Coin Shows

This. I've learned a lot from the dealers I've spoken to, and I've met several CT members at shows, even carpooling with a few. The coins are nice, but the real-life camaraderie is even better.

 

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I'll be helping in the morning, setting up the table for Coneca ( Ken Potter ) in Michigan ..

13 hours and counting .....

 

I enjoy the shows, albeit I go to the local shows. Surprisingly, in NC we have a few Ancient booths at our shows. I enjoy meeting the dealers, and it gives me a chance to handle the coins before buying. I was planning to vist FUN this year, but a last minute issue canceled my plans. It sounds like I missed a lot! I plan to visit FUN next year!

 

I love good coin shows. I drive a few hours every winter and summer to the FUN show in Florida. My wife and I both like meeting the dealers and other collectors in person and talking. We both feel like seeing coins in your hand instead of a photo online is so much better way to appreciate it and decide if you want it. We also like antiquities and it goes even more for them. Usually we find dealers have stock with them that never makes it online or any other venue. I usually save for months before each show and rarely come home with any current legal tender but lots of obsolete money and goodies. I have developed relationships with multiple dealers who know what I like and try to find it for me. I definitely follow dealers I have met at shows on vcoins and their own websites in preference of those I have not met. Last FUN show I came home with 48 coins ranging from a tetradrachm to shipwreck pieces of 8 to uncleaned ae2s. I cherry picked a thasos tetradrachm from a dealer with a hoard of 50! I got to look through multiple groups of 100s of various more common coins which I also love. A good show keeps me fired up for collecting for months afterwards.

 

We don't have any coin shows in Australia that have anything worthwhile for the ancients collector. I buy all my coins online - mostly from vcoins.

I would go to a coin show if i could - it would be great to see coins in hand before purchase. Often when my coins arrive in the mail, they look different to the photo (usually darker - some patinas are hard to photograph).

 

I'm unusual in that I collect very high quality coins that typically are only available through auction (or privately from dealers who I've built relationships with) so most dealers don't have that sort of inventory to bring to shows.

I do go to NYINC and the San Francisco Bourse. For me it's a vacation and I wrap it into an overall trip. I look forward to it all year long. I'll be going to those shows as long as they have them and I'm able.

At San Fran, I'll buy coins that I know are going to require upgrading just to support some of the dealers there. Plus, it's fun to buy coins.

 

WOW! What a great response to this thread!

I am semi-remote. There are shows within 100 miles periodically, and I have gone to a few of them and loved it.

But, no coin clubs, few shops within driving distance. Speaking of distance,

This darned internet has opened up my collecting and learning so much.

I have mostly learned from it, but, I have also bought from it, because of my distance from show and shops; but, at least, now, I can do it.

 

I've never been to a coin show before but I plan to go to the Denver show this year. They usually only have 3 or 4 dealers with ancients, and one less this year with the passing of Tom Cederlind. I doubt I'll buy anything but I plan to save up a decent bit just in case I find anything interesting. If anyone else is going please PM me, I'd love to meet any other collectors or dealers who plan to attend.

 

I traveled more when I was collecting US coins as it always felt like there was a sizable quantity available in dealer inventories. Now, I attend shows mostly for the social aspects of collecting. This past NYINC was an aberration - ordinarily I've rarely found anything to buy at the show but I found five coins this time around, making the exorbitant $125 early bird badge finally well worth it. Lot viewing is also critical, as is getting early visibility into what may be coming up at auction.

I wouldn't be surprised if shows are eventually replaced with some virtual reality successor. At least then there will be more food options than Rosemont, IL or $4 Diet Cokes at the Waldorf...

 

I would love to go to one but there hasn't been one near me that I had the time off to attend.

 

Gawd! I went to the Chicago show in 2014. With all the traffic, parking, staying, etc.
I will never go again to Chicago

 

Whether we are talking about shows, vCoins, eBay or any other venues, the problem I see is the increasing emergence of amateur dealers who simply do not know enough to be in the business. Any venue gets its reputation from the experience of its buyers. People buying tables or posting listings of fakes, poor coins offered as valuable, mislabeled items or anything else indicating a beginner customer will be led astray will harm that venue and the hobby as a whole.

We need new, young dealers with coin skills. My favorite dealers, the ones I trust, tend to be my age or older. Major houses hire younger people with promise who I expect to take over that end of the market but I fear the small, local 'show only' dealers from whom I have bought so many of my coins are a dying breed. Will the Internet produce the next generation of trustworthy and capable coin professionals? What can we, here, do to insure the hobby continues?

 

I dunno. When experts like Martin can be fooled, how much easier is it for beginner customers to be led astray. Every time I've been burned it's like a kick in the gut. It makes one question if one is qualified enough to buy coins. I tend to stick with sellers I've bought from before, so perhaps you are right Doug. Those dealers will eventually have to pass the baton, but to whom and with what qualifications?

 

I started attending the Red Rose show in PA about 3 or 4 years ago, and there were no ancients to be had. Not a one. Over the last few shows, a couple of dealers showed up with large inventories of world coins and several trays of ancients. The ancients all had serious problems and were marked up 5 times over market value.

One dealer tried to convince me that the historical value of a common sestertius of Trajan made it worth hundreds of dollars despite the fact that it was harshly cleaned, as bright as a brand new penny, with barely any detail. I wouldn't have taken any of his coins if he had given them to me. This was not some new guy to the world of dealing. He's a well-established seller of world coins that decided to branch out into ancients, at least my age, mid-50's.

I found the same situation with a prominent NY dealer that had set up shop at NYINC. He had dozens of boxes of flips which at first looked very promising, but I found nothing but common, worn, and problematic coins at ridiculous prices. And customers WERE being duped. As I sat looking through his inventory, several people bought coins and were thrilled that they were given 15% off their exorbitantly-priced dogs.

If a collector isn't willing to do some homework about the market, he really shouldn't be in this hobby.

 

I paid $85 for parking at the Waldorf, after tipping the valet, lol. But trains and buses would have likely added up to the same. Why does NYINC have to take place in Gotham City? Surely there are plenty of cheaper venues in NY state, just outside the megalopolii, with ample free parking, cheap food, and much much easier access.

 

I attended the SF show twice. The NYINC is on my bucket list, maybe next year seems to be a familiar tune.
I am fortunate to live in the Houston, Texas area. We have one fairly large show (Greater Houston Coin Club) and several smaller shows (Bellaire, TX) per year. The GHCC show has 5 - 15 ancient dealers and several more world coin dealers in the 250+ dealer booths. Heritage holds a nice sized auction at the show, but offers no ancients. The Bellaire Coin Shows are smaller, but usually well attended. You can find their schedule on CoinShows.com. The paid attendance per table is better than at larger shows.
Air fares have dropped a bit with gas prices. Folks on this list should consider visiting a Houston coin show this year.

 

Good teaching thread. I attend shows (NYINC, Baltimore, Garden State in NJ) I try to time my visits to family in LA for the Long Beach Show. When I lived and worked in Washington DC and attended the Vienna show.

I go to shows primarily to learn.

I collect coins based on my heritage: Irish, Canadian including Newfoundland. I also collect Japanese pre-WWII. I was an exchange student there and subsequently returned to work.

Recently, I have branched into Portuguese coins, specifically from the period of the dual monarchy in Brazil and Portugal (Joao VI). The Brazilian 960 Reis of this period are fascinating given the number of overstrucks/counterstamps using 8 Reales from throughout Latin America.

If you are a dealer willing to spend time and patiently explain the history of a particular coin, you have my attention and loyalty as a collector. I do like to politely haggle. It is part of ascertaining price discovery.

 

There is a cheaper way to park in the area around the Waldorf. Go to any of the major parking lot management firms websites for discount coupons. For example, www.iconparkingsystems.com/coupons. You may have to walk several blocks but it is money saved.

 

I hate haggling, am not good at it, and loathe having to do it. At the 2014 ANA show (Chicago), at first I didn't realize that was expected and with quiet reluctance I paid the asking prices. I definitely overpaid for a number of coins-- the price of education, I suppose.

 

This is probably what the grading companies hope for in the ancients market. They already have the U.S. collectors.