COIN SHOW ATTENDANCE: THE PUBLIC/DEALER RATIO

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 1, January 7, 2018, Article 21

We avoid topics of pricing and grading, but here's a number-based discussion that seems worth having. What do coin show attendance numbers really mean, anyway? A dealer only needs one good deal to have a great show, and the number of people passing his table is less of a concern. But you have to have a flow or you may not get any deals in return for all your time and expense.

The December 2017 PAN eNEWS had an interesting article which discussed attendence at the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists coin shows in relation to other shows. -Editor

One of the statistics that we like to do is to attempt to track the number of dealers and attendees at coin shows and create a ratio. These are difficult numbers to acquire since not all shows publish both numbers. We have been able to assemble some comparisons for the last few years of a few coin shows. The attendance numbers presented do not include dealers and table help. Some shows combine both so we subtracted the number of dealers listed in their directories. Our goal was to see how the PAN shows stacked up as compared to others.

We have never published this list before and have stats going back to 2013. If you run a coin show then we would be grateful for your accurate numbers. We view this as a tool to determine the trends and health of the coin business. Major national shows tend to have attendees that are serious buyers. Smaller shows may have a mix of serious to curiosity seekers. There are many other factors that determine the success of a coin show. This is only presented as food for thought. Your thoughts? Email us mailto:pancoins@gmail.com

I plucked these numbers from published news releases; you need both figures to make a ratio; there is a lot of guessing and hype out there, but we'll use whatever we can get. If anyone can provide numbers for other regional and national shows, I'd appreciate it.

Definitely an interesting line of thought. While most of my career has been in technology, I did spend time as a financial analyst and quickly learned that absolute size matters far less than relative size. After all, it doesn't matter how large your revenues are if your expenses are larger - you're not making bank.

One number not present here is the table fee, which is an important part of dealer calculus. How much does it cost me per attendee? Again, these measures only go so far; I don't think anyone has estimates of dealer revenue - as mentioned above, a single deal can make or break a show. -Editor