A Happy Accident: How I Found My Way into the Wholesale Market
Originally published October 7, 2020
Updated August 24, 2026
Setting up my first trade show booth at the National Stationery Show
I found my way into wholesale entirely by accident. I wasn’t researching wholesale strategy or mapping out an ambitious new sales channel for paper&stuff. I was looking for a cute little craft market, but instead, I applied to one of the stationery industry’s biggest wholesale trade shows without realizing what it was. By the time I figured that out, I had already been accepted and had approximately four weeks to learn how wholesale worked, prepare my products and build a trade-show booth. No pressure!
I was looking for a craft market…
paper&stuff was still very new (like only-sold-a-few-cards-on-Etsy-new), and I was looking for opportunities to put my products in front of more people. While researching craft fairs in the New York area, I came across the National Stationery Show.
Somehow, I read enough about the event to submit an application but not enough to understand that it wasn’t a small market where people wandered around buying cards directly from makers.
It was already the end of December, and the show was scheduled for the first week of February. I worried that I was applying too late. I also worried that my work wasn’t good enough and that I would be rejected. Still, I submitted the application and hoped for the best.
…but I accidentally applied to a trade show
During the first week of 2020, I received an acceptance email. I was at my full-time job when it arrived. I ran to the nearest conference room and cried tears of joy. I couldn’t believe I had been accepted.
Then the organizers started asking me for wholesale information. My excitement quickly turned into confusion. I had applied thinking this was a small craft market not a huge industry trade show. I’m not joking, I literally did not know what “wholesale” meant.
At the time, the National Stationery Show brought stationery and gift brands together with retail buyers searching for products to carry in their stores. Exhibitors weren’t there to sell one card at a time to individual shoppers. They were presenting entire product lines, taking store orders, and building retail relationships. This was an entirely different kind of business, and apparently, I had just signed up for it.
The infamous NSS pink carpet
The National Stationery Show brand was retired later in 2020, with stationery becoming part of NY NOW’s broader Gift + Stationery section. But when I attended that February, NSS was still a major event within the stationery industry. Backing out would have been understandable. Instead, I decided to figure it out.
I had four weeks to learn wholesale
The first iteration of my order form
Once I understood what I had agreed to, I went into overdrive. I needed to learn about wholesale pricing, order minimums, line sheets, catalogs, and how to take an order.
At the same time, I had to prepare my products, build a booth and understand what buyers would expect when they stopped to look at my work.
One of the people who made it feel possible was Janine from Kwohtations, who would be my booth neighbor at the show. She got on the phone with me and explained the basics: how wholesale pricing worked, how to set order minimums, what information belonged on a line sheet, how orders were taken, and what I could generally expect from my first trade show.
When you’re brand new to an industry, it can feel like everyone else received an instruction manual that you somehow missed. Janine was willing to share what she knew and help make this unfamiliar world feel a little less intimidating. I remain incredibly thankful for that generosity.
There was still more to do than I could reasonably accomplish in four weeks. Ideally, I would have contacted prospective retailers before the show, developed a more thoughtful marketing plan, and created a clear system for following up with leads afterward. That didn’t happen.
Most of my energy went toward learning the fundamentals and figuring out the physical logistics of exhibiting. Luckily, NSS had an Emerging Artists section for businesses in their first two years. The booths were smaller, which made the setup slightly more manageable. I cannot imagine what I would have done if I’d needed to create a full-size trade-show booth with that timeline. I certainly wasn’t perfectly prepared, but I was prepared enough to show up.
I didn’t even know I was supposed to bring my logo as a vinyl decal or printed sign for the booth. Thankfully, the Javits Center had placed each exhibitor’s name on the booth panels, so I wasn’t left with a completely blank wall. Looking back now, I can’t believe I showed up to a major trade show without signage.
The show taught me a few practical lessons about making my card line more wholesale-ready. I realized that my original A7 cards were larger than the A2 size commonly used for greeting cards, so I soon sized the collection down.
Somehow, I found my first three retailers
My first trade show booth.
A few of those cards are still best sellers!
The show itself came with another layer of uncertainty. It was early February 2020, and conversations about a new virus were beginning to circulate. None of us understood what was coming yet. It was mostly in the background, but it added a strange and slightly scary undertone to an experience that was already completely new to me.
I was learning how to talk to buyers, present the collection and take wholesale orders in real time. And somehow, I left the show with my first three retailers.
Looking back, I’m honestly a little shocked that I received three orders at all. I had learned the basics only weeks earlier, my preparation had been rushed and there was still so much I didn’t know.
But those three showed me that stores could see a place for paper&stuff on their shelves. Wholesale was no longer an unfamiliar business term I had hastily looked up after receiving an acceptance email.
That accident changed paper&stuff
If I hadn’t mistakenly applied to NSS, I don’t know how long it would have taken me to explore wholesale, or whether I would have considered it at all.
Since that first show, wholesale has become the business’s largest revenue channel. What began with three surprising orders grew to new collections, retailer relationships, reorders, and a great deal of learning through experience. That growth happened because the show introduced me to a business model I hadn’t previously understood and gave me the confidence to keep learning after it ended.
You don’t have to feel ready to begin
My original takeaway from this experience was to say yes to opportunities whenever possible. I still believe there is value in stretching beyond what feels comfortable, but I understand the lesson a little differently now.
You don’t need to know everything before pursuing an opportunity. Sometimes you learn by doing the research, asking generous people for help, and working through the unfamiliar parts one at a time. I was absolutely underprepared for my first wholesale trade show. I also learned quickly, accepted help, showed up, and did the best I could with the time and knowledge I had.
That is how much of paper&stuff has grown: not through perfect plans, but through curiosity, resourcefulness, and a willingness to try before I feel completely ready. Sometimes the opportunity you almost misunderstand is the one that changes everything.
