Click here to subscribe to M.A.D.

Dealers Call Casino Show a Disappointing Gamble

by Ed Pfeiffer

The Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, is a gigantic gaming complex in the state's southeastern corner. Over the weekend of November 1-3, 2002, about 100,000 visitors came there to try their luck at the slot machines and table games, according to Mohegan Sun spokesman Silverio Mancini.

Apparently, some of the visitors won big time. On Sunday a sign posted at one of the entrances said $5.7 million in slot machine jackpot winnings had been paid out by about 1 p.m. that day alone.

Coming to Mohegan Sun that weekend for a very different kind of gamble were 67 exhibitors who had signed up for what was, if memory serves, the first antiques show ever held at a casino complex. Just over half of the dealers were from Connecticut, 18 came from other New England states, 11 were from the mid-Atlantic region, and one had a London, England address.

The Fall Antiques Show, staged by Connecticut Expos, a Westport, Connecticut, professional events management firm that puts on six major consumer shows a year in the Nutmeg state, was held in the Mohegan Sun's spacious arena, which regularly accommodates basketball games and other sports events or shows by such performers as the Irish Tenors. The exhibitors' spaces were arranged around a large lounge area with tables and a kiosk serving beer or wine. Located along one side of the arena was a food service section.

Many of the dealers were well-known veterans offering high-end furniture, decorative items, and collectibles. They displayed their wares in booths with hard walls, and the overall appearance of the show was very attractive. Most of the exhibitors said they viewed the event as an experiment to see how a casino might work as a new and different venue for selling antiques. Unfortunately, at the end of the weekend, they expressed almost universal disappointment about the show and especially about their sales results.

Dealers felt that the visitor traffic had been very light. Connecticut Expos chief executive officer Brian Vargas, however, said there had been 2200 paid admissions, and complimentary passes had been offered to architects, interior decorators, collectors, dealers, and other prospects in the antiques field.

The showgoers, Vargas said, appeared to be about equally divided between people who were antiques show "regulars" who had come to Mohegan Sun specifically to go to the show, and others who were at the casino center and decided to visit the event. That impression squared with random conversations with visitors in the aisles and with several dealers who reported talking to people who said they had never been to an antiques show before.

The bottom-line measurement for dealers was sales, and those apparently had been quite weak.

Probably the best results were reported by Charles A. Brown of China Trader Antiques, Marion, Massachusetts. By the end of the show he had a number of buyers and sold several Chinese items, including a large altar table, $1900; a wine table, $800; a pair of wooden window screens, $800; a late Ming Dynasty pottery vase, $600; three statues in the $300 to $600 range; and several ancestor screens at $200 each.

Joseph Collins of Cobalt, Connecticut, reported selling an Eli Terry & Sons pillar and scroll clock, priced around $2000; a small vintage birdhouse, $200; an immigrant trunk, $300; and a dresser vase with a sterling top, $50.

Sales by Nancy Prince of Portland, Maine, included a pair of copper architectural finials in the $1800 to $2200 range; and three pieces of copper luster china, two mugs and a pitcher, for $400 to one buyer.

Marta Daniels of Spiritus Mundi Antiques, Chester, Connecticut, wrote sales slips for a pine commode, $360; a 1910 yellow spongeware pitcher, $330; two ambrotype and tintype photographs at $75 each; a fireplace implement, $140; and five French plates.

Neville Lewis of The Barometer Shop, Cushing, Maine, had one transaction, a circa 1830 stick barometer by Pike & Sons, New York City, for $4250. It was his only sale, but he said he typically moves only two or three barometers at shows.

At least a half dozen exhibitors said they had no sales during the three days. They included Downshire House, Ltd., Camden, Maine; Moosavi Persian Rugs, Avon, Connecticut; The Rathbun Gallery, Wakefield, Rhode Island; Eve Stone, Woodbridge, Connecticut; and Tout le Monde, New York City. Don Slater & Son's Irish Country Antiques, which has a large shop in Deep River, Connecticut, but had not done shows before, also had no sales of antiques.

In a telephone interview a few days after the show, Connecticut Expos CEO Brian Vargas offered his comments about the event. He said his company had advertised heavily in publications in the antiques field; was in Mohegan Sun's quarterly magazine, Legends, which has a circulation of half a million; and had an outdoor billboard on I-95 and ads in local media such as the Hartford Courant. The show had also been promoted in Mohegan Sun's advertising, he added. He wished that the attendance had been "stronger" but felt the 2200 paid admissions were about equal to most other antiques shows.

In addition to the 67 exhibitors, about 20 others had made deposits but not actually attended, Vargas noted. He felt that situation was caused by the general weakness in the overall economy and in the antiques field. He speculated that exhibitors simply found that they could not afford the show rental cost, which was about $2000 for a space.

During the show, some dealers were critical of last-minute discounts that Connecticut Expos had given to a few exhibitors, charging them $900 for a booth. Vargas said there were only three or four such arrangements and that they were done to fill spaces that had already been erected with hard walls and would otherwise have been empty. He said his firm's objective was to create a more interesting "atmosphere" than what was found at most antiques shows.

For example, the large lounge area with tables and a bar was intended to be a place where visitors could relax and might sit down with a dealer to discuss a possible purchase. Vargas thought security was a potential issue but said there had been no problems in that area. He also responded to exhibitors' criticism of the check-in process, which dealers said was slow and where, at the start, there were only two porters to help them unload.

Vargas explained that the other events managed by Connecticut Expos differ from antiques shows and, in fact, porter service is not provided. When the need for porters was recognized at Mohegan Sun, eight porters were made available, and there were 15 at the Sunday checkout. Summing up, Vargas said that given the fact that the show was a first-time venture, he felt Connecticut Expos had "done everything we could do."

Connecticut Expos has scheduled another antiques show at Mohegan Sun for May 30-June 1. For information, contact the firm at (203) 222-9757, ext. 4006; Web site (www.ctexpos.com).