The week of the Long Beach Show is a really busy week in the Southern California coin world. Not only do you have the biggest show on the West Coast here, but the weekend before you have the Goldberg auctions and you also have the Heritage auction during the show. The weekend before the show I attended the Goldberg auctions and saw many really neat coins in their sale. Of course, I wasn't able to win everything I wanted as I was outbid on many, but I did get a few decent wins which I was happy about. I've always liked the Goldberg auctions and they have improved the sales significantly over the past couple of years, mostly their internet bidding. Although I attended the live auction for the coins I really wanted, I only saw a couple of instances where the internet seemed to be running slow and the auctioneers were paying attention and slowed the floor bidding to allow internet bidders a chance to catch up. I also bid on a few lots I couldn't be there for by putting in my max bids in advance and they were executed correctly and fairly in my opinion. It is also nice that the Goldbergs are willing to deliver all of your winnings to the Long Beach show on Thursday (the day after their auction ends) and they do not charge for that delivery service, very cool! I did not take any photos of the lot viewing or the auction room there as I didn't think that was too cool, but I did grab a couple of photos of the breakfast and lunch they provided for those attending lot viewing and the auction, very nice of them. I got up pretty early Wednesday to head down to Long Beach for dealer set up day. I'm about 50-60 minutes from Long Beach without traffic, but with L.A. traffic the trip can easily go over 2 hours. It was pretty dark and gloomy through West L.A... the "June Gloom" which is always here near the coast, but it burns off and get sunny by afternoon. I arrived to the show a little bit early as traffic through West L.A. wasn't as bad as I had expected. I didn't want to stop anywhere with my vehicle full of coins so I drove around Long Beach a bit to take in the sights. I found the new store of Jarrod and Brandi from the TV show "Storage Wars" while I was driving around, haha: I also went down into the harbor a bit and got a really nice view of the Queen Mary: Here's a pic of the outside of the convention center. This is the first year that I've had a table to sell coins at the Long Beach show (sharing Table #448 with forum member bigjpst). Our first show in February was really fun and I was looking forward to doing it again here in June. Nearly all the other dealers that I had talked to before had told me that the June Long Beach Show was the worst of the three shows held there each year, so I went in expecting the worst. Setting up the table is always quite a bit of work, especially with the vest pocket dealers bugging you while you're trying to get your coins out, haha! After a couple of hours we were ready for business. We have a decent location in the first row of show, but our view is obstructed by this big black curtain behind us (Todd's photo booth!!!) hahahaha!!! I also had my 1909 Mint Set on display at our table along with lots of 1909 varieties and most people enjoyed seeing the set. My Mom is currently in culinary school in Maui and her most recent class is on making desserts. She made me some homemade dark chocolate Twix bars for my birthday recently and I brought them to share with friends so I didn't eat them all myself, haha. After dealer set up and all of the selling and buying wholesale with the other dealers in the room was done, we went to dinner at Hooters across the street where we were joined by another Jay, Jay Casesa of Quality Rare Coins. Sorry guys, no pictures from Hooters as we were there just for the wings Thursday I went to Heritage lot viewing before the show opened to dealers and found a few coins that were worth bidding on. An hour later, opened to the public and it was really busy for several hours. Here is a picture just after opening to the public: bigjpst's wife was able to be there for part of Thursday and Friday and it was really nice to have an extra helper at the table when it got busy. Friday was also pretty busy but things slowed down quite a bit on Saturday, perhaps everyone was upstairs getting autographs. Last show the autograph seekers were right on the bourse floor causing quite a ruckus, but this time they had them upstairs in the lobby. It's always fun at these shows to see so many forum members and to be able to chat in person. I won't go into detail with names and photos of them all (Charmy will have that covered in her report!!!) but it was nice to see you all! PCGS also had a couple of really neat sets on display at the show. The Missouri Cabinet Collection of Half Cents was amazing and seemed to go on forever with so many coins... all of them tagged and ready to sell at the Goldberg auction in January: They also had a really neat collection of German coins put together by Ron Guth and most were in such high grades that they looked unreal!!! I also made some time to go to the PCGS table to drop off a couple of orders, including a guarantee submission which included a certain 1907 No Motto $10 Indian which is suspected of being puttied I did show the coin to several dealers who know much more about gold than myself and just about all said the coin had been messed with in some way, but a few said it didn't matter much as the coin was still a nice coin. We'll see what PCGS has to say about it after they take a look. Finally, I won't go into details about everything I bought and sold at the show since I don't want to be accused of spamming, but I will share what I think is the coolest item I bought this week. It is a matching set of three 1936-S Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollars with matching original toning, matching grades, consecutive serial numbers and the envelope and tab holder which supposedly has been with the coins since 1936. Had to buy it Already can't wait until the next Long Beach in September!!!
Yeah, sure. Terrific post Illini and I don't know what I like better.......them bagels at the beginning or the Oregon's at the end. I think I'm leaning toward the Oregon's..........
Shoot, I didn't realize this thread was 6 months old! How was it that I didn't see it back in June? Well, better late (I think I'll have the Oregon's for breakfast Mike) than never......
