borgovan

I promised I'd come back and relate my experiences to you. Thank you to everyone who offered me support and tips beforehand. It was all very helpful.

The show was slated to run from 10-4. I arrived a little before 8:30. I ended up splitting the table with another guy in my coin club. He's actually the one that suggested doing this a couple of months ago. Then he said he'd be out of town for work, but as it turns out he was able to make it. Cool! Of course, I was planning on having a full table, and I had enough stuff to cover it, but I was happy to cut back to half. Besides, it saved me half of the table fees (which, incidentally, this show is $45 for an 8-foot table.) There were about 40-50 dealers -- a sell out.

I sold a couple of grams of gold to another dealer before the show even started. I was surprised at the number of people coming through the show at 9:00-9:30, considering it wasn't supposed to open until 10:00. It then got very busy until noon or so, and then was dead until 2:30. Then it picked up again for the next half hour. Everybody at the show was packing up by 3:30.

I won't go into dollar figures, but I sold about what I figured I would. My gross was pretty good, and I made decent profit on the pieces I was able to sell. I paid for the table pretty quickly.

I didn't get the chance to walk around much to shop the other dealers, but I did pick up a 1950-D nickel and a 1921 Merc pretty cheaply.

I knew the dealers on either side of me, and it was a good place to be.

I even knew one of the customers. It was The Noost! Not only did he stop by to say hi, he went and purchased, and then gave to me, two 2009 log cabin cents (P&D)! How nice of him!!! I offered to pay him for them, but he wouldn't accept. He's really a great guy. I didn't so much as hold any of these cents in my hand before today, so I was really glad to get them.

My organization paid off. I knew what I paid for coins, I had them all priced, and my showcase organization was excellent. As I sold coins, I had more to put in their place.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I definitely plan to set up at shows more often.

Andrew67

Sounds like you had a great show! Congrats...

__________________
My cointalk albums

mrbrklyn

Sounds like a good first experience and you didn't get eaten alive. Did you make a profit after the rest of the expenses and lunch


Ruben

__________________
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
Coin Talk Museum Exhibits
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins.html

mgChevelle

awesome! congrats on a good expirience

__________________
I'll keep my guns, freedom, and money

And you can keep the Change

bqcoins

cool. It can be pretty scary when you first start to branch out away from purely collecting.

__________________
BQ
Sometime Numismatic Consultant
See my Bust Halves here: http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...albumview=grid
See my Holey coins here:http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...albumview=grid

mrbrklyn

No doubt. It is a whole different thing...

Ruben

__________________
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
Coin Talk Museum Exhibits
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins.html

weryon

Congratulation Borgovan !

TheNoost

Congrats! Glad it all went well. I forgot my list at home so only got supplies and a couple duces. I'll get somethin' from ya next time.

__________________

Jim M

Borg, I assume this was the Livonia show. Which table did you have? I was there for several hours, spent over an hour talking to Ken Potter about a book that somebody near and dear to me will be mentioned in. : )

__________________
WINS, ANA, MSNS, HVNS

"Never Argue with an Idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience!."

TheNoost

Weird, what time did Ken get there? Everyone I talked to said he wasn't there. I wanted to ask him a question about the no FG halves. One other question, if you don't mind. Who were those 3 guys wearing suits walking around and talking to everyone?

__________________

borgovan

Ruben: I did make a profit after paying for the table and stuff. Of course, if you consider everything else I invested in (trays, cases, etc.) I'm still way behind.

Jim: I was at the end table, back by the snack bar, closest to the exit door. There was another dark-haired fellow sharing my table (he had all the toned stuff). The table next to my right was Vern, if you know him. If you were talking to Ken Potter, you probably saw me, as he sat at the snack bar tables right across from my table for about two hours.

Noost: Ken was there a long time today. I don't remember you asking me about him. If you had, I surely would have pointed you his way. Or, perhaps you asked me before he got there. BTW, I have no idea who those guys in suits were. Weird, though, huh...

Just Carl

Glad to hear all turned out so good. Smart move to share a table. At most coin shows I've been to many dealers have told me they sure wish they had someone with them. One dealer once asked me to watch his table for him. I didn't although I maybe should have. Afraid if anything was missing, regardless of what, he might have thought it was me. If you don't know other dealers and have to hit the washroom, pays to have someone with you. Also, a favorite trick of some rather dishonest types is to have one person keep you busy and another pocket something.
Hopefully if you had to buy any food or drinks, it wasn't like some I've gone to where it cost more than the coins.
And as to people and the starting times. Most of the shows around me are supposed to start at 9AM. If I get there at 9AM the place is already over crowded. By 11 it is difficult to walk in the aisles.
Your lucky you didn't wander around to much. You could have ended up with more than you sold.
As to money. Regardless of how much you made for a first show, it is more important to find out what it's like, who goes there, how many customers, the age groups and primarily if you had a great time.
Fun is always more important than a few dollars.

borgovan

I did have a blast.

Since a couple of people have mentioned it, I'll comment on the food. They had a small cafeteria set up that sold drinks and hot dogs. I saw some bottles of water over there, but it turns out they weren't actually selling water. Those belonged to the ladies that worked there. They gave me water from the tap for free, and offered to bring me refills if I just called out to them, so I did have to walk over there.

They had hot dogs and wraps that I noticed (I believe $1.25 and $3.75 respectively.) Coffee and a doughnut in the morning was $2.20. A bag of chips was 30 cents, so not too bad. With the purchase of a table, you were given a $4 credit to use at the snack bar. So, the food situation was just fine.

borgovan

Oh! I just remembered more of what I wanted to share:

I thought I would be offered many more coins to purchase than I was. First, I always see guys selling at shows. Second, because of the down economy here in Michigan, and more locally in Detroit (Livonia, where the show was held, is only a few miles from the Detroit border.)

Anyway, I was offered a complete set of Mercury dimes, which I looked at. I'm pretty confident buying the 1916-D raw, but this one had a funny looking mintmark, so I declined. It just wasn't boxy, you know?

I was also offered a roll of 1922 Peace dollars in EF/AU for $300. I declined to purchase this as well. I might, maybe have been able to sell them at that price, but I wasn't going to buy them there.

Also, a guy showed me a Presidential dollar (don't remember which one) that had doubled edge inscription, with one of the inscriptions upside down. I had never heard of this variation before, but I asked around, and apparently a batch of these things was stamped, and then sent back through to be stamped again. Very, very strange. He didn't offer these for sale, but they were neat.

Also, the wildest story of the day: A guy came in with an old $2.50 gold piece that he FOUND IN A ROLL OF CENTS!!! That's insane! He tried to sell it to the guy sharing my table, and I was asked for an opinion of authenticity. I couldn't call it either way, and apparently neither could anyone else. Ken Potter weighed the thing and came to the conclusion it was real gold, so at least the guy has that working for him. It was an older gentleman, and his story was convincing, so I don't think it was a scam. Can you imagine finding that in a roll of cents??????

Okay. I think that's it for now.

mrbrklyn

I think I read a thread about that here at one time....

Ruben

__________________
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
Coin Talk Museum Exhibits
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins.html