Longtime promotor Lyn Lake encourages proper etiquette at card shows

My last column focused on card shops and their importance to the hobby. There's just something about an in-person transaction or even a hobby conversation that can't be replicated online.

A card show holds the same sentiment for me. Maybe I'm biased having worked the show circuit at the age of 13 and setting up as a dealer at 15, but I think most agree that the anticipation and adrenaline of attending a card show is hard to replicate.

A card show is a great place for hobbyists no matter what hat you wear. You have a large room with people who are passionate about the same thing. You are amongst “your people.”

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As dealers, we show up with our wares, set up our tables and wait for the doors to open. As a hobbyist, we can't wait to walk through those doors, make some deals and hopefully acquire some cards that will produce that adrenaline rush. However, sometimes we don't know or forget all that's entailed with producing the event.

I recently had show promoter Lyn Lake on my podcast to talk about his career and the effort it takes to put on these events. I've known Lake for many years and as someone who has promoted a few smaller shows, I knew he'd have some interesting insight and let listeners behind the curtain.

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Lake didn't plan to be a card show promoter. He was a collector and part of a collector's club in Cortland, N.Y. He had to write a business plan for a class he was taking, so he did one about putting on a card show. The club disbanded but the project inspired him to do what he wrote about.

He promoted his first show in 1986 and even got Yankees legend Johnny Mize to sign autographs. It would be the start of his company, CNY Promotions, which is still going strong 37 years later. A lot has changed in that time, both in the hobby and his location. He recently moved from New York to New Mexico but the shows go on as he flies across country to keep the tradition going.

There are many expenses that go into putting on a show, from building rental, insurance, renting tables/chairs and, of course, advertising.

When Lake started in 1986, he did shows in Cortland, Ithaca, Watertown and Auburn, but in 1989 he moved to the larger Syracuse market with his first New York State Fairgrounds show. He puts on six to eight shows per year, including a few toy shows. His shows are usually 110 tables but he does an annual 240-plus-table mega show to close out the year.

Recently a controversial sign on the door of his show went viral in the hobby. It stated that collectors could sell their cards to dealers set up at the show, but collector-to-collector sales were frowned upon. Someone posted a photo of the sign on social media and soon many chose sides and vehemently defended it.

It became a hot-button topic, which was discussed on many shows, including my own. I asked Lake what prompted the sign. The first thing he said surprised me. The sign, he said, isn't new but gained attention when someone posted the photo on social media. It came about, he said, because a dealer was completing a significant sale when another collector came up in the middle of the transaction and drew the collector away so he could buy the card from him instead.

As a dealer and collector, that's just terrible etiquette and plain rude. If I was the dealer, I'd be upset too. The expenses for setting up at a show add up. To have a potential sale ruined in that fashion is not OK. Believe it or not, there is hobby etiquette and that action violates the code.

Such incidents shouldn't happen, so Lake made the sign. While I think maybe it could have been worded better, I agree with it. As Lake said, he has to keep the interests of both dealers and collectors at the forefront. He isn't saying collectors can’t sell cards at the show, but there has to be etiquette and decorum that is fair to all parties.

After 37 years of putting on shows, Lake is doing many things right. That’s why I continue to set up at his shows after all these years. There are other shows I can't say the same for.

— John Newman is a collector, dealer and the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast. Catch his Hobby Quick Hits on Monday and his guest interviews on Friday on your favorite podcast plat­form. You can reach him at sportscard­nationpc@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ sportscardnati1