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Trade Show…. Great Day! Long Story.
Had a blast at my trade show on saturday, learned a lot and made out good…
Short version… Learned more than i thought, got two rolls of vinyl free, won a Roll of Black Diamond Plate Vinyl, won a Rapid tak sample kit, Won a Roland GX 24 plotter (sells for $2k)
Here’s the long version.
At this point in my business, i had a lot of questions for all the vendors and utilized the whole day doing it.Many of you may already know most of this stuff, but I’ll share anyhow.
First off, i spent an hour with Roland, using the versacamm 54″. I’m pretty much sold on it. I was really impressed with the roland rep, he new his stuff, and answered everything i had. the machine works great as I’m sure most printers do. I ran some prints, laminated them, reloaded to versa camm and cut… It was fun. Brought home a lot of sample prints.. laminated with film, liquid and not laminated.
Daige Quick mount laminator… Used it to laminate a few prints. i liked it. worked pretty easy. Lightwieght machine, not bulky…. Durable ???
Pro Vehicle outlines. Sold on this package, Talked to the owner.. the guy who makes them. Very informative, he’s got a great package and an excellent catalog… You can find what you want quickly.
Talked to all the vinyl manufacturers there. Oracal, thumbs up. FDC… Love them… it’s 3m vinyl at 2/3 of the price.. biggest selection. Signgold… Great people, very informative. AVery…. Dissapointed with the rep…. I have five trucks to re-do because of the Avery vinyl failure. I’m pretty sure I’ll get paid for it, and the rep says the problem is gone, but I’m going to stick with other brands… Sorry avery, you had your chance on saturday to sell me and you didn’t.
Flexi sign Pro software…. WOW… the new version is great. Theres a new tool for vectorizing Bitmaps. If ANY of you know about this… Why didn’t you tell me? It’s out for about a year now. It like the auto trace, but works 100 time better, you can pretty much trace a crappy bitmap and it straightens it out , just like you would clean it up for an hour after using the regular auto trace. it’s under Bitmap; vectorize; bezier. Best Thing since sliced bread. I now use VE LXI software, which is Flexi renamed, (i didn’t know this) – so I can upgrade to FLexi pro for $1600. I’m happy!
They gave me a demo version. I can use it, but can’t save or cut. I Love it!
Who else uses Flexi? Is Signlab a whole Lot better???? Are they comparable?
Spent time with Bergen Designs… He Sells workable designs and layouts for print and cut. A lot of custom fills… Nice stuff, great guy! His layouts import and you can change the text without cutting apart and welding and such. Nice product.
Learned more about apparel printing and pressing….
I could go on and on, but i have to get to work…. All and all, the reps were very helpful to me at this point in the game.So, for the raffle…. My wife and i each got a ticket upon entering for door prizes, that went off all day. we both won. They were the 24″ x 5yd. roll of Black Diamond plate, and the rapid tak sample kit… Cool.
for the grand prize, we had a sheet with all the vendors on it. After Visiting with a vendor, you placed their sticker on the name, filled it up and got a ticket for the raffle, we almost didn’t fill it up, because we got wrapped up with a few vendors for a long time. But my wife persisted, and unlike some people there… we actually talked to everyone, not just grabbed their sticker. We turned in the sheet, got our ticket and won! They called one number but the ticket holder wasn’t present… the second number was ours…. So, Yay! I now have a spare plotter, something I wanted since I’ve been cutting everyday, this year. I was waiting to get a print and cut to have as a spare, but We got lucky. Anyone else use a GX 24… Seems like a good machine, and I’m happy with it so far.sory for the rant…. i’ve got too much in my head this morning…. Just wanted to share ..
thanks,
steve -
13 Replies
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Sounds a good adventure at the weekend, well done to you ( I mean, well done to the wife ! )
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thanks Dave…
Yeah, my wife was great.
And I needed a pick-me-up…. Been working day and night, with a lot of bigger jobs in between, so not much money coming in. A free plotter was a good boost that i needed.
Now if i can get some work out of the shop, and get caught up….. -
great stuff steve, you both are very lucky, what a great end to a good day!
i was reading up on the vector thing from flexisign, well correction i read some article on it. sounds like a pretty neat tool. ik guessing its something like the new illustrator vectorising tool. but again, havent seen that work either.
when you say this vinyl is 3m, was this the rep telling you this?
thanks for the feedback on the show, sounds great, sad to hear things with avery over there are still not 100% on the mend.
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Wow Steve! Sorry I missed it.
Almost went, but had a late night Friday (working) and had to get a bunch of signs out on Saturday.Awesome that you won the Raffle!
Bryan
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About the 3m… No, he didn’t tell me, and i probably shouldn’t be writing this on here, but you can tell by the color charts, kinda… they sell 3m as well as FDC. Have a chart for 3m vinyl that they sell, and the chart for fdc.. are similar.
I can tell more by using both vinyls. They seem to be the same. If it’s not 3m, it’s as good, in my opinion.
I guess i should shut up this topic???? don’t want to stir up anything negative…. Should we edit these posts and remove these suggestions to be safe? -
If you guys can get FDC Vinyl over there, I recommend trying it. I know you guys are big on Oracal, and I haven’t used it yet, but I’m going to start soon.
My local supplier just started selling Oracal, and they have FDC so it’s easy for me to use both. -
quote Robert Lambie:i was reading up on the vector thing from flexisign, well correction i read some article on it. sounds like a pretty neat tool. ik guessing its something like the new illustrator vectorising tool. but again, havent seen that work either.
The Rep From Flexi gave me a cd with a demo version… I would think that you could get one from them. It’s great.. It’s a working program, but you can’t cut from it or save anything. Great selling tool in my opinion.
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Ok, you did a trade show.
Now when are you going to go to a meet?
Hmmmm?
(If you think a trade show is as good as a Big Mac, a Letterhead meet is like a feast at The Olive Garden)
Was it Pioneer’s? Our Pioneer Supply had their trade show last week but I missed it.
I only go for the mini meatballs and the free L’il Chizlers!
Love…..Jill -
Sounds like a pretty busy and useful day Steve. As for you winning the plotter, there’s only one thing I can say: you jammy sod! (US translation – what a lucky fellow you are)
😉
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Steve — you won the plotter!!!?
I was standing right next to you at the door when they called you up for the picture LOL
(I thought you looked familiar)my husband John and I were yelling for your wife to get in the photo with you when she didn’t hear you :lol1:
Well it was almost nice meeting you 😉
Glad you won – what a great prize!It was a good expo this year
we go mostly to pick up a few items using our beacon bucks and % off of stuff and shlep it home instead of shipping. So we usually save our larger purchases until the show. Last year we bought a heat press, this year just ordered a bunch of Gallon containers of stuff and lots of 1shot colors and also picked up some brushes from Mr. Jmaybe we’ll get to meet you there next year
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Goodonya Steve. I have just been to our Sydney Trade Show (1000 klm’s away) because our Brisbane show is about as useful as a glass door on a toilet!
Have not been to a big one before (our local show is pretty small), and I’d suggest anyone goes if they are in the trade.
Of course, if I were near Jill, her Letterheads would be a must!
I am really interested in the Bergen designs. They were all anyone at the Oracal stand talked about, but we don’t have representation here. Do they have a web site that I could buy directly? I suppose they are pretty pricey. I’m told by anyone in the know, that if you have a printer, they are a must.
Well done again.
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Leigh,
That’s pretty wild! Wish I would have met you. I didn’t know you were there. It was more fun for me this year, because i’m on the verge of printing and had more interest in the demos, more questions for everyone. Yeah, that’s what i do as well, stock up on stuff that day, all the specials add up. I saved a few hundred dollars on supplies.Shane,
I was really impressed with Bill’s designs, and him as a person. They are pricey, I suppose, but if you have a need for them, i think they’d be worth it. I’m going to have a hard time picking which volume to start with, if i can’t swing them all. His site is prety nice and informative, Ther are a lot of samples, pics.. and you can buy direct. -
thanks Steve, just sent him an email, and told him you gave me the details.
They don’t sell into OZ by the looks, only USA and UK
Cheers
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