Author PR Insights From A Coin Show

 

 

It has been a good 20 or 30 years since I attended a coin show, but when I decided to go to one while on vacation in Florida recently, I found a correlation to book fairs.

The coin show set-up is universal and timeless. Not much has changed from when I attended my first show at around age 10 or 12 in late 1970s Brooklyn. Coin sellers sit side by side to form rows of intimate retailers, a bunch of poker tables housing thousands of dollars of treasures and gems, manned by aging enthusiasts trying to appeal to elderly numismatists seeking to complete a private collection or to uncover an underpriced gem.

Coin shows now effectively take place in transactions online, usually on ebay and amazon. But for real people to gather in person, where coins can be inspected, touched, and allowed to shine, is still special. To be at the show has a social element; online feels cold, anonymous, and business-cold.

I just turned 57 and may have been the youngest person in attendance at this coin show, held at the Polish Club in Palm Beach County. The crowd was old, almost all men, and all white. If the coin collecting hobby is to grow, it needs an infusion of youth, diversity, and women.

Generation Alpha and Gen Z collect things -- but they are all digital. Their social media is a scrapbooked archive. They bookmark favorite sites, save their musical playlists on spotify, and essentially know how to search for anything that they want to see. I grew up in a tactile world, before computers, smart phones, and the Internet turned our physical world into an invisible, virtual one. Our youth is more likely to collect NFT’s than anything you can hang, touch, or display. They are more curious about Bitcoin rather than to collect real coins.

The coin booths resembled each other at first, but upon closer inspection, you come to see that the vendors who sell tend to:

* Differentiate their offerings
* Engage people who enter their air space
* Make a good presentation visually
* Be flexible on  pricing
* Offer bulk deals
* Tell a good story

Perhaps authors can learn from what goes on at a coin show and find a way to peddle their wares successfully.

Need PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with 3.6 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.