This is a long story but I urge you to read just to listen to how crappy some of the coin dealers you may "trust" at these shows are. I generally wonder out to the Baltimore Whitman show on a Friday. I take a personal day and enjoy myself. I pondered going on Thursday to see if the Mint would have the 2019 Eagle with all the hype. Then I thought, if they do, it wouldn't be worth my while because public admission was at 12 and early bird which costs an entry fee was at 10. If I entered at 12 I wouldn't have a chance to get the Eagle. I stuck with my norm. Friday it was. I would try to get the coin online when it came out. I planned to be on break at noon and it didn't happen. I was working on a program and got too caught up in that and it ended up 1:30 before I remembered what I should have done at noon. Friday I ventured down to Baltimore and arrived at the show around 11. I walked around for a little bit. Saw a nice stand with some foreign coins and bought a couple of Argentinian coins to add to my collection. I saw the mint stand and ventured over to it. My Coin Club friend was there and I asked him if they had any more Eagles available. He said yes, you have to stand in line outside to get a ticket to buy one. He showed me the way and I proceeded to wait in a very long line for said ticket. I got in line in back of two dealers. You could see their credentials hanging from their necks. They were chatting it up. More people filed in line in back of me. They were talking about how many times they had stood in line and how many coins they got already and how much they have sold them for. That made me mad just listening to that but then again, it's the game and you play it or you don't so I just brushed it off. I had a chance to get that Eagle I wanted. Here's where it gets good! We get to the bend in the line and a tall gentleman with a heavy European accent walks up and starts talking to the gentleman in front of me. Mind you, we've been in line 1/2 hour now. One of the 2 dealers that were infront of me proceeded to find a "Friend" in the line infront of us and he moved infront of about 10 or more people and stayed there. The Tall gentleman continues to talk to the other individual and I hear him whisper, "well then I'll just wait here". Meaning he is going to cut the line. People didn't know what was going on and he didn't here me complain, they remained oblivious. A taxi pulls up and this woman comes running over to the tall gentleman with the heavy accent and dealer credentials and she says ohh I miss you so much! It's good to see you! She keeps talking to them and by this time, the people in back of me are starting to raise a concern that she's cutting the line as well. The tall guy left the line and she stayed where he was. All heck broke loose and people were really mad. Rightly so! One gentleman went to the front and told the mint employee. Nothing happened and she had the nerve to stay in the line and wait. We get to the front of the line and by this time, another gentleman cut the line and stayed with his friend. This is almost 2 hours in mind you! The one that just cut the line at the front was denied a ticket. The girl who cut a while back got to the front and a police officer came up and told her to leave the line. She asked why and the cop told her that we've been watching you the entire time, you cut the line and you're not getting a ticket. She would not leave. The mint employee gave me a ticket as she was complaining. I thanked him and told him that I appreciated him doing what was right. I walked past her slowly so I could hear what was going on. She was saying that they were being racist to her (she was white, the mint associate was black, the cops who were multiple by now were of all different races) and they told her that she needed to remove herself from the line or they would forcibly remove her. That's all I heard of the situation. The great reward was seeing her wait the entire time in line and getting nothing. I doubt it but I hope that whoever the dealers were that were involved in these shenanigans are not allowed back to the show. I couldn't read their credentials because the cowards had them turned around but I'll remember faces until the day I die. You won't get my business and I'll make sure none of my friends if I ever see them again!
The incident with the woman makes me laugh and reminds me of incidents that were televised on the TV show, Live PD. A woman suspected of driving drunk is stopped by a cop and refuses to get out of the car screaming, "I know my rights!" You can't reason with a drunk! Chris
I just have an empty box now. I wanted to have it encapsulated with the new pcgs holders that everyone hates. I like them. I went from the mint line to the pcgs line and the rest is history.
So much standing in line. Glad I was able to spend the frustrating 15 minutes on the website to get mine. I seriously doubt this thing will be worth the hype. Glad those jerks got what was coming to them though. Scum.
Sleazy dirtbags. What made the incident an even happier ending was the fact that the police didn't remove them from the line immediately. They waited till they snaked their way to the front of the line making them waste precious time, hopefully negating their possible success in returning to the rear of the line.
This story reminds me of the Las Vegas coin show I went to awhile back when they had the gold Kennedy 50 cents coins going on sale. I did not get 1 because at that time I did not want to spend that amount of money on that coin (mainly because I did not have that amount of money to spend on coins then). They had people try to cut in line and those people in line would not stand for it. The coin show security was watching the line like hawks too. There were also teenaged kids in strange color bright green T-shirts that said they would buy that coin from you at a nice profit for their rich dealers. If all you were doing in line was to flip your coin after you bought it then you had it made to turn a very quick profit. The teenagers that bought your coins would take the coins to the rich dealers that hired them and turn an even bigger profit at the end. It was so crazy though. It was funny to see, but I did not want to stand in line that long and they only had so many coins to sell. The people that flipped the those coins were very happy to be able to sell their coin quickly so they could afford other coins that they would not have been able to afford before they got there. I called it "The Frenzy". The buyers/collectors of that coin made a big profit. I had never seen such a spectacle over a coin at a Vegas coin since then.
Baltimore cops must be nicer than New Orleans cops. You refuse an order by NOPD and you get taken to Central booking hogtied by handcuffs.
As far as I know they have more serious problems in Baltimore than people cutting a line to buy coins* *sorry, I meant bullion lol
Hey now, they only have had 301 homicides this year... https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/?range=2019 Last year there was 309. I think the record over the last 5ish years is ~350. We may be going for a record this year!
Glad they had police watching the line and keeping order. There are ways to avoid line jumping or even pretty much avoid long lines either in person or online. They're called take-a-number and lottery. They should be used more often. Some organizations (US Mint, movie theaters, etc.) may consider having long lines as good PR because it may get in the local news and make their product look more desirable. To me, it's poor management. I hate standing in line. So whenever I'm going somewhere that might have a line (DMV, barber, doctor, post office, airport, etc.), I take reading material. Amazing how much faster a line moves with a good coin book or paper to read! Cal
When I lived in the DC metro area 40+ years ago, the Prince Georges Co. cops drew their weapons on all traffic stops. Chris
This stupid line also make it next to impossible for people to get to the Colonial Coin Collectors Club tables and the Early American Coppers table. The entire thing was a mess, and this kind of "manufactured rarity" should not be allowed.
