WOULD YOU LIKE VAMP & TRAMP TO CONSIGN YOUR BOOKS?
Sign up for a 20 minute session with Bill and Vicky Stewart on Thursday, April 5 between 9am and 12pm. They are looking for works to consign and this session will be an opportunity for you to show them TWO works.
A sign up form will be posted outside the paper studio on Friday, March 23 at 1pm.
Please take the time to review all the necessary information, posted below: including the sample consignment form.
Some of the basics:
· 20 minute sessions allocated by a sign-up sheet posted 3/23
· Only completed work to be considered.
· These are not critique sessions, but sessions for anyone who has work he/she would like us to consider representing. Admittedly, 20 minutes is not much time to evaluate several books, but realistically it is more than most institutional buyers will have to do the same thing. Especially if there is a great deal of text, students should be prepared to help us through it.
· We’ll have time to consider 2 works only. At this point, we don’t need to see everything each person has done. They should show us their best work, and we will develop the relationship from there.
· We will have blank Consignment Agreements for the sessions, but each student should be familiar with it beforehand and come with questions if she has any.
· Students should come ready to talk about the work – not only how it was made but the back story. We look at work with an eye to what we think we can place (i.e. sell). So we’ll want to know anything that might help us dothat.
· Please have students come with an idea of a price — a retail price, including Vamp & Tramps 40 percent. We’ll give our opinion if asked, but the decision the artist’s. We try not to take on work that we don’t think we can place, and price factors into that.
ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Information about Vamp & Tramp for prospective presses/artists:
We are always interested in talking with new (to us) presses and book artists.
What follows is information about Vamp & Tramp along with our General Consignment Agreement, which lays out our basic method of operations. This should provide you with enough to decide if you want to go further and explore a working relationship.
We have been deeply interested in and involved with contemporary fine press and artists’ books since we saw Ron King’s Circle Press edition of Antony and Cleopatra over 10 years ago. In December 2003 we acquired Califia Books, which had been dealing in fine press and artists’ books for 20 years from San Francisco.
We represent only fine press and artists’ books (both editioned and unique items), and we make contacts with potential customers via lists, over a website, at selected fairs, and – most importantly – through personal visits to private and institutional customers.
Currently we accept presses and artists on a consignment basis only. We realize the pros and cons of the consignment system, and I’d be happy to discuss the particulars with you. In short, instead of having all our money tied up in inventory, the consignment system allows us to use the money to travel, market, and sell the books. It seems to work both for us and for our presses/artists.
Our normal split with those we represent is 60 (to the press/artist) / 40 (to Vamp & Tramp). For our 40 percent, we list the work on our website, exhibit it at selected fairs (space restrictions means we can’t take everything to every fair), and hand-sell it to selected private and institutional customers.
By far, the majority of our sales are made by taking the work to the institutional and private collectors. No matter how good the website there is no substitute, we find, for actually showing the work.
Because we feel strongly that the sort of work we represent is best sold by taking the work to the institutions and collectors, we ask artists to send us one copy of all works they want us to represent. We show the actual work to potential buyers, and place orders with the artist as we sell their work.
We keep a record of your shipping cost, and when we sell the work, reimburse you.
To give you some idea of what we do, here is a sketch of completed and planned travel for 2011:
January 31 – February: West & Southwest-Midwest (Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas) including the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles and the Codex Book Fair in Berkeley.
March – April: a short stop in east Texas on the way to the Midwest (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) including ARLIS (art librarians’ annual conference) in Minneapolis
May: Florida
June: Northeast (Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts) plus a presentation at the New Orleans Museum of Art in conjunction with ALA
July: Southeast
August: Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania) beginning with presentation/talk at Indianapolis’ Harrison Center, coinciding with the city’s IDADA First Friday Art Tour.
September – October: West and West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle, ending at the Seattle Book Fair.
November: Northeast and Middle Atlantic, including presentations at the University of the Arts, West Point, Queens College, and Bookworks in Asheville, NC
December: At home in Birmingham, processing new work to get ready for 2012.
Vamp and Tramp Booksellers, LLC
1951 Hoover Court, St. 205
Birmingham, AL 35226
Phone: 205.824.2300
Fax: 205.824.2303
mail@vampandtramp.com
www.vampandtramp.com
Date:
Consignment Agreement
I. General Terms
______________________ (hereafter consignor) agrees to allow Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, LLC (hereafter Vamp & Tramp) to offer for sale the material(s) described in Section III below.
The terms of this agreement are as follows:
A. Vamp & Tramp will offer the items for sale through the general course of business.
B. Consignor and Vamp & Tramp have agreed that the material(s) described below will be offered for sale at the price(s) listed in Section III.
C. Consignor agrees not to authorize other commercial representatives to sell the material(s) described below at less than the retail price stipulated in Section III.
D. Vamp & Tramp will exercise reasonable care against theft, damage, and acts of God.
E. Proceeds of the sale will be divided as follows: 60% to the consignor; 40% to Vamp & Tramp.
F. Vamp & Tramp is not authorized to alter the price established in Section III without the consent of consignor.
G. This contract expires one year from this date, but unless consignor or Vamp & Tramp asks that the agreement be terminated, the agreement shall continue on a month-to-month basis.
H. Any payments to consignor shall be payable as soon as is practicable (30 days being the expected time frame) after receipt of payment in full.
I. Consignor grants Vamp & Tramp permission to appropriate images and/or text from consignor’s web site or promotional material for marketing purposes.
J. Consignor grants Vamp & Tramp permission to produce and reproduce images of material(s) and/or to quote from the material for marketing purposes.
This agreement is not to be construed as a sale to Vamp & Tramp or a transfer of any financial interest in the material to Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers.
Section II. Artist/Press Information (if new artist/press)
Name:
Press:
Address:
City:
State/Province: Postal Code:
Country:
Social Security Number (if applicable):
Federal Employment Identification Number (if applicable):
Phone Number:
Email address:
Web site:
Section III. Title, short description, and retail price:
