Coin Show Advice

[JOBESSI]

Our area of Texas has a coin club (Hidalgo Coin Club of the RGV) that spans across the Rio Grand River in South Texas. We are actually the 4th largest in the state and have been going strong for 52 years! . We have two coin shows a year (NOV & FEB). One of these shows is only 1 year away from it's 25th Anniversary! We have decent turnouts, but our patrons tend to be local "Winter-Texans." That's not really a bad thing, but we would like to attract serious collectors from around the country. Can a show get ANA sponsored or recognized?

 

Any tips or advice? Would any of you that have connections to the ANA, NGC, PCGS, ANS, etc be willing to take a trek to the RGV if all expenses were paid? We have advertised in the past, but nothing has really worked.

 

With South Padre Island just around the corner, I think our area has great marketability as a neat destination for coin collectors to commute to.

[TomB]

You may want to speak with Laura Sperber of Legend or Jon Lerner of Scarsdale Coin as they worked very hard to make Coinfest in CT a major show presence. Alas, it appears the show is not planned to be held in the future, but the few years that it was up and running were good years to attend.

[Dcoin]

I've always liked the idea of having lectures/classes associated with a coin show. Here in NYC, Coinfest and WESTPEX does a real nice job at using these classes to attract foot traffic. They also have some nice demonstration coins, that people will come to see.

 

Also attract YN's. You'd be surprised how word gets out about a free weekend program for youngsters.

 

Lastly, thematic presentations do really well and attract traffic from just beyond the local range. Topics related to the geographic area and collecting can be a big draw. I would guess TX has a rich numismatic history, both in Mexican and Confederate coinage. Use that to gather interested folk.

 

Good Luck!

 

[DaveG]

I would say that the serious collectors go where the serious coins/dealers/auctions are.

 

It's probably a chicken-and-egg sort of thing, but you might want to see if you can get someone to hold an auction during the show and/or get some national dealers to attend.

 

You might also talk to Tom Hyland, the manager of the Garden State Numismatic Association's annual show. He works hard to get dealers to attend who don't usually come to New Jersey shows and there is usually an auction scheduled (although sometimes it gets cancelled).

[Conder101]

Can I be frank, I see a lot of uphill struggles to accomplish what you are wanting and I am sorry to be negative but I just don't think it is possible.

 

You say turnout is "decent" What is "decent"? I googled your club and looked at some details of your shows and location. What I see doesn't look promising for big growth. You have a two day show that is held in a shiners hall., so I would guess it is a small to moderate size show, maybe 40 dealers. From the map it looks like you are about as far away from anywhere as you can get. All the way down near the tip of TX. The closest large US city looks to be Corpus Christi and it looks to be about 100 miles away. You are just about right on the border and that is going to scare away some people. Anyone coming "from around the country" Is either going to have a very LONG drive to get there, or they will have to fly in and while your local airport calls itself an "International" airport, it isn't. So that means connecting flights, delays, layovers etc. This discourages dealers for security reasons.

 

As to getting one of the major TPG's to set up there, they tend to only go to the major national shows. If you could entice one to make an appearance by offereing to pay the expenses, they would probably send just two people, airfare (and don't expect them to fly coach) plus hotel, meals etc, you had better expect it to cost three to four thousand minimum. Can your show budget handle that?

[JOBESSI]

I think you might have some facts mistaken. Comparing Corpus Christi to McAllen (where we hold are meetings), McAllen has approximately 300,000 more people than Corpus. If you look at the pictures, the hall is actually quite large, but if we grew we could easily move to the McAllen Convention Center or the State Farm Arena. We have a very big veteran community down here.

 

I have personally flown out of the McAllen International Airport on non-stop flights to Vegas, L.A., Chicago, & NYC. I did need to connect flights in NYC when I flew to Europe though.

 

To worry about Cartel violence crossing over into are city is almost silly. The only incident of cartel violence that has been recorded was at Falcon Lake, nearly 200 miles away, and technically that jetskiier was in Mexican waters. Believe it or not, (despite what some pundits may say) the USA is doing a pretty swell job of securing our borders.

 

McAllen has a lot of fine restaurants, and several chains that are even in your neck of the woods. We have four-star hotels, as well as access to one of the most popular beaches in the country (South Padre Island).

 

We don't want to get as big as the ANA show in Dallas, but would rather like to improve on the diversity and quality of the show here. We would like to encourage other dealers or collectors from around the country to make this show a destination.