So, I went to CoinFest in CT on Saturday. This being my first "real" coin show I thought I'd share some of my impressions. First of all, the ride there was atrocious. It's supposed to be an hour and a half zip form Long Island up to Conn. and ended up a 3.5+ hour stuck in traffic nightmare. One part was being stuck on the LIE (N.Y. people will know the abbreviations) for an HOUR, while trying to go 3 exits to the bridge. Almost went insane sitting in the car. On the upside, right before we left, I went it to sev's to get a soda and got a broad-stuck dime in change. Awesome! Finally got to the show around 2 pm and I went about my business of walking around and seeing what's up. Huuuuge show, so much stuff that I almost passedout from sensory overload while trying to take everything in. I tried to make the wya around and remember who has what at what grades/prices but after good half hour I gave up remembering and writing things down and just went after what I wanted. Met dealers, talked to quite a few to see how they treat a younger female in the hobby. Many were VERY happy to chat and explain things to me, with a few notable exceptiong of course. The horror stories I've read online weren't completely realised, but there were a few a-holes that seem to exemplify the sterotype of the bad dealer (not answering questions or even a "hello"" by one very not busy knuckle-dragger comes to mind). However, they were easely avoided after a quick attempt. The only truly annoying thing was whenever a guy would join me while we went up to a dealer table, a couple of dealers would answer him when *I* was asking questions and he was just standing there not even remotely interested or looking at the cases. That was just weird. Anyway, met a dealer with a lot of currency that wrote one of the books on small currency (forgot his name), he was REALLY chatty and went out of his way to talk to me and to get to know me and give me advice, even after I let him know I'm not a big U.S. note buyer! For his great attention, I ended up buying a silly decorative piece form his tale, a New York Atlantic Bank note that is glued onto a board and lacquered for $5 bucks. Pretty sure it's a copy someone cut out and pasted/framed, but for five dollars it's a really funky and cool thing to hang up on my wall. I'm a big fan of silly trinkets like that! Picture is below. Another dealer I chatted with (also didn't get his name or card) was a younger guy with a LOT of cool lower-priced stuff. He had a few boxes of graded modern coins that he was selling for $10 each, I ended up grabbing an NGC-slabbed 1963 10 c "graded" pf 67 and a no-name slab with a PR69 1962 Nickel with awesome orange toning. Took some pics, for what they are worth, they are below. As a side-note, I'm not a fan of "slabs". They make coins more of a "commodity" that gets traded by people that barely care about them, just the condition and price they can realize. I like to hold the coin and look at it from all sides. I understand that some people who "collect" are primarily there to invest, but I don't consider myself in the same category as them. I like coins for historical and aesthetical value, not just for what I can get for them reselling them. Some dealers has nothing BUT slabbed 60 and up coins in their cases and no costomers. While dealers with many raw coins had people buzzing around the tables buying up stuff. If I was to buy and sell I'd offer people a large variety, between the "investment" tele-marketer NGS stuff and normal circulated coins for people who are looking to put together an affordable set on a median U.S. salary. Just my opinion. After this I found my holy grail, a dealer that had a TON of affordable U.S. errors, just what I've been dying for! i sat there for a good hour if not more and picked up some cool stuff: 1982 Lincoln Cent - Capped Die for a $20 1972d Lincoln Cent - Double Die obverse for $15 1984 Lincoln Cent - Off-center by more then 50% Dateless Lincoln Cent - Off-Center by more then 70% 1943p Nickel with a really huge and awesome lamination error a bunch of modern coinage clipped planchet and die collar errors as well. I'll post these pics some other time. After that I made my way to a Coins of Merritt table, they had a LOT of us stuff, all separated by denomination in diff cases. But what draw my attention was a "junk box" with a dollar sign on it. I managed to pick through it early or they must have been adding to it, because I got some GREAT stuff from it. 6 Indians, 5 that I didn't have in my collection and 1 that I actually upgraded. From a "junk box" no less! 1883 Shield Nickle, with NO wear on it, just a weird toning around the edges, never seen a nickle with that kind of toning but the coin is PERFECT, every line in the back shield is nice and sharp and the leaves have no wear on it. dateless Shield Nickle, because I'm a pack-rat and I know someone will want it someday lol. sea-water damaged 1864 2 Cent, just because. I already have a bunch, but seemed like a good idea to grab it for a dollar. 6 random Buffalo Nickles with good string dates. ended up using most of them as replacements in my own set. After that I mingled a bit more and made my way to a REALLY cool dealer by the name of Allen G. Berman that had TONS of very exciting foreign stuff. he had so many examples, from absolute antiquity to dark ages to Papal medals, with many different regions and great prices for single unattributed coins! The guy I was with was buying Bavarian and Saxon fractional and Talers, so I was chatting with Allen while he was going through boxes. I bough some error U.S. tokens from him and talking a lot. I ended up getting a bunch of foreign error coins as well, something I never see anywhere, from him for almost a pittance. Not to mention a very precise and useful history lesson on practically any subject I asked. Great guy! At some point I ended up grabbing a 2001 Liberty bullion Dollar with almost a hologram-like thing done to the Lady Liberty (not like the tacky colored stuff though) for $18 and an absolute favorite "useless trinket" of the day. Here's my "Obama, Reid, Pelosi: The Axis of Tax-Us" encapsulated Roosevelt with "brother, can you spare a dime?" below. Here's a picture: I also ended up buying "The Cherry-picker's Guide" v2 (a mistake, should have gotten v1 as I prefer cents through nickles darn it!) for $35.00. Could have spend that on a coin, but I like to get the books so I know better what to look for next time. Other finds were cheap British farthing, half-pence and 1 Pence to fill up some holes in my albums, Mexico 1847 8 Reales for $22 in pretty good shape (always wanted to own one), some random copper and silver foreign stuff for a buck or so. What I didn't find were the Great Britain Whitman Albums (or even the few folders I want) from the 60's. The few people I asked about them said they are usually put in the garbage when found by them and no one cares to bring them to shows. Explains why there's one album on eBay for $65+ right now :/ My general opinion of the show was good in terms of seeing stuff I never saw, but not much to buy for my budget and interests. There was a LOT of Morgans everywhere. Pretty much every other dealer seemed to ONLY deal in silver dollars or gold, which isn't really my interest. I would have liked to see more errors and world coins out there, instead of boring U.S. high-grade stuff one can order online at any given moment. I barely made it to the last room where the awesome world banknotes were to realize it was almost 6 and I haven't eaten since 7 am. So, we ended up leaving, driving into town and eating some of the most atrocious and overpriced food outside of Manhattan. At least they had Hoegaarden on tap! Didn't meet anyone from here, although I tried to keep an eye out for "CoinTalk" on the tag. I actually forgot to put it on mine, realizing only at the end when I took it off. All was on it was "Libby", in case anyone saw me. Off to play with my "treasure", thanks everyone! Oh if anyone wants pics of anything specific, let me know and I'll try to get them up.
Sounds like you had a great time.....:high5: Coin shows are a blast. Have fun with your treasures and start saving for your next show !!!
Wow, sounds like you made off with quite a haul!!!! Glad to hear you had a good time too, even if there were a few dealers who didn't have any manners... don't worry though, there's a few at every show that treat all collectors like that, not just young women. Getting stuck in traffic is a bummer. That happens to me every so often when I go to the Long Beach shows here and I have to drive down the L.A. freeways to get there, quite frustrating but as long as you bring home some new goodies it ends up being worth it. Seems like you did that for sure. Thanks for sharing
Looks like you had a great time and picked up some decent coins along the way. I would like to see that 1883 shield nickel you picked up - to the toning and the coin. Also do you have a cherry pickers guide? I always look for the 1883/2 coin - just never know.
3.5 hours to get there? Yikes! But I know how traffic can be out there. Sounds like a big show. Interesting to read everyone's reports. Glad you liked it. Don't feel too bad about the dealers who are a-holes. There's one or two at every show. Sometimes I get to a point where I have to laugh at them and walk away. Some get rude very quickly. Like I've said before, there's a lot of old guys that should have left the business years ago. Well, as the Chief wisely stated, all you can do now is start saving for the next show. It begins the following day for me. Hopefully the next one's closer though!
Great report! The paper guy was John Scwartz, I made my first purchase of the day from him. I saw that lacquered Obsolete sitting on the table, I purchased a Poughkeepsie Obsolete later in the day from a different dealer (the closest I will likely ever get to a home town issue). I wish I had gotten to spend more time at Allan Berman's table. Every time I went by he was packed with people until late in the day, I only got to spend maybe 20 minutes chatting with him. Not only did I buy two coins and a book from him, he also told me a great story about the book and even gave me some history on Italy (which is where most of my family is from) in the 1700s. I know had I gotten to him sooner, I probably would have spent all the money I got right there at his table. I snagged a Poland 3 polker from 1623 from him for under $10. Not only did I buy it, he told me how to read it and what the legend means. I took his info sheet and will definitly buy more from him in the future. I found that when I was talking to him, he had the presence of a historical scholar, if that makes sence. (It is a compliment, for sure) Traffic on LI is bad. One of the reasons I don't go there more then once a year. I'm actually a direct descendant of the Montauk Indian tribe and there is even supposedly a monument to two of my ancestors there but I don't know if I will ever find it. I go to a different, non coin show and have to depend on friends to get a ride. I will say, I have driven from Maine to Indiana and while Poughkeepsie is bad on Route 9, LI is the worst. No offence intended, what with you living there, just my opinion!
Great story about coin shows, coin dealers and NY traffic. I was in NY (Long Beach) in August '09 and the traffic anytime to go anywhere was horrific. It seems you had a great time at the show and picked up a whole mess of coins and stuff that you'll have many great hours of fun going through and putting them into albums. That's the essence of this hobby, fun. Bruce
Hey Sasha, great detailed report, thanks for sharing your experiences. It's nice to see a show from a newbie's eyes!
Sounds like you had a great first show! I had better luck with the traffic... left long island just before 9am and got there at 10am, and took the same hour to get home. 51miles each way. Glad it didnt ruin your day before it started.... So what is gonna be your next show?
Long Island isn't that bad once you are east, your just talking about the largest suburb in the united states. Its once you get into Brooklyn and close to the city that the traffic gets really crazy. The L.I.E. can be ferocious but the Belt parkway is worst i think. getting out of LI can be tough during the busy times of weekdays. The nice thing about the area is the traffic reports are relatively good and up-to-date and there are many ways around most chock points. I truly think the traffic in DC is worst. the 495 beltway and 95 corridor is just a nightmare day of week and any hour. but of course that's the whole argument, DC traffic vs NY/LI. That show sounds exciting for sure, I have yet to be able to attend a large coin show like that. I think I would be a bit overwhelmed at first too. I'm glad that you had a successful show too. You mentioned how weird it was when you would ask a question and the dealer would be looking at someone else when answering, that is one of my wife's huge pet peeves. She deals with it well now that she is in her 30's. Her voice goes up 2 decibels and she reminds the salesmen in no short words who they need to be speaking with and where there eyes should be:kewl:. Most times it works right away, but I can't count how many times I have been rustled out of a store by her while she informs those around us why we are not spending our money in there. Its your money and your boss, remember this is a buyers market regardless of what some may say.
