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 3rd year in 2011. In 2020 the show moved to the adjacent National Western Complex and renamed itself the Denver Show.
With Lowell busy with marketing and Christine dedicated to recruiting dealers, they asked their brother Russell to join the team so they could leverage their Denver success and begin a new show in Tucson in 2010. By its 4th year the 22nd Street Show was among the top five in Tucson for fossils and minerals.
After the success in Tucson, and recognizing that their home state of NJ was lacking its own major show, the sibling team took the risk of starting a new show there in 2012. The risk paid off because the NJ Show is now the largest US gem & mineral show east of Denver. Our business philosophy remains the same: advertise on a massive scale, offer exhibitors the lowest booth fee (measured as “cost per customer”), have the largest / best venue, invest all profits back into the show, treat exhibitors fairly and professionally, and define our success solely by exhibitor success.
We thank you for your interest in our shows. If you are an exhibitor we encourage you to give us a try. Come grow with us.