It was good weather at Heaton Park , the afternoon was quite hot and we had lots of pleasant time chatting with our myriad friends there. However on the negative side we had very poor sales albeit up on last year which was a wash out. We have decided that we will attend nothing after Showbus until spring 2019 when the opening of the season will be Cobham at Brooklands covering London and Detling for Kent the same weekend. In the summer we would like to carry on with Alton and Worthing in the South, Taunton if the running day is back or Plymouth if that ever gets back on its feet for the South West and then Lathalmond for Scotland. Showbus unless it ends up duplicating an existing location. That does leave huge areas from N West N East, Midlands and Wales not covered but our growth will be in digital downloads which become standard for new releases ( as well as on DVD) both through this Weebly shop and also through our Flckr/Smugmug sales outlet where digital photo downloads are already in place. I think when we got home today the fact that there were three times the amount sold at the rally online says it all. This site already sends DVDs around the world post free, we love the international fellowship of transport enthusiasts and downloads really open many avenues in lots of countries particularly in the developing world. Hopefully we shall have platforms which are accepted in China although EBay has never taken off for us there. This seems a moribund way of selling, perhaps that will drop off at some stage. We'll do the above rallies for two years and then intend to stop taking the stand out, we'll retain th PMP van and new tent as it's handy to have a van and it's a back up vehicle we can both drive. This would open up more events to just visit and film and not be tied to the stand, it's soul destroying for Mandy sitting there all day and winter is a no no for old hangers or museums. I think attending as a punter will be more liberating and the imperative to make sales removed makes lots more options worth pursuing especially for those who like the running day aspects. So with immediate effect around two thirds of our sales stock will be used to fulfill online or post orders with new covers and printing if required, the hope to sell stock of cheap was futile, sorting them out and blending in the truck, Scottish and Irish stock will take some time, we'll hang on to the Scottish for our two last events at Lathalmond, we may have a stock clearance sale their next August as a lot of items have far too many copies in stock. The price of printable DVD discs is rocketing due to a shortage of raw materials, China soaks up nearly every mineral these days for their own needs, online downloads gets round that obstacle. You can keep in touch via our blog , by phone and email. We shall continue to serve older customers who have no internet access but this will fade away with the passing years. Somewhere along the line we'd like to have an IT savvy young entrepreneurial enthusiast who can maximise the huge potential of the PMP archive online into avenues we haven't dreamt of. With 50-70k hits a day on Youtube, 43k subscribers and 200 countries and territories viewing each day the possibilities must be enormous. I would like to think by our 70's we would be enjoying the filming and travel aspects alone. Meanwhile before we head off to Devon and Cornwall we leave you with some scenes from Heaton Park, there will be a DVD of the event. Comments are closed.
|
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
Categories |