Bellman's Dallas ANA Show Report

Part 1-

I flew from Philly International out to "Big D" Wednesday the 2nd in the late afternoon/early evening time slot on Southwest. No special food on which to report, sorry. Flying into DAL for an Eagles fan just felt wrong, y'know? I may shower, but I may never again be clean. KIDDING!

The official show hotels were impossibly expensive for a mere collector, so I had to rely on Bill Shatner and "knock, knock, knock, Penny?" to find me a room. (Priceline, for those who need help.) Cha-ching! The old classic hotel, The Adolphus, became my three nights' home for less than half the show hotel rate. Here's the best part - it was CLOSER to "our" end of the Hutchison Convention Center than the official hotel was. Hee, hee, hee. Either way, it was a three to four block walk. The weather was superb so what the heck, right?

I waited at Love Field for the transfer to the DART light rail just long enough to say "enough", and took a cab to the Adolphus. I am a collector of not just coins, but Southwest Points deals wherever I can snag 'em, so I strolled over to The Press Box a few blocks away to grab some sustenance. Again, no food pictures, sorry. Had a great local brew and a "Brisket Burger" at the suggestion of the server. Excellent, and Southwest bonus points on the side. Then, me tired, must sleep.

My room at The Adolphus was HUGE, Texas huge, but with no view. Standard with a cheap Priceline deal. Big deal, right? Sleep, bathe, dress, leave, come back, sleep, rinse, repeat. The room was also luxurious. Good enough for the Brit royals, good enough for the BellmanMeister, I always say.

The show opened on Thursday morning for the dealers and paid Early Birds at 8, but I walked over to the hall with the Chief Counsel for Dillon Gage, who was headed to ICTA's meeting on counterfeits. I needed to say "howdy doo" to Kathy McFadden of ICTA anyway, because we've been working hard together on keeping coins untaxed in Pennsylvania. I stayed for the meeting, and ANA Executive Director Kim Kiick and Prez Jeff Garrett plopped down at the same table as me. The meeting was basically a gripe session about law enforcement doing everything they can to NOT get involved fighting Chinese (and other) counterfeit bullion.

Then it was time to go over to the bourse hall and get my Day 1 assignment from the "Goddess of ANA Shows", Rhonda Scurek. It was registration line management, a specialty for which I am known at ANA.
(more to follow)

 

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Part 2-

Well, Thursday did not NEED no stinking line management... AT ALL! There were no lines. There almost were no attendees. I'm telling you, you could have fired a .30-06 down the aisles and not hit anyone not associated with the show. I needed a new assignment, so I grabbed Rob Kelly who put me to work photographing for him. I had my new Sony alpha6000 24MP model and the standard 16-50 zoom, and I was set. Smallest crowd for opening speeches I ever saw at an ANA show. It was a struggle to find angles that weren't sad.

The hosts, the Dallas Coin Club and the TNA, couldn't have been more hospitable. Superb people. The orange shirts struck me as a little FUN-ny, but hey, it's just a color, right?

Then I found out who was among the missing. No one from NumiNews (Krause) was there. No one from Coin World (Amos) was there. The "numismatic press" was CoinWeek and David Lisot's video operation, period. What the...?

How about the dealers? They seemed, umm, happy(??!). It was a classic example of no quantity, extreme QUALITY of customers. Those who were there were BUYING, and those who were there selling had GOOD STUFF.

This was the first ANA show with the new rates for attendees - $8 for daily, $14 for the whole show, free for ANA members, free for everybody on the last day. This seems to have pushed the "tire kickers" to a Saturday-only status. Most dealers seemed to like it. Alan Berman, aka King Alanus of Bermania, was a dissenter. He likes more quantity in his customers. One dealer, the famous Kagin's, sold a 1944 zinc cent (or was it a '43 bronze? I forget.) within the first hour and his show was made.

Here is my key observation about this show's material - raw coins were king. Slabs were the business of the "every big show" dealers. The more localized dealers were 80% or more raw coin inventory. I even saw a PF63-ish 1856 Flying Eagle cent in a cardboard 2x2. The 2x2 was marked $17,000, sans slab. Take THAT, Matt Dinger! High 3-figure and 4-figure value coins in flips and 2x2 were there literally by the hundreds.

I've learned that slabbing is a regional taste - either collectors love it or hate it.
(more to follow)

 

Part 3-

I had parted with the $125 for a ticket to the "Evening with Ivy and Halperin" Legacy Series dinner several weeks before the event, and I asked Rhonda how sales had gone. She replied, "We sold out." She said she even sold her own ticket. Then I got an idea. I was already wondering why I had spent a yard and a quarter on a dinner and a conversation ticket, so I casually mentioned to Dave Lisot I was thinking of making my ticket available for resale. Dave jumped on it. HE wanted it for one of his crew. The transaction went smoothly, cash on zee barrelhead, no? Yes. Offered me a free DVD of the interviews as my reward. Cool beans.

I ended up spending my downtime between photo ops at the Business Center/Announcements/Lost and Found/Message Center table and greeting fellow numismatists there. I also got to browse the tables and do "dealer ambassadorship" shtick. There are some really nice people in this field, Charmy Harker, the folks at Angel Dee's, Alan Berman, Cunningham and his exonumia, and most of the "regulars" from the big show circuit. There are also some real creeps, people who'd steal the last dollar from an elderly person who needs it to survive. I guess it's the nature of the beast, and WOW, we do have some beasts. I'll not name them, but beware new collectors, not everyone in coins is trustworthy, even at mega-shows. SHOP AROUND, especially when offering material. I witnessed some people being taken, IMO. I don't HAVE humble opinions, so no "H".

At the end of Day 1, I made my way back to the hotel to catch some news before going to dinner, fell asleep, and woke up at 5AM. Getting old stinks. Day 2 was similar in the quantity/quality department, with what seemed like a SLIGHT uptick in quantity. I was assigned to the Kid's Zone / ANA area for Day 2. Day 1 had no lines to manage, Day 2 had no kids. 0 for 2. More photos to take. The city of Dallas is very pretty, and the Hutchison Center is kind of, umm, stark. Very good place for a dystopic post-apocalyptic movie set. You know the one - the dollar has collapsed because of the Fed and now the only money is gold and silver bullion, because a bunch of old fat white guys said so. You know, the whole schmeer you can get daily on the Bullion Investing forum. KIDDING! Lighten up, okay?
(more to follow)

 

Part 4-

Food INSIDE the convention center was expensive and not that great. Duh, right? $10 paninis and overpriced Dr. Pepper abounded. I had never seen an expo hall where you could not get EITHER a Coke or a Pepsi before. If colas are your thing, it was all RC, baby. Reason enough to stay in PA, to be honest with you. I drank grape juice drinks with my $10 paninis, thank you very much.

Now, aren't you GLAD I'm not including food pics? Am I right, or am I right? The second day, Friday, was similar to Thursday, with the addition of Money Talks. I could not stomach yet another Patrick Heller "The Dollar is Doomed" talk, so I edited, yeah..., edited..., that's the ticket..., my talk attendance appropriately.

There were some sweet MT presentations, though. One I wanted to catch but didn't was "Bringing Numismatics Into the Mainstream". Some of you guys are apparently in denial and don't know that numismatics is out of the mainstream, but those paying attention rather than bathing in "rah rah" optimism like some hotel ballroom motivational speaker know all too well what's happening out there in the real world. Our hobby is in trouble, folks. It's on the same path, but well behind it at an earlier stage, as stamp collecting is. I don't care if you pick quality counterfeits, or demographics, or fundamental changes in the distribution of wealth and/or income, but we are facing some SERIOUS challenges going forward.

But the end of the day Friday was approaching and dinner was NOT going to be slept through again, so no TV news, baby. Drop the stuff and go find the steak house that I had picked out because (Why?) yes, because it offered Southwest Dining Rewards points.
(more to follow) These are spaced by needs to attend to other things.

 

Sorry, but there will be a longer hiatus here. About an hour and a half. Still more to come.

 

Nice report Kurt. Do you have any pics from the show?

 

Fascinating insights, lol. Keep it going, Kurt.

 

I do, almost 200 of 'em. As soon as I resolve my little import/export problem between my Sony camera and my Macintosh, I'll choose and post some on this thread. This post is coming from one of my iPads, and some of my pics imported into my Apple Photos app and some didn't, including one that is the sickest pun photo I've ever taken. It involves a slabbed Kennedy half and a grassy knoll. Fair warning, I'm one sick puppy, sense of humorwise.

 

Enjoying your report so far, look forward to more!

 

Man, I was gonna go but I got sick for a week that put me behind the 8-ball on work. I'm pissed. It seems like EVERYONE went to Dallas and all the big vam guys were there too. Stupid responsibilities

Nice writeup kurt. Awaiting pics for more salt in the wound

 

Thanks for the write up, and no food.

 

Note to self - 24 megapixel images are a problem on CT's software, and they take awhile to import to the Mac. Plan accordingly next time, and prepare an import script in Photoshop ahead of time that samples them down automatically for posting without the need to babysit the Mac.

 

Nice report, Kirk!

 

I'm not a VAM guy, and Morgans are really not my thing at all, but I did sit in for a while on the Money Talk on VAM's, just to see if I could fall in like with them. It was NOT a dry PowerPoint by one guy; it was a four-person open format discussion and Q&A session about VAMs in general - their history, the process of getting Van Allen to recognize a new VAM, the whole bit. It was even mentioned that there is a plan to keep VAM verification and designation alive after Van Allen demises, as we all must, but not until then. There is a real reverence for the guy and his contribution.

How's THAT for wound salt, Casc?

 

Sounds awesome!

 

I hate you right now

 

So, like as I was saying...

Part 5-

One of my favorite things about going to ANA shows is to sample the local culture and flavors to the extent I can and have time for. The Press Box on Wednesday night was perfect for a quick light bite and then off to cut some Z's, but I couldn't think of doing Dallas (not the way Debbie once did) without a proper cowboy-style hunk of serious beef with all the fixings and a man's beer. There was a place near El Centro College called Hoffbrau Steaks on N. Market Street that beckoned me, even if it did have one too many 'f's in its name. It was the perfect ambiance. 20 foot high ceilings, loaded with neon beer signs and old Texas license plates on the walls, rough hewn wood floors, even dudes in full cowboy regalia, and not staff, either. They were customers! At the time, I had no idea how close I was to the site of the terrible events of November 22, '63.

My server was a young lady that raised walking through the establishment to an art form. Oh, to be half my age, and know what I know now. My food choice (food, Bellman, FOCUS!) was the slow cooked special sliced steak they start at 4PM every day, with a salad and choice of one "side winder". Yep, side winder. Mine? Steak fries, and the beer du maison, or at least whatever that cute li'l filly was recommending. She knew her craft, and not just beers, either. Tarrrrr-nation!

I have seldom enjoyed a meal more, and I left room for the house's special dessert, their peach cobbler. In for a penny, in for a pound, as the Brits say.

I knew my way I had walked to the restaurant, but I thought I'd try another route back to the Adolphus. Mistake. Downtown Dallas after dark can get a little scary in parts, and I found several of them. I decided the "New York City" walk was in order. Walk fast, like "you have to urinate" fast, and make no eye contact. It doesn't matter if you make a wrong turn, just keep moving fast and correct later. I was fortunate. A few mid-block confident jogs across streets later, the lobby of the Adolphus was found.

This would be my last night at the Adolphus, as I had booked a "close to Love Field" Wingate by Wyndham for night four, prior to an early flight out Sunday morning. So I had to "almost pack" before turning in for my last night of luxury. I had weird dreams about people talking about Donald somebody comparing you-know-whats with other guys in suits, only to find it all happened for real, and I had fallen asleep with CNN on. Whatever.

Saturday was the flip side of Th and Fr. Families, kids, casual collectors by the gazillions. PCGS, NGC, Heritage, Stacks Bowers, Legend and others packing up so fast that it was as if they'd melt like the Nazis at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie if a member of the general public saw them.
(more to come) Gotta make Part 6, the Finale, be a tomorrow thing. Stroke survivors can't miss sleep; it literally hurts.

 

Photo tease - the pics are all in my Photos cloud account now. I promise a pic or two of the guys at the VAM talk, and indisputable photographic evidence that I shot a Kennedy (half) from the grassy knoll. I also stood on the exact spot that Abe Zapruder did and re-enacted his Bell & Howell Regular 8 footage with my digital Sony, all after closing the show on Saturday. G'night.

 

Glad you enjoyed it, or at least were pleasantly surprised it wasn't a dry PowerPoint. I was hoping to get some people outside the VAM hobby to show up so that we could help with, as the title of the presentation said, "Demystifying VAM Collecting." From a presenter's standpoint, I really had no idea how this would go, but I enjoyed it as did I think everyone that managed to find the meeting room it was held in. I'm tossing around the idea of doing it again at the Anaheim ANA show. Same format, slightly different panel based on who's there.

 

Victorious Kurt Bellman! This is my favorite report since El Cheapo was last seen.