Overview

Our first venture into vending at a small local car show and first ever outdoor vending experience. We participated in the 3rd Annual MNARC Auto Show located at IBEW 110 Union Parking Lot in St Paul, MN. This event was a reminder about how important it is to make sure you have important items you need for vending with you (or at least sunscreen).

Applications, Payments & Planning

I am in a few local event groups on Facebook that I joined when I first started to sell things in person. One is Minnesota Vendor Events & Craft Shows - which is mostly just for organizers to post events that have open slots. 

On April 18th, 2025, Katie Bostrom (the organizer), made a post mentioning they had some vendors spots open for $20 at a car show. Since it's car season in Minnesota, I am all about getting outside as soon as it's warm and I used to be really big into showing and attending tons of car events in the past. I decided to take the chance since the fee was really low. The $20 fee went to a non-profit called Soldier 6. I guess they do something with providing trained animals to veterans, police, etc. Not sure if they are service animals or not, but it's a pretty good cause if you ask me.

I was messaged a link on Facebook for one of those event sites where I could register and pay. I am not sure if they vetted me at all, but they were limiting vendors to about 5 or so since it was a small event. Since vendors weren't the focus and cars were, they still wanted us to get some sales. I do appreciate that aspect.

I paid immediately and added it to my events spreadsheet. I knew before the event I would need to get a tent, bring my own table and bring chairs if we wanted to sit at all. I have a 6ft table and an 8 ft table already, but I had never done an outdoor event before. Everyone was telling me to get Eurmax products for canopy tents, but I wasn't even sure if I'd bother with outdoor events in the future and opted to ask to borrow one first.

Sandra regularly attended outdoor events but is no longer going to be doing them regularly or maybe at all. She was the first person I thought of to ask to borrow one. We picked it up and she gave us weights and extra panels for the sides so we could block the wind. She gave us a ton of tips about everything if we plan to do outdoor events, including getting some lights and labeling the box lids with what is inside them or where things should go when packing up. Honestly, that's genius so I will be using that advice for sure.

No more correspondence was sent after registration. There was a Facebook event that information was being posted to. A map was posted on May 17th showing us the layout of the event, including where vendors would be located. I had no idea what time to setup at, so I just looked up how far it was and planned to be there about an hour before. My setup for craft fairs and other events tends to be pretty quick since I just use my spinning rack.

Before the Event & Setup

I didn't do anything crazy to prepare for this event. I charged my terminal and made sure it was updated. I didn't plan to bring any cash since it was outdoors and it had been extremely windy for the past week or so. 

My husband helped me count inventory the night before then load up the vehicle in the morning. Craft fairs were typically low sales for me, so we didn't try and bring a ton of items knowing this. With only 4 hours and a focus mostly on vehicles, we just mostly tried to use this as a learning experience to even see what sort of things we were going to mess up learning about outdoor events.

We left the house, forgot the clamps we got and went back to get them. We also forgot the weights for the tent but didn't really realize it until we were almost to the event. We considered setting it up, but weren't sure it wouldn't just fall over. So in the end, we never set it up at all. Since we forgot the weights, I also didn't think to bring sunscreen. I think in the future I will just always bring it with as a just in case. I know better for other outdoor things, but just decided to throw caution to the wind for this I guess.

I used my spinning rack, didn't set out any stickers (because of the wind) and my husband set up the grids for the plush. We got the table and display together in about 30 minutes or less. 

The Event Itself

The event was short and focused on cars, so us being there was more of a bonus I guess since their goal was mostly fundraising and to give out awards to the car owners for the vehicles. I would be thrilled to make $20, but since it was a donation anyways, it didn't matter that much if I made money or walked away losing money.

We got to meet the other vendors who were all very friendly. It was slow and most of the sales we made were closer to the end of the event. There were a few cool cars there, some police, military and firefighters. 



Since the event started at noon, we ended up eating at the event itself. Normally I hate eating at events, but for some reason places with food trucks are just better. The food usually at community centers or convention centers tends to be just cheap crap that makes me question if it's worth spending that money at all. The food truck selection for this event was pretty decent. You could pick from Pizza, BBQ or some sweet snacks. We ate at two of the three trucks throughout the event. Our lunch choice was brisket sandwiches from Pete's Texas BBQ (kenny) with some chips. We brought water with us so we didn't pay for any drinks the whole time. There was also water being provided by the organizers which was nice. We had some mini donuts later in the afternoon from Just In Time Concessions that were very tasty. I can't really eat pizza since I need medication that I didn't bring in order to handle it, so we skipped on it. I bet it was good though. I saw a lot of people buying pizza.

I think my prices were too high for this kind of event. I know I was telling people my convention prices and people were just sort of shocked. I ended up just doing a reduced rate and started getting some sales. My first sale was to a kid who really wanted a wizard corgi pin, so I threw in a free sticker as a surprise. She was so freaking excited she kept talking about it as she walked off. 

There were a lot of dogs at the event, but this was the first car event that I had been to that didn't have a corgi. Usually we just attend the events, walk around and then go home after we've seen everything or gotten our steps in, seeing one to two corgis per event. This event mainly had bully breeds, german shepherd, belgian malinois, labs and one small rat terrier looking dog. People did ask about several different breeds, including aussies and huskies. I will always be a primarily corgi vendor, but I really need to increase my breed offering for those who want to see something similar to their pets.

I liked that we got to vote on the cars. They had a few types of voting, so we got to vote for people's choice. I liked that they also had a kids choice so the kids could vote on what they thought was the coolest car. 

The event was set to end around 4pm, but as soon as they started doing awards sometime before 3:30pm it was clear people were going to start leaving after that. I wish I had taken a photo of the awards, but they were really nice wood pieces with the car show information and what prize it was. The table next to us that was selling jewelry won kids choice.



Once people started leaving, we started casually packing up. There was a racecar there who revved and started to leave. Unfortunately, the driveshaft decided it no longer wanted to participate anymore so it dropped down and the car stopped. Everyone rushed over to the guy to help him push the car into the fence behind the building. I decided I'd move the car from the side of the building where we were directed to park to where we were at to make load out easier on us.

 

We had everything packed up and were ready to leave by 3:40pm. Enjoy some photos of the vehicles that were at the event.

Side note, apparently they only charge for vendor space since vendors in the past would just not show up at all. I get it, but it was interesting. It's kind of like if you put something up for free vs a price, the types of people you will get trying to pick it up are different. One of the vendors I guess had to work and ended up missing out on the event, so there would have been 6 of us total if they had been able to make it.

What Worked & What Did Not

There wasn't any sort of information passed out as a reminder the day before the event like most usually have. I guess I just like the information sometimes just to have it, but it's not like this was as chaotic as conventions are anyways.

The food trucks were very good. For as many conventions and other events we've sold at, so many just have the most awful food.



We could use as much space as we wanted. I only requested a 10x10 but I guess I could have asked for more space if we had needed it which is nice.

Conclusion

It was a very relaxed casual experience for us. It was nice to get to see some cool cars and make a few sales. Since we didn't have any previous outdoor experience, it was a great way to experience it. The organizer was so sweet and always checked in on us. I would gladly go to this event next year. Maybe we'll even have a cool car to enter in the show. I think the sales for the price weren't bad, I would say nearly $1 per person? And that is assuming there were even 100 people in attendance. 

The Details (TLDR)

Event	Third Annual MNARC Auto Show
Date	May 18, 2025
Location	IBEW 110 Union Parking Lot, 1330 Conway St, St. Paul, MN 55106
Hours	12pm-4pm CST
Total Vendors	5
Attendance	~100
Travelworthy	Good for locals within a 30 minute drive if you're not concerned about sales and just love cars.
Booth Cost	$21.94 for a 10ft by 10ft space
Total Sales	$75 (this is before all costs are taken out)
Transaction Fees	$1.77
Taxes	$6.75
Total Profit	$44.54