Well just got back from the ANA World Fair of Money in Baltimore. Must say I was highly disappointed. I guess the raw coin collectors will be pushed out of shows completely in a few years. At least the big shows I've noticed more and more dealers having only slabs! Even the dealers I see around here at local shows didn't bring there raw stock! Spent 4 hours and only found a couple of RPM's and picked up some IKEs for my album didn't even spend half the money I planned for!
When I went to the Central States show in Chicago this year there were at least 100 tables probably 200 , I'd say 2/3 of the coins were raw , don't know why the difference . rzage
When you go to coin shows, what you find there is determined by the dealers. And they base that on their past experience with what the people attending that particular show want. So some shows will have more raw stuff (typically smaller shows) and some will have almost exclusively slabbed coins.
You also have to consider the expense of attending the show for the dealers. The table fee alone for the ANA show is horrendous. They have to bring those coins that they feel they can make the most money on in order to make ends meet. That means the high end coins and all the slabs. At smaller shows their expenses are less and they can afford to bring lower end material that appeals to the lower budget collector. I've been to several ANA conventions, and I've never purchased a coin at one of them.
I was pretty excited about my 1st ANA show! Debated about the expense of doing Baltimore for weeks but decided this may be the only ANA show I get a chance to do. Well, now I know it was my only ANA show. I'll be passing on any other chances unless I happened to be in the location. I've been passing on the Baltimore Convention because of the expense involved just to go to the show but usually did fairly well with what I found to justify to myself. But, I think I'll be sticking to smaller shows for the time being. I was talking at the ANA show with a local dealer I see at all the shows, she told me that she hears my complaint all the time about the Baltimore show (parking and all) and hoping the Dullas Expo show grows - Has plenty of space, tons of free parking and close to Dullas International Airport. Has anyone here been to the Richmond VA show? I'd like to hear your thoughts on that show!
Conder101's and Doug's explanations make a lot of sense. At shows like that, there are enormous numbers of high end coins. Virtually all of those are slabbed. Personally, I would LOVE to be at that show ! Lots of eye candy. If you want lots of great raw material, try hitting an Early American Coppers convention. The John Reich boys will be around as well for the early silver fans.
i bought 3 coins and all three were raw. and one of them was a US coin! did you walk around the budget section? -Steve
