I just returned from the Central States show and, even though I posted some of this on another forum, I wanted to post it here and try and solicit comments from any CT members about the the public not being let in til Friday. I felt it was odd to have a full PNG day (Wed) PLUS a full dealer set up day (Thurs). The bourse people could easily have let the public in starting at noon on Thursday and none of us dealers can understand what their thinking was in not letting the collectors in until Friday. The dealers I spoke to agreed that we didn't need a full day of set up and dealer to dealer sales. The only good part was that I got caught up on doing inventory since we had so much extra time. I am hopeful the bourse officials will listen to the collectors and dealers and make appropriate changes for next year's show. And here's how the show went for me (including my extra curricular activities report): The weather in Milwaukee was cold at first (at least for this SoCal gal) but very pretty and sunny. A friend brought this really cool large German medal from WWI for me because it had a fantastic dragon on the reverse - I like dragons! I also bought some beauties, including a great 1877 PCGS 64 BN (already sold it!), some nice large cents, and some other pretty Indian cents. Went to the PNG party at our hotel bar after PNG day on Wednesday, had some great wine there, chatted with several dealers, then went to the Indian casino to play some poker. Won a little, then lost it at Black Jack, dang it! Played with Rick Snow, and 3 other dealers, plus my son Troy. We went to Maders for dinner Thursday night, the food was amazing! Then ended up going back to the casino. Here are a couple photos of us walking around town (that's Troy in the sweatshirt), and us standing under the Maders sign just before we went in (Rick Snow, me and Ron Mirr). By the way, Milwaukee has some beautiful old architecture - we especially loved all the old church buildings! Friday was busy and I sold some nice high end coins, and bought a few more. We went to Mo's Steakhouse for dinner - had probably the best lobster bisque I've ever had, and the wine and steak were pretty fantastic too! But then Saturday was surprisingly slow and the show was a ghosttown by 1-2pm. The best part of Saturday was having some forum members stop by to chat or just say hi. I really enjoy seeing and meeting the people behind the avatar! Our flight out wasn't until 8pm on Saturday but by 3pm there was no reason to stay at the show, so we packed up and ended up preferring to hang out at the airport for 4 hours (at least there we could get some tasty food and refreshing drinks). Also, we were not alone since we ran into PCGS, NGC, Heritage, and several other dealers all at the same restaurant in our terminal! Troy and I didn't get home until after 11pm, but then we had to get my inventory ready to set up at another show early this morning. Even though this was only my small monthly show (about 20 dealers), which I try not to miss, I sold more today than I sold all day on Saturday at Central States. And shortly after I got home from the show today, I pretty much passed out for a couple hours! The show today (Sunday) marked the end of the most grueling schedule of numerous back to back shows I've ever done - and probably won't do again! I look forward to becoming reacquainted with my own pillow and spending some quality time with my very patient hubby and fiesty kitty.
I am an original cheesehead and after eating there I'm sure you now know why they have to rep of being big people. You went to 2 of the more upscale dining establishments downtown has and glad you enjoyed them. As an aside, did you find that Wi people tend to be a bit cheap? Like I stated I'm from there and am cheap...just a general idea.
i have been there only once. my girlfriend uncle is the coach of the brewers and we went there for his first game. it was a nice city to my surprise. i was expecting sorta nothing to do... i want to go to a coin show now!
The only thing I like more than coins....are cats. What a beauty. Mine passed about a year ago and I'm still greiving, but someday soon I'll have another of those magnificent creatures running my house!
Question for you Charmy. In reading the show reports in the coin mags I can almost predict what the reports will say based on who the author of the report is. Some will always have a positive spin while others will have a more negative spin. Then there are the few who seem to report the truth. I tend to distinguish those from the others because their reports tend to go both ways, some positive and some negative. My take is that they have generally been pretty slow. But then I have not attended any of them in person and can only base my opinion on the reports of others and the realized auction prices. I guess my question to you is this, and I'm asking you because I put more credence in your words than I do many others. Overall, what is your take on the performance of recent shows ? Say for the past year. I don't mean just "your" show, or how it was for you personally. But how have they been overall ? Have they been slower than usual, normal, or really upbeat ?
Thanks all! To answer a few questions.... PeacePeople, it's hard to determine if the Milwaukee people specifically were "cheap," since in my experience, generally speaking, most coin people would fit into that category, and I can say that the coin collectors who went to the Milwaukee show didn't dispell that generalization. Panda, I too was surprised about all the interesting places to see and in downtown Milwaukee. There were some great pubs and restaurants, wonderful buildings to gawk at, of course the casino, and Milwaukee sure has some avid sports fans! Victor, yes, it's a sand rail and pretty fast and very fun to ride. We take it out to Glamis which is 40 miles of nothing but sand djunes (Glamis is 20 miles north of Mexicali, 40 miles west of Yuma). Tommybee, we sure love that cantankerous cat, she's very noisy but has a lot of personality, and she especially loves my husband who was not a cat guy til she came along! And Doug, I appreciate and thank you for your confidence in me. I try to be honest and factual in whatever I post without being too negative. As far as your question about how the shows have been over the past year, here's my take. Most of the dealers always ask each other how the show is going, so besides how I do, that's where I get my "feel" for how well a show went. Any way, personally and from my observations, I think the shows have been slowing down attendance-wise and sales-wise this past year but I wouldn't say they were going downhill or anything along those lines. I have had some fantastic shows this past year, and have heard the same from other dealers, but it can be hit and miss. I think some of the show promoters have cut back on advertising expenses which always hurts a show's attendance. I believe the economy has hurt sales, how could it not, but not to the extent you would think. I did just hear the MidAmerica show just folded, and the Santa Clara show has definitely gone downhill with less of the out of state dealers wanting to participate, though it is still one of my favorite shows and I usually do very well. I also do very well at Long Beach (probably since it's in my "backyard" and I have a lot of regulars) but I keep hearing from other dealers that it too is slowing down, both dealer-wise and attendance-wise. However, most dealers feel it is because they charge really high table fees and some of the dealers just don't want to keep paying those high fees and are moving towards the back to save money. However, I just attended the PNNA Taquila/Seattle show a couple weeks ago for the first time. There were probably 100 tables or so, so I would classify it as a medium-sized show, and surprisingly it was one of my best shows this whole year, including Baltimore and Long Beach which both have probably 600+ tables. I believe the success of that show is due to the lack of many other quality shows in the Pacific Northwest, so they are pretty hungry for fresh material. So was the new Ontario, California, show I attended last December, which had only 75 or so tables. I sold the same amount there that I sold at my best Long Beach Beach show. And I heard many other dealers did very well there too. I credit the success of that show with the huge amount of money the promoters spend on advertising for that show. So to sum it up, I would say that coin shows have slowed down this past year but they are "holding their own" in general, though it is in the nature of coin dealers to whine and complain more so when they personally don't do well and for some reason don't seem to like to brag as much when they do have a good show.
its great you had a good time around here penny lady. as peacepeople said i dont know if people around here are cheap about coins but generally speaking people around here are cheap.
mpc - you know you don't have to quote (and repeat) the entire thread when you make a short comment like that. Especially on longer threads like this.
Thank you for the report Penny Lady. I really wanted to go to this show, especially when I looked it up on line and saw that you, Harlan Birks, Rick Snow, John Albanese and many other star dealers were going to be there, The thing is that I saw that the show was going to be saturday the last day, and I had to work till 230, I am an hour away so after getting off work, cleaning up and driving in I would have had less than an hour til 5 pm, plus where I work they had a computor glitch and shorted my check this week, which while I still could have gone to the show, it seemed to me to be a sign not to go. Oh well... Maybe next year...
Thanks for the report Charmy... hope you're resting up I can't believe after all of that travel you then do the local show on Sunday morning! I'm sure the folks who attend the local show really appreciate your effort though, especially those that bought coins from you I can't wait until my next trip back to the Midwest, hopefully later this summer. Of course, as an Illinois native I've been brought up to pretty much hate all things Wisconsin. Hopefully I'll be able to travel to the ANA shows now they are going to be based in Chicago!! Pretty neat looking WWI medal. See you next month at Long Beach!
I love reading your right ups about the shows Charmy. I guess I am proxy going through you and your stories. I also love looking at your beaustiful coins and hopefully I will be able to meet you in person and see those beauties up close. Maybe even buy one for myself.
Seems so long since we've heard from you in these parts Charmy. Enjoyed your report and the pics....I'll bet that "feisty' kitty is really vocal. We've got a part Siamese orange cat and man can he talk up a storm.....
Hi Green, and yes it's true that I haven't been around here on CT much lately, mostly due to my show schedule. I've only spent about 14 nights at home this whole month, but hope to be around more often for now. Since summer is just around the corner and the whether has already warmed up, I look forward to spending much more time with my hubby at our place in Lake Havasu (instead of away at shows, wa hoooo!) And yes, our Siamese kitty is extremely vocal, yaks all morning when my hubby is in the shower waiting for him to get out, then yaks while attacking his socks. Then when she hears the garage door open when he comes home from work, she yaks waiting for him to come into the house. Then she starts yakking while waiting to jump on his shoulders, and then when he sits down at the computer, she yaks until he lets her curl up on his lap. And if he goes to hang out in the garage, she yaks very loudly because she wants to be out there with him. She's such a brat, and he spoils her terribly, but we love her, including her very vocal and colorful personality!
Great report...until very recently I was totally unaware that there was a show in Long Beach...I'm definately going to have to check that one out, and if it's at the Long Beach Convention Center, it's only about 20 minutes away..... totally sweet!
This is a pretty cool review, thank you for it. I am from Milwaukee (Well currently, I am moving out of state in a month), and it is a pretty cool town for the most part. Anyway, I knew the show was in town this weekend, but after going on a date Friday night, and then partying afterwards with some buddies, I didn't feel like going. Add onto the fact I woke up Saturday with a huge knot in my neck and hungover, lol, I was going to skip it. But around noon I felt better, and it was such a lovely day I had to get out, so I took the drive to downtown. Finding parking on the street was pretty easy, and I walked a quarter of a mile to the show. I do like the Midwest Express center, saddened they are moving this show next year (Though, humerously, just happens to be the city I am moving to as well). I have only been to smaller coin shows since getting back into collecting 3 months ago, and I loved how large this one was- I am 23, 6'3 and 300 pounds, built like a tank, lol I usually stick out like a sore thumb at a coin show, so I felt like I could blend into the background easier here. Bourse floor was slow, and many dealers were a little bit more upscale, so I had a little bit of a tougher time finding deals that I was interested, but did alright- Got 2 Silver rounds (Johnson Matthey), and a Walking Liberty Half dollar. Left after an hour or so, and met up with some friends at my favorite bar in South Milwaukee. A fun Saturday. First post!
