Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Any advice for a 1st time experience setting up at a card show?

The best advice I can give is the same that was passed to me when I asked a similar question:

Whatever expectations you have in your mind regarding the sales you are going to make, lower them… significantly.

Outside of the money aspect the biggest thing is display. Be clean and organized to start and clearly mark pricing expectations. Nothing ticks a buyer off and having them walk away than getting to a table and not seeing your pricing info. What you get is a different story, but a buyer wants to see something upfront so their expectations can be set. Back to clean organization, as a buyer I'll avoid a table if their product is all over the place. Put the stuff you want to prioritize to move front and center otherwise it won't move.

Just some thoughts. I have more, but I need to actually get work done today.

Set up from the front so you can see how it will look to your customers.

If you have plastic shelving units (those that can easily be put together and taken apart), use them to keep the more valuable  / larger items off the table yet still on display. (Also helpful for storing anything you pick up along the way - might want to bring an empty box for your pick-ups.)

Be willing to negotiate prices. (And as others have said, clearly mark them.)

Be willing to trade, even with kids. This helped my table get lots of traffic and further sales because people were curious why so many people were gathered at my table and not at the others.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.  This is greatly appreciated.