Pittsburgh RV Show producers held an RV liquidation super sale on a sun-drenched weekend Oct. 21-23 in the David Lawrence Convention Center lower exhibit halls.
The sale was held from 2017 through 2019.
“We have a very loyal dealer body that attends our shows. We talked to them and said, we are thinking about having this fall sale,” Three Rivers Promotions Show Promoter Randy Giancola said. “A lot of our dealers do not participate in the Hershey RV show that is held every September. So, when we floated this idea, we got a consensus from the dealers that this would be good. Let us market it as a liquidation sale so the dealers could get rid of some inventory and not carry it through winter.”
Once the sale was announced, dealer spaces sold out in an hour.
The sale included 100 RVs and six dealers. RVs displayed included entry-level RVs,, laminated fiberglass travel trailers and bigger fifth wheels, some Super Cs, several adventure travel trailers and a solar-powered travel trailer model from Winnebago.
About 2,500 consumers from Pennsylvania and West Virginia attended the sale to shop 2 acres of RVs and accessories. The sale saw its second-largest attendance.
The event was pitched as a liquidation super sale to differentiate it from the group’s larger January RV show, which hosts about 25,000 consumers and fills the entire David Lawrence Convention Center.
Although dealers did not share sales figures from the event, Giancola said several sold more high-end fifth wheels and motorized vehicles this year.
“Talking to the dealers, that surprised me a little bit because, according to my notes, in past years, it seemed like it was the entry to mid-level travel trailers and fifth wheels being sold,” Giancola said.
More couples’ coaches were sold than bunk-bed models, he said, another change from previous years. Front living room fifth wheels also were popular.
Giancola said the dealers who participated in this year’s sale look forward to coming back in 2023.
