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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;midas1, post: 1204882, member: 21309&quot;]I&#039;ve been attending the Baltimore Whitman show for fifteen years, maybe longer..&nbsp; I used to live about a mile north of the convention center.</p><p>I agree, the show is huge.&nbsp; Over the years I&#039;ve found it works best for me if I arrive around noon on Thursday, then check out the vendors on my way to the far corner of the show, then aisle by aisle, work my way back to the entrance all the while making notes re: vendors, pricing and quality of items I&#039;m interested in.&nbsp;&nbsp; After that I usually take a break, visit with some friends or dealers, then head out again this time to make some purchases and spend more time with my favorite vendors.&nbsp;&nbsp; This year I was tracking down two foreign currency notes and a nice Walking Liberty.&nbsp; After a lot of effort I got all three, though the&nbsp; Netherlands Indies five gulden note, 1939, took two days to buy.&nbsp;&nbsp; I finally bought it from my favorite vendor for 33% less, and higher quality, then what his neighbor was asking.&nbsp; The other note I also paid about 33% less for the same quality note then his competitor.&nbsp; Both of these notes were purchased from Daryl Speibring, Banknotes of the World.&nbsp; He and his wife maintain a large inventory that is organized and fairly priced.&nbsp;&nbsp; I also bought a risqué fantasy note from&nbsp; him.&nbsp; (I posted the note on CT then thought it a good idea to remove it), Every foreign currency dealer I do business with has prices and &quot;Pic&quot; numbers clearly marked on the clear envelopes containing bills</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;I like the face to face at shows. I&#039;ve known some of these guys for years. Some save stuff for me. The Krause currency books are very large and too heavy to lug around a show so I spend a good bit of time looking at them at some of the dealers I frequent.Cash is king at the show, also may give the buyer leverage to negotiate.&nbsp;&nbsp; Credit card purchases add about 3% to purchase cost and are trackable. Pricing: &quot;How much is it?&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; With some dealers it&#039;s whatever they can get.&nbsp; Gold coins usually aren&#039;t marked.&nbsp; Gold/silver bullion prices vary over spot.&nbsp; I bought some silver at $1.25 over spot.&nbsp; When I was going to a show to buy coins I would first&nbsp; buy the $13.75 GreySheet packet (<a href="http://www.greysheet.com/web_order/special_form.asp" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.greysheet.com/web_order/special_form.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.greysheet.com/web_order/special_form.asp</a>) to take to the show.&nbsp; It&#039;s very useful and saved me a good bit of money over the years.&nbsp;&nbsp; I look at as I&#039;m a collector who&#039;s dealing with people who buy/sell for a living. When I&#039;m spending big money I want every advantage possible. I also used to take the Red Book , not so much for pricing but for coin information.cket helped me negotiate prices that were favorable&nbsp; to me.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This year, for the first time, I attended one of the free lectures.&nbsp; I was ten feet from the show exit when an old friend, who is involved with the Whitman&nbsp; show management, approached then invited me to a lecture being given by his friend&#039;:Anthony Swiatek&nbsp; -0MSNA Distinguished Lecture Series:</p><p>&quot;Buyer Beware,&quot; by Anthony Swiatek (<a href="http://mdstatenumisassn.org/MSNA/201...-buying-coins/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://mdstatenumisassn.org/MSNA/201...-buying-coins/" rel="nofollow">http://mdstatenumisassn.org/MSNA/201...-buying-coins/</a>).&nbsp; It was a very informative and entertaining lecture. </p><p>I&#039;m going to check out the lectures from now on.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Women - in all the years I&#039;ve been going to show I&#039;ve never seen so many attractive women at a coin shows&nbsp; as I did at the Baltimore Whitman show.&nbsp; Some of them were doing some serious buying even lugging around those wheeled carts. Those may have been dealers.&nbsp; </p><p>Many years ago, at the Baltimore Whitman Show I spotted a tall beautiful dark haired braless woman standing in the crowd so I made a bee line over&nbsp; there.&nbsp; Turns out&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>she&#039;s a representative of the French mint.&nbsp;&nbsp; She walks behind the mint counter so I stayed and browsed the case contents.&nbsp;&nbsp; I spot an high relief art medal of NYC.&nbsp;&nbsp; I want to buy it. She leans over the counter (remember the no bra?) and&nbsp; in broken English tells me it&#039;s not for&nbsp; sale.&nbsp; It takes me years to finally buy it and weeks for it to arrive from France.&nbsp; I eventually bought ten or more different French medals then started collecting other medals.&nbsp; &nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Take your wireless&nbsp; notebook&nbsp; or iPad.&nbsp;&nbsp; I see visitors and dealers all over accessing the &#039;Net.</p><p>&nbsp; </p><p>Parking - the cheapest I&#039;ve found is $10.00 for twenty three hours at the baseball stadium parking lot &quot;C.&quot;&nbsp; Enter from Howard St.&nbsp; If I remember correctly turn right the first light after crossing Pratt St.&nbsp; Be careful because if you miss the turn you&#039;ve got to drive out to 95 then turn about (about 20 minutes)&nbsp; On weekends many garages have $10.00 specials all day parking.&nbsp; During the week lot &quot;C&quot; is the best bet or arrive before 9am for $10.00 special parking at most lots around the convention center.</p><p><br /></p><p>If interested I got some deals on meals around there.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Pennylady and GDJMSP&nbsp; offer very good advice.&nbsp; PL has written several very good threads of coin shows.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sorry for the choppy editing and formatting.&nbsp; I typed it in Notepad then pasted it into CT.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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