What makes a great show?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by biohazard

Val,

When the card companies went completely bonkers during the late 80's and 90's my focus shifted to the autograph/memorabilia side of the hobby. Now, that autograph prices are starting to get ridiculous, my focus has shifted to vintage cards. I don't know if the crowds of people would show up if CSA was just a card show.

This sentiment always bugged me. Like the card companies were printing cards that nobody wanted in order to depress the market later. The boom hit, everyone though that cards were an investment for the future. Put away a case for $100 and in 30 years voila you're rich. Think about what that meant in 1986. They were looking at a 1956 Case (Or Box, or pack, or even card) and thinking: "wow If I buy now in thirty years that could be me." So EVERYONE did it. Even complete non-card people bought cases and squirreled them away. the Card companies didn't go crazy they met the crazy demand, and what red blooded American company that has very little stake in the after market wouldn't do the same???

[NC-Vintage]

Great customer service, A happy customer and or dealer is likely to be the best most cost effective way of advertising.

Giving value for the admission charge.

Quality and variety from your dealers is very important, as is having them
stay set up for the full show hours ( however,this is not always easy)

CSA is unique in the fact that it has massive draw from autograph collectors ( or fan's) but also has a strong base of
vintage card collectors attending the show. Many shows simply fall into one or the other category. With that being said, these are some of the things
we offer to our customers.
Free autographs,cash giveaways,quality door prizes,free gifts etc. These seem to be appreciated by our
customers and dealers. At least that has been my experience thus far. For example we gave away
over $1300 in CSA dealer dollars to our customers for the April Chantilly show, the customers
were very happy as were the dealers when they cashed them in. Also For the last 2 shows we have offered
free unique photo opportunities, in April REA had an incredible amount of items on display and allowed customers
to take free photo's with them,including the T206 Honus Wagner. For July we have Memory Lane allowing
customers to hold and take a photo with a Babe Ruth Game Used Bat.

Free admission time slots, we just introduced free time slots every day of our show,
Friday , Saturday and Sunday has the last 2 hours of the show as free admission, we
are hoping this translates into customers coming in later in the day and encourages dealers
to stay until the end of the show.

Giving value back to the dealers. We allow dealers to configure there space however they would like so they can maximize there set-up.
We also have a lot of space behind as well as in the aisles. We put on a full free buffet breakfast every Sunday of the show for our dealers.
We also give away 1 free table for the next show randomly to one of our dealers.

Promotion,promotion,promotion. It's the promoters job #1 but also the dealers job to promote the show, the more the show is spoken and talked about the
better the chance for success.

[1952boyntoncollector]

I think a speaker to address something interesting about the hobby and go over tid bits...for example talking about the 1933 goudey set or any other set with question and answer

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

So Joe you won't mind if I promote my show this weekend at Chantilly???

[Leon]

Great response and sounds like a great show coming up too!!

Originally Posted by NC-Vintage

Great customer service, A happy customer and or dealer is likely to be the best most cost effective way of advertising.

Giving value for the admission charge.

Quality and variety from your dealers is very important, as is having them
stay set up for the full show hours ( however,this is not always easy)

CSA is unique in the fact that it has massive draw from autograph collectors ( or fan's) but also has a strong base of
vintage card collectors attending the show. Many shows simply fall into one or the other category. With that being said, these are some of the things
we offer to our customers.
Free autographs,cash giveaways,quality door prizes,free gifts etc. These seem to be appreciated by our
customers and dealers. At least that has been my experience thus far. For example we gave away
over $1300 in CSA dealer dollars to our customers for the April Chantilly show, the customers
were very happy as were the dealers when they cashed them in. Also For the last 2 shows we have offered
free unique photo opportunities, in April REA had an incredible amount of items on display and allowed customers
to take free photo's with them,including the T206 Honus Wagner. For July we have Memory Lane allowing
customers to hold and take a photo with a Babe Ruth Game Used Bat.

Free admission time slots, we just introduced free time slots every day of our show,
Friday , Saturday and Sunday has the last 2 hours of the show as free admission, we
are hoping this translates into customers coming in later in the day and encourages dealers
to stay until the end of the show.

Giving value back to the dealers. We allow dealers to configure there space however they would like so they can maximize there set-up.
We also have a lot of space behind as well as in the aisles. We put on a full free buffet breakfast every Sunday of the show for our dealers.
We also give away 1 free table for the next show randomly to one of our dealers.

Promotion,promotion,promotion. It's the promoters job #1 but also the dealers job to promote the show, the more the show is spoken and talked about the
better the chance for success.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

For those of you wondering about the self-derail a couple pages ago the answer (and our last autograph guest) is Al Oliver.

[Huck]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

This sentiment always bugged me. Like the card companies were printing cards that nobody wanted in order to depress the market later. The boom hit, everyone though that cards were an investment for the future. Put away a case for $100 and in 30 years voila you're rich. Think about what that meant in 1986. They were looking at a 1956 Case (Or Box, or pack, or even card) and thinking: "wow If I buy now in thirty years that could be me." So EVERYONE did it. Even complete non-card people bought cases and squirreled them away. the Card companies didn't go crazy they met the crazy demand, and what red blooded American company that has very little stake in the after market wouldn't do the same???

The bonkers statement stems from the fact that each company was putting out 3-5 sets of cards. I could not collect them all and grew tired. Yes, the demand was there and I don't begrudge the card companies for trying to make a buck. As a collector who was used to putting one Topps set together, the sheer amount of material out there was overwhelming. I stopped purchasing cards and started diving into autographs and memorabilia.

No, the card companies don't have a stake in the after market but they probably should have thought about what happens when the bubble bursts. How many card companies from the 90's are left? Last I checked, Topps has an MLB exclusive. Greed for lack of a better word, is not always good.

[NC-Vintage]

I encourage you to do so. We have a table out in the front you can put fliers onto also.

[Rich Klein]

Upper Deck is left as well from the early 1990's. And on this one, don't blame the card companies, they were producing to meet demand (and then some). But their job is to make a profit, not to look 20 years down the road.

[bravos4evr]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Upper Deck is left as well from the early 1990's. And on this one, don't blame the card companies, they were producing to meet demand (and then some). But their job is to make a profit, not to look 20 years down the road.

wrong thread?

[Rich Klein]

Right thread -- someone posted about the 1990's and I did respond to that comment.

Rich