Hosting A Coin Show

Hi Danny,
It would be a nice thing for you to take on the challenge. It will take quite a bit of organization and significant expense to do it right. You will want to enlist the assistance of whatever professional or amateur dealers you can locate in your area. It is possible to turn a profit from a show but that's not guaranteed. Most local shows are sponsored by an area coin club whose members can volunteer to help out. Someone must be on hand at all times to welcome visitors, answer questions, and hopefully sell admission and raffle tickets (see below).

Your major expenses will include:
Hall rental.
Table and chair rental.
Liability insurance.
Armed security (pretty much mandatory if you want dealers to bring in their expensive inventory!).
Advertising. This is always a problem and local newspaper ads do not seem to generate a good response in my experience. Maybe you could get a local radio show to put on some spots. You can let local media know about the show; sometimes you can get TV coverage. I've considered hiring people to carry signs at major intersections on the day of the show. Of course, you also want some signs posted outside the hall.
Electrical hook-up. Dealers usually bring their own lights but they need to be able to plug them in. Our club invested in a set of multiple-outlet cables that we string under the display tables.
Food. Dealers will usually want a convenient way to grab lunch. For our local show we prepare and sell lunches with sandwiches, drink, chips, soda, etc. We turn a small profit with this operation. We don't sell food to the public since this would require permits and extra hassle.

Your revenue comes from several sources:

1) Dealers pay to rent tables at the show. It might be tough to get many dealers to take a chance on a start-up show.
2) Paid admission. Some small shows don't charge, but most will ask for a buck or two, with kids getting in free.
3) Raffle ticket sales. For our local show this is the money-maker. We buy maybe 15 nice prizes including several gold coins and then sell raffle tickets. We guarantee that winners don't have to be present at the drawing. You get your local shops and your coin club associates to sell tickets for a month or two before the show. You have a public drawing of winners at the end of the show and make sure all the winners get their prizes. If you plan well the ticket proceeds will generate a profit over the cost of the prizes.

There's my input. By all means go for it if you are interested!

It might also help to get a dealer to co-sponsor. They can leverage their connections and may even get some advertising out of it. Are there any coin clubs in your area? They may be another source to help organize a show and if they are a registered club with ANA they'll have additional resources to boot.

Also, a low cost advertising tip is to create a website for it and then hookup with a site like http://www.coinshows.com/