A report on yesterday's visit to the Whitman show in Baltimore. Attendance seemed to be normal for a Friday morning. Plenty of people but not a crush. I could belly up to almost any table I wanted to without a wait. Nothing unusual up for sale; plenty of gold coins and large numbers of the popular sets (Lincolns, IHCs, Morgans, etc.) My problem continues to be that what I collect is not the popular material and therefore "pickin's is slim". Asking prices seem to be holding; no "fire sale" concessions to the economy were apparent, at least not with the items I was looking at. I look to pay less than Coin Values, and that causes me to pass on many coins. IMO the dealers are asking for too much most of the time. I did price a 1790-something half cent for my type set. There are 3 varieties that are the least expensive (good for a type set). I think I've got some money coming that will allow me to afford an XF. That means I can't buy as many coins, but I am now going for quality rather than quantity. I managed to get two coins: - An 1825 half cent in AU-58 BN. It fits nicely into my slowly growing Classic Head half cent set. (Picture to come later.) - An 1864 "L" IHC in MS-62. It's for my key/semi-key set which at the moment is mostly IHC's (no surprise there since MFD is a small cents dealer). But 'now for the rest of the story'. My MFD believes it can go MS-63 so I left it with him to submit in hopes of an upgrade. It won't gain much in value if it upgrades (maybe $50), but I rather have a -63 than a -62. Also it's a RPD but according to my Cherrypickers' this particular variety doesn't have much of a premium.
Here's the half cent I bought. The mottling isn't NEARLY as extreme as the image shows. I can take pictures with pretty good details, but sometimes the colors go whacky. And I'm not good enough with my imaging s/w to adjust it correctly.
No, didn't stop for a look. I stopped at any table that looked like it might have what I want. That was probably 50-100 stops. That ate up all my time. And note that after all that I only found one coin, the half cent. (The IHC was already on hold for me.)
If the coin market is cooling, I didn't notice it from this show on Friday afternoon. I drove up from Northern Va. Found a place to park this time that was only $7 an hour. I brought what I thought would be plenty of money, but after 1/2 hour getting oriented, I spent it all in the next 30 minutes, so I was out of there in about an hour. For those that haven't been, the hall is huge and there must be 150-200 dealers at least. As the OP noted, business seemed good, but it wasn't so busy that you couldn't sit down at most tables and take your time looking for what you wanted. If anyone went on Saturday I'd like to hear what it was like.
Not the only one that noticed that. Around me we have usually 3 coin shows a month. One of the bigger ones is usually about 80 dealers but now about 100. Another one of about 30 dealers was about 60 or more at the last show march 15th. At that one they had to add anothe entire room. And the crowds were excessive so I left early due to so many customers it became difficult to walk through the aisles.
It's nice to hear the reports from the shows and the news that they're not all tanking. I went to a collectors show in Omaha just last week I guess and it was like a scene out of night of the living dead. No selling, no buying, just people milling around aimlessly from table to table, and what used to be a 25 table affair was down to 10!!!! I was shocked, and dismayed.
In a way I wish some of our shows would be more like that. When dealers see crowds like the ones at our shows, they are not as easily haggled downward with thier prices. If you are at a dealers table and there are many people hanging all over the place, those dealers are hesitant to lower a price to much even if your a steady customer. They are afraid to many would want massive discounts too. I leave shows when they get over crowded for mostly that reason.
