Are coin shows coming back?

The protests are probably like a Christmas buffet to the viruses, shouting, screaming mucus nuclei , no social distancing, irritation and damage to the respiratory membranes from smoke or tear gas grenades, some spitting on others and then all run away to spread among family and associates, no way to contact trace, all around the USA! An evil scientist could not dream of better conditions unless we removed all masks and throw in wild bats somehow. IMO, Jim

 

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There is an auction in PA ( a very good one, BTW) that intends to carry on next week. But they have added some new groundrules:

AUCTION GUIDELINES

This auction will be held with both online bidding & live bidding at our auction hall following strict social distancing guidelines.

WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ THE GUIDELINES LISTED BELOW.

• We encourage anyone who attends auctions ONLY for entertainment or social purposes to hold off attending auctions until Lancaster County is in the Green Phase. We will try to enforce this but encourage our loyal customer base to help us out by respecting this guideline.

• Absentee bidding will be available per auction center policy with all charges being waived. We encourage anyone who is interested in 5 or less items to leave absentee bids.

• Live online bidding will be available in “webcast” format – meaning both people attending the auction and those participating online will be able to bid on all items sold in the main auction hall. We encourage anyone who is not comfortable attending an auction during this time or for anyone who is feels sick to bid online only.

• We will not allow for shipping of these items and all item must be pick up Friday June 5 between 8 am & 5 pm. Absolutely no exceptions will be made.

• Our auction hall will be set up using strict social distancing guidelines. Every chair will be set up 6 feet away from each other. We will also have staff members cleaning surfaces throughout the auction.
  • Since chairs will be set up 6 feet away from each other, we will have significantly less chairs available in our auction hall. Because of this we encourage (1) person to attend per couple or groups.

 

Well that's a load of horse pucky...


Online this online that - stay away stay away - oh but you have to show up in person to pick up your lots?

Somebody's got his head where you can see the horse pucky creator.

 

Interesting comments from CoinWeek's year-end review:

"Taking a contrarian viewpoint, I believe the absence of coin shows, whether local, regional, or national, may have been a plus for numismatics’ long-term viability. The pandemic has accelerated the transition from a person-to-person hobby into a truly global marketplace by forcing both buyers and sellers to fully wrap their arms around digital commerce if they wish to remain active. One concrete example of the benefits produced by this evolution is the recent introduction of the “coins in motion” technology created by Stack’s Bowers and David Lawrence, which I predict will become widespread within three to five years.

Unfortunately, our industry’s largest negative will be the demise of “middle market” coin shows, those with a bourse of 200 to 500 dealers. Bigger shows like the ANA’s summer show and FUN’s winter show will continue to exist, as well as local weekend shows, as it is pretty cheap to rent a Knights of Columbus hall. However, the shows in the middle will find it harder and harder to compete with internet-based commerce."

 

I miss coin shows and plan to wait for shots to go again. I have # 2 on Feb 5 and will go to the second of two shows in the Houston area:

• Jan 22nd - 23rd, 2021
  64th Houston Money Show by Greater Houston Coin Club
  Lone Star Convention Center; 9055 Airport Road; Conroe, TX 77303
  
  
• Feb 19th - 20th, 2021
  Houston Early Spring Coin Show
  West Oaks Fellowship Event Center; 14440 Richmond Ave; Houston, TX 77082

 

Does anybody have an idea of what shows with 200-500 dealers (did he mean TABLES ? 500 dealers is close to what FUN and the other biggies have) he is referencing ?

Central States ? Bay State (seems to be doing well last few years)? Whitman/Baltimore (never been, but easy drive for NY/Boston/Philly people so attractive) ?

There must be others that have been negatively impacted by the internet where 20-40 years ago they were the only show in town annually or semi-annually. Especially in the Midwest, I would think.

 

Like I said previously, I figure my next show will be the Baltimore Whitman show in November.
It's local for me and plenty large enough to offer items I'm after.
Small local shows (<50 tables) don't often have items I'm after.

In the meantime I bid in online auctions, mostly Great Collections.
Just won 4 Matron Head Large Cents (VF or better) from them.
I look in on Heritage but they are mostly at the top or above my range.
And Stack's -- no way (but I use the excuse that they rarely offer items that I'm after ).

 

I've been meaning to attend Whitman/Baltimore. If it's on this November...and most dealers will be there....I'll probably go. Most Americans should be vaccinated by then.

I would think that's a well-attended show because it's within driving distance from a bunch of states and NYC and Philly, even Boston. Going to FUN from the Northeast is a much larger committment.

I think it's 2 1/4 hours from my parents so I'll save 1 hour from my home.

 

They all have been especially more midsize ones. There's sort of a lot of issues at play. One of the issues that sort of gets ignore is there are just simply to many "major" shows that go on. You could basically go to at least two a month if you wanted to during winter, Baltimore and long beach would be back to back weeks etc. You could argue that different sides of the country so different customers and fair enough, but if a dealer does well at Baltimore (and there are Cali dealers that go there) a week isn't going to exactly be the best length of time for them to reload.

More importantly though shows require at least some travel, sure FUN is no pun intended FUN as it's an excuse for a winter vacation down south but flying to Baltimore (barf lol) in the winter for the best show of the year not really one the wife/husband and kids would be thrilled with. You can either spend the money traveling or you can put the airfare/food/hotel/taxis etc money towards more coins with the internet. You're also missing out on less and less stuff as more and more stuff ends up online and many of the better/best collections get sold online first. A significant amount of stuff you see in show cases came from auctions and eBay.

Demographics in general was going to phase out most shows anyways. I don't mean from lack of future collectors, but future collectors grew up with the internet and use smart phones and everything and have much less aversion to buying things online. There is a place for shows and some will go one for a long long time, but the expensive shows will get cut down either by choice or by the market forcing them

 

BB21, do you see any shows as vulnerable ? Someone mentioned Central States a while back. We KNEW that the internet would weed out some of the smaller/weaker venues.

I would think Whitman Baltimore is OK since it's within driving distance for 1 day for lots of people, 2 if you want to stay overnight.

I would guess that shows in the middle part of the United States are most vulnerable since they don't offer much travel-wise to someone considering going from the Coasts and the big cities.

FUN, ANA, Long Beach -- The Big 3 -- seem secure.

 

Summer Baltimore can go, as a start. There's a lot of "bigger" shows that can cut down. The other big issue is look at a lot of these shows they start during the week so anyone working has to take off work to go. Yes they have Saturday Sunday dates but Sunday there's basically no one there and by Saturday if a show started on Wed most of the good stuff is gone.

I'm not sure what the perfect answer is but if you want people to come that are younger than retirement age it's not exactly practical to expect them to take a day or more off of work to do so. Aside from a lot of people just won't do that during the week anyways if you're like "sorry honey used all my vacation for the coin shows" well good luck to you lol.

 

Whitman/Baltimore is like the FUN, 3 shows a year.
But also like the FUN the summer edition is a bit weak.

I want to go to a FUN but it seems to butt heads with the Whitman/Baltimore.

I'm on the east coast so Long Beach is out for me.
Travel/room equals the value of a couple better coins.

ANA last I saw wanders around the country.
I've only been to one when it was in the DC suburbs.

I thought Central States was supposed to be pretty big and it's in the Chicago suburbs I think.
That's another show I'd like to go to at least once.

 

I'll bet many are "legacy" shows dating back 30 or 40 or 50 years or more.

Totally agree, much like the loss of many retailers.

I wonder if we see a boost from the Internet and Internet auctions as the bigger regional and national shows get advertised. I had never heard of FUN until I joined HA and CT.

 

Great points...and yeah, when I meant shows in trouble I meant the FLAGSHIP or main show, not the smaller (usually) Summer shows like for Whitman/Baltimore or Summer FUN.

Agreed...but I think that January FUN is uniquely positioned because many people CAN get time off early in the year AND you have many people from colder climates who would relish the chance to go to Orlando for a few days.

That's what spurred me last year.

 

Whitman has 3 shows ? I just thought it was 2 shows.

FUN was fun, had a blast last year and also met some of the CT folks.

I thought they had it near or in Chicago for many years...sort of "balanced out" FUN and Long Beach geographically.

I thought they held it further south a few times (St. Louis ? Kansas City ?) and that they had lost many dealers. I remember reading a few posts/threads on this, if not here, then probably over at CU. I recall a loss of half the dealers but don't hold me to it.

 

Central States had their convention in Minneapolis back in 2000 which I got to go to. I wish it was there again instead of the Chicago 'burbs every year.

 

South Dakota State Coin Show/Ringneck Coin and Stamp 53rd annual show is March 6-7 at 316 S 2nd St in Aberdeen.

 

We cancelled one in Utah, that was rescheduled, but have had them since June of 2020. No one contracted SARS CoV-2 from any of them. Utah is pretty much open for business with masks.

Next show in Salt Lake is January 29-30th.

 

Going ? Report back if you do !

 

I'm a member so I will be