Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 38181, member: 57463&quot;]You will find very much good, detailed advice in two recent threads:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>my first coin show&nbsp; (started by rick)</b></p><p><b>Coin show etiquette question&nbsp; (started by cholmes75)</b></p><p><br /></p><p>On the one hand, we all sort of feel our way around the process.&nbsp; On the other, getting good advice from those who know can help you have a better time.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have attended perhaps 50 coin shows, in the last 15 years, which is not many, really.&nbsp; Here in Metro Detroit, you can go to a show every weekend in the winter.&nbsp; (You can also go to a different club meeting every week.)&nbsp; Among the shows I have made are six ANA conventions, two FUN, one NYINC, many MSNS, and a CSNS.&nbsp; The MSNS shows are the smallest of the major bourses with about 150 dealers.&nbsp; Also, the MSNS conventions come complete with educational forums, other club meetings (tokens, paper money, etc.), exhibits, and a nightly auction.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most newbies see only the bourse floor.&nbsp; In fact, the first convention I attended was an ANA show and the people I was working for kept telling me take time from the booth and to go to a Numismatic Theater.&nbsp; I did not see why I would want to do that.&nbsp; Later, I found out why.&nbsp; Let&#039;s just say that collectors share a lot of opinions on forums like this, but when you sit in a seminar and listen to the guy who wrote the books, you are getting first hand information.&nbsp; One talk I enjoyed at the 2004 ANA convention was &quot;recent developments in the Morgan Dollar markets&quot; by Bill Fivaz.&nbsp; At the last MSNS convention, I shared the forum with Wendell Wolka who wrote several books on midwest private banknotes of the early 1800s.&nbsp; Just to give you some idea of the company you will keep, when I spoke at the&nbsp; Cincinnati ANA on The Origins of Coinage, there were three people in the audience -- and I brought one of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, auctions tend to be for dealers.&nbsp; I do not know why.&nbsp; Anyone can go.&nbsp; Basically, newbies and collectors in general tend to be day people with day jobs for whom this is a hobby, whereas dealers must work 24/7.&nbsp; Maybe there are other reasons.&nbsp; I have attended only a few auctions, and then only because it was my job to cover them.&nbsp; However, the few collectors I saw in them left ecstatic with the opportunity to buy the best coins on the market at the lowest possible prices.&nbsp; When you see people in auctions looking at Greysheet, they are looking at how much they can sell the coin for, not how much they are willing to pay.&nbsp; (That said, it is pretty exciting to see some rarity shoot up to three times the estimate in a bidding war between two dealers with serious clients who need the item.)</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as meetings go, again, it takes you off the bourse floor, and many people never see the reason to attend a club meeting at a convention.&nbsp; However, you came here to ask a question.&nbsp; In a club meeting, you will socialize with the serious collectors who can help you if you are a member of the club.&nbsp; It is also interesting to see who is serious about what.&nbsp; The reason that I voted as I did for ANA president last time around is that I sat in a meeting with Gary for Seated Liberty collectors.&nbsp; We just sat there, listening, learning...</p><p><br /></p><p>Another underappreciated opportunity is the Exhibits area.&nbsp; At a major show, there are prizes at stake, and a lot of ego goes into those exhibits. (Believe me!)&nbsp; READ THEM LIKE BOOKS.&nbsp; (Don&#039;t just glide past the pictures while ignoring the words.)&nbsp; You come to a forum like Coin Talk -- which is fine; I like it a lot -- and accept people&#039;s opinions on the grounds that they probably know more than you.&nbsp; The Exhibit area is a place where the real experts strut their stuff.</p><p><br /></p><p>The hardest challenge on the bourse floor for a newbie is not getting carried away.&nbsp; In all those conventions, with all those dealers, I once (once) missed being able to buy a coin I saw in the morning because someone else bought it before I came back -- but I found another one later.&nbsp; Nothing is so rare that you have be rash with your money.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in