Going to FUN, any tips?

My wife and I just booked our flight to Orlando. We regularly go to coin shows, but not this large. I do have my hard to find want list ready to show to dealers, but that is a lot of dealers! Anybody have general any tips for the show?

As an aside, we will also visit NASA, Epcot and a few other places.

 

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It's a giant show. It takes a couple of days to walk it. Take lots of cash.
The link below is helpful. At some point the site will have a dealer directory with table numbers. It's a great planning tool. There will also be a map to help find parking. You probably have to pay for parking.
There will be buses that get folks to and from the show but they only service a few hotels in the area.

Be careful of scams on hotel rooms. It's been a problem in the past. I would book my room thru the FUN website. It's safe and you get a bit of a discount.

The price of food at the show is crazy. I always walk over to one of the hotels and have real food and maybe a drink or two.

http://www.funtopics.com/fun-convention.html

 

Orlando brings back some great memories!
Epcot, Disney and Universal studios are GREAT!

 

Have lots of fun and bring home lots of good stuff. Be safe, careful, and cautious.

 

Tips:

Parking is $10 per day if you reference the FUN show. Considerably higher otherwise. They don't take cash.

Food inside the venue is somewhat expensive. Quality and variety is about what you would expect. Again, no cash transactions.

Study the layout of the bourse and adjacent halls beforehand. The FUN website that @ldhair linked gives excellent maps, lists, schedules, etc.

Do not ignore the educational presentations. There are often a few standouts. Ditto with the displays such as presented by our own @johnmilton, always a great one.

Club meeting occur during the show, such as EAC, LSCC and others. You do not have to be a member in order to attend most of these and they can often be amusing, entertaining and educational. Good way to meet folks including luminaries in their field.

You will walk your feet off: Wear comfortable shoes. It helps to have a plan since you will waste a lot of time just wandering around otherwise. If you have a target want list, it pays to scope out the likely dealers of such material in advance and then get to them early.

It's a big show, maybe the largest. If you spy something you really like/want it is possible you might find it elsewhere in the show for less. It is also very likely that while you are shopping around, someone else snaps up your prize. It's happened to me several times.

Have a notebook and a pen. You will use it.

If you are part of the general public, there is no admission fee. But you do have to register each day and get a color-coded sticky badge to wear for that day. If you're a dealer, early bird or other entity that requires a photo ID card, then you have a choice of registering Wednesday or at any time thereafter. There's a big crush of dealers on Wednesday because they all need their credentials to get set up. So, if you need a badge and don't have set-up issues (like Early Birds, Club reps, etc.), I recommend you get there early on Thursday morning, say 7:30 and get ready for when registration opens at 8.

It gets crowded on the bourse and at dealer tables. Be polite to everyone. Give busy dealers a bit of time to get to you.

Have FUN!

 

Balt. Winter Expo starts the 9th (really the evening of the 8th for dealers)... this Thursday.

I don't think this will be a good barometer on the hobby status, but will maybe shed some info on CACG submissions by collectors/dealers, since CACG will be accepting submittals at the Show.

Other than that, I don't expect much, especially with FUN approaching. Jan. 4th 2024 is only 55 days later, and on top of that, Mike Dixon's Show in Gettysburg is Thanksgiving Week.

 

Too far but have a great time.

 

My advice, don’t buy anything until you walk the entire show ! and just take notes
of the items your looking for we you see
something you want just write down what
booth and number, don’t forget to include
price that way you can make a budget for
the next day when you go to purchase.

 

I wish I knew this going into the IMEX show. I stupidly tried to rely on my memory! For sure one will go into my bag next time.

 

I walk the whole show before I buy at smaller shows, probably not possible with 1000 dealers

 

And that was entirely my point about a show as big as FUN. Not only are there hundreds of dealers but there are hundreds to thousands of retail customers. In addition, the dealers are always buying and selling to each other.

So, what is possible at small shows is not always feasible at this large show.

Oh, one other very practical point about the FUN show: It tends to be kept cold in the bourse, so you might want to bring along a sweater or light jacket. Depending on the weather outside, you might already have one. But as a person who feels the cold readily, sitting or walking around the bourse for a long time is often a chilly experience. Your mileage may vary.

 

Buy a really nice Bust half dollar and post pictures here - I guarantee you’ll get a lot of likes

 

So, how does one figure out what particular dealers to visit?

 

Go to the FUN website in December once they've published the dealer attendance list. Look for those dealers that carry the kind of material you are interested in. If you don't know which dealers those are, start down the list and Google their name looking for their website. You won't get 100% hits this way but you'll have a start.

For example, if you are interested in Indian Head Cents, particularly in high grades, then you will want to know where the tables of The Penny Lady and Eagle Eye Rare Coins are located. That's not to say they are the only purveyors of IHCs but they are well-known specialists in the series and they will almost certainly be there.

Similarly, Gerry Fortin is a dealer primarily in early silver and especially in Liberty Seated coinage. It is a certainty he will be there since he's giving an educational lecture on Liberty Seated Dimes.

To some extent, you just have to be paying attention to the marketplace and the dealers for a period of time to know who's who, but you can cut that knowledge deficit down considerably if you do some homework ahead of time.

Now, if what you're interested in is Morgan Dollars, you don't have to do any research at all. Every dealer there will have Morgan Dollars. Cases and cases and cases of them as far as the eye can see. Very popular, those Morgans.

 

On the flip side, you may find the same coin cheaper from another dealer, so
for sure shop around !

 

I have a list of what I am looking for
before going in, establish a budget
that I want to spend and go from there
people are different but regardless of
what I am looking for always do a run
thru first, so if you buy at one of the first
tables you see you may find the same
coin cheaper, the best way not to spend
To much.

 

There’s no such thing as « the same coin » except you’re looking for a white 1880-S Morgan Dollar in MS63 maybe ;-)

 

Stay in a hotel near the show !!