When you walk up to a booth at a show how do you want it organized?

[Powell7db]

Obviously you’ll have the showcase times on display but what about the lesser priced items in 1600-5000 count boxes?

Team?

Type of card ie: rc, base, serial numbered, game used / auto

Price: $1 boxes, $1-5 box $5-$25 box

Year and set?


Something I’m missing?

Looking at starting to do shows and organizing items.

[ThoseBackPages]

yes, everything in order and priced

[Topps77]

yes, everything in order and priced

Agree. Let's go Bills!

[BoofBonser26]

I'll just say, as a team collector, I spent way over my budget at the National because I found so many dealers with team-sorted $1 boxes. I don't know if my style of shopping represents a significant number of buyers, though.

I definitely wouldn't sort beyond year/set or even just year, regardless of what system you opt for, because over the course of a show buyers are going to wreck your sorting (unintentionally or otherwise). Just the nature of the beast.

[BigL7370]

If you can’t mark every single card - make it easy where they are sorted by value.

[Powell7db]

I'll just say, as a team collector, I spent way over my budget at the National because I found so many dealers with team-sorted $1 boxes. I don't know if my style of shopping represents a significant number of buyers, though.

I definitely wouldn't sort beyond year/set or even just year, regardless of what system you opt for, because over the course of a show buyers are going to wreck your sorting (unintentionally or otherwise). Just the nature of the beast.

Originally my thought was this. Cards valued at five dollars and over are in their own box sorted by sport but that’s it. Cards that are a dollar and less Are sorted by team to make them easier to find

[sbfinley]

Sorted and organized is nice, but truth be told I used to gravitate to the unsorted mess boxes and tables. More often than not the forgotten gems would be found there.

[Slvnumber2]

I sort by price and then by player or year/brand. $1 boxes do very well, and if you do specials like buy 10 cars get one free you will sell more. Then I do $2 cards then $5….

[ewokpelts]

I would have one box for the local teams (or most popular if your area doesn’t have a local team) and one box for everyone else.

But broken down by price or type of card

[RookiesInTheRaw]

Lots of ways to get the job done, but I have had the most success by using $1 & $5 dollar boxes with "buy more & save" themes (20 $1 cards for $10, Five $5 cards for $20, etc). Also, I separate each in Vet, Prospect, and RC boxes.

I do sell various team bags, but I personally do not split everything by team/player since things usually get mixed up as the show goes on. I use big binders for inserts over the last 20+ years as many folks seem to build sets--use a dollar theme for this and discount accordingly unless you have higher end stuff separately marked.

Most importantly, know what you have. If you have a display case or higher-end box and do not have prices on stuff, ensure you have an inventory/price sheet handy for quick reference. If I am on the buyer side of the table and you are thumbing through ebay to answer my question on how much something costs, I will be gone by the time you look up from your phone.

[374cardshop]

I have been both a buyer and a dealer at card shows. I personally organize by price point AND sport. I am sure there are a few people who will walk by the table if it's not organized by team but unfortunately the "buyers" I have seen have a hard enough time putting things back in the right spot just based off sport so I wouldn't even want to try to manage the headache of organizing by team also. I do agree though you generally will make more profit organizing by team but you'll also have to deal with people expecting to not compensate you for your time involved in making it easier for them.

[Rememberthepast]

My thoughts from a lower end buyer;

Definitely sort by sport, then price, then team.

Anything less than a $1 leave it a hot mess and I’ll rummage through it. As mentioned above, we’ll be looking for those cards that have appreciated into the $1-$3 range. If you get to the point you have time, team is ideal on my side of the table, but completely understand not so much on your side.

For the $1, $2, $3, $5, & $10; The more volume of cards, organized by sport and team is preferred since I don’t want to be looking at multiple Kansas City Royals and Winnipeg Jets, when I want to focus on Detroit. Don’t give me many choices in terms of broken down into prospects, RC, and vets, and HOF because then I may not look into every possible option.

I recommend using a color’d sticker system on the penny sleeve or top loader to help with your time organization and keeps me in one location. Use the traffic light system; $1 green, $3 yellow, $5 red. All these can be kept in one box organized by team unless you have a 1000 $1 cards then split up the prices. The use of color stickers in team spots also helps when you reevaluate player prices and can easily interchange cards as prices fluctuate. Plus, when I hand you a stack of cards you’re not asking what box did I pull these from.

Easy to read signage in multiple locations is a must to include volume buying discounts.

Red = $5ea. Buy five for $20
Yellow = $3ea. Buy four for $10
Green = $1ea. Buy six for $5 or 13 for $10

Lastly $10 cards would have blue stickers in their own separate box and depending on volume, broken down into sport would be fine if you have a few hundred in total. Keep $10 cards close to the center of the table as those can be negotiated.

In the end, simple and organized with not too many options because I don’t want to be overloaded with choices. It’ll be more effort up front, but I’ll buy more from organized sellers and your table/s wil attract more customers.

Hope this helps.

[Rememberthepast]

I’ll add one more comment. If you broke 1-3 cases of a particular set, let’s say Heritage, having just a Heritage box is fine for those set collectors but it needs to be in numerical order.

[Banks8181]

Guerrero’s on the left, Soto’s on the right

[griffan15]

My 50 cent boxes are random and unsorted. My $1 boxes are sleeved and organized by team. Same with top loaded cards, they are sorted and marked individually.

Time is factored into the price. If all of my cards in the 50 cent boxes were sorted…they become $1 cards. I pass the savings onto the customer in the 50 cent boxes, but that means you have to look for what you want.

[thewild3]

Priced!!! I hate when I see a display case of cards with no pricing. It’s even worst when you ask how much and the pull their phones out to do a comp search.

[Powell7db]

This was an amazing post and I think there is where I am at. I am going to have a < $1 box sorted by sport and team. This is base and other low end cards. A sleeved cards $0.50 and unselected $0.25

Then I’ll have a $1-$5 box, all priced, also sorted by team.

Anything $5 and above in own box sorted by sport but not team.

I am willing to put the work into sorting out the low end stuff by team to make multiple 12 cards for $3 sales and what not. That’s worth it to me.




My thoughts from a lower end buyer;

Definitely sort by sport, then price, then team.

Anything less than a $1 leave it a hot mess and I’ll rummage through it. As mentioned above, we’ll be looking for those cards that have appreciated into the $1-$3 range. If you get to the point you have time, team is ideal on my side of the table, but completely understand not so much on your side.

For the $1, $2, $3, $5, & $10; The more volume of cards, organized by sport and team is preferred since I don’t want to be looking at multiple Kansas City Royals and Winnipeg Jets, when I want to focus on Detroit. Don’t give me many choices in terms of broken down into prospects, RC, and vets, and HOF because then I may not look into every possible option.

I recommend using a color’d sticker system on the penny sleeve or top loader to help with your time organization and keeps me in one location. Use the traffic light system; $1 green, $3 yellow, $5 red. All these can be kept in one box organized by team unless you have a 1000 $1 cards then split up the prices. The use of color stickers in team spots also helps when you reevaluate player prices and can easily interchange cards as prices fluctuate. Plus, when I hand you a stack of cards you’re not asking what box did I pull these from.

Easy to read signage in multiple locations is a must to include volume buying discounts.

Red = $5ea. Buy five for $20
Yellow = $3ea. Buy four for $10
Green = $1ea. Buy six for $5 or 13 for $10

Lastly $10 cards would have blue stickers in their own separate box and depending on volume, broken down into sport would be fine if you have a few hundred in total. Keep $10 cards close to the center of the table as those can be negotiated.

In the end, simple and organized with not too many options because I don’t want to be overloaded with choices. It’ll be more effort up front, but I’ll buy more from organized sellers and your table/s wil attract more customers.

Hope this helps.

[StateEx]

Just to add, it's also nice when the person at the booth generally knows what they've got on hand. I don't need an itemized list, but knowing something like where a type of set is mostly likely to appear is helpful (e.g., try the $1 bin for Topps Opening Day).

[kooky4cards]

$1 shoe boxes - buy 5 cards, get 1 free

$3, $5, and $10 shoe boxes - get 10% off $20+ / 15% off $50+ / 20% off $100+

A few chairs, so buyers can relax and flip through the boxes for 10 to 15 minutes.

[bigdog2003]

I love the cheap graded boxes. I'm a sucker for $5 and $10 graded boxes. Even more when it's buy a certain amount and get a card free.

[Stifle]

Sorted and organized is nice, but truth be told I used to gravitate to the unsorted mess boxes and tables. More often than not the forgotten gems would be found there.

I always wait to go to that table because so many people bypass it. I went to a table just like that this weekend that had oddball cards from 1990, that I have never seen. Just noticed them listed from $1.25 to $9. Great find.