My niece Aubrey and I arrived on Thursday for set up, it was a pretty easy 7-hour drive since we were listening to John Grissam's latest book on tape, "Confessions." Here's my cute niece Aubrey - she learned the ropes very quickly and soon was speaking "coin lingo"! Karin did a GREAT job organizing this show, as always! And here are some shots of the show.... We arrived around 3:30 pm, got everything set out, shopped around a little, bought a few coins including a couple more beautiful Indian proofs. Then it was time to head out for dinner so we went to our usual wonderful Mexican restaurant right across the street, El Minuto. We had dinner with Rick, the "Colonel," and a few other dealers. One of the younger dealers invited my niece to go out and play some pool so they took off while, of course, Rick and I headed to the casino for some poker. When the show opened on Friday, there was a nice long stream of people flowing in and it was quite busy for most of the day, lots of buzz, lots of buying and selling. I bought another beautiful proof, and some better date circ Indian cents for inventory. I made a lot of sales including some toned Indian cents, even making my projected sales quota on the first day, so that was a very good way to start the show. Karin's sister, who sometimes does massages at the coin shows, brought her massage chair so I also got a wonderful massage which helped to work out some bad kinks I still had in my back from being thrown from the bull while I was in Vegas!! Oooooohhh, aaaaaahhhhhh! Also, my sister (my niece's mom) who lives in New Mexico came to the show to visit and hang out with us. She's an amazingly talented woman, is Vice President of a builder developer, and she raised a beautiful and extremely smart and helpful/hard working daughter - whom I'm thankful was able to help me at this show! After the show closed on Friday, we had another yummy dinner at El Minuto along with about 20 other dealers, etc., then we headed downtown to the Congress Hotel since it was "Dillinger Days" and there were some fun celebrations going on, with people dressed in 30's style clothing. Apparently, John Dillinger was arrested at this exact hotel, but later escaped, only to be later gunned down in front of a movie theater in Chicago. Here's a little history from Wikipedia: "A fire broke out at the Hotel Congress in Tucson where members of the Dillinger gang were staying. Forced to leave their luggage behind, they were rescued through a window and down a fire truck ladder. Charles Makley tipped a couple of firemen $12 to climb back up and retrieve the luggage, affording the firefighters a good look at several members of Dillinger's gang. The firemen later recognized Makley and Ed Shouse while thumbing through a copy of True Detective and informed the police who promptly arrested Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, Russell Clark, Ed Shouse and Dillinger.[13] They found them in possession of over $25,000 in cash and several automatic weapons. Tucson celebrates the historic arrest with an annual "Dillinger Days" festival, the highlight of which is a reenactment" These are pictures of framed photos and newspaper articles that hang on the walls of the Congress Hotel. We stayed at the bar and had some beverages, which, of course, included more Irish Car Bombs!!! (For those of you who missed my FUN show report, it's a glass of Guinness with a shot glass of Jameson and Bailys dropped into the Guinness, and then you guzzle the drink so the Bailys doesn't curddle - it's yummy!!) Here are photos of each of us with our Irish Car Bombs! Today when the show opened, again there was a steady stream of people lined up to enter and the show was abuzz almost the entire day. I bought a few beautiful bright original red PCGS Indian cents and a couple nice circ Indian cents from the Kenny and Mike Coin Store!! Stone stopped by briefly to say hi, as did Sonoradesertrate and a couple other forum members. Karin's sister came back and gave me another massage to continue working on those big knots I had in my shoulder/back. Though I was pretty busy most of the day, I did have a couple frustrating customers that came back 4-5 times to look at the same coins they saw the first time! That's when I really have to hold on tightly to my patience hat! Towards the end of the afternoon, it became clear that since there were still lots of people milling around looking at coins, we were not going to leave the show in time to make the 7 hour drive home and arrive at a decent time, so we decided to stay one more night - just the three of us girls hanging out together! When the show came to an end, we packed up everything, found another hotel, checked in, had a wonderful relaxing dinner, and now we're snuggled in our very comfy beds watching mindless tv, while I put this report together. All in all this show exceeded my - and many others' - expectations! It was constantly busy with lots of deals both selling and buying. I understand there will be another Tucson show in October - hope to see more of you then.
I think it is, at least in the NE... many of my HS friends with 4 year degrees are finally picking up solid jobs.
Thanks everyone, I just arrived home (phew, loooonnnng drive!). To answer your question, I do about 35+ shows a year from local 1-day shows to huge 4/5-day shows around the country. It can be very tiring, but I love it and am very fortunate to be able to make a modest living doing what I love, meeting great people, talking coins, seeing interesting parts of the country, and having some fun at the same time!
