etc.. At neither event did I or my father see anyone in charge walk around, let alone inspect, question, or remove. Promoters be warned, times are changing and there are now parasites infesting our industry, looking to suckle your show, but as with any infection the host will suffer, wither, and eventually perish from drain. IT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO THE FUTURE OF YOUR SHOW:  Promoters MUST do day of inspection and removal to combat this problem, there is NO other way. This is not 2003, it is 2008. You can not keep 2008 buy/sell out of a 2008 show with even 2005 practices.... Promoters must heed the jury advice from artists in the articles released below and jury effectively. Artists and Crafters need to provide the promoters of ALL juried, hand-made shows they are doing with a printed copy of the jury advice documents. At the same time, it needs to be acknowledged that there are authentic artists in every category! A native American flutist that demonstrates and sells his own CD's told me that he has been recently turned down automatically at many events now because some promoters are becoming aware of the South American or Mexican ones that are inundating shows and automatically group him in with them. --- Original Tips and Thoughts on Retail Buy/Sell at Claimed and Advertised Hand-Made Juried Arts & Crafts Shows from 500 Artists and Crafters 9 Page Version:  http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=61 12 Page Version:  http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=59 20 Page Version:  http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=58 50 Page Version:  http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=50 150 Pages of raw responses: http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=47 http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=48 http://www.craftlister.com/craft_experts/articles/read.php?ID=49 --- NEW! - EventLister.com is about to release Exhibitor Ratings There will be around a $100 yearly fee to submit about 50 photos and pages of write-up to be rated by Louis Marquette ( CraftLister.com Developer ) in multiple categories and to then to be listed with those high-resolution photos, ratings, and verification online for anyone to check the validity of. Submittors will absolutly need to have new, better, higher resolution photos taken to even get close to your true rating level. Most people will be called by me and all will be asked for more specific photos after the first round of submission. This rating system is anticipated to be released around March. It has been envisioned, thought about, and planned for a few years now and has been under development in code for more than a few months. Any ideas from Artists or Promoters will be greatly appreciated! Here is some write-up on it to get an idea of how it will work:       EventLister.com's Exhibitor Rating system allows you to get a Quality Rating certified by CraftLister.com / Louis.            Merchants upload photos and answer questions online. They are assigned a quality rating and sent photo-color certificates that include your photos on them to frame and display in your booth and to send with applications for jury purposes. Promoters can verify ratings online and view high-resolution photos and written responses for up to one year after an exhibitor is certified.                  We give each exhibitor 3 main ratings, each within the range of 0 to 10:               Overall hand-made rating               Overall product line rating               Overall booth appearance rating                       Start by starting to fill out our question form:            It is a rather lengthy form and the amount we require from you will take more then one edit session.      The form does save your answers and lets you complete it in multiple steps - just click the same link below to continue where you left off and SAVED from.      We will almost certainly ask you to add to or re-write certain responses before we even rate you once.      You WILL need to take new photos - about 50 will be needed of very specific types.      Almost no one will already have the quality and quantity that I will require.      You will need to pay before we give ANY rating, evaluation, advice, etc.; the payment step is not intended to be hidden, but it is after the 'submit for rating' option.      The price is currently $Price for 1 year of online listing of your certified rating, this includes a 1 year of full site membership ( $Price1YrMembership value ).            The rating process is NOT for hand-made only.      Any vendor / exhibitor / merchant can apply for a rating since only 1 of the 3 main categories relates to hand-made.      Retail-only vendors are not rated in hand-made categories and so only get 2 of the 3 main ratings.      The hand-made category rating includes what level of raw material you start with to accomidate embelishing and is broken down into further published rated categories.      To that end – retailers or folks passing buy/sell as crafts should not apply      and expect to get through by pretending to be hand-made. I, Louis, will personally give each and every rating and will be thorough.      You will get good ratings in areas deserved, but you will be identified as non-hand made if you are.      !!! High hand-made ratings will not be given easily, MUCH you will be required of you to prove your level. !!!      Do not bother trying to sneak by, you will not pass.      Reports of rated exhibitors violating our rules will be accepted online and anyone can have their online rating changed at any time!      Your rating online and certification from us is always vulnerable to change & cheaters will be sought out and reports solicited from other merchants and promoters.                  Once you are satisfied with your written answers and uploaded photos, you submit for review and we rate in all areas and give feedback.      You can submit for rating 3 times total per payment fee.            There are no guarantees that you will be happy with your ratings.      There will be no refunds based on your not being happy with your final rating - the fee is for the evaluation process - although we will offer requests to be removed from our online browseable list of rated merchants.       Each payment fee entitles you to be certified and registered in our database for 1 year and includes a 1 year site membership.      All evaluations will be done by one person, CraftLister.com site developer Louis, and will therefor be consistent in that regard.      I will require written responses to all process, method, etc. questions no matter what, but some folks will also be required to answer questions over the phone; if I decide it necessary, you will not be given a rating until I speak with you.      Almost everyone will be asked to re-submit some photos at some stage and re-do online text answers, until I am satisfied that I have an understanding of YOUR specific craft creation process.             Promoters will be able to look you up by name or user # and verify ratings and see photos in full detail and read all answers to all of our questions.      Exhibitors will receive a framed photo-certificate that has your uploaded photos on it to be placed in your booth.      Your customers will know that they are buying an item certified as hand made!                 Submission for a rating requires you to upload photos and submit what will ammount to pages of typed written responses.      This is not a joke process. You must prove yourself to me. The burden of proof is on you!      I will start off assuming each applicant is sending faked photos.      You WILL need to take new photos - about 50 will be needed of very specific types.      You will need to be in the photos and they will be on your certificate from us.      NO ONE will already have the quality and quantity of photos that I will require.      Photos MUST be uploaded, so you will need a means to get digital image files to upload.       You will probably need 2 disposable cameras or rolls then developed to CD unless you can scan or have a digital camera.      Have your local geek photo you in your studio at work in barter for a 'creation' of yours.... Everyone has a digital camera owner in the family these days just dying to use theirs. Promoter Add On: Vendor Add On: P or V Add On: V NON-Member Add On: Member Add On: P w/ No Listings Add On: