Another Central States show is in the books for me and here are some of my observations: ~The parking lot was packed as even the last rows had no spots…I was surprised as it’s a huge lot and I had not seen this before…alas it was not all coin show traffic as there was some seminar in an adjacent room. ~There was almost no line to get in at 10:30 (30 min after open). ~Inside it looked like a decent crowd and some tables had several people at them; the PCGS table had a line as well. ~In another thread someone mentioned leaving extra boxes on one of the tables near the entrance that typically has leaflets. I did that and was amused when the first person who walked by opened it to check if any coins were inside and then walked away when he saw it was empty. When I was leaving, the boxes were gone so someone had a use for them. ~I saw a Compugrade holder and a 108 rattler (the later ones; not the white label) at the same table and the dealer knew what they were (both were priced above the market rates). ~There were some bullion tables and I noticed one that had graded MS 69 ASEs at $85 each, which seemed lower than other tables but with spot dropping some today is almost $10 over (one can likely do better if they are in the market for silver). I did not have any bullion to sell so can’t really say how much dealers were paying and if any was moving (I only saw one gold deal while I was waiting at a table but I was not too focused so don’t know how much bullion was moving overall). ~I saw a few Carr pieces at two tables but nothing too interesting (for me at least). ~As is often the case, there were a ton of Morgans at the show. I saw one blast white common date I liked with a PL reverse (and a cameo look to the Eagle) but it was a 67+ grade, which was more than I wanted to spend (there was a solid premium on top of the 67 guide). I also saw a handful of all currency tables (outside of my realm of interest but seemed like there was some variety). And there were some world tables too (a combo of modern, older, and ancient). ~Among my focus of toned Morgans, multiple tables had from one to several. The prices ranged from strong to moon money. I have been seeing incredible results at auctions lately and was hoping there might be something at the show that would be more reasonable but that was not the case. If the dealers sent some of these coins to GC, they would do well but the majority would still not hammer as high as their asking prices. In some cases I believe the dealers just want a flashy coin or two at their table to draw interest and not necessarily to sell (unless it's at the moon money price), which makes sense. But others continue to run their museums (where it is the same toners that were at the last shows). ~I brought a handful of items to sell and it was going slow for a while; fortunately things picked up near the end and I was able to sell a few items, including a modern world coin and two toners. Quite a few people passed on the toners but eventually I found a buyer at a price I was comfortable with. ~I continued my streak of buying and reselling one item at the show. This time it was a world toner. The original dealer had a premium on it for the color but I saw more room and was proven correct when a different dealer paid a bit more for (nothing earth shattering but enough to cover the entrance fee and my 30 minutes of “work” to make the sale-at minimum wage ). ~I only picked up one coin to add to the collection-a nicely toned World Cup Soccer Commemorative. I actually bid on this coin at GC a few months ago and was the direct under bidder. I paid above the auction price because I liked it enough in hand and it came from a person I met via Instagram with whom I’ve now done several deals. (PCGS MS 67)
I was going to mention the parking as well. I had to park on the other side of the building and I've never had to do that before. One weird thing I wondered about is the dealers who either had nothing at their table or had like one half-full display case. Are they just there to buy or what? I don't know why anyone would even look at them when there are hundreds of other dealers there with actual inventory. I don't know how you decide who to sell to if you are there to sell but I'd think you'd pick someone who is selling something like what you have to sell, and these people have nothing. I only bought from a few dealers as usual. I'm looking for cheaper foreign coins and you don't see a lot of that there. I was disappointed that a few dealers I've bought from in the past who in other years brought bins of cheaper foreign to look though did not have them this time. Harlan Berk in particular I usually buy a lot from and they seemed to have a lot less this year. I got the best from Karl Stephens and probably should have stopped after that honestly but I wasn't going to pay to get it and just buy from one person.
I saw those tables as well that had nothing or very little (and some of those had no one behind the table when I passed by). I believe these are mostly wholesale dealers that buy a spot at the show in order to buy and sell with other dealers. They might have a list of clients as well that they purchase for but don't deal directly with the public. There was one dealer like that who I noticed pulled a box of slabs out when someone he knew came by. It must work for them because to me it would seem like they would just be better off walking the show instead of taking up a table (but if they pay the table fees, then the show is better off for it). And I also noticed a lack of budget bins. One table had a 50% off bin that I glanced through but it was all US raw coins with problems and some slabs with Wheat Cents. Even with the 50% off, the few coins that I looked at seemed over priced. There was also a dealer with some smaller bins of raw foreign but they were mostly modern and priced high. I recall this same dealer at a previous show and mentioned in a report of mine that his prices were above what I could buy those same coins on eBay for as a buy-it-now. Glad that you did at least find something! I would say it's worth making the full circle of the bourse even if there isn't much luck at first. Like I mentioned, it was going slow for me as well and I thought the show might be a dud but it did pick up near the end. Plus you never know what might be around the corner (I have found some random items over the years for solid deals at tables where nothing else stood out).
Yeah so many people at these kinds of things if they have foreign coins the prices are just so far beyond what I could get them for elsewhere that I don't understand how they ever sell anything. My theory is there are a lot of people who don't shop online and will only buy in person and they don't really care what they pay to get the item they want. I agree I'd see bins that were 50 percent off but it was still too high. There was one guy with a lot of boxes of foreign in 2x2s and they were all half price and he had a lot of customers at his table. At first I couldn't even get in to look at anything. I eventually bought some from him and I know I have in the past as well. But still a lot of them were too high even at that discount. I guess it depends what you're used to.
I think you are right that most of their sales are to people that don't buy online. Sometimes you can capture a handful of such buyers who will pick something up that looks cool in the $5-$10 range even if it's a $1-$2 coin.
