How to Sponsor a Collectible Toy Show

For the past eight years, my husband and I have been sponsoring collectible toy shows in our area. We started sponsoring toy shows after having our own antique and collectible toy business for two years. We were finding many things about the toy shows we were dealers at that we didn't like and we knew that if we put our heads together and avoided the mistakes we were seeing being made, that we could be a success.

It has worked out very well for us and we have other dealers calling us all of the time wanting to know what our "secret" is to sponsoring a great toy show. Our "secret" is nothing more than a black binder notebook that I consider my "Toy Show Bible". I have everything organized for paid advertising, free advertising, television advertising, and press releases. I have checklists for every step of the process and although others have tried to duplicate our strategy, they have yet to accomplish the success that we have had. Organization is the key and because of my previous career, I had to learn how to be a very good organizer.

The tips I am going to provide can be used really for any type of event where the public pays an admission to attend. You might have to tweak the timeframes in which you send out advertising but you will still have a guideline to follow.

Antique and collectible toy shows have lost some of their popularity due to EBay, but your die-hard collectors would still rather attend a toy show than purchase a collector's piece off the Internet. Purchasing items off of EBay, no matter how many pictures the seller takes of the item just isn't the same. You really don't know what you are getting and it is a lot easier to get ripped off this way also.

Setting a date

Your first step in sponsoring a collectible toy show will be to set a date. You need to take into consideration:

Are there other toy shows being held on that same date that you are aware of?

Is it a good time of year to be holding your toy show?

How many toy shows are held in your area throughout the year?In our area, we are the only toy show. This has helped our traffic from year to year.

Once you have your date decided, you can move on to the next step.

Renting a building

Start looking for a building where you can hold your toy show. You will want to take into consideration:

How much is it to rent the building?

Is the building big enough for the size show you want to hold?

Is there a kitchen that can be used to feed the dealers and customers?

Are the tables and chairs included in the building rent fee?There are shows where the sponsors have to rent tables and chairs. We found a building where we pay one fee for the space and we get the tables and chairs free.

Setting prices

Now that you know how much your building rent is going to be, you can next decide how much you are going to charge dealers per table and how much your admission is going to be. We charge $20 per six-foot table and admission is $2.50 for those over 12 years old.

Create your flyer

At least six months prior to your toy show, you want to create a flyer that you can copy and distribute at toy shows you attend. All of your collectible shows have a table as you walk in the door just for flyers and dealers like to have an idea well in advance of upcoming show. The flyer needs to include:

Name of show

Date/time/place

What collector toy items will be available for sale

Sponsors' names, phone number, and email address

Directions to showWe start with approximately 1,500 copies and in total we distribute approximately 3,000 copies by the time the show date arrives.

Free magazine advertising

Three months prior to the show, you want to start sending out your free magazine advertising. You will want to check for local magazines that will publish your event for free and also national magazines. National toy magazines we use are Toy Shop and Master Collector. Send a flyer and cover letter to the magazines. You will want to include the following information as outlined:

Show Date, City & State, Place, Event, Time, Admission, Contact, Address of Contact, Phone Number and EmailVendor contracts

Send out vendor contracts approximately three months prior to your event. For your first show you will have to be very consistent at every show you attend to find dealers who will want to participate in your first show. Once you get the first show done, you will have a repeat list of vendors that you can use year after year. What we have always done is we send out contracts to everyone who has participated in our show the previous year. We specify a date in which all contracts and money have to be returned. Once that date has arrived, and if any prior vendors decide not to return that year, we move onto our waiting list. We always have a very long waiting list so our show is always booked full.

Our vendor contracts include the following information:

Show information

Set-up time for dealers

Who to make the checks payable to

Mailing information of sponsor

Cost of tables and how many

Date tables must be reserved by

Disclaimer that notes the vendor is responsible for having a sales tax number and a sales tax number is required; vendor must obey all no parking and fire zones.

Disclaimer that exhibitors and their helpers accept full liability and expressly release the show management and the building from any loss, damage, or injury to their property or themselves while attending this event.

Dealer's name, address and phone number

Dealer's email address

Dealer's state sales tax number

Type of toys sold

Dealer's signature and date of birthPaid and free advertising

Approximately one month prior to the event, you will want to submit paid newspaper advertising and your free newspaper advertising. To keep your costs at a minimum, locate as many newspapers as possible that have a "What's Happening" or local events column. You can get your show information listed for free. We submit our show information online to several newspapers and we actually only have paid advertising with five newspapers.

We have found that for the paid ads, a display ad catches the readers' eye more so than a classified ad. An ad that measures 1' x 3' works the best. We run the paid ads the week of the show.

Local television advertising

We are able to advertise on our local television cable channel for free also. We submit our show information to the cable company one month prior to the show. They run the ad for us for two weeks.

Press releases

Press releases are a great way to get free advertising and they are very noticeable. We send press releases out one month prior to the event to several newspapers. You want to "ask" the paper to run the press release. Request that the ad appear a certain week.

If you have placed a paid ad in the paper, you want to specify so when sending the press release. Your chances of the release being printed are better. We call each paper one week after sending the press release to ensure that they have received it. We also try to find out what day the release will appear in the paper.

We send a cover letter with each press release and a picture.

Food for show

The food at our show is a big draw. My mother, my sister and I make all of the food from scratch and we sell a lot of it. One thing we have found at other shows we've done is that the food is usually not very good and it is very expensive. We offer great food at reasonable prices. We make homemade beef barbeque, pork barbeque, vegetable soup, and chicken corn noodle soup. For breakfast we offer egg and sausage sandwiches and doughnuts.

We start shopping for food and sodas approximately one to two months before the show, as we see items we need on sale.

Table assignments

As we receive contracts and money from the dealers, we assign their tables in the computer and on the layout of the building that we have drawn up. When the day of the show arrives, we know exactly where to send each dealer.

Set up for show

We rent the building for two days - the day before the show and the day of the show. We set up our tables according to our layout and mark each table with the appropriate table number and dealer name.

Comment cards

Another secret to our toy show success is at the end of every show we do, we submit comment cards to all of our dealers. We find out what they like and dislike and what they would like to see changed for future shows.

If you are a toy show enthusiast, this guide should be helpful to you if you ever decide to sponsor your own toy show. If you keep everything organized, you can run a smooth, efficient show that will keep dealers coming back for years!