I voted for Saturday/Sunday. Having it start on Friday may help the dealers but I don't see much benefit for the collectors. Most have work on Friday and may be too tired to rush out and travel the distance. I don't believe the attendance would be any better on a Friday than it is on Sunday.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Logan,

Ya got my vote Ed.

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Originally posted by wolfie:

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Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

So it saves a dealer (or collector) a night's stay at the hotel by doing it that way. It also means 1 less day off for work for both collector and dealer as well.

Ed

I don't understand your logic here Ed from the collector side.
If the show is Sat / Sun. the collector has no days off work and one night hotel.

Wolfie, I believe you are both correct. I read Ed's note as a comparison between the show opening early on a Friday opposed to late in the afternoon on Friday.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

So it saves a dealer (or collector) a night's stay at the hotel by doing it that way. It also means 1 less day off for work for both collector and dealer as well.

Ed

I don't understand your logic here Ed from the collector side.
If the show is Sat / Sun. the collector has no days off work and one night hotel.

Wolfie, the logic is based on customers that have to travel a distance to get to the show. I travel 6.5 hours just to get there. So, I could drive in, set up, and be open for sales if the show were afternoon/evening.

But, if the show opens at 9 and it takes 2 hours to set up, that puts me at leaving around Midnight on Friday if I don't want to add Friday night to the cost of making the trip.

Same thing for customers who travel to get to the show. Friday is a travel day and you get a few hours to browse the show as well.

I'm trying to figure out ways to make the show more accessible for a larger group of people. Taking Chicago for instance... If you just rely on the Chicago residents, you're only going to have so many people there. But if you put together a decent show you might attract people from other cities to make the trip.

Sadly, I've had Sundays at shows were I didn't bring in enough money to pay for Saturday night in the hotel. So I search for options.

Discussion is good. You never know where the next really good idea will come from.

Ed

As a collector and a parent, the Saturday/Sunday show model was always hard on me and my family. Basically the whole weekend would be for the show including Friday afternoon. Forget soccer, and other events the children might have had that weekend. Plus it would be an extra day of food, hotel room, etc as I would stay 2 nights so I could attend the Card Talk meeting on Sunday mornings.

Friday/Saturday has always worked best for me. Yes, I would have to take a day off from work, but I was able to leave at a reasonable time Friday morning and drive the 4 hours or so to whatever town the Philly show was being held at the time (everywhere exept Philly!), attend the show when it opened at 2 or 2:30, spend the night, go to Card Talk meeting and show, and then be home by 7 or 8 pm Saturday night. Sunday was still free to do things with the family.

I can understand why many prefer Saturday/Sunday, but it is not for everyone..

Mike.

Friday & Sat is fine, show is really only a 1 day show (sat) anyways and the meet up Sunday morning, change the meet up to Sat night after the show. You will pretty much only get locals Friday night but dealers are setting up anyways, I would only be able to display on sat and it becomes a day trip for most on sat.

Only issue about the meet up sat night is that most of the dealers would not be able to make since they will be breaking down their booths. Before the show sat is rough because dealers who didn't come Friday ( like myself ) will be setting up.

Maybe like a 2pm-3pm meet up and close the show floor for 1 hour for the meet up, Is there a place at the collectors mall for the meet up?

I must point out something concerning my comments following what Mike said.

I am single and so have nobody but me to think about.

The biggest show in the UK is 40 minutes drive from my house.

When i attend a 2 day show, sat / sun, there is no day off work, no hotel, i merely drive home and come back the next day.

The situation is obviously totally diffrent for a family person who has a long way to travel, either collector or dealer, for them a whole diffrent outlook is required.

While I can see some thought of Fri/Sat, I much prefer Sat/Sun as it gives the full ammount of time on Saturday and a fair part of the day on Sunday for folks (especially the out of towners) to shop. Having single day shows in the Chicago area this year has killed me at the shows as quite a few folks who would drive in from surrounding states and further just can not justify the trip for a few hours.

Good point Iggy. (Good to see you around, BTW)

Anyone else with suggestions on how to increase attendance?

I'm open to suggestions at this point. It's a blank slate, so we don't have to worry about tradition.

Ed

Ed

I can see where you are coming from. Here in the UK we don't have card shows like the US as most of our's are "Collectable/Memorabilia" type shows (which I tend to go to on a Sturday). Having attended the Philly show in May, I could see the advantages of having the Show Friday/Saturday with perhaps a 3-7 or 4-7 Friday night and all day Saturday Show. I can see it would cut down expenses for Dealers and wouldn't make much difference to a lot of attendees. Of course those attendees travelling some distance who don't want to take a day off work might miss out - but whatever you do somebody is losing something. The distances you guys travel to shows is also something that we don't have.

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The distances you guys travel to shows is also something that we don't have.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you traveled 7 hours, at 70 miles an hour, from most anywhere in the UK you'd probably end up in a large expanse of water.

Ed

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Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

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The distances you guys travel to shows is also something that we don't have.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you traveled 7 hours, at 70 miles an hour, from most anywhere in the UK you'd probably end up in a large expanse of water.

Ed

Now, Now Ed - Length of UK is over 490 miles - but if you did 70 for 7 hours you'd get a lot of speeding tickets!!!!

I'd like to HAVE a nonsport show close to me. We have a large comic con, with 1 maybe 2 dealers with cards (not counting me), but that's it. The main thing I hear dealers griping about is that the media guests charge so much for autographs/photos, etc, that the collectors have little money left for the dealers' room. So it seems to be a double-edged sword: guests bring in more people, but also seem to suck a lot of the money from the impulse buyer. For example, the last show here we had Leonard Nemoy and Stan Lee, both signing for around $75/pop.