I've had some personal business to attend to this past month, so my May show is off to a bit of a slow start, but I just sold another large corner+1 booth tonight to a coin dealer from the Bay Area. He went from interested to excited on our phone call (yes, the show has a phone number 775-360-4007 if anyone has questions). He says he's done at least 1500 shows in his lifetime and many of them are small (20-30 dealers) but focused. He liked the idea of branching out and exposing people to collectibles of all types and that's the main reason he got 3 tables instead of just one. He loved the idea of not charging people to attend as well, an idea started by our very own Jerry Vergatos and strongly urged by the GSR event sales person I dealt with when I secured the show room. This coin dealer is going to help spread the word among other coin dealers, so I hope to have a large contingent of that collectible represented.
I now have dealers in the following categories: casino items (of course), toys (funko pops, 3D printed figures, and some unknown), coins, comics, sports cards, salt & pepper shakers, disney stuff, snow globes, spoons, cookie jars and gemstones. Dealers who have expressed interest but haven't purchased their table/booth yet include gold/silver bullion, antiques, and jewelry (I'm on the fence as to whether that's a true collectible, but I'm not going to turn away ANY business this year). Several others made general "give me more information" queries that I haven't followed up on in detail yet, so I don't know their collectible categories. I've even had inquiries from insurance companies and companies that sell replacement windows. I asked why they thought a collectibles show is a good place to advertise and their answer was "people are people and you never know who wants your product". The same holds true for all of us, right? We can't know who will be interested in collecting casino items unless we expose the hobby to more and more people OUTSIDE our bubble.
Is there demand for collectibles? Let's look at just one category on eBay. There are currently over 93,000 "chips" for sale on eBay in the collectibles->casino category. Recent sales are over 28,000 (90 days?). That's a lot of sales and a lot of buyers, so the demand is clearly there. And that's just one segment of the casino collectibles category. We need to attract these buyers to the CCA June convention/show as well as all of the other regional shows that are being put on. And we need to support each other in this endeavor, and not just in our words but our actions.
I know there are other shows happening next spring, and for some of you it means traveling further than you're used to with Las Vegas, but I would really appreciate any dealers who will step up and get a table or booth at my show so I can make this first one successful enough to continue each year. If you need help with getting your items here and/or storing them, I'll be glad to assist with that. I have an empty safe at my house and some off-site storage I can secure your items before the show. If you're coming to Jerry's Spring show in March and want me to schlep your goods up north to store for a couple of months, I'll drive it back in my truck or get a trailer if it's a large amount. Or if you want to ship things here in advance, I'll be glad to receive and store them for you. I won't have a dealer table at Jerry's show because I'm not a dealer. But I'll be there helping him set up and tear down, along with a lot of other folks pitching in to help him make his show a success. I wouldn't turn down anyone who wants to volunteer to help me out with my show, either. However, mine isn't for a club or non-profit. I'm putting up my own time and money to get another show into a city that I think has promise - Reno.
Below is a link to a 4-up "flyer" that can be shared (attached to email and sent to other dealers and collectors) or printed/cut and placed on countertops if you have a place of business. I'd attach it here but it's 250k, so too large for the 100k limit on this board.
Anyway, I do appreciate you all and I look forward to seeing you at Jerry's Spring show and of course hopefully at mine May 2-4 as well.
Thanks -- barry
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