News of the Paris Pipe Show
(Updated June 14th, 2005)

June 14th - Just for a quick update to what is said below, I received an information package in the mail for this show, wooing me to attend, and can verify a few facts. The 700 € tables originally mentioned are NOT available - in fact, the least expensive option is a 5,060 € booth! Next up, one can rent a 10,000+ € booth of larger size. Again I say, compare this to the $1,600 booth prices for a 10x10 space at the RTDA show in the US. Does anyone seriously believe that the Paris show will offer five times the opportunity of RTDA? Unfortunately, the reality is that this "world" pipe show is going to be limited to exactly one type of pipe - mass-produced, low-cost French factory pipes... probably the intention all along.

May 30th - As a lot of folks know, I have missed being able to easily attend pipe shows since we moved to Brittany. When I first heard that there would be an attempt at a major pipe show in Paris, I was overjoyed. It would be close, inexpensive to attend, within easy reach of a city full of fun stuff, and it would be a terrific opportunity to meet a lot of the very nice folks that I've come to know through the French pipe club FumeursdesPipe. The early news was that this would be a true "world" pipe show, with artisans and collectors from around the world, and it was billed as Europe's version of Chicago. Unfortunately, a lot of unpleasant facts have arisen that have caused me to change my mind about attending, and in fact to refuse to even visit, much less have a table there. I'll run over the pertinent details below, then comment on each. Note that this is not 100% confirmed information, but it's as close as I could get, because the organizers have thus far completely ignored my email inquiries in a telling show of customer service.

Now, I will take these one at a time and offer my comments, to help explain why I REFUSE to attend this show even as a visitor, and furthermore will strongly discourage all artisans that I know from attending.

• Table fees for artisans will be 700 euros. This includes a meal.
  This is nonsensical. Table fees at Richmond's CORPS show - a well-established show with a proven history of attracting collectors and artisans from around the world - are $75 a table. In today's currency, 700 euros is roughly equal to $1000. For this price I could purchase a round-trip plane ticket to the US, buy a pair of tables at CORPS, pay for my hotel bill, AND be assured of probably selling enough pipes to cover the cost and more. The reasoning that has been given is that an artisan will have the chance to have his work seen by large-volume retailers from around the world, and will have the potential to make major sales to these vendors later. This is an erroneous reasoning, showing little understanding of the pipe market today. Today, most individual pipemakers around the world sell direct, via the internet, to their buyers, and even the high-volume makers can rarely turn out more than a few hundred pipes a year. This isn't the sort of volume that is needed for the sort of international distribution being described, and in fact, most pipemakers can easily sell everything they make direct and can't satisfy their existing market, much less have need of seeking out bulk distributors. I have no interest in talking to large-volume pipe distributors in China, for example... I can't make the number of pipes they need, for starters, and if a Chinese collector wants to buy a pipe from me, he can simply log to my website and buy it direct, without middlemen.
  Ergo, individual artisans have virtually nothing to gain for their 700 euros expense, and there is no reason for a Paul Bonaquisti, a Tom Eltang, a Mark Tinsky, or any other artisan pipemaker to attend.
  
  
• Retailers don't have to pay to attend, but artisans and factories do.
  See my comment above. I have no interest in selling to retailers - they are not my customers, for the most part. Why should I be expected to pay an egregious table fee so that they can be brought in for a free vacation?
  
  
• Half the show will be closed to the public - after a certain time at mid-point, it becomes an industry-only show.
  And again, at this point there would no longer be a reason for me to stay - we could close our table halfway through the show, because there would be no sales potential for staying another day and a half. All the focus will be on the major French pipe factories, and the large volume sales deals they can negotiate. This is RTDA-style business, not a show for artisans, enthusiasts, and collectors.
  
  
• Tobacco cannot be tasted or purchased.
  This is half the reason for attending a pipe show.
  
  
• No smoking is allowed at the show!
  And if anything was needed to cap this off, this is certainly it. Special dispensation should have been sought and gained, especially here in the land of the cherished "cultural exception".

In a nutshell, I'm being asked to pay 700 euros plus food, lodging, and travel, to attend a show where it is unlikely that there will be many potential buyers of my work, where I cannot shop for new tobaccos, where there probably won't be other artisans to buy from or chat with, and where I can't even smoke! If it were simply a matter of table costs I would probably attend anyway, and simply not have a table, but these other factors are too personally offensive to ignore.

And that is why I will not attend the Paris pipe show in September.