Ok, so this is going to be a long report. Grab your coffee or diet soda and enjoy the read! I woke up nice and early today at 5am to get ready for the trip to Philadelphia. Originally I was planning to attend the show for two days, but health issues prevented that. Now that they were in the past, I had much to look forward to . The trip to Philadelphia, parking and registration were all painless and I walked into the floor with all of the other dealers. For a short period of time, I helped my dealer friend, J&H Coins, set up and get situated. Then the races began! I had written down who I wanted to visit before the show, and was ready to attack based on where I was located. I cannot tell you what a good decision this was. If I just walked around and looked for specific dealers or tried from the tiny map in the program, I would be seriously lost. Attendance was decent, but it never was to the point where I could say it looked "packed". At my first stop resulted in a big sale of multiple coins. There are dealers who will pay serious money for seriously nice coins out there! Many board members have contacted me regarding pricing of coins on my site. Keep in mind, these same prices were given to dealers today and many coins were immediately sold at these prices! I am sure we will see them on their website for much more. Since I visited many tables, I wont bore you with all of the details, but at the end a total of 19 coins were sold, almost all of which were CAC'd and truly quality coins. Almost every dealer I visited said after looking that I had some very nice coins in the box. At the end dealing in quality does have its rewards, and today was proof of that. I met our very own James Garcia of Scottsman! It was a pleasure dealing with James who purchaed 3 coins from me. We chatted a bit, and at that time JerseyCat came down as well. Jerseycat & I had a fun chat about our quarrels on the board. James enlightened me about his exNorweb Hibernia and why he was banned from the PCGS Forums. For all Ex-PCGS Forum members. I saw Don Willis, made sure to introduce myself and shake his hand, and walk away. He had an interesting look on his face once he realized who I was. Another fellow board member I had the pleasure to meet for the first time was Mark Feld! Mark was much more cheerful than I expected and I wasn't sure if I met a clone or a decoy, but it was in fact him! As usual Mark had some lovely coins, but nothing I was looking for at the time. A few interesting notes. There was a 5oz Gold Panda coin being sold as an exclusive at this show, and you had to enter a raffle to buy one for close to $7k! A friend of mine won, but didn't want it. He asked me and I passed. Apparently, someone bought his ticket for $500! I guess these will be hot ticket items and the Modern coin guys want to jump on them. I also heard another board member, Charmy, sold hers for the same! Not a bad way to make a quick $500! I posted the other day about someone walking around in a CAC costume, This was true, see the pic below, but they were not arrested. This was a publicity stunt by CAC to show that coins can be fun sometimes! Now in terms of buying. I wanted to pick up a decent chain cent at the show, but no such luck. The same coins I saw before, none of which were quality enough for my tastes. So I hunted for a few type set upgrades. One coin I saw just made me say...WOW! It is a half cent in PCGS MS65BN. I was about to pass on the coin as it was early in the show, but I thought to myself that there may not be another chance to buy it, so I pulled the trigger. Everyone I showed this coin to was also wowed by it! From the same dealer I purchased a very choice type 2 $1 gold in AU53 CAC with very nice original skin. Another purchase came curtosey of fellow board member Broadstruck who was doing some running for CRO apparently. He had a pretty 2 cent piece, and I needed one with nice color and this one fit the bill. In regards to CRO, they had some very nice coins in their inventory including a Regency holder. John was doing fine and was in good spirits. And as for Dave at HLRC, I only saw his back every time I passed by his table as they had him looking up coins. Lets see how long that lasts..... One purchase I am very excited about is a bronze Lake George Regatta Association medal! I had been looking for an example in any metal that was resonably priced, but had no luck. I saw this at a table I had written down to visit marked at $300 (which I would have paid), when I asked for a price, I was told $225! Done Deal! My last purchase which will be an extended one came from curtosey of my dealer friend J&H Coins. Jim saw a coin he knew I wanted, and brought it over to show to me. The history of the coin is like this. It was sold at auction earlier this year, and Legend bought it. I asked my friend at J&H to ask Legend about it at Baltimore. When he did, it had sold just moments before. And this was the same coin! Jim was able to purchase it for me for a small amount over what they paid. The coin is a 1829 $2.50! The type is just so tough to find without problems! A big thanks to Jim for this one as it completes my gold type set! Some of the coins I saw along the way were just jaw dropping! RCW had a 1802 dollar in PROOF 64! I mean just WOW! Their display of early proof gold and other coins was just mind boggling. The ANA also had on display the Simpson collection of all Stella's which was very nice to see. Some amazing coins are offerred at these major shows. Even if you cant afford them, its fun to look! So by the time I was finished, it was 5:45! My feet ached, my back ached, but I had a smile on my face! What a show! If you cant find you're looking for here, then you simply don't collect coins. I have never seen so many US, Foreign, Medals, paper money, bullion, moderns etc etc under one roof. Simply AMAZING! A few take home points I will leave. Be prepared and educated when you go to a show. I had a dealer give me a price of $4500 on a coin at first. When I pulled out my phone and started going to coin facts looking up auction records, he said well actually I can do $3700. I laughed and said thats a big drop in a matter of minutes! He said, well you obviously know what you're doing so I have to price it right. Did you get that? Yes. Dealers will overcharge if you dont know what you're doing. BIG lesson people! Also I have to say coinfacts is an invaluable tool when you're buying quality slabbed material. People DO look at this stuff when pricing, so its in your best interest to look at it when buying and making offers of your hard earned money. And thats it! I cant wait to do it again next year! :applause: Still awake? THANKS FOR READING! Ankur And here is some eye candy: Show floor: Offical CAC guy pic:
If my eyes aren't deceiving me, that is a stellar clash on that 1 dollar gold. Thanks for the write up Ankur.
Thanks for the kind words everyone! I was about to walk away from the half cent to think about it but knew it might be gone. I'm glad I pulled the trigger!
I think I saw your half cent on the cover of Numismatic News. i didn't look closely yet because its getting late, but you can do a look see.
A good time for me to say that all of those coins are CACd and that in general CACd coins were easier to sell. Even with decent premiums, dealers did buy them.
