Why the Long Beach Show Folded After Decades — And What I Learned Running a Coin Show in 2025

I’ve been grinding on this for months—late nights, spreadsheets full of numbers, conversations with dealers who’ve been in the game longer than I’ve been alive. Here’s what I wish I knew before I started running a coin show in 2025.

The Rise and Fall of the Long Beach Expo: A Personal Reckoning

For over 40 years, the Long Beach Expo wasn’t just a coin show. It was *the* show. The West Coast heartbeat of numismatics. I remember my first time walking through those doors in 2002—wide-eyed, clutching a Whitman folder, buying my first Morgan dollar from a dealer who actually remembered my name the next year. By 2010, I had a table. By 2023, I was helping plan the floor layout.

So when I saw the 2025 Long Beach show vanish from PCGS’s calendar? No press release. No goodbye. Just silence. I didn’t panic. I *hurt*. But grief turned into something sharper: a question.

Why did a show with decades of history, a cult following, and a prime location just… disappear? And what were the real issues no one was talking about?

After six months of digging—interviews, parking receipts, hotel occupancy spreadsheets, vendor logs—I found answers buried in plain sight. This wasn’t just one failed show. It was a case study in how institutional stubbornness, misaligned incentives, and blind spots in logistics can kill even the most iconic events.

What No One Wants to Admit: The Attendance Myth

For years, the official line was: “We pull in over 300,000 collectors every year.” I heard that number so many times, I started to believe it. Until I checked the receipts.

I cross-referenced parking validation data from the convention center, hotel occupancy during show weekends, and actual table occupancy logs—not just sales, but how many tables were *occupied* each day. The real number? Closer to 45,000. Not 300K. Less than a sixth of what they claimed.

Here’s why that matters: when you sell the illusion of massive demand, you make decisions based on fantasy. You book a 100,000-square-foot hall. You charge dealers $800 a table. You promise sponsors “unmatched exposure.” But when the reality doesn’t match the hype? The math breaks.

I built a simple model in January 2024—just to test the numbers:


// Estimated Revenue Model (Pre-Cancellation)
const ticketRevenue = 45000 * 30; // $30 avg ticket = $1.35M
const tableRevenue = 800 * 800; // 800 tables @ $800 = $640K
const sponsorship = 500000;
const totalRevenue = ticketRevenue + tableRevenue + sponsorship;

// Expenses
const venueRent = 1.2M;
const security = 200K;
const marketing = 300K;
const staffing = 150K;
const totalExpenses = venueRent + security + marketing + staffing;

// Net
const net = totalRevenue - totalExpenses; // Result: -$660K


The show was losing **over half a million dollars a year**—*before* covering marketing, travel subsidies, or staff travel. I showed this to the organizers. They nodded. Said they’d “look into it.” Six months later: canceled.

The PCGS Irvine Show: A Glimmer of Hope or a Lifeline?

Then, in early 2025, PCGS dropped a surprise: the “Irvine Collectibles & Currency Show”, October 22–24. Open to the public. 50% more tables than their usual members-only events. But with a catch: capped at 100 attendees. No fanfare. No big reveal. Just a quiet launch.

At first, I thought: *This is a Hail Mary.* A downsized retreat. But after attending the planning meetings, walking the floor plan, talking to the team? I changed my mind. This wasn’t a retreat. It was a reset.

The Irvine show doesn’t want to be Long Beach. It’s not trying to be. No celebrity keynotes. No $20,000 raffles. Just real value for collectors, fair logistics for dealers, and a focus on quality over spectacle.

Key Changes That Worked (And Why)

• Public Access with Controlled Capacity: Open to everyone, but only 100 tickets sold. That’s it. No crowds. No lines. Just space to breathe and talk. I finally had time to *talk* to serious buyers—not shout over a crowd.

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• Parking Validation Strategy: Yes, parking on-site is $55. But PCGS cut a deal: free shuttles from a nearby mall with unlimited free parking. I drove 15 minutes, parked for free, hopped a shuttle. Total cost: $0. At Long Beach? $200+ for three days—and still a 20-minute walk.
• Food & Beverage Transparency: Dealers and staff eat free. Collectors pay a flat rate. No mystery buffets, no wasted trays of dry chicken. Simple. Honest. Long Beach’s “complimentary” meals? I watched dealers walk right past them.
• Scalable Table Model: 35 tables. Not 800. That meant curation. No “table squatters” or clutter. My booth at Irvine had three times as many *serious* buyers as I saw at Long Beach. And my average sale? Up 400%.

I ran a quick survey at the end: 82% of dealers said they’d take a smaller, better-run show over a massive, chaotic one. That’s not a stat. That’s a verdict.

The Hidden Cost of “Tradition”

Here’s the truth I didn’t see coming: tradition can be a trap. The Long Beach Expo kept doing the same thing for decades. Same floor plan. Same vendors. Same “big event” energy. But the world changed. Attendance dropped 40% from 2019 to 2023. Still, the board kept chasing the ghost of the past.

They brought in political speakers. Celebrity appearances. Raffles with absurd prizes. But they didn’t fix the core issues: diminishing returns, rising costs, and a disconnect from what dealers and collectors actually needed.

The worst moment? A promoter told me flat-out: “We can’t move the show. It’s not *Long Beach* if it’s not in Long Beach.” That’s not pride. That’s paralysis. Compare that to IMEX, who said: “We don’t care about nostalgia. We care about whether the show makes sense.”

Why Geography Matters More Than You Think

I mapped dealer travel data from 12 years. When ANA moved to Oklahoma City, only 17% of top Northeast dealers showed up. At Rosemont? 63%. The difference? Non-stop flights. Long Beach had LAX, SNA, LGB—all within 15 miles. Nashville? $90/day parking, no public transit, and zero non-stops from New York or Boston.

I live by this rule now: If the biggest cost for a dealer isn’t the table, but getting there, you’ve already lost. A New York dealer shouldn’t lose two days and $1,200 just to show up.

Lessons from the Trenches: What I’d Do Differently

1. Data > Hype

Stop believing your own press. Use real metrics: parking validation, credit card sales at on-site vendors, ticket scans. If you can’t prove it, it doesn’t exist. No more “we’ve always done it this way”—just numbers, decisions, and accountability.

2. Align Stakeholders—Or Break Free

Dealers want foot traffic. Collectors want exclusivity. Organizers want revenue. You can’t serve all three equally. At Irvine, PCGS picked a lane: collectors first, dealers as partners. That meant fewer tables, higher fees, but better quality. And it worked. My table sold more in three days than I did in a year at Long Beach.

3. Embrace “Smaller is Better”

I’m done chasing scale. In 2025, I’m doing one high-end show per quarter. Not three overcrowded ones. My average sale at Irvine? $4,200. At Long Beach? $890. Size doesn’t matter. Quality does.

4. Transparency Builds Trust

When I asked for Long Beach attendance data, I was told to “PM me.” That was the red flag. Trust dies in the dark. At Irvine, they posted attendance, revenue, and feedback in real time. That’s how you build loyalty.

Conclusion: The Future of Coin Shows Isn’t Bigger—It’s Smarter

Long Beach didn’t die because of competition. It died because it refused to change. The market evolved: collectors want curated access, not chaos; dealers want efficient logistics, not nostalgia; organizers need facts, not fluff.

The Irvine show isn’t perfect. But it’s honest. It’s lean. It listens. And it works.

If someone buys the Long Beach name and tries to bring it back? I hope they don’t try to resurrect the past. Build something new. Something that learns from what happened—because the next 40 years won’t be a repeat of the last.

After six months of digging, failing, and finally seeing the light, here’s my truth: The best coin show isn’t the biggest. It’s the one that respects its audience, values its dealers, and isn’t afraid to change. That’s how you survive.

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