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News Bulletin No. 11

The staff of the organising firm Progres Partners Advertising, s,.r.o. Praha wish all exhibitors and visitors to the international trade fair Collector a merry Christmas and a happy New Year for all of 2005.

Every seventh visitor is from abroad

As we have already informed you, at the last event in 2004, the organisers of the trade fair Collector organised a survey of visitor makeup. From the survey of a sample of 271 recipients addressed at random it was found that 14.8% of visitors came from abroad. This means that an average of every seventh visitor to the trade fair was a foreigner. Naturally, they mostly came from neighbouring countries - Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. But visitors from far more distant places came to the trade fair - from Slovenia, Great Britain, Spain, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium and also from Thailand, China and Japan. There was a total of 12,155 visitors at the last Collector.

Trade fair Collector in 2005 on dates 16.-18.9.

The eighth annual international trade fair Collector will be held in Prague at the same exhibition ground and in the same exhibition hall on the dates 16th - 18th September 2005. The organising firm Progres Partners Advertising guarantees that it will be on at least the same level as last year's event, which most exhibitors and visitors praised highly. Information about the trade fair in 2005, including prices for exhibitors (which are the same as in 2004), can be found on this Internet page.

Czech Mint satisfied

The Czech Mint first participated at the trade fair Collector as an exhibitor in 2003. During its first appearance it was satisfied, but this year's participation exceeded all expectations. As the director of the mint, ing. Jan Vízek, said after the trade fair, "revenues for goods sold were even higher than last year, and we also had many interesting and useful discussions with exhibitors and mints from other countries. I believe that the trade fair Collector has become one of the most important European collecting trade fairs". In 2005, the Czech Mint will naturally return to the trade fair.

Free appraisal service at trade fair

Every year, a free consultation service is available to visitors in all fields of collecting. In the field of minerals and precious stones, the service is traditionally provided by the court appointed appraiser Karel Mařík from the Prague firm Mineral & Gem Collection. Every year, more and more visitors come to his stand. In 2002, there were 18, last year there were 26, and during the last event 32 people were interested in the service. There often arise curious situations during the appraisal of minerals, jewellery or precious stones.
Last year a gentleman stood before the exhibition stand for a while before asking whether he was in the right place for a decision and whether he had a diamond or not. He showed a gentleman's gold (brass) ring with a solitary stone of considerable size. Following negative test results, he said that he had thought so too, but that he would come back. A few minutes later he was back, and he tipped out several small loose stones from a piece of crumpled up paper which were "definitely supposed to be diamonds". The test results were negative once more. After a moment's hesitation, he took it on board calmly and said that he would be back. He returned, but not alone. He had brought a lady with him, who he submitted for tests on the diamonds and jewels that she was wearing. The situation became slightly critical and became visibly worse after the discovery that the lady didn't have a single diamond on her. It took a lot of explaining, but in the end the pair understood that the appraisal service provided did not consist of turning glass into diamonds.

Union of the Czech Philatelists at trade fair

Last year, the officials of the Union of the Czech Philatelists (UCP) expressed great satisfaction with the trade fair Collector. In a letter of thanks to the organisers of the trade fair, the chairman of the union, Lumír Brendl, wrote that there had been enormous interest on the part of visitors in the consultation services at the stand of the UCP. Many representatives of philatelic federations from abroad came to the trade fair, and the Federation talked to them. Amongst them was a member of the executive committee of the Federation of Israeli Philatelists, M. Kremener, with whom the future participation of Israeli philatelists at the trade fair was discussed.

Record in the field of telephone cards

In the field of telephone cards, Collector is becoming one of the largest and most frequented events in Central Europe. At the last trade fair, exhibitors from 18 countries offered cards, which is the largest number yet in the seven-year history: they came from Belorussia, Bulgaria, France, Croatia, Japan, South Africa, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and, naturally, the Czech Republic.

Important message to exhibitors of the fair Collector

In addition to many other firms, the company Construct Data GmbH offers exhibitors entries in trade fair catalogues. We would like to inform you that when making catalogues for our own fair Collector, Progres Partners Advertising s.r.o. acts wholly independently, and it has no connection whatsoever with the company Construct Data Verlag GmbH, which operates the Internet page Fair Guide. We have not permitted this company to use our name or trademarks in their advertising. In the case of the published advertisement of the company Construct Data GmbH, this is not our official trade fair catalogue nor official trade fair catalogue of our trade fair ordered by us. The unsolicited offer forms sent out were often filled in mistakenly and signed with the understanding that the entry in the so-called Fairguide was to be made free of charge. But in reality, costs exceeding 2,900 Euro are evident from the text in fine print. As the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) has informed, on the basis of the court ruling issued, there exists no legal claim against the customer, even in the eventuality that he signed the offer form. You can receive more detailed information on the ruling at http://www.auma.de/content/meldung29_d.htm