Well, it's Thursday, 20 November, and the 3-day Whitman show opens in Baltimore at 10AM. I'm retired so I get to go today. A few pre-show observations: 1. The Whitman shows run Thursday through Saturday. Smart move since shows ending on Sundays tend to lose a high percentage of their dealers early. Used to be almost a ghost town. 2. There are something like 500-1000 dealers. If you can't find it here the only shows that I know are better are the ANA shows. The trouble with the ANA shows is that they have no low-end stuff. But for the price of a table I can understand that. I've never been to a FUN show or the biggie in California (Long Beach?) so I don't know how they compare. 3. I hope to get a reading on the state of numismatics. Coin World and the greysheet keep saying things are strong. But those opinions appear to be based on auction results of high-end material. I'm a down-in-the-weeds collector (two and low three figure coins). That's the type of market I'm interested in getting a reading on. Are the dealers keeping their prices up or are they relaxing them a bit for the lower end of the scale? If they don't sell stuff, they lose the cost of their tables. I'll try to come back with a impression (good or bad) for you.
Kanga - I look forward to your report! Have fun. P.S. I am planning on going to the FUN show in Orlando in January.
I wish that I were going, I'd like to get Dave Bowers to sign a couple of my books. Oh, well. Perhaps next time.
Hopefully for you it won't be to crowded. The show I went to last weekend was so full it was difficult to get through the aisles. And naturally the more crowded, the less chances for a decent price on coins. Good Luck
My observations about the show: Bear in mind it was Thursday afternoon at 2PM when I entered; lots of collectors still at work. The crowd was reasonably large under those conditions, i.e., some tables were busy, some weren't. It was fairly obvious that the busy tables were the ones with better material; the reason will become clear when I comment about the state of numismatics in general. As time went by, the crowd got marginally larger. My thoughts about the current state of numismatics: These observations are a combination of what I saw AND questions I asked. When you read Coin World and CDN, the numismatic picture seems quite rosy. BUT that's because they are reporting on the top end of the hobby. Five-figure and up coins are trading well (both bought and sold). Two- and three-figure coins are about dead at the moment. Sales are at best slow. And dealer buying is essentially dead except for very good material bought below CDN. Dealers don't want more if they can't can't sell what they've got. So the high end tables were busy and the tables with lesser material were snoozing. What did I buy? One roll of Alaska "P" state quarters. One roll of Alaska "D" state quarters. One roll of Hawaii "P" state quarters. But I didn't see any Hawaii "D" state quarters. And my biggie was a 1943/2-P Jefferson nickel in PCGS MS-65. That completes my War Nickel set (I'm not interested in the DDO's mentioned in the Red Book). All my other War Nickels are FS and range from MS-64 to -66. I'd be interested in the observations of anyone going Friday or Saturday.
Congrats on finishing the set! However, why not the DDO & DDR's? Now, try to cherrypick them, just for fun, unslabbed of course. By the way, I really like that 43/2, very interesting variety. PS: Love your signature: There are 10 types of people: those that understand binary, and those that don't.
i worked the show Thursday and Friday and took my 7 year old today. Very slow overall - many of the big name dealers were not there. Most of the dealers I spoke with were waiting for everyone to show up - they never did. We had a bad show, but with the economic issues at the moment, it's not a surprise. I think many people are waiting to see how the November retail sales figure look before they start buying again. I bought 2 things - a 1986 seven coin Canadian Proof set and a 2 coin 1974 Iceland Proof set. The 1986 completes my 1980's proof set collection, now I'm working on the 1990's, but the dealer paid more than I was willing to buy them for, such is life. -Steve, table 1000
This is a "quick and dirty" imaging job. The good camera is getting ready to go on vacation with us, so all I had to work with was my old Coolpix.
I will be there to. See ya there P.S. I burned the crap out of myself at a fire pit last night. :headbang:
