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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2332539, member: 44316&quot;]I live far from any city with a coin show. Every few years I get the itch and travel to the Summer ANA (Chicago 2015 and 2014 and Boston in 2010 where I had relatives I could stay with). When I factor in the cost of travel and, in Chicago, a hotel, the coins cost more than on the web. Auctions are better for high-value coins and dealers do not usually mark low-value coins as low as they can be found on the web. In the old days when wholesalers brought bags of hoard coins to shows (which I did not see these last three times) with &quot;pick&quot; prices it was a great way to get lots of inexpensive coins. The NYI may be different, but European dealers and wholesalers were conspicuous by their absence. </p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, I bargain and prices do come down, sometimes quite a bit. But they may just have been too high to begin with. In 2015 I was seeking a late Roman silver argenteus. One dealer with a good reputation had a nice argenteus at $800 and when I asked for his best price he came down to $600. I thought about it, went to where I could find the internet, and looked on vcoins. He had that (exact same) coin for $600 on vcoins!&nbsp; His &quot;best price&quot; was no discount from the vcoins price. I did mention it, but he was not inclined to go lower. I thought raising the price for the show was poor form. As others have mentioned, at home we can search alternatives more easily than on a show floor. (I did find a nice argenteus, but not from him.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Chicago in 2015 was fun for the experience of seeing a lot of coins and meeting some old friends, but many of the dealers had many of the same coins they had had the year before. At the prices dealers had on their coins I can easily understand why they would not sell in a year--or two. Some dealers (I&#039;m thinking of Barry Murphy, Andy Singer, and Kern&#039;s non-slabbed coins) price their coins to sell and what they have this year will be gone by next year. However, many dealers do not roll over much of their stock in a year. I will not go to the Summer ANA in 2016--I&#039;ve seen a lot of the coins already.</p><p><br /></p><p>If there is something from my want-list at a show I will offer a fair price (One I could find it at elsewhere were it offered). That is usually enough to get it. But, there are so many more coins offered on the web than at a show that I have filled far more want-list wants from the web. </p><p><br /></p><p>Collecting used to be a pretty solitary pursuit. We had our own coins and, if you lived in a big city of a million people (I don&#039;t) there might be a small ancient coin club. You could make few like-minded friends, but half of them would not care about your new coins <b>at all</b>. They care about their coins, not yours. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now we have CoinTalk (and some other forums and lists) and can share with others remotely. Some I would not recognize on the street but consider friends. You will get a lot more positive feedback about your coins here than you would at a coin club.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the 2015 ANA there were few collectors. If a table had a customer, the chances were 50-50 it was another dealer. Some smaller dealers walked the floor to sell to, or buy from, dealers at tables. But several collectors at a table was rare. I was asked by several dealers if I had material I wanted to sell to them. So, I infer that some dealers go to shows hoping to buy. If you were a former collector with your old collection to sell, I could see taking it to a show and seeing what dealers might offer, or terms they would give for consigning it or putting it at auction. </p><p><br /></p><p>We have many on-line venues for buying coins--many more than will appear at any show except maybe the New York International. If I lived near a metropolitan area, I&#039;d drive to its coin shows and hope. Coin shows are fun. But, I do not think they are a particularly good way to improve a coin collection.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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