Charmy's SAN JOSE Coin Show Report with PICS (of course)!

I know, you're probably getting tired of my show reports (which usually have more fluff than substance!) but I have been asked to provide a report on this show, so here goes....

We arrived yesterday evening after an uneventful (yet CHP riddled - I think they're trying to drum up extra revenue for our poor bankrupt state!) drive up the 5, and set up was at a very weird time - 7pm-10pm (due to hotel conflicts). Chatted with Wei for a while, had a glass of wine, then luckily, I found out that my particular table section was prepared and ready to go a little early so we were able get in and set up around 6pm. We made quick work of it, then went to dinner with several people at the wonderful Spencer's Steakhouse right here in the hotel. Then it was off bed (no, no partying yet)!

Today was quite busy right from the start, and here it is about 4:30 pm. and the room is still a buzz. I bought a few nice coins today (1909-S vdb PCGS AU58, 1909-S Indian PCGS XF45, 1931-S PCGS MS65 RED rattler, 1915-D PCGS MS64 RB, 1925-D PCGS MS64 RB, 1936 NGC PF66 RED, etc.). Todd is stopping by tomorrow I think and I plan to give him several coins to take home and photograph for me. I sold quite a few coins as well. Good thing, since I also spotted a beautiful bracelet that goes really well with a ring I bought here last year - but we'll see!

To give you a feel for this show and its surroundings, here are some photos of the hotel, restaurant, and inside the show. As you can see, the hotel is quite nice and spacious, and the show room is also really nice, fully carpeted, and everything was set up nicely. Ray Johnson and his crew do a GREAT job putting this show together, that's for sure!


The outside entrance to the convention room




This is the lobby in front of the show where the supplies and exhibits are




Entrance to the show




My table




My cute little boy!




The bourse




The wonderful Spencer's Steakhouse




The hotel bar




The hotel coffee shop where we had breakfast



So tonight is back to Spencer's where several of us are bringing a good bottle of wine so we can do some tasting during dinner, then it's off to the Bay 101 casino for me. Erik is saving his money since he's moving to Italy in a couple months to teach English for a year.

So, more tomorrow!

 

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This definitely answers the musical question, "Do you know the way to San Jose?"

Charmys reports seem to confirm that the economy is improving.

 

Looks like fun. Looks bigger than anything I have been too.


PS - You look much to young to have a child that old.

 

Never tire of your reports! They're always a welcome thread topic.

 

I came in around 11:00am today and bought some South Africa coins, including this one:

 

Good report as always.

May finally get to meet ya at Long Beach, excited to be going for the first time.

 

Again, Thank You for Sharing!!
Steve

 

yea, I like reading these reports..they might even get me to fly down from Toronto to check some of them out..as a small little holiday..

 

I'm still disappointed you skipped out on Philly... from the sounds of it, it was a good business decision though, haha.

 

As I mentioned, yesterday was very busy with lots of people in the room, I did quite a bit of buying and selling. Then last night we had reservations at Spencer's Steakhouse in the hotel for dinner, there were 9 of us and we brought 6 bottles of really good wine to taste and share. However, the restaurant wanted to charge us a $25 per bottle corkage fee. Since we had so many bottles, we expected that they would reduce it to $15 like they did last year, but this manager refused, so we ended up leaving and just having dinner at the cafe. Even at the cafe, the food was pretty good. Soon, the higher-up manager came over and talked to us about why we left, and after some negotiating, he agreed to reduce the corkage fee if we would return to Spencer's the next night (tonight) which we agreed to. So we'll see how it goes tonight.

Then I was off to the casino! I was excited to go play cards since Bay 101 is a really nice casino with lots of action. I was playing 6/12 limit but wasn't getting very good cards for the first couple hours so I switched tables. Then I started getting good cards, was making straights and flushes, but what's even worse than getting bard cards is getting good cards and coming in second! I was being beat by full houses back to back! When I finally got a full house and thought I for sure couldn't lose that hand, and got beat AGAIN by a bigger full house, I knew it was time to leave, and I did!

Today once again has been quite busy, even more people here than yesterday. I bought some more collector grade coins, 1909-S Indian and Lincoln cents, and even got a nice 1873 closed 3 S-2 (double Liberty) MS64 Red.

Saw a couple forum members, and took some more photos around the show.

This is the kids' table outside the front door in the lobby area of the show....




This is Scott Western and his wife also set up in the lobby - he's our wonderful coin supply guy and hauls a ton of stuff to all these shows!




These are my San Jose party animal coin dealer friends! LOL! I very much enjoy spending time with Jerry and Linda Carsman and Sara Wargo (behind them) - Jerry has taught me most of what I know about good wines. He has an amazing wine selection.




This is Sarah's other half - Joe Wargo - he is a big wheeler/dealer and will buy and sell just about anything - he's very savvy, and a very hard worker!




And here is the McIntosh clan in their Saturday "uniforms" hard at work (or as Todd would probably say, hardly working!)....




And this is fellow forumite Stealer - he's such a very nice polite young man and very and serious about coins!




Also, Gene Bruder's table is directly across from my table.



Last but not least is our own sweet big ol teddy bear Larry Shapiro!

 

Thanks for the wonderful report!!

 

I love your report. Thanks for taking the time to create it. I really liked that kids table. I have never seen one of those before.

 

So here's my last update! As I mentioned, the show was quite busy yesterday. We finally left at 6pm and went to Spencer's for dinner. We were not disappointed! They have wonderful food, that's for sure, and boy did the wine flow! I meant to take a picture of our table but forgot - good thing, cause if you saw what the table looked like with all those bottles of wine, you'd think we were a bunch of alkies!

We all had quite a bit of such yummy wine that all I could do was head up to my room where I quickly succumbed to my very soft bed and cushy pillow, so it was no casino-ing for me last night!

This morning, I went over and held the big huge gold nugget on display at Kagin's table! WOW!!! That thing is HUMONGOUS!








And I was finally able to visit some of the very interesting exhibits outside in the lobby. I took pictures of a couple of them, including a neat error exhibit and a wonderful elongated Lego Land exhibit which won FIRST PRIZE!










So that's it for this show - thanks for not minding me sharing my coin show experiences with you all! We'll be packing up soon so we can get on the road for that long 6-hour drive home! It rained here last night and is pretty gloomy outside, but I hear the weather down in Southern California is much nicer - can't wait to get home!

 

Right now its raining here in So Cal, will be better by long beach though.

 

Thank you for sharing the show experience with us. I like how you re-create the whole experience, including the tidbits on tourist type stuff. All very nice. Thankyou from Kansas.

(I don't think I have ever attended a pure show show).

 

It's always great to hear about your coin show experiences and see your photos.

Bruce

 

Penny Lady thanks for sharing them with us!!!

Charmy it is always great to see show your reports:thumb:
I wish I had found that Gold monster nugget.