It's a dilemma many art dealers face: what to do when you make it intoneither Art Basel nor Liste, the acknowledged leader of the satellite-fairpack? Some dealers decide not to make the tripto Basel at all; others opt to go as civilians, hoping to do some businessor at least network; still others participate in one of two of the newer off-shoots, Scope and Volta.

Scope, the multilocation event that began in Miami in 2002 and is nowin its fourth Basel edition, pitched its tent just a few blocks from themain fair, where its director Alexis Hubschman recently signed a three-yeardeal. (Last year's location at a sports field near the main-venue Messeplatz wasabandoned after it led to legal wrangling with local recreation groups.) Yet  despite its proximity to the week's big money, the fair was seeing mixed results as of its penultimate day.

Some among the handful of dealers whose booths were clustered around theentrance — the best location in a fair — were disappointed. Colognegallery Stefan Roepke's booth was dominated by Aleksandar Duravcevic'slife-size sculpture of a unicorn made from a taxidermied horse. DirectorSabrina Tesch said she hadn't sold a single piece. "This is quite a goodfair, so we don't know what happened," she said. "The first days have beenquiet. People are tired after visiting 300 galleries at Art Basel, andpeople may just be tired generally. This was a hard year."

Nearby, at the booth of Beck & Eggeling, the Dusseldorf gallery's director, GerardGoodrow, had landed a few sales, moving small bronze pieces by Italianartist Gehard Demitz for €5,000 ($7,400) apiece. But while he said choice foot traffic had passed through his booth, "sales have been tough,"partly because of the financial crisis, and partly due to the rain in Basel this week."Satellites tend to profit from a summer feeling and people being tired ofhanging around at the main fair," he said.

And yet the irrepressible dealer Jacob Karpio, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, had seen success with photographic works by Luis Barba, selling fourfrom an edition of five at $48,000 apiece. In a booth further back in thefair, Zurich gallery Fabian & Claude Walter sold, among other pieces, asculpture by Martin C. Herbst called Brain 3 — a spherical piece mimicking acrystal ball that showed the image of a woman's face on one side andpornographic images on the other — to a German collector for €6,600 ($9,800)."Scope can now stay in the center of Basel, near the main fair," FabianWalter enthused. "That's great. We'll have even better exhibitors nextyear." He says he's seen "more or less" the same number of sales as lastyear at Scope.

Meanwhile, there was the inevitable schadenfreude among the booths toward Scope's competingsatellite. Kerimcan Guleryuz of Istanbul gallery X-ist said he thought Voltahad "committed suicide" by moving its fair out by the Schaulager. "Theirvenue creates confusion," he added. He said Scope's location wasn't quite asgood as last year — "we were spoiled" — but that the environment wasbetter. Guleryuz also thought that, for some reason he couldn't explain, Scope hadbeen tougher on galleries from the Middle East. But he had sold about 10pieces, including mixed-media-on-canvas works by Nuri Kuzucan — whofigured in a Sotheby's auction of Turkish contemporary art last year — in the€2,000–20,000 ($3,000–30,000) range, primarily to Middle Eastern and Eastern Europeancollectors. Guleryuz knew that a group of around 200 Turkish art enthusiasts hadcome to Basel as a group. At least half of them, he said, had seriousinterest in art collecting. "Turkish artists are making their mark," hesaid. "And the number of collectors there is growing."

The fair wasn't without its high-ticket business, even if some salesoccurred beyond the booths. Cologne dealer Brigitte Schenk sold out herpaintings by goth rocker Marilyn Manson — whose two person exhibition with art-house director David Lynch at the Kunsthalle Vienna opens in a few days — and now has a waiting list for his pieces, which range from €36,000–90,000 ($53,000–$133,000) apiece. She also closed a deal on a Gerhard Richter paintingthat she did not bring to the fair, for €1.2 million ($1.8 million). For Schenk, whoparticipates in Art Cologne, ARCO, and other major fairs, it's important tomake an appearance in Basel. "Our clients follow us here," she said.