Buyer Tips Guide

Always bring your valid state-issued sales tax license.

It is your entry to every wholesale floor.

This document is needed to register for each GLW show. Always keep a copy on hand at a show.

Register online before you travel.

Pre-registered buyers check in faster at every show.

With pre-registration, the paperwork is done before you get to the show.

Don't wait to reserve your travel.

Venue-area hotels fill early on show weekends.

Reserving your flights and accommodations early saves you stress before the show.

Write your want list before you walk in: item, quantity, target price.

A list keeps your budget on track, whether the floor is 50 booths or 500.

Bring business cards.

Vendors remember buyers.

This business runs on relationships. Since 1974.

Set a per-day budget and hold back 20% for day two.

The find you did not expect always shows up after lunch on the last day.

Preview the full floor once before your first buy.

Ten minutes of walking pays for itself.

Take note of the booth number and vendor with the product, not just the product.

"Where was that strand?" Solved.

Do not skip the back rows.

The best finds on the floor aren't always front and center.

There are great vendors in every corner of a GLW show. Make sure to see them all.

First morning is for selection.

Last afternoon is for negotiation.

Come early for the best selection, stay late for negotiation. Your registration covers every show day.

Wear the comfortable shoes.

Plan for more walking than you think.

Some GLW floors take twenty minutes to cross. You cannot negotiate well when your feet quit at 2 PM.

Check color-sensitive stones in different lighting when you can.

Show lighting enhances, daylight tells the truth.

Always ask: natural, treated, or lab?

Reputable vendors answer straight.

Disclosure protects your customers and your reputation. Know the right questions to ask.

Bring a loupe and a mm gauge.

Check the ends of the strand, not just the middle.

Two tools, ten dollars, zero surprises when you get home.

Negotiate on quantity, not on single pieces.

"What is the price on ten strands?" opens doors that "can you do better?" does not.

Know your keystone math before you buy.

If you cannot double it, walk.

The floor rewards discipline. There is always another strand.

Keep a notebook, pencil, and show map with you.

Make notes on merchandise as you buy.

"What's that stone, and where's it from?" Write down what the vendor tells you about a purchase. Don't rely on your memory alone on busy show days.

Findings are where margin lives.

The per-piece price drops hard at bulk quantities.

Clasps, wires, and settings. The quiet heroes of the bench.

Ask about payment options.

Vendors may prefer one payment type over another.

Many vendors take cash, checks, credit, or invoicing. Ask first so you don't get caught at checkout.

Keep receipts organized by booth as you buy.

Thirty seconds of organization now beats an hour of sorting receipts later.

Bring a rolling bag or cart.

Your shoulders are not wholesale equipment.

Serious buyers roll. You will spot them by 10:15 AM.

Buying heavy? Ask about shipping.

Some vendors ship bulk direct to your store.

Buy the flat. Ship the flat. Fly home light.

Need to restock? Ask vendors if they take orders between shows.

Many take reorders by phone or email year-round.

The show is where the relationship starts, not where it ends.

Take the vendor's card and ask which GLW shows they attend.

Your favorite booth could be in four other cities this year. So are we. 18 shows, 8 states.

Ask vendors what is moving in other regions.

They see dozens of markets a year. That is free trend research standing right in front of you.

Tell the vendor what kind of store you run.

Known buyers get first look at new goods.

"I do sterling and turquoise, mid-range" gets you shown the right trays first.

Introduce yourself to at least two new vendors every show, even when you do not buy.

This year's hello is next year's booth that holds the good strand for you.

The floor changes every year.

Walk it like it is your first time, even when it is your fortieth.

Fifty years of shows, and the regulars will tell you: the best find is the one you almost walked past.

Small show, big advantage: vendors have time to talk.

At a 50-booth regional show, you can learn more in an hour than in a full day at a mega-show. Ask your questions there.

Big show, big plan: map your must-see booths before doors open.

At the largest shows you will not see everything. Check our website before your feet decide for you.

Regional shows are restock trips.

The big shows are discovery trips.

Plan your buying year around both. Your shelves will show the difference.

Check the show schedule for your region's off-season.

That is when your competitors stay home.

The quietest floors produce the best conversations. 18 shows a year means there is always one worth the drive.

Same vendor, different city, different inventory.

Many vendors pack differently for each region. The booth you know in Franklin may surprise you in Tucson.

New to the circuit? Start with a smaller show.

Learn the rhythm of a wholesale floor where you can walk it twice before lunch. Then take on the big one.

Tucson Winter is the big one: 500+ vendors under the GLW banner.

The largest floor we run all year. January and February in Tucson. Plan for it like the buying trip it is.

Pre-register for Tucson Winter.

The door line can run 30 minutes or more.

Onsite registration is easy, but pre-registered buyers spend that half hour on the floor.

Your badge is printed and mailed for Tucson Winter.

It will be your entry to the Holidome and Gem Mall all 11 days.

Tucson is the one show where we print badges. Lose it and you are back in that line.

Give Tucson Winter at least two full days.

One is not enough.

500+ vendors do not fit in an afternoon. The buyers who plan two or three days go home with better buys.

Tucson in winter is still the desert: water, sunscreen, layers.

Cold mornings, warm afternoons, dry air all day. Pack for all three and look as sharp your last day as you did your first.

Book Tucson lodging months out, not weeks out.

Gem season fills the city. The buyers who book early spend less time stressing over hotels.

Buying strands? Check the drill holes.

Clean holes save bench time.

A ragged drill hole chews thread and chips edges. Thirty seconds of checking saves hours of work.

Cabochons: check the back and the girdle, not just the face.

Flat backs set clean. Cracked girdles do not. Turn every cab over before you stack it.

Buying rough minerals? Ask to see it wet and dry.

Water brings out the colors that will show when polished. A good vendor expects these questions.

Finished jewelry: ask who made it and where.

Your customers will ask you. Have the answer before the piece hits your case.

Metals move.

Check spot prices the morning you buy silver or gold.

Vendors price off the market. Knowing the number makes you a sharper negotiator on findings and metals.

Buy matched pairs and sets when you see them.

Earring pairs and graduated sets take vendors hours to match. They sell first and restock slowest.

Know your turn rate before you buy large quantities.

A great price on inventory that sits for two years is not a great price.

Buy for your customer, not for yourself.

The strand you love and the strand that sells are sometimes the same. Bet on the second one.

Track your best sellers.

Your sales history is a shopping list.

Know what moves, and look for it at the show.

Price the whole buying trip: goods plus travel plus your time.

Smart business owners know cost isn't just what you paid for goods.

Leave room in the budget for one calculated risk per show.

The staple goods keep the lights on. The one bold buy is what customers talk about.

End every show with a ten-minute recap: your best buy, worst buy, and missed buy.

Three lines in your notebook. Your next show gets better every time.

Keep a vendor notebook: booth, goods, prices, names.

The buyers who seem to know everyone? They wrote it down last year.

Learn names.

Buy from people, not booths.

Booth numbers can change. Relationships do not.

See something wrong after you get home? Call the vendor first.

Reputable vendors will work with you. That is what wholesale relationships are for.

Watch what other buyers carry out, not just what booths display.

Sales on the wholesale show floor reveal retail trends.

Bring an additional buyer when you can.

Four eyes cover a floor better than two.

Split the aisles, compare notes at lunch, buy better by 2 PM. Your company's registration allows up to four buyers.

The best buyers never stop being students.

Gemology moves, treatments change, markets shift. Fifty years in, we are still learning too.