My sister sells at craft shows in the Twin city area, She said Some operators do require a ST19, but she falls under the "occasional" seller! I found this on the MN web site Operators of selling events Before an operator of a county fair, craft show, art fair, flea market, trade show, or similar selling event can rent space to a person to sell at the event, the operator must have written documentation from the seller that they hold a valid sales tax registration, or a written statement from the seller that no taxable items are being sold. Form ST19, Operator Certificate of Compliance, is available for this purpose. You can find this form on our website at www.taxes.state.mn.us. Anyone who pays consideration of any kind to sell at such an event is considered to be in business and must collect sales tax on all retail sales of taxable items unless it falls under the "occasional sales" provision. Occasional sales provisions applicable at flea markets and similar events. The law allows a seller at a flea market or other similar event to qualify for the isolated and occasional sales exemption if all of the following are met: � The seller participates in only one event per calendar year that lasts no more than three days; � The seller makes sales of $500 or less during the calendar year; and � The seller provides a written statement to that effect, and includes the seller�s name, address, and telephone number. An organizer can accept a written statement from sellers who make isolated or occasional sales indicating that they meet the above-mentioned criteria. The isolated and occasional sales provision for businesses does not apply at these events. Hope that helps!

I see that this is a rather old thread, but I thought I'd comment anyway, since the topic is something I am familiar with. I was the sales manager at a local garden center for about 7 years. As such, I got to deal with the public when we had people walk in and offer plant materials for sale or as a donation to us. There are a couple of reasons why nurseries often won't buy plants from the "public at large." Here's sort of the scoop on this whole matter: 1) It is TECHNICALLY illegal in my state to buy plant matter for commercial resale from anyone other than another liscenced nursery. This is pretty typical in most jurisdictions, where an inspection certificate must be provided with any shipment of live plant matter. However, this law isn't really enforced, so it's often just an easy excuse to give to the person trying to sell you their 22 year old peace lily covered with mealybugs and with severe tipburn from being watered for years with flouridated tap water. 2) Plant matter grown by amateurs can vary from gorgeous and healthy to horrible. The real problem with this practice is that, all too often, someone will have an old, ugly, unhealthy, and infested plant which really only belonged in the trash, but which they would want us to pay top dollar for. Another common thing, believe it or not, was for someone who was relandscaping or doing construction to pull in with a broken up, overgrown yew or similar shrub in their trunk, with a few hacked roots sticking out from a tarp, and try to sell it to us. One time, a lady wanted to sell us a bundle of yew trimmings to sell for Xmas cut greens. I told her she should have come BEFORE we unloaded half a semi trailer of Oregon evergreen products the previous day. Unfortunately, because this practice happens quite often, most nurseries develop a blanket "just say no" type policy -- we did, it was just easier than dealing with it on a one by one basis. But, no matter what the situation, the rejection should always be made in a considerate and respectful manner. Even then, some people would be nice about it, others would become upset. 3) The nature of the business. Buyers usually have targets on species, quantity, size, price, etc. Quite often, people would try to offer something unusual to us which, while actually a nice plant, wasn't something which would prove popular enough for us to warrant actually trying to sell. Also, a lot of times, the people customers see aren't authorized to deal with such matters, and the person who is authorized isn't readily available, so it is just easier to, once again, "just say no." I always suggested that people try to donate their plants (usually houseplants or landscape plants for us, that was our main business) to a school, library, or other public building where it could be enjoyed by all.

If you invest $1.00 at 5% and let it run for 50 years, it would have grown to $11.00+, without allowing for the erosion of your income, whether annually or after a period of years, several times, by income tax, or the ongoing erosion in value of your asset by inflation. If, however, you could invest it at 10%, after that same 50 year period it would have grown to $117.00+. Your investment could lose 3/4 of its value and still come out ahead of having invested it at 5%. Actually, more than that - for it's the value after taxes and inflation that really counts. Do you expect that companies like Exxon, Gillette, Coca Cola, and such, or other major petroleum, pipeline companies, etc. may go out of business? Or even suffer serious losses. A person who invests a major portion of his (probably less likely "her", cause women generally are more risk-averse and less likely to plunge; [some would say, "smarter"]) total invested asset into highly speculative issues seems to me to have cheese for brains. The stock markets as a whole have average growth of 7 - 8% or so, over the long term. Few mutual fund managers' holdings have grown faster. And they charge fees for their expertise - somewhere between 1 - 2% in the U.S. for equity (i.e. stock market based) funds, most of them over 2% annually in Canada. If they match the long-term average growth of the market ... they're reaping about a fifth to a quarter of the growth, a larger proportion in Canada. Unfortunately, if there is no growth - they still get their percentage. Many persons calling themselves financial planners/advisors are actually mutual fund sales people: that's all the equity-related financial issues that they're licensed to sell. They don't want to talk to you about individual stocks, for they can't sell them and it's illegal for them to recommend them unless they've taken the courses that stockbrokers take (which few have - their courses are much less complex). There are a few who sell no financial products, but many of them stop doing that because often their income levels are much lower, despite many people who want to invest saying that they'd really love independent advice. One should investigate what kind of training a prospective personal financial advisor has taken and whether s/he has advanced courses above the minimum requirements. Also what kind and length of experience the prospective advisor has. Also what lifestle experience the prospect has: some have seen a great deal more of life than others - and have learned much more per year than many who have lived as many years. Finally - you need a person whose personality and ideas are compatible with yours. You will trust that person with a very important part of your life. Some years ago, when I had a display at a county fall fair, someone asked me what right I had to call myself a financial planner. I said that we could get rid of unemployment tomorrow - we need only have every unemployed person put out a shingle on his front lawn calling himself a financial planner, as it was unregulated - any darn fool could do it. Stock brokers were regulated, as were mutual fund salespeople, but in our area at that time financial planners were not, as there were few of them operating outside of stockbrokerage and mutual fund sales agencies. That's not the case now - but it would be a good idea to ask several of them what kind of regulations there are governing them. I took the course that stockbrokers take, over 20 years ago and worked for a mutual fund sales brokerage (i.e. they could offer mutual funds managed by a large number of managers, rather than only funds managed by their own company). I didn't produce enough sales to suit them, so was there for only one year. I'm more tuned into the idea of helping people set their financial goals, look at some concepts that they might not have thought of, and work toward achieving them. I am totally devoted to helping my clients decide what they want to achieve and start out on a plan of how to achieve that/those goals. They don't have to be concerned that my advice or recommendations may be slanted toward various financial products that I just happen to sell, for I don't sell any. One local person that I met a few years ago said that he'd done well in business and managing his investments, so some friends asked him to manage some money for them. He asked for a minimum investment of $10,000., asked the client to sign a power of attorney for that account only, and when he made decisions about investments, a copy of the confirmation went to the client and one to him. He charged 10% of the growth (exclusive of dividends, if I remember correctly). Rather a good idea, for if he doesn't produce, he doesn't get paid. There is a fairly major proviso, though - that he might choose some fairly risky investments where there could well be a possibility of major gain. He being a person of integrity, I think that he was quite strongly guided by the level of risk that his clients were willing to tolerate. When I asked what happened if there were no gain - he said that there hadn't been a year yet that he hadn't been able to send a request for payment to every client. I'm not sure how many years the concept had been in operation. This has been rather off topic - sorry about that. As for many people lacking time to manage their investments ... ... many people spend more time on consideration of where they'll go for a two week vacation than they do on an investment system that may well be in place for forty years (or more). Good wishes for making your money work well for you - rather than better for someone else. joyful guy

The craft show wasn't much of a success for me. I did sell some cards, and some wire angels, but not much overall. However, I am so glad that I went and supported my good friend. We became friends when she took lessons from me 6 years ago. Anyhoo- she did great. And I was thrilled for her. The 3rd person with us was selling painted gourds and those did not sell either. She left early on the 2nd day due to illness in the family. What seemed to be selling besides food? Actually not much if one goes by what people were carrying. Vendors near us sold Costume jewelry, T-shirts that were hot pressed with glittery designs while you wait, fall & Christmas yard signs - like a road sign but with pumpkins, or Merry Christmas and the peoples names; and some fall wreaths. The shop opposite had kit airplane,helicopter, auto, firetruck etc, that he purchased from viet nam, put together and highly varnished $65 and up and I noticed them selling. All vendors who had attended previously told us that sales were way off. The couple across had a dual booth of pendants of names shaped in wire while you wait and knitted hat/scarf sets. No hat/scarf sets were sold either of the 1st 2 days that I was there. (I didn't go back on Sunday, my arthritis, and my friend's husband was going to be with her.) The first day was hot, but the 2nd cooled immensely and was windy. Oh! Bamboo sold like hotcakes! I don't know if you call if heavenly bamboo or good luck bamboo - depending on where you live I suppose. I couldn't believe the number of people carrying those around. There were 3 buildings, and several set ups outside and in between buildings. I think most of the people were just browsing or looking for ideas they could make themselves. But I had a good time, and felt so happy to be there for my friend.