If you’ve been keeping up with Gavel Chat, you already know that I gave card show promoting a try this past weekend. The show took place in Green Bay, a city that hasn’t had a good show in more than ten years. In fact, any time I asked someone about possibly doing a show in that area, they usually rolled their eyes and told me it just isn’t a very good market for that sort of thing.

Still, I had a feeling that with the right amount of promotion, and in a good location, that it just might work. Well, I am happy to say that the show was a success.

There was a very nice flow of traffic for almost the entire show and every single dealer said they would sign up for another show in the future.

The really cool thing was all the neat items that walked through the door. Lots of nice vintage football autographs, some 1960s game-used Packers equipment and vintage cards were brought in by attendees.

Now that I have a little experience setting up a show, I would like to offer some tidbits on what to do and what not to do when promoting a small card show.

-    Don’t take short cuts. If you’re setting up a show to become rich, you better think again. You need to advertise, and that costs money. We paid for classified ads seven days leading up to the show date. The total for those ads was $68.

-    Take advantage of the “free” promotion options. Hang up flyers, post show information in your local newspaper community calendars, publish the show information in places like SCD’s show calendar.

-    Don’t charge admission, especially if it is your first show. There isn’t a better way to turn people off then by charging admission.

-    Have raffles periodically throughout the show hours. We gave away some $10 gift certificates to be used on the show floor. It kept people in the building and made the dealers happy that we went the extra mile.

-    Don’t have too many shows throughout the year. If there is a show once a month, I think this is too many. I wouldn’t have more than four shows per year. Overkill is not a good thing.

-    Make sure the dealers are displaying quality material. We handpicked our dealers. That meant no Beanie Babies or crafts. This is a card show, not a craft show.

-    Limit the show to one day. There is no need to have a small, local show run any longer than a day. Card shows aren’t what they used to be, but a one-day card show can stay busy… Two days would be pushing it.

-    One of the coolest things we advertised is that we were giving “free appraisals.” Tons of people came in with their items wondering what they were worth and it gave dealers a chance to make offers. Win/win for both the customers and the dealers.

I am by no means am an expert on show promotion, but it isn’t rocket science. Put together a quality offering of dealers/items and make sure people know about the show. The people will come and keep coming in the future if you follow these simple rules.

Thanks to everyone involved in the show. I had a blast.