Jacks Official ANA show thread

Day #1 Thursday March 6th

Work a 1/2 day at the machine shop.

Get coins to bring to show all together, make this weeks final Ebay shipments and check on the cash supply, making sure to bring enough to buy every Lincoln cent on the bourse floor.

Ok. Just back from a downtown Phoenix dinner with GDJMSP Doug, and J.D. White, administrator of W.I.N.S.

GDJMSP and I decided to flip a coin to see who pays for dinner, and he pulls out of his pocket a well worn $20 gold, nice pocket piece I'll say. I'll keep the dinner payer a secret.

14oz Ribeye for me, Filet Mignon for GDJMSP and Schezuan Scallops for JD. We ate at the Hilton Suite restauraunt, and it was fantastic.

Talking coins and the coin biz over dinner for an hour, shooting the bull was a blast. I was very impressed at the knowledge between my 2 great diner guests. Another hour upstairs in GD's room talking ebay, websites, forums and friends.

GD forgot his power cord to his laptop, lol, so he says hi everybody. DOH !!!

Day 1 was a success.

 

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sweet, i'll be there day 3 (saturday for a few hours) and on sunday for the whole day. I think we should get everyone from the forum to meet at a resturaunt saturday night for dinner.

 

Sounds like you are having fun! Keep us updated if you can. Best of luck, and hi GD. :thumb:

Phoenix

 

Very good Jack.
I look forwards to Saturday to meeting you and Doug.

 

sounds like day1 was a huge success! good luck in day 2

 

Day #2 Mar 7

Up and ready to go at 8am sharp. Note to self, comfortable walking shoes......

Goals:
Find a parking spot and avoid walking thru the Phoenix Barrio with $$$ in the pocket and a nice selection of coins on person

Check in with my Mesa Coin Club at the reception area

Stock up on a cpl of my "low spots" in the inventory....XF/AU 1914-S and 1931-S Lincolns, as well as any Primo Toner wheat cents of any date, and help a fellow Coin Talker by finding him a primo high end 1924-D Lincoln

Meet and chat with Rick Snow, one of the hobbys foremost experts on Indian and Flying Eagle cents AND an Arizona resident to boot.

Visit the NGC table and possible submit my 22-D avatar coin for slabbing, and hopefully get at least 1 minute with my idol, David Lange. J/K on the Idol part.........but is there anyone who knows more about Lincoln Cents in our solar system?

Meet 2 of my Ebay customers in person for lunch

Look at lighting and photographic toys...I'm in a real need to step up a notch. Also purchase a DINO cam if it is what I have heard....

Fill at least 1 hole in my Dansco 7070......must be uncleaned and original VF type coin with eye appeal

On the way out, pick up some badly needed supplies ( so I will not have to carry them all day )

Later folks....evening after report to follow, and hopefully some nice pics ( taken with cell phone cam as I'm not going to risk having to return my digital to the truck and walking thru the Phoenix Barrio again, lol)

 

Do they have any supply of quality Lincolns or are you running into the same thing I did at the Fort Worth shows - very few Lincolns and only at inflated prices?

 

Of course it was a success. Just the food alone makes me wish I was there. Suppose you had wine with that.
You left out a few minor items about the show. How big was it? How many dealers? How many hours were you there? Did they charge to park, admittance fees? How were the prices of the coins as a general statement? Did GDJMSP use the Gold coin to flip? Did you check to see if both sides were the same? Leave any of those baby dollars for a tip or just the Gold coin?

 

Odd that you mentioned that. At one of our coin shows a dealer told me he went to a show in Texas not long ago and was completely bought out of Lincoln Cents as if they were all now rare or just some kind of shortage there. Around me there is a never ending supply of them. However, it did take me almost a year to find a 1920D in MS grade.

 

Afternoon update, March 7th 3:00 pm

Just arrived back home after a solid 5 hours on the floor.

Parking was easy, in the city garage 1 block from the show and no Barrio in sight, a mere $10 for a full day ( cheap for any downtown city on a work day ). I arrived at the Phoenix Convention Center at 9:45 am, a good 15 minutes early, but the doors were open and they let me in.

I registered in and got a show ID and rejoined the ANA all at the same table near the doors, and said hi to some fellow Mesa Coin Club members, and watched some honorary plaque presentations, most notable was Anthony Swaitek, MR Commerative and an Icon in the hobby.

The show was big, largest show I have attended in quite some time, no charge to get in, a FREE show , and was well laid out with plenty of room to manuever. Well lit ( I'll get into the lighting later ) and bright and seemed like the place to be for a coin collecting fool such as myself. I was rearin to go.

I did make out pretty good, spending every dime I had in about 2 hours...
I could have bought a roll of SVDB's, 14-D's, 22 noD's, etc.....every table seemed to have 3 or 4 of each.....all slabbed in either PCGS or NGC plastic.

My focus was on the sleeper dates. I was able to buy (13) real nice 1924-D's, including 2 sharp as a tack raw AU's and one in an ANACS AU-53 holder. The other ten are nice VF to XF coins. I picked up 3 XF/AU 1911-D's, 3 vf+ 1914-S's and some others.....I passed on every 31-S I saw.

If I were willing to pay for plastic, I could have bought alot more. I bought raw and used MY judgement and I think I came home better for it. I tried my best to buy a 1921-S but could not find any nice enough at the "right" price( maybe they were hidden by all the 1914-D's I saw)

The problem was cleaned or overgrading. It's hard to bargain with a guy who has a AU 1931-S Lincoln in a flip marked MS-63.....or a VF-30 1912-S that the guy keeps quoting me XF "bid", that happened alot, lol. I do think I was early enough to pretty much "cherry" the floor, but it was plain and clear, Lincolns are hot. HOT. I paid well above CDN on many of the nicer coins, and was happy to do so. Overall, nice coins are bringing nice prices, but it was not impossible to spend money, just had to be picky.

The floor lighting tricked me a cpl times. Not untill a closer look at lunch did I see the initials "MM" carved into the obverse of an XF/AU 1913-D that I THOUGHT I ripped for $25.....( who got ripped? )

Met with GDJMSP, JD White and The Cave Troll for lunch outside in the sun. We discussed photography and some of the storys TRoll was telling had us a laffin real good.

Mark Feld was kind enough to show GD, JD and I some of the prettiest type coins I have ever seen. A full 20 coin slab box loaded with Proof this and Proof that, simply stunning. GDJMSP will back me up here......one of the nicest Mercs either of us have ever seen.....1945-S Micro S in a NGC MS-68 holder with toning that would bring a man to his knees....we talked about that coin for a while, I will remember it fondly. It is perfectly obvious that Mr Feld knows his business and knows it well. A true gentleman in all respects.

Rick Snow was another highlight of my morning. I did not spend a dime at his table, but he sat with me and discussed the "cent" business one on one, and really opened my eyes alot to the intricasies (spelling?) of grading and slabbing copper.....I walked away smarter, THANKS Rick !!

Sort of like a fan at Nascar or a kid at a Disney show, it was kinda neat spotting " Coin Celebritys" conducting business with millions of dollars on the table like I would search a roll of wheats.....pretty humbling

I had to come home for more $$$, lol. I will return tommorow and try it again. I missed a cpl goals, no type for my set, and no David Lange, but there are still 2 days of coin heaven left.

 

So you fell for that 2-headed $20 gold coin trick, too, huh? I heard he won a lot of free meals at coin shows that way.

Seriously, I read the rest of the thread, sounds like you good guys are having a blast. Thanks for sharing.

 

Jack, it was a pleasure to meet and chat with you, GD and JD, and thanks so much for your kind words. Very glad you guys were enjoying yourselves at the show.

 

Hey Jack, I'll give ya a call tomorrow.
Also, remember to bring my 5 Merucry Dimes!

 

Wish I was there, Doug. Maybe one of these days...

Yeah sure.

 

You got it Mag.....call me when you get there on my cell

 

Hey I suppose I can renew my membership to the ANA whilst I'm there?:hatch:

Joe

 

Sat Mar 8th
Slept in, it's 9:15

Todays goal, a DinoCam and the NGC booth.
See whats left in Lincolns, and spend more time looking at the ANA coin displays, meet some CoinTalkers and be home by 3 again......

Yesterday, I forgot to bring my coins to wheel/deal, today they will not be left home.

Buy a cpl books too, saw some good ones yesterday

over and out......end of transmission

 

Back from the show and dead tired. A little cranky, I'll take a nap and finish up tonight.

Mag, got your calls but my phone battery was dead, did not see you called again untill I just plugged it in now. Glad we hooked up.