As collectors only, and bottom-feeding cheapskates at that...
A show should be:
Well advertised, well in advance. We realize print advertising can be expensive, but it costs nothing to notify collector websites and forums.
Accessible by a reasonably short drive, with decent parking.
A pleasant temperature in the venue. Most shows we've been to have been 130 degrees inside with 50% carbon dioxide.
Free or nominal admission. Anything else is a pig in a poke.
Vendors with a wide variety of stuff -- including non-card sports memorabilia -- presumably make a show attractive to a wider variety
and thereby larger number of customers.
Outside your control, really, but three things regarding vendors:
1) a decent attitude -- don't ignore customers, don't act condescending, don't give a hard-sell.
2) if a vendor doesn't have prices marked, we usually won't even stop at his table to look or ask.
3) if a vendor has only ludicrously, unrealistically high prices marked, we won't even stop at his table to look or haggle.
Free autograph signings can draw us in, but we realize that the expense of getting former stars to appear makes free autos unrealistic
for small shows. If you offer free signings, make it clear in your advertising that they're free. Just stating that this guy or these guys
are signing leaves everyone to assume it'll be 50 or 100 bucks a sig. Also outside your control: a decent attitude on the part of anybody signing.
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