Experience With Card Show Tables?

[barrow]

Hey everyone,
My roommate and I got back into collecting a few months ago after not collecting for close to 10 years. We've been thinking about getting a table at our weekly local card show but really don't know where to begin. A spot at the show costs $40/table, we're not looking to make money, we're just looking to break even and a little extra something we could put back into the hobby wouldn't hurt either.

So how do you guys do it? What's the best card show table strategy? Do you buy singles online and then flip them at higher prices at the show? Do you bust a lot of boxes? Do you sell boxes?

We both think it would be a lot of fun to have our own table but aren't sure if we would be able to keep up at all. Even making $40 a week off cards to keep paying for the table worries me.

Any advice you could give us would be great.

Thanks,
Barrow

[tutall]

i have done a couple shows... your best bet is to buy singles on ebay of hot local players and try to flip them... that is unless you can ge prices for boxes cheaper then retail and sell them too... also have a discount (1 dollar, 2 dollar, quarter) bins works great... just put a few decent cards in those and collectors will eat them up

[Gmac555]

I was in a few card shows back when i was around 14-15 and I ended up doing pretty well. Lots of trades, lots of sales and lots of viewers. My big seller was a huge dollar book and a buy 5 get 1, buy 10 get 2, etc. It made quite a bit of money, but also as stated above, look for hot LOCAL players as a safe bet. Usually rare cards or hot players will always sell at shows, especially those itching to collect their favorite player. Packs and boxes are also a hot product but you probably wont be able to buy and then flip many of those for a good profit.

[barrow]

Thanks for the tips guys, it's appreciated. If anyone else has some insight please tell me.

[bagleyboys]

It must be nice to have a card show every week. Up here in northern minnesota, the closest card show is 2 hrs away, and that's only twice a year!! Anyways, I had a table there a couple of times, and did alright. Just like above, have a bargin box and local players/teams cards, they always do well. Good luck.

[panthers4ever]

OK I do shows for a living. I can answer any questions you need to know. As far as your first few.

first. 40.00 for a table. What is the traffic like at the show? I always go to a show during a busy time to see the traffic before I set up. 40 a table is really good so I would say if you think you can generate say 200 in sales for what you want then you should be good. I personally am usually sketchy when tables are that cheap.


Do you buy singles online and then flip them at higher prices at the show? This is the best strategy really however it is hard to make alot this way. Buying Local players cheap is a great way to go but as far as generally hot players, you are going to have alot of people saying " O well I can get it on ebay for this" Best way to get these is to buy them at shows of people who walk up or buy on sites like this in Bulk. I have made a few 1500.00 purchases on sites lie this and have found that is the way to go. But you need to be able to be willing to put that money out because otherwise everyone wants ebay prices for their stuff and you can't pay that much and make a profit.

Do you bust a lot of boxes? This is a bg gamble to do unless you do it right. I used to bust alot of boxes but found you make more money buying cheap boxes and making team sets and grab bags and buying the nice singles from high end stuff elsewhere. It is almost ipossible to make money off a high end box these days.

Do you sell boxes? I do and you can make 10-15 of a box depending on where you get them. if you do not have a distributor than you cannot sell wax for a profit. If you have interest in selling wax shoot me a PM and we can talk of site.

any more questions just ask

[barrow]

More great insight, thank you. Everyone has mentioned the local players, this is something we'll definitely do but I feel like it's not going to be as crucial for us as it may be for the rest of you. We live in Boston, and the show is a few cities north of Boston. There's a ton of pride for the local teams so every table at the show has multiples of all the cards of the stars and star prospects. For example, it's not uncommon to see at least three Bowman Sterling Ellsbury Auto/GU's at each table. The market is so saturated for that stuff that I wanted to get some other ideas of how people are making their money at shows.

A little info about the show for those who are wondering. It's at a hotel in Woburn, MA (10 mins north of Boston). It's right off the highway so that is probably a plus for driving in traffic. It seems to me like there are always a ton of people there, it's usually hard to move around, but then again I really don't have anything to compare it to. I grew up down to the street from this show so I went all the time, and now 10 years later I'm back there every weekend. The only other shows I have been to are those small card shows you will see at a mall. This is a lot bigger, always one giant function room filled with tables, at least one corridor filled with tables, and sometimes a 2nd corridor and smaller room.

I think we're just going to try to be creative with our table, creativity is definitely lacking at our show. I'm thinking bringing back the grab bags I used to waste money on when I was young, but throw a common GU in each bag (and a few higher end cards).