Hello:

We've just posted the poll for March. This time, we're asking about non-sport shows.

The Philly show seems to be the only show that is able to keep it's attendance nearly the same each time. So with the next Philly show coming up on April 5-6-7, we're asking all you "Card Talkers" the question "What can be done to enhance attendance at non-sport shows?". For those of you who regularly go to the shows, it should be pretty easy. Just pick the answer that you find most appropriate. For those of you who have never gone to a show but have considered it, pick the answer that would push you over the line and make you come to a show or at least, make you want to go even more. If you've never even considered it, would one of these choices get your attention?

To vote, click here

Once you've voted, come back here and tell us why you chose your selection or feel free to make further comment on the topic.

I've voted based on my experience of UK card fairs - I would LOVE to attend a US fair but no chance right now!
Rarely to card manufacturers appear at UK fairs, and even rarer is it that promos of freebies are given away - the only possible exception is MEmorabilia (in Birmingham and other venues) - Cards Inc tends to exhibit at that one, but mostly as a dealer.
I suppose it's not really cost effective for the US companies to fly all the way over just to dish out a few promos, but it would be nice if, perhaps, they could send over some special promo cards or premiums for dealers to give away free? If Philly and San Diego can have Inkworks exclusives, why not Birmingham or London (or even Basildon!) Actually, I like the idea of a Basildon exclusive - if someone wants to set some up, let me know in advance so that I can snap them all up and sell them at a huge profit on eBay or similar!
Au Res.,
Paul

Harris,

That voting link still takes us to February's poll. Gonna fix that?

Angeleyes777: I thought I've got them all fixed. Which link are you using? Where is it at?

Harris

Boy Harris, you are right on top of things this time. It's not even March yet and we have the March Poll!
I voted for more stars/autograph signers to attend the show. This is a big draw. All the options are important, but if a celebrity will signing autos at the show, and it's promoted well, (and the star shows up!) you might bring in the fringe groups that aren't card collectors, fans of the show for instance.
I looked at the poll and saw I'm the only person who voted like this so far, and other options are important, we all love promos, and it's nice to see the manufacturers represented too.
Location is a hard one, because no matter where you set a show up, it's going to be too far for some people.
I miss the Chicago Non-Sports show, and I think it would have benefited from more participation from the manufacturers, and a celeb to sign some cards and photos.

WOW! This was a question I had to spend some time on. I voted for first time attendees, although most of the choices had things in their favor. Let's face it. If you don't get new people to go to shows, eventually, there won't be shows to go to. Location, of course, is a sticky point. I'm pretty sure close to 100% of card collectors would go to a show in their own backyards, but this is not possible(on the other hand, isn't that what the internet does to some extent?)
I've been to the Philly show (now a 5 hour drive)a number of times and there really is no way to beat the fealing of walking in to a huge room filled with just about every card ever made. Talk about a kid in a candy store - of course the candy can get pretty expensive. If there is a show that you can get to, even if it's not a major one, go check it out. Internet sites are great, but rubbing elbows with a roomfull of other collectors is priceless(Freudian slip alert - I actually keyed in pricelist first).
These shows are a special and important part of this hobby. We need to attend in order to keep them around. A government grant anyone?
The quest's the thing!
Mike

I voted for more guests. I have been able to get to a few BIG BIG shows (like San Diego Comic Con) and have seen what a popular CURRENT celebrity can draw for a crowd. Nostalgia is wonderful, and I find it nice to see entertainers visiting with fans years after they are out of the limelight, but if you want to draw people, you need to get bigger celebs. In the case of the Philly Show, I think they need to get bigger names. I've never heard of Sally Star (except the Philly promo she has), not the Indian guy. I know who Soupy Sales is, but can't say I've ever seen anything he's done. And Clarbell Clown, he's the the orignal. I compare that to seeing Joe Besser instead of Curly. Now I mean NO disrespect to the guests afrementioned, nor towards the Philly Show promoters. THey are doing what they can, and we all appreciate what they've done.

A while back, NSU had Wacky Pack reunion. Zina Saunders and Jay Lynch were there, and that was fun. Nice people, great artists. I hope NSU does something like that again. But if you want show attendence to go up, I say you need to get bigger, or at least, more well known names. How do the comic book show people get them? I went to Pittsburgh Comic Con a couple of times and the lines were huge to see people like Joe Jusko, and the guys who do Lady Death. Heck, I stood in line to get Joe Jusko to sign some cards for me, and I don't normally do that. If Philly can get some well known comic people that have done cards too, I bet they'll see attendence go up. I would gladly pay $10 to get into the show to meet the likes of Bernie Wrightson, or William Stout. And I bet a lot of other people would too.

I think you have to be careful what you wish for. I notice that the second most popular vote right now is better guests/autographers. Just remember...the bigger the name, the higher the admission price. I go to the shows mostly for the cards themselves, new and old. I love to just walk around and take in the atmosphere, looking at cards, talking to dealers, checking out manufacturer's booths and learning about upcoming products. I prefer to have a low admission price, and be able to spend all that I've saved up for the show on buying cards.

This is the main reason why I won't be going to WizardWorld East, even though it is just as close as going to the Philly NonSport show...Sure, some of the guests are huge celebs in the comics world. But the admission price is $20/day, some of the guests might only be there one day, with others on a different day, so you have to spend $40 or more. Waiting in line for a quick autograph (which is probably not authenticated, so no one will believe it's real) takes hours, so you spend all of your time in lines.

I would much prefer spending all day just surrounded by cards, and the interesting people who buy, sell, and collect them.

By the way, I voted for more manufacturers, even though the number is usually pretty good at the Philly show, but I just want to see that continue, and try to guarantee all of the big companies, and even the small ones, are there.

I voted for more manufacturers. It was a toss up between that and more celebrities. Manufacturers won out because of a couple of things. One, as has been noted before, more celebrities means higher cost at some level, be it the show or the company flying them out and that gets passed onto the consumer at some point. Two, for me, it's really about the cards. I'd rather have more manufacturers that I can get information from and more dealers with a bigger variety of stuff to buy. My only real convention as a collector, since I'm fairly new into it, was San Diego last year, and I really enjoyed meeting with the folks from Topps, Dart, Artbox, et al., not to mention, of course, Uncle Allan Caplan from Inkworks, who is a natural raconteur. My biggest regret from the show is that Rittenhouse wasn't there.

-Bob-

We go to a card fair in Bristol once every three months, theres usally one or two people there signing autos but never anyone big (usally someone who played a small part in star wars!)but theres never any free promos which is a shame!

Halliwell manor

My vote has gone for more manufacturers, as I spend so much buying their products I would like to meet them in person and get soom freebies.

I will be attending Europes bigest fair Memorbilia 2002, at the NEC near Birmingham, U.K. this weekend.

I am hoping to have an exclusive promo coming out for the weekend (I Can't disclose which release, but it is coming out soon), and if so anyone mentioning this website, will get one F.O.C. (subject to availability. Please come and visit us at row A9 - A12.

I will inform everyone if there is a delay on the promo on Thursday.

See you there,

Dave,

D & M Cards.

Dave, great news! Unfortunately, I'm having to give the NEC show a miss (it being Mother's Day and all!)
Still, good luck and I hope the weekend proves worthwhile for you!
Au Res.,
Paul

Me too I had thought they were planning to do an extra show this Summer at the NEC, but later heard that the focus is going to be sporting memorabilia. Looks like we'll have to wait until November...

Cheers
Christopher

Christopher,

There is going to be another Memorabilia show in August. They are having 2 shows in 2 seperate halls. One for Sporting Memorabilia and one for Cards, Comics & toys etc.

Dave.

It's all about location. AU Sports Cards used to have a Non-Sports show near O'Hare (Chicago Area), which was an awesome, well attended show. Dealers from all over the country came, etc, etc, etc. . .

The venue raised the price of the room, so the promoter moved to a cheaper location (Skokie, IL), which was further from the airport and a whole lot less convenient to get to, and 2 years later the show was gone. . . I think it was on it's 11th or 12th year when it stopped.

As far as the big shows Wizard World, Motor City (ones I can speak for), just getting non-sports dealers there would be a great start. There are usually a few dealers, but not a huge amount. . .

And on the small shows. . . rotate dealers! I hate going to a small local show that always has the same dealers -- who are always selling the same stuff. . . to be fair, these aren't professional dealers (and they don't act like it).

Jon

Greetings and Salutations:

--- I believe location is very important. Just a short time ago (7 yrs ago), NYC had a couple of huge shows at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. You could spend the weekend roaming about 5 city square blocks of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, dealers, and fans. There were also plenty of promos, freebies, signings and great entertainment, all for less than $10/day (if I remember correctly). I met celebrities, got signatures (my "certificate of authenticity" was my photos with them), and got back more than 20 times my admission price.
--- Unfortunately there hasn't been a decent sized show for years. It's a shame considering the numerous locations that could support this venue (Javits Convention Center, Madison Square Garden, Numerous hotels, etc.), the various transportation links to the surroundling areas (NJ, CT, MA, PA, Upstate NY), and just NYC's cultural diversity.

Good question, but still playing with the edges.

Think like any other business...
1. Find out where your customers are located.
2. Pick central locations.
3. Coordinate quality manufacturers and dealers.
4. Select accessible locations.
5. Keep admission low and communicate.
6. Offer a quality show.(Special guests,
adequate number of tables, keep exact hours.
Quality builds trust.)
7. Think outside the box.(Think...LIVE AUCTIONS,
TRADING TABLES, a Traveling show.)

Speaking for Cards Inc we gave away a couple of million promos last year from various companies, Inkworks, Cards Inc, Fleer, Rittenhouse,Topps ect etc, a lot of them went to show promotors and guess what, i attend the shows to walk and talk and never see the promos because a LOT of them and not naming names are sold to third parties who sell them on in the 100's to dealers who ebay them or sell them back to the usa. THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING FOR US, and puts us in a bad light for the people we represent. I MADE A DECISION THIS YEAR THAT I WAS NOT PREPARED TO DO THIS AGAIN so have restricted the promos that are for the uk to distributors, products or magazines.
Again many a reason why these are not given away is that you get walkers who come to you 30 or 40 times in a day trying to get the promos so they can sell, this just puts you off giving product away.
darren

I still think that the show needs to be back in the hotel. That "expo" center stinks! I would pay more money just to be in the same place with the show. I think more people would come. And what did Reighters do with this 3rd day? It was supposed to be a 3 day collectible show with all different stuff for the 3 days, not the non-sports show for 2 and the collectibles show for 1 day. That totally defeated the purpose of adding a day. By mixing the shows together, different people with different interests would have come and maybe attendance would have brought more $$$ into a weak show.
Thanks
Michael

Greetings chaps (and chapesses!),

several points - i live in UK & hope to be @ memorabillia on sunday. i'd like to think that there might be a few promos there. (There are loads of genuine collectors who'd really appreciate this Darren). i've never been b4, & i'm new to collecting, so i'm not sure what to expect.

as i understand it, there's not much in the way of good shows in UK. ??? HalliwellManor where's the Bristol show and when, and - most importantly - is it any good???

dave H - i'll certainly be coming to see u!

till next time!

rob