Well said mate and if i may add to what you are saying,there is a MASSIVE difference between holding a 'CARD SHOW' which is normally done by a 'COMPANY' exhibiting their goods as a promotion for items that will be available for sale as a business venture which costs a lot of money and hopefully through sales of THEIR product, THEY will be enjoying a business like lifestyle, then you have a 'card show' which was probably more of a trade and meet show that derives no actual income for the person/s that put it on, purely to get something happening that has been requested for a long time!
To be straight forward, most Queenslanders have always done it tough,over many years, everyone thinks of the Gold Coast lot that come and go with their lost fortunes, so the art of buying/collecting in this industry is well beyond most peoples means so ebay is the best and most cost effective way of collecting!
If you want to pay players to attend a 'card show' then hopefully you will recoup some money, yet i doubt that, otherwise, Autographmemorabilia would do so, just for some signatures that are attainable on ebay!
I always wanted a sports memorabilia store and i was so close to starting 1 until i realised that so many items on ebay for sale, apparently signed, were nothing but prints limited to 500 and there are hundreds of these items for sale because they really have no value! The market has died due to prints or reprints and backyard jobs!
If 'the game rugby league ' had his table in sydney it would draw hundreds, same with redtorana, and takbne, and if Brian Anyos had his in Melbourne, possibly more, so demographics is always the key to these shows otherwise they would not cancel them here in Brisbane!