August 30, 1999

Second hand exhibits auctioned online

By ALLISON CONNOLY

NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

SOUTHBOROUGH -- Every company wants to show off the best of what it has to offer.

One of the best ways to do so is putting up a booth at a trade show. But exhibits can run as high as $150,000, and often companies only use them once a year.

Enter Exhibitauction.com, an Internet site where companies can buy booths secondhand, or sell the ones they have.

"You can get some pretty significant bargains," said Jamie Lysik, director of Exhibitauction.com.

As trade show season kicks into high gear this September, Lysik hopes to attract more than the average 800 hits-per-month. The site is becoming popular with international companies that would rather leave their booths at home and find ones here, to avoid shipping, storage and tariff costs.

In fact, the site's first deal was struck between an East Coast seller and a buyer from the West Coast, which did not want to lug its own booth to a show here.

As a boon for the site, there are trade shows for just about every industry.

"If there's an association, there's a trade show for it," said Bob Dobinski, president of Corporate Communications, the parent company of Exhibitauction.com. "There's even a show for Coca Cola memorabilia."

The site, which launched in February, was Dobinski's idea. At Corporate Communications, he coordinates trade show exhibits for his clients, who do not have the staff to plan the seasonal events themselves. When his customers began asking for an economically prudent place to send the booths when they are done with them, Dobinski came up with the auction site.

Many companies need to update their booths every three to five years. This way, they can sell the ones they have and buy new ones through the same site.

Here's how the site works: If you are looking for a booth, you log on and select a listing that fits your needs. The seller posts photos of the exhibit and provides details about its condition. Bidders make offers, which cannot be below the "reserved price" set by the seller.

Last week's list of booths ranged from $125 to $3,000. While the going price is a fraction of what the seller probably paid for the booth, the seller would otherwise have to pay thousands of dollars to junk it, or pay as much as $2,000 per month to store it, said Dobinski.

Sellers make between 25 cents for each dollar they paid for the booth, or as much as 75 cents per dollar, making it a great deal for the buyer.

The number of listings varies, but new listings are added every week, said Lysik, who came to Exhibitauction.com from MonsterBoard.com, the thriving Maynard-based Internet job site.

Often, booths bought on the site reappear weeks later after the client uses it, she said.

The booths also range in sophistication. These days, a trade show booth is not merely a table with a stack of brochures and free pens.

One $150,000 booth has two levels, with several computers on the floor level, and a stairway leading to two conference rooms on the second level, where "deals are sealed," said Dobinski.

While booths auctioned on the site range from simple stands to the souped up versions, the real cost associated with booths is time. Often, vice presidents walk into their offices and decide their company should be at a certain trade show in a matter of days. Dobinski says a "rush job" in building a booth -- from design to finished product -- takes at least eight weeks.

But at a new feature on Exhibitauction.com called "Exhibit 911," Lysik will get a booth to a client in 42 hours. A supervisor from the Southborough office will supervise the hiring of a local staff to build the booth on site at the show. The 911 feature will be launched in the next two months, said Lysik.

Lysik also plans to offer more services through the site, like those offered by Corporate Communications. Though the two companies remain separate, there is an obvious opportunity for crossover since Corporate Communications coordinates exhibits for their clients.