Charmy's February 2016 LONG BEACH COIN SHOW REPORT w/lots of Pics!

The Penny Lady® · Feb 7, 2016

So far this year, at least for me, the shows have been on a very nice upswing both with buying and selling coins. And I am pleased to say the Long Beach show was no exception! The public seemed to steadily stream into the show, and they were ready to buy if they found what they were looking for.

Wednesday was another bright and sunny day here in Southern California and I was excited to be attending another Long Beach show.

As usual, I arrived at the loading docks, unloaded my car, waited for the doors to open at noon, unpacked my cart, and set up my booth. Soon, the vest pocket dealers began arriving at my table and showing me coins. I also took a quick run around the bourse floor to see what I could find.

As I mentioned in my FUN show report, I sold a lot of coins at that show so I needed to replenish my inventory. Since the FUN show, I have been searching dealers’ stock, auctions, etc. and have been fortunate to find several great coins to fill in the gaps of my inventory. Here are all the newps I’ve bought since the FUN show, including at the Long Beach show!

I’ve had my current website for about 15 years, and felt it was time to get a new, more modern e-commerce website. So around 3pm, my buddy, Matt Powell, who is just about finished building my new website for me, stopped by to show me how it works, including my new coin scanner so it will be much simpler and faster to upload coins to my website. I am very excited about this new project, but know it will take me some time to figure it all out. Luckily, after this show, I will have a few weeks off and can concentrate on getting my new website up and running!

At around 5:00, PCGS set out their usual taquitos and beer for all the dealers. However, I was busy at the time and didn’t make it over to the table for a while. When I did, I discovered there wasn’t much left. Apparently, the dealers at the show were quite hungry!

On my way back to my table, I ran into John at CRO. He likes to remain somewhat incognito…

After set up, we headed out to dinner across the street to PF Chang’s – my favorite Chinese food restaurant!

I had their Mai Tai while the boys had some great beer!

And their Mongolian beef is one of my favorite dishes…

The next day, Thursday, I took a few photos around the bourse floor before things got too busy. David Lange at NGC doesn’t get to as many shows as he used to, so I was happy to see him back at the Long Beach show.

The fun folks at PCGS!

This is a bird’s eye view photo taken of the bourse floor by someone with Collectors Universe.

One of my regular customers, Buck, was checking out Chris McCawley’s inventory. Chris has an amazing inventory of early copper.

Larry Shapiro checking out some coins.

You may remember from one of my show reports a few years ago that I had bought some short snorters that had the signatures of John Wayne, Jack Benny, and Joe E. Brown. In addition to these famous signatures, one of the cool things about my short snorters was that the one with John Wayne’s signature was the last note on a 21-note string, all still attached! Some of you may also remember after the Portland ANA show last year that the guy who exhibited short snorters (Tom Sparks) had part of his collection stolen after the show. And coincidentally, one of the short snorters that was stolen from Tom was a similar one to my John Wayne short snorther and even had the same female signature right underneath John Wayne’s signature.

Well, Tom had heard that I had these short snorters and asked if I would be willing to sell them. I told him yes and that I would be very happy if we could make a deal, and brought them to the show for him to look at. Tom ended up buying them, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was that, not only would they be going to a collector who would appreciate them, but that I could help Tom rebuild his short snorter collection!

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The Penny Lady® · Feb 7, 2016

If you want to learn more about short snorters, Tom has a website dedicated to all things short snorters: www.shortsnorter.org.

Here are the photos I took of Tom’s exhibit when I was at the Portland PNA for my show report.

So if you would like more information, or if you have any information on his stolen short snorters, here is Tom’s contact info: tjsparks@shortsnorter.org.

Soon, the public was streaming in and I became very busy. One of my Lincoln cent customers, Doug, stopped by my table first thing to check out a couple coins he had seen on my website. He is very careful about the coins he chooses and has a great eye for detail and quality pieces. I was honored that he liked both the Lincoln cents he saw, and ended up purchasing both of them.

One of the best reasons to attend a coin show is for the opportunity to see rare and amazing pieces of numismatic history. And being a dealer and attending a lot of shows, I am very fortunate to be able to see some very rare and unique pieces. A fellow collector friend who has some fantastic rare coins showed me this extraordinary piece he owns which is worth about $2 million. It’s a 1792 Judd 2 pattern “fusible alloy” (part silver) one cent, ex Parmalee-Brand-Norwest. There are 4 collectible condition pieces known, and this one and one other were both recently sent to PCGS for an alloy test. Both were determined to be pure copper, which will necessitate a change by the Red Book to reflect this finding.

I also got to see this very cool rare and beautiful Flying Eagle pattern.

Another friend of mine stopped by and showed me some of the coins that are featured in his 100 Greatest Women on Coins book. The book is so wonderfully written with such beautiful photographs, and I was in awe being able to see these coins in hand!

Notice that Marilyn has a real diamond chip in her earring!

After the show, we went to one of our usual and always delicious restaurants, Café Piccolo, where each of us beings a bottle of wine to share and taste.

The Penny Lady® · Feb 7, 2016

My booth helper and really good friend, Rich and I brought these two bottles – I especially enjoyed the Primus.

My friends, Karl and Joanne, brought these two delicious wines.

The atmosphere at the restaurant is very relaxed and beautiful.

On Friday, I took a few photos around the bourse.

This was taken from the back of the room looking towards the front. That’s my table down the aisle on the right, towards the top center of the picture with the small red banner.

This is one of my favorite dealers from the Washington area, Mark. He specializes in Bust coins and always has a nice selection of different types of quality coins.

My very good friend Cindi and her “boss” Paul working the ANACS table.

Two of the IT techs at PCGS, Charlie and John, stopped by my table. John was showing Charlie around the bourse floor and teaching him a little about coins. John even asked me how the new forum software was working, so I took the opportunity to ask about a couple issues I was having when I would post my show reports and he was glad to know about them. He also gave me his card so now I have a direct contact in case any other issues arise!

Mike Chambers is an error specialist and was looking at my 9 planchet deep die cap error.

Friday was steadily busy, and surprisingly it was especially busy in the afternoon. By the time the show ended, I was really looking forward to dinner out with my friends. We went to a new place that we hadn’t been to before, the Crab Pot.

They had a beautiful salt water aquarium in the lobby with this huge puffer fish.

The Penny Lady® · Feb 7, 2016

Their clam chowder was really good!

I’m not a fan of clams, but I was told they were delicious.

Crab Cakes

You could have the crabs dumped on the table right in front of you, or you could eat them right out of the bowl like Rick did.

I chose the halibut, it was kind of boring compared to everyone else’s dishes!

As usual, some of the dealers began packing up early on Saturday, and the show started out slowly, but soon it picked up and there was quite a bit of traffic. When there was a lull in the show, and I took a few minutes to walk around the bourse floor, I saw Pawn Stars expert Mark Hall-Patton. I had seen him several times at the Las Vegas show, but apparently he was at the show for the Heritage free appraisal of antiques and collectibles and to sign autographs.

I actually had a surprisingly busy day with some great sales on Saturday. For example, I had bought this beautiful 1877 in a scarce PCGS MS63 RB rattler holder at the FUN show and had it out in my case with a hefty price tag. I had shown it to a few collectors throughout the show but my plan was if it didn’t sell, I was going to submit it for a regrade because I thought it had a good shot at an upgrade or at least a plus. Since it was Saturday and it hadn’t yet sold, I prepared the PCGS form to submit it, but within a few minutes of filling out the form, two people asked about to see it at the same time. The first person said he really liked it and wanted to think about it so I handed it to the second guy. He examined it and quickly bought it at full price! I probably left some money on the table, but was very pleased to have the sale and to have the coin go to one of my regular customers who would appreciate it!

Soon it was time to once again pack up and head home. This Long Beach show ended up being one of my best Long Beach shows in a long time. As I mentioned above, if my sales are any evidence, the collector market is definitely picking up, and I am very grateful to be able to find and offer quality material to my customers!

After I got home, I grabbed my little Penny and gave her a hug and squeeze, then changed into my jammies so I could relax on the sofa with my wonderful hubby. Soon, Penny decided it was time for a nap and jumped up to her favorite perch on our hutch.

Now I have a few weeks to catch up, work on my new website

Next up: Dallas ANA and Buena Park show