SueZQ from MN

For me, this is a hot button topic so consider yourselves forewarned. haha. I did shows for over 25 years and stayed away from the ones that had "Buy and Sell" lines. Finding those shows was harder and harder to do. If the advertising said hand made only I'd participate, if it included "gift lines", I stayed away. A craft show is hand made crafts, not simply opening up an order and putting it out to sell. My criteria was if you could prove that you made it from scratch in your home, then it could qualify as a craft item. Tupperware, Tastfeully Simple, Pampered Chef and Scentsy are commercial products and belong in their own vendor shows. They have their place and certainly draw interest, but they are NOT craft or art items. I fought to keep them out of all the shows I ever did and for me it is a very touchy subject. I never felt that I competed with their products, but they did draw $$$ away from legitimate crafters. How fair is it that I work 12-15 hours a day to create products and all they do is fill out an order and wait for UPS to deliver? Since there has been a decrease in the number or true crafters the past few years, many show organizers are allowing in the buy and sell merchandise because they want to keep their booth numbers up and sell out all their spaces, but they are degrading the overall quaility of their shows by doing so. I don't believe that wine belongs at a craft show either, but that is a whole other topic.