Does this sound legit?

[lsbennis]

I got this email today, does this sound legit/reasonable, would you do this? Has anyone heard of this before?

We are interested in your line for our upcoming women's only shopping and fashion events.

Our next event is in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area on October 23, 2010 from 6-10pm at Pangaea and Gryphon nightclubs, inside the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL.

You are free to sell any merchandise of yours, but you must discount your merchandise by at least 25% for the event duration ONLY, to pass the savings onto our ShopSwagg attendees. Feel free to use this opportunity to sell new arrivals, aging inventory or sale/clearance items.

In addition to this, you can insert marketing materials/free product in our VIP SwaggBag goody bags as well, if you want to be a part of the event without having a representative present.

Our attendees are trendy and educated women aged 21-55 and household income over $70k. We have approximately 10,000 women on our opt-in email mailing list.

The event will be promoted via our mailing list, print, radio, social networking and the internal and independent marketing and promotion companies affiliated with the Hard Rock venues, whose database consists over 500,000 people in South Florida. This is HUGE exposure to get in tune with regional women.

At the event, you will be able to decorate your table as per your liking, as long as you don't disturb your vendor neighbors or disrupt/destroy any fixtures, belongings or property on the Hard Rock premises. The exhibition cost is $150 and that will include a banquet table and 2 chairs. 30% of the exhibition fee is due at application signing and balance will be due on September 23th.

$150 for 4 hours sounds a little steep, but I really don't know, would it be worth the exposure? Here is the email address that was at the signature www.shopswagg.com

[Wessex]

Sounds a bit suspect to me. The website has no real information, including info on past events. And if you read on, they actually want to charge you to include you own "donated" merchandise for the gift bags. My take on it is they are out to simply put as much money in their pockets without really offering you much benefit. Their claims as to there demographic audience is also what I would expect from a spam email.

I could be wrong, but it just "smells" a bit fishy. Just my 2 cents.

Steve

[Judy, USMC]

Looks like they are a promotion company. If you have the inclination you can check with your state to see if they are licensed as an event promoter. I did a quick search and wasn't able to find any past history on any of their events (or if, in fact, they have even had one.)

You can check with the HardRock, too. This event doesn't show up on any of their event calenders ... but the HR sales department should know if they have rented the areas they say they have.

Finally, as with any other events (including craft fairs) I always recommend going to the first one as an attendee. Scope it out and see if you/your products would be a good fit. See how many are attending and pay particular attention to how many are actually buying, and what they are getting.

Remember promo companies are in the business of making money for themselves. They advertise that the vendors will be offering discounts up to 70% ... and expect you to cut your prices by 25%. So before I went even to look around I'd figure out how much I would need to sell in that 4 hour time span to even cover the space rent.

HTH

[LuminousBoutique]

Finally, as with any other events (including craft fairs) I always recommend going to the first one as an attendee. Scope it out and see if you/your products would be a good fit. See how many are attending and pay particular attention to how many are actually buying, and what they are getting.

This. if its as big as they claim, it will be around next year

[Candybee]

Don't be fooled by the invite. They are looking for vendors to fill their show and collect your $150 plus fill their goodie bags for free. Sounds very nervy to me. I'd approach this with mucho skepticism and definitely check it out first before shelling out any of your hard earned money. If they have so many trendy women earning $70K on their email lists why are they trying so hard to fill their event? Wouldn't crafters be lining up and on waiting lists just to get in if there were so many big spenders. Plus they want you to discount your products by 25%?!!! Sounds fishy to me. Approach with caution.

[lsbennis]

Thanks everyone, all good points and basically what I was thinking.

I'm going to send them and ask a few questions to see what they say.