I'm planning to be there close to the 10AM opening on Saturday. Anybody else going? Did anybody check it out today? I'm still not sure why they run this as a three-day show -- seems like almost nobody shows up on Friday, at least from what I've seen...
I was there today. It's an extremely SMALL show taking up about 1/5th of the room or less. Maybe 10 dealers there total with maybe 3-4 more over the weekend. Every time I have dropped by this show it is very small put on by one of the coin dealers here in Raleigh, not done by the club. I needed a few things from the supplies tables so I dropped by, got them and split. Not worth going back.
I went to one of the small shows in Greensboro last year that was like that. Had to pay $5 for parking, but you got reimbursed if you bought "X" amount of dollars in coins. I left with nothing to buy and was out $5. Just wait a few weeks for the Statewide NCNA show in Greensboro.
Ive heard there are ALOT of disgruntled collectors and clubs over what that coin dealer out of Raleigh is doing. Basically he is going around the whole state and having a show about once a month in all of the 'major' North Carolina cities. What this is doing is drawing dealers and collectors away from the larger club shows throughout the state, which have already been on the decline. The same dealer has a show in my hometown twice a year. My town isnt big enough to do that with the amount of interest ive seen at the shows. Its always about 4-5 dealers, and NO traffic, not even on Saturday. The worst part is, this dealer runs the show and has the greeters shuffle alot of the business over to his table which is the first and biggest in the room. Basically those small shows are just supporting his business, but it seems to be hurting the hobby as a whole for everyone else. Now those are just the observations i have witnessed and what has been discussed at length when we are planning our club show. I have conducted business with this dealer before and received good prices both buying and selling. Does anyone have any ideas on how to reconcile this little issue? I am sure its profitable for the dealer or he wouldnt be doing this year after year, but like I said the bigger shows are declining when he is hosting a tiny show 1-2 weeks out in a nearby city.
...but my body decided it needed extra sleep more. So, not that close to the opening, but still before lunch... This puzzles me. I'd think both collectors and dealers, if they can only afford a limited number of shows, would gravitate toward the bigger ones. Personally, I like having more frequent opportunities to attend. Between RCR's shows and others, we shows approximately every two months in Raleigh. Some, like this weekend's, are pretty small, but I'll almost always go. On the other hand, I'll almost never drive more than half an hour to a show, so I wouldn't be considering the other regional shows (Greensboro, Rocky Mount, etc.) in the first place. Maybe those are the shows that are hurt most.
I don't see a Greensboro show in October but there is a Charlotte show Oct 10, 11 and 12. That's a 3 hour drive for me from Raleigh so not sure I'd go and there are some other things that weekend that my wife wants to do. And the next Raleigh show is the weekend of the big money auction in Mebane on November 15th that I always try to go to. Missed the last one in April as I was in Thailand and heading back on 11-19 again so I can go to the big money auction in Bangkok at the end of Nov. So at least it looks like I will be in Mebane on 11-15 seeing what I can get.
Let me explain it like this. Our show is the Morehead show for our club next weekend. RCR hosted the Jacksonville and New Bern NC shows, both a 30 minute drive from the MHC show, two weeks and four weeks prior to our show respectively. What that does is prevents the collectors from wanting to travel to those nearby shows. A lot of the target audience are elderly and are less inclined to drive a distance. When there were no options they came to our show in Morehead, now that RCR is hosting a show every weekend it's pulling from these larger type shows. Your experience, and my experience both suggest that these small shows by RCR aren't much worth the time. Not a lot of attendance and not a lot of selection. So collectors are getting short changed by not even realizing they are stuck basically dealing with 4-5 of the same dealers and it hurts the bigger shows spreading all the money and possible places to attend in such wide manner. In short it's just saturated down here with RCR shows and it's to the point now where it's hurting the hobby, not helping (other than RCRs business). Like I said, we discuss this monthly at our club meetings when talking about our show because we have seen a very real effect from this. Also I've heard wilmington a club is complaining for the same reasons, it's taking away from their shows too. Pair that with a 5 dealer show and low attendance and one has to wonder what's the point?
RCR makes money on selling the tables to the other dealers and they get the exposure where maybe new people think they are a great place to buy from in the future....so possible new business for them. Don't know if you could stop them except maybe talking to them about doing the shows together so your show can be a little bigger. Might work out to everyone's advantage. I would like to see more of the bigger Raleigh shows than once or twice a year. They always have a lot of people there when I go and a good selection. Looking at what Agilmore posted there are only two what I call good shows in Raleigh in the next 9 months or more and that's pitiful. There used to be more if I remember right. They took up the whole building and not just a little corner like the present one. I dropped by the Greensboro show last year on a Friday when I was working in Greensboro at the business court. Not a bad show but not too many people there at the time, probably because it was Friday in the early afternoon. I might cruise up to that one just to check it out but probably won't decide until the last minute...I'll be checking estate auctions first.
I guess RCR might be making a little money, but rental on the Kerr Scott building is $2000/day! That's $6K for the three days, plus they have to pay for security. I guess there were maybe 30 or 40 tables rented (most dealers had multiple tables); at an average around $200/table, they're coming out a little ahead, but not very much. As for the dealers, well, I guess it depends on what they've got. There were definitely some folks attending this morning, but it certainly wasn't what I'd call crowded -- most of the tables had more than one person looking, but there weren't any long lines. I hope there were plenty of people who spent more than I did ($19 for a damaged ASE that I'll use as a pocket piece, and $25 for some boxes and tubes from The Barber Shop).
