I attended the Whitman show here in Baltimore yesterday. My work schedule did not allow me to attend Friday like I had previously planned. I was on a limited time shchedule. I went looking for a 1884 and 1888 Philadelphia Mint Morgan MS 64 or 65. The Baltimore convention center is huge, and I have always went to the same exhibit hall when attending. Upon arriving, I was informed that they moved the show to another part of the convention center into a different hall. This threw me for a loop. I always print out a delaer list and map out which dealers I want to see. Normally dealers can be found in the same location, so this threw out of sorts. It was like I was attending my first show there all over again. In April I purchased some coins from Pocket Change and SMFM Investments LLC. I wanted to hit both of these dealers again. I never found SMFM Investments LLC. I believe they were there, but I think they were there as New Hope Coins. I can not confirm this. In April I was in awe of the all the CAC Morgans they had. New Hope Coins had plenty of CAC coins, but the majority of their inventory was old green label PCGS coins. They were asking for a premium of between $30-$50 per coin. It struck me strange that they had so many green labels, and I was not interested in paying that much over full retail for coins that I felt uneasy about. I simply moved on to other dealers I wanted to check out. Normally a lot of dealers are packing up or have packed up when I go through the the show. I was impressed with the amount of dealers still there. I never did see NGC or the Penny Lady, but I can chalk this up to me being confused with the new layout, and somewhat rushing due to my limited time. I was able to pick up a 1884 PCGS/CAC MS 65 Morgan and 1888 PCGS MS 65 Morgan. The 1884 Morgan came from J & H Coins, and the 1888 came from Pocket Change. I found the two gentleman from J & H Coins to be very nice, and I will look for them again in the future. They did not charge a premium for the CAC sticker. I am somewhat shy, and not really the type of person to haggle or try to work for a price. I go a price in mind that I think it fair, and am satisfied if I can acquire coins that I view as a fair price. Both of my purchases were at retail for the NGC guide. The `1888 Morgan came from Pocket Change. I had to go back several times to talk with the dealer due to him being very busy with other customers. I did not want o hover or interfere, so I waited my turn by looking at other dealers. The guy before me purchased about ten Frankin beauties. I overheard him tell the customer that Frankins were his specialty. I will make a mental note of this and be sure to check him about again from Franklins in the future.
I tried to upload pics for everyone of the two coins, but it is saying that file size is too large. Suggestions?
If you have photoscape edit the file down to the width of 800 and the hieght will do itsel then save it an upload it to photobucket or something then post the direct link into the text box that apears whe you click add pic in the make a thead section.
My experiences are that file size errors occur when you start with a large image and try to download it to the CoinTalk site. The CoinTalk site has a file size limitation. You'll note that there's a check box that you can deselect the download and just continue to access the file from your offsite location (such as Photoscape). But that means you HAVE to leave the file there until you decide you don't want it displayed anymore.
I went Friday and I noticed two things that seemed to differ from past shows: 1. The Friday morning attendance appeared low than in the past. Someone suggested that the site location change might has affected attendance. But I tend to discount that since it was still in the Convention Center, just a different room. 2. Early commemorative were MUCH more prominent than in past shows. I've noticed recently that the market in early commems seems a bit soft. Don't know if the two are in any way connected. Also a comment for MFD caught my attention. He had NO luck at a recent auction (was Long Beach in the last month?) (Or the pre-Whitman show auction?) Prices were blowing pass what he thought was reasonable. I know that winning bids on Teletrade are above what I consider reasonable ... and that's BEFORE buyer's fee and S&H are added in. Are some people just considering those costs are just part of doing business?
Good show. A friend wanted to go to the show who had never been. We both had a good time and educational experience. The summer Baltimore show will never be as busy as the spring and fall Baltimore shows. It was interesting that Heritage was not buying some type gold, mainly cherry-picking what they wanted or needed. One dealer mentioned to me that there is a lot of hardware on the floor, so if you hear a gunshot get on the floor quickly. An interesting attitude. I wonder how many coin dealers carry a gun for security purposes.
You're statement bolded above threw me ... why did you feel uneasy about old green label PCGS coin? I have always heard old green label coins were better than the new PCGS labeled coins because PCGS was stricter in the old days. Please elaborate. I also attended the Whitman-Baltimore show (a first time coin show experience) which I posted about here ... http://www.cointalk.com/t181582/ ... very amazing show.
Save the file as JPG and make sure it's less than 250 KB in size. You can make the file size smaller by either 1.) reducing the height & width of the image or 2.) saving the file in a lower quality JPG format (high, med, low) ... Try Med Quality.
You might be surprised how many of them carry guns. It might be less now than in the past but I know when I was running shows back in the early 80's the dealers were heavily armed. I'm fairly sure though that you wouldn't have to worry about them opening up at the show, too many people around. They have them more for security during traveling. The only time I have worried about firearms at a show was in 1980 at the Indiana State show. With gold and silver so high someone felt that the rent-a-cops needed more firepower so they gave them uzi's.
I felt "uneasy" because of the volume of "green label" coins. This just struck me odd. Not the fact that they were 99% PCGS, not the fact that 99% of them had a CAC sticker, and not the fact that they were 80% old green labels. It was a strange sight. The whole showcase was very uniform. There were hardly any NGC, barely none without a CAC sticker, and even fewer that were blue labels. I understand that some people consider the old green label to be more appealing or more sought after, but I felt uneasy about this. Let me paint a better picture. I was looking for a 1884 MS 65 Morgan. They were all stacked one on top of another. I can not remember if there were five or six. I asked to view their selection, preferring to purchase a NGC coin. All were green label PCGS coins, all had a CAC stcker, and all were priced at $330. PCGS lists this coin at $285. This is $45 above what I consider to be "full retail". Does anyone pay full retail? Is the CAC sticker worth this premium? I am not not sure. I do not believe it to be. I am a numbers guy. No NGC coins? No coins without a CAC sticker? I am sorry, but if I am paying three bills for a coin, I do not want to feel uneasy about the purchase. Just one guy's opinion. I hope this makes more sense.
Thanks for the pic uploading help. I will have to play with this to see if I can figure this out. Thanks.
What you may have heard is true in some cases, but I would never buy a coin on the OGH premise. They made mistakes then good or bad just like they do now.
Also the early OGH ended 16 years ago and the new OGH ended 12 years ago. Most of the coins in these holders that had upgrade potential have already been found and upgraded. This means that most of the ones still around are accurately graded or overgraded. If they are accurately graded they are worth retail for the grade. If they are undergraded they are worth less. All the CAC greenbean means is that in their opinion they are accurately graded. So that means they are worth retail at best, not a premium.
Coins that are in old rattler and other OGH that will not be re-submitted are many--$100 and less value collector coins especially. I have had a number of Morgan dollars, Walkers, and cents in MS that are not worth resubmitting. I picked up a couple of old rattlers yesterday, a 1932 P quarter in MS63 that is probably a 64 and a common date Walker in 64. No advantage in resubmitting.
I spoke with a cop in the "live free or die" state a couple of weeks ago about gun rights and open carry vs. concealed carry. I was not aware that the latter carries a higher burden of regulation. The cop said that someone got in big trouble for having a shotgun sideways on his chest when speaking with a woman who called him to account. A coin dealer friend gave me this account of situations when he fired his gun: "The other incident was in a New York City subway platform against five, YES 5, thugs armed with elaborate weaponry who were not content with my just handing them over my valise filled with platinum bullion. Short and sweet….I fired a warning shot with my .44 Smith & Wesson which caused everyone to hit the deck. Despite my licence to carry in NYC (which was not asked of me nor my rights read) I was also arrested there while those five guys WALKED. That did work out as I was also employed by U.S. Customs and the look on the police captain’s face when he did see my federal id was interesting. He was generous enough to also share my id with the hotshot officers who roughed me up and placed me under arrest. Those officers were suspended for a year without pay." "The first was... (at my) West Roxbury, MA apartment. I retreated to my cellar and lay in a prone position at the opposite end of the cellar. A light was on to illuminate the intruder on his end while I was in darkness. I had the advantage and knew it, yet the intruder still fired his gun three times in my direction when I called out a warning. I put a .45 calibre shot just past his ear to knock him down with the blast alone….which it did. I was arrested which I expected and arraigned in court. I reminded the public prosecutor that I had the advantage and withheld deadly force as it would have been murder (per the Fifth Commandment and morally for me), but he went on about the permanent damage to his client’s hearing. His client was a convicted felon twice over and also a physically violent man. The jury found me not guilty unanimously, but I had a few words with the police and pressed charges against Boston for having abused their authourity. My being a Western European Caucasian was not to my advantage. I received a written apology and the officers involved were suspended without pay for five months, I believe. However, I was harassed by them for months afterward through being pulled over while driving. Their little games ended when I began my stint as a civilian with U.S. Customs."
