After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1995 with an MBA, Lowell Carhart went to work for the Vice President of Quality at NCR. By 1999 he and his USAF wife were stationed at Yokota USAF base in Japan. Many weekend trips to the Asian Mainland presented opportunities to acquire fossils and sell them on eBay during his free time. When a buy-out offer was made by NCR during their 2001 downsizing he grabbed the opportunity to leave NCR and start his own fossil business.
By 2003 Lowell and his wife were stationed in Germany and he was selling fossils at the major European shows. Then in 2005 they were back in the USA and he started doing US shows. In contrast to professionally run European shows, he felt that American shows were not measuring up. So along with his sister Christine he decided to start his own show in Denver in 2009 even as the Great Recession was worsening. Nonetheless, the Denver Coliseum Show grew in each subsequent year until becoming Denver's largest by its 4th year in 2012.
When their brother Russell joined the team they decided to leverage their Denver success and begin a new show in Tucson in 2010. By its 3rd year the Tucson 22nd Street Show was among the top five in Tucson (out of 44 shows) by dealer count and visitors. Then, recognizing that their home state of NJ was lacking — and deserving — of its own major show, the team took the enormous risk of starting a new show there, even though the economy was still foundering. The risk paid off because 95% of the 115 exhibitors at the inaugural 2012 NY / NJ Gem & Mineral Show renewed for the following year and 100 more exhibitors joined the show in 2013. The vision is to grow the NY / NJ Gem & Mineral Show to become the single largest such show in the USA by its 4th year. This will be achieved by continuing with the same business philosophy as from the beginning: advertise on a massive scale, offer exhibitors the lowest booth fee (measured as "cost per customer"), have the largest / best venue, plow all profits back into the show, treat exhibitors fairly and professionally, and measure success solely by exhibitor success.
We thank you for your interest in our shows and if you are an exhibitor we encourage you to give us a try. Come grow with us.
The NY/NJ Gem and Mineral Show is Presented by Eons Expos, the same brothers-sister team that brings you the Denver Coliseum Show every September and the Tucson 22nd Street Show every January/February.
