GETMAN'S VIRTUAL FAIR FAQ's

HOW DO I REGISTER TO EXHIBIT IN FIRST THURSDAY BOOK AND PAPER MARKETPLACE?

Look for “Exhibitors” at the bottom of the website, FirstThursdayMarketplace.com, click on the “register as a dealer” link. That will bring you to a registration form. Supply your own password and enter it twice. That password will disappear after you fill out the form. If you come back to this form to update your profile you will see the password fields empty. Leave them empty. When you enter your website address you must Enter http:// or https:// before your website address or you will get an error message. If you have already registered, you will see a “SIGN-IN” link. Click that to sign in and be brought to your dashboard. If you forget your password, you may change it.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I REGISTER TO EXHIBIT?

Once you are approved as an exhibitor, we will enable your account and notify you. You may then choose a package and start to upload your items for the next market. Your items need to be uploaded and paid for before the opening time for your listings to show when the market opens. You may continue to edit and add items up until and after the market opens. Your bonus items must be loaded before Friday 10am ET when they will be shown.

WHERE DO I GO TO UPLOAD ITEMS AND PHOTOS?

Go to the market website, FirstThursdayMarketplace.com. and look at the bottom of the page in the darkened area. You will see one of two links. If you see “MY DASHBOARD”, click that to be brought directly to your dashboard where you will choose your package. Or, if you do not see “MY DASHBOARD” you will see “SIGN-IN”. Click that to be brought to a gateway and enter your email and password (the same that you used when you first registered) to be brought to your dashboard to choose your package. You remain signed in until you click “sign out”. Therefore, anytime you return to edit your listings, just click “My DASHBOARD”.

HOW DO I UPLOAD MY ITEMS?

When you are on your dashboard, you will see a button titled “Add Item”. Click that button to go to a page to add your items. Your description may be any length. You must choose at least one category, and you may choose up to three categories for each item. If you decide to remove a category you have chosen, just “uncheck” it. You will be able to move items around within your booth after you have entered them using the “drag and drop” method. Do not be concerned about their order when you first load them. It’s important to enter the “bonus” items after you enter all the “normal items” and not before you finish the regular items. They appear at the top of the listing with a green background. These bonus items will appear as a group on Friday morning at 10am ET, the day after the market opens. When you sell or place an item on reserve be sure to mark your items as “sold” or “reserved” by clicking the edit button next to the item on your dashboard.

EXPLAIN THE PACKAGE TERMINOLOGY – DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NORMAL, BONUS AND FREE ITEMS

You will see the quantity remaining for each of these package items tracked as you enter them.

NORMAL or regular items all appear when the market opens. They can be any price.

BONUS items (highlighted with green) can also be any price and will appear on the second day of the market at 10AM ET

FREE ITEMS (highlighted with pink) are items that are priced $100 or less. The package you selected included a certain number of these.

You must enter all “normal” or regular items from the chosen package plus all of the “free” ($100 or under) items from the package before you enter the bonus items. In other words, all items that are entered after the normal and free categories are fulfilled will be considered bonus items and will not appear until Friday when they will all be shown. If you do not fulfill the normal and free items, you will not have any bonus items

ADDING KEYWORDS

At the end of your description for an item is a space where you may enter keywords or tags. When an item is searched during a market, the search engine searches titles, author and description. Add keywords separated by commas for terms which might be used to search for the item. If a category that you would like doesn’t exist on the category list, enter that category as a keyword.

HOW DO I UPLOAD IMAGES?

After you add an item, you will upload as many images as you'd like directly from your computer. Be sure they are JPG or PNG format and under 10 MB in size. Photos should be between 2500 and 3000 pixels to take advantage of the photo enlargement viewer. The first image you upload becomes the feature photo and the rest will appear below the feature photo when a person is on the item page looking for more details about the item. You may move the order of the photos by the "drag and drop" method using your mouse. If you use a tablet without a mouse you will need to research how to do that with your device. NOTE: It is important to preview each item to be sure the photos are oriented properly. If a photo shows sideways try reducing the size of the photo and uploading it again. That usually corrects the orientation. Photos may be portrait or landscape. If a photo does not upload check the file name of the photo. Remove any special characters from the name such as #,'"]) etc.

HOW DO I KNOW HOW THE ITEMS WILL LOOK IN MY BOOTH?

Click the “preview” link to see how any individual listing will appear. You will also be able to preview the entire booth by clicking that button. To visualize the placement of each item within your booth, think of the booth as a grid with 3 items per row. The top left space will contain the first item, and the bottom right space will contain the last item on the page. You may move the items into different positions by dragging them to the desired location. The items which appear at the top of the listings highlighted in green will be your bonus or extra items and they will appear on Friday morning with a banner that reads “NEW LISTING”. If you decide that those are not the items that you would like to be the “new listings” or bonus items, just move the ones that you want to appear as “new listings” to the top of the listings by dragging them there. The last bonus item you entered will then be moved to the normal listing area so you may have to rearrange items until you get the desired result. All bonus items will appear at 10 am ET Friday morning.

WHAT DETERMINES THE ORDER OF THE BOOTHS IN THE FAIR?

The first booth to appear is chosen at random followed by all other booths alphabetically. If your trade name is the same as your name, you may choose which word to alphabetize. Ex. Charles Smith Books can be ordered by "Charles" or "Smith" by going to the field in your profile, "Order by Word". Leaving the field "order by" blank and "Charles" will be alphabetized. Enter "Smith" and your company will be ordered with trade names that begin with "S". Our research indicates that the amount of traffic to a booth is not dependent on where the booth is situated within the market but on the items within the booth.

MAKE USE OF THE COMPLETE REGISTRATION FORM TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Be sure to enter all pertinent information about your business. You may go in and add or edit the information any time by clicking "Edit Profile" from your dashboard. Include your website, logo, social media information (those are best entered by copying the URL from your social media account), a link to an online catalog etc. This information will appear in the profile section on every page within your booth.

WILL I BE ABLE TO ACCESS AND RE-LIST MY LISTINGS AFTER THE FAIR CLOSES?

Yes, you will be able to view and re-list or export any of your listings since you began your participation. Look for the link on your dashboard or footer "past items". Click that link to see all your prior listings. There is a check box to copy and re-list any item from a past market. All text as well as photographs will be copied to the next market. You may also export the text from any past item for use elsewhere. If you re-list an item, you may edit any of the information from your dashboard. Only unsold items may be copied. Photos may be changed.

DO YOU HANDLE THE MONEY FOR THE SALE

No. You deal directly with the purchaser. They contact you by phone or email. See below to have a link for direct payment.

CAN I DIRECT A BUYER TO MY WEBSITE OR SHOPPING CART TO PURCHASE AN ITEM DIRECTLY?

Yes, you can create a link for “Buy Now” or “Buy Direct” or whichever term you want to use to appear on the item page. Go to your dashboard and click “update item” then “update text” then “description” You may add a link anywhere within that description box for a direct link. At the top of that box you will see a dialogue box. Click on the chain link. In the “text to display” field, enter any text you want to display such as ”BUY NOW” or “BUY DIRECT” or any other term. Then enter the URL for the page you want to direct the buyer to. It’s best to copy and paste that URL for that page directly into that field. Be sure to preview and test this to be sure it works as intended.

CAN I REPLACE AN ITEM ONCE IT SELLS?

No. However, you can add new items by increasing your plan. See “change plan” on your dashboard.

WHAT IS THE “LOYALTY” PROGRAM AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

As an incentive for regular participation you will receive a market at no charge for every 4 markets you pay for. You will see the number of markets needed before the free one shown on your dashboard. Dealers who regularly participate report finding new customers and sell items from their websites during the open markets.

BOOTH PRICING:

You will notice that some packages are labeled "Value Package". These offer lower rates per item for dealers showcasing mostly lower priced items ($100 or less). There are four value packages offering low rates for packages with from 33-54 lower priced items The other packages are for dealers with a traditional mix of both higher and lower priced items.

CAN I CHANGE MY PLAN AFTER I START TO UPLOAD

Yes, go to your dashboard and choose "Change Plan". For that reason, it is best to not pay until you have completed uploading the items because refunds cannot be given after you pay for a plan.

HOW DO I REQUEST A SPACE FOR THE NEXT MARKET?

After a Market closes, go to your dashboard and choose a package. You cannot choose a plan for a market until the prior one closes.

If you have any questions, send an email to [email protected]

©Impact Events Group, Inc. December 1, 2025

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