Card Show Setup

[J19R]

Question for the masses.

What is your ideal way for a vendor to have his/her table set up?

I'd like to organize my collection so that it easy enough to find what you're looking for but also for myself.

Since I was breaking cases and selling singles a lot of my newer stuff is organized by year/set while a lot of my older stuff I have is in team order. I also have a small collection to the side for star players.

All the older stuff isn't even listed because I've been kicking around ideas on reorganizing for awhile and now I'm thinking of maybe doing a show or two in the future I'd like the communities feedback.

I don't have a lot of mid-high end cards so I'm leaning more towards the discount boxes method but I'm open to ideas.

If I've left anything out please let me know your thoughts but basically it comes down to, IMO, the following;

.10/.25/$1 etc.. boxes
team boxes
stars
sets/commons

Some combination of the above. I see pros and cons to all of them and I know there is no perfect world but just like to hear some other thoughts.

[jewcer2k5]

Depending on the show, just having low end it will be tough to validate the outlay for the show.

I setup at a lot of local shows.

I have base cards (sometimes organized by team or division) all lined up for people to pick thru and all the same price. Typically .10 each or 12 for $1 or something like that.

Next to that I have chrome cards organized the same way at a slightly higher price.

Next to that I have base inserts and refractors at a slightly higher price.

Next to that I numbered parallels and colored refractors in $1, $2, and $5 boxes typically.

Next to that I have my first show case with higher end newer stuff in it all priced on the front so people can see what they will be paying.

Then I make the turn and have 2 showcases filled up usually organized by sport and by player. I do have a lot of chrome so I typically stack my colored auto's of people on top and have player piles. Then in the second showcase on that side I will have 1/1's and higher end cards. I try my hardest to "make it flow" but I am typically messing with it all weekend to get it right.

After that I have wooden boxes I made that hold my lower end graded cards that are typically bowman chrome auto's and those are in alphabetical order most of the time by type. So it will be all base auto's in alphabetical order, then refractors, then color refractors. After that I have a section for my $20 slabs which are usually non auto stars base cards and refractors.

If there is anymore room I try to get my insert sets out and what not that people may pick up or something else.

This is gonna be my first show where I have a bunch of basketball along with football so this all may change again.

Hope that helped a little bit.

[Cubsfanp]

I would recommend a little of 2 different ones. Pull aside and organize all the extremely popular players (Jeter, Harper, Trout). You may also want to pull aside players based on your locale. Don't go too crazy with this, though. This will bring in the player collectors and local team collectors.

Then organize the rest by type of set for the set builders.

[J19R]

Appreciate the feedback and the polling is pretty close.

jewcer2k5 - that was really helpful! Some great ideas and something that seems like it would work with my inventory.

Cubsfanp - Thanks! I like your thinking.

Figure I'd come up with somekind of hybrid. That's why I like the feedback, gives me some different lineups to try out!

Keep 'em coming!

[Kevin]

I'm a team collector so naturally I like to see things organized by teams, especially for the mid to high end stuff.

I don't mind digging through unorganized boxes for low end stuff looking for deals though. I like to look for $2.00 and lower boxes stuffed with misc. cards.

[Peties Army]

I'm a team collector so naturally I like to see things organized by teams, especially for the mid to high end stuff.

I don't mind digging through unorganized boxes for low end stuff looking for deals though. I like to look for $2.00 and lower boxes stuffed with misc. cards.

Everyone likes that

I was at a show the other day. Everyone had the same ole same ole. I went to my LCS table and he had one of his guys working it. He had them lined up at the .10/.25/.50 etc boxes. Had nothing over $10

Next day I go into the store to see about a card. He told me that he did over 70" bucks yesterday in all his boxes. That's a pretty amazing deal there