Hi all. As some of you may know, my computer crashed this past week. It's been very frustrating since the hard drive is "dead" and I hadn't backed anything up for a few months (never again will I wait that long to do a back up - please, I encourage all of you to go right now and back up your computer!!!). The good news is that it crashed just before I was coming here to Seattle where my computer guru brother lives (he used to work for Microsoft), so he helped me buy a new laptop and has loaded everything I need (and more!) so I'm posting this from my brand spanking new amazing and awesome Acer laptop! Any way, I've been out of touch and sort of in limbo lately when it comes to computers and the internet. But hopefully, when I get back home, everything will start falling back into place. I've been really enjoying spending some time with my brother. We just finished playing "beat your buddy's buns" (a card game with similarities to spades)! He's also in a jazz band and a concert band so I got to hear them rehearse on Thursday night since they have a couple concerts this week. He's also been wonderful at carting me back and forth to the show! In any event, this is my first PNNA show here in the Seattle area and I'm having a blast. The show has been more than fantastic for me, all the new dealers I've met have been very kind and welcoming, and they even say they enjoy the music I play on my iPod speakers! I'm very sorry not to have been able to say hi to you SeattleSlammer, but you were right in that my table has been very steadily busy at this show. It's probably one of the best first shows I've ever done, and has far exceeded my expectations in every way. Even with the rain here, it's a very beautiful part of the country with all the sweet smelling tall pine trees, fresh air, country roads, and friendly people. Back to the show, on Friday I saw a several CU forum members and one CT member (please forgive me I can't remember his user name). My brother stopped by at the very end of the show today to pick me up so he came in to see what a coin show was like. He sat with me at my table while a scragly looking gentleman was sort of staring at my case, which he'd been doing for about half an hour. He really looked like a homeless man with long unkempt hair, bad teeth, and baggy clothes. He chatted quite a bit about this and that and then finally asked to see a coin (1909-S AU55 Indian cent). I showed it to him, gave him a price, and he quickly bought it peeling off several hundred dollar bills. My brother was quite surprised as he would never have guessed a guy who "looked like that" could afford a coin worth over $800. I told him that I've definitely learned never to judge a coin collector by his "cover"! Any way, I'm headed home in the early afternoon tomorrow, and would love to come back to this show if space permits. I'm on a TSO status for now, but hope to be able to participate again next year. This show will definitely be on my calendar next year!
I normally wear a pocket t-shirt with jeans and tennis shoes. I don't know how many dealers have taken one look and dismissed me, figuring I wasn't worth their time. A few of these guys missed out on hundreds of dollars in sales, because I was ready to spend, but I'm not giving my money to somebody who judges by appearance. I knew a man a few years ago, missing teeth, unkempt hair, a pretty good lower Alabama accent. Most dealers would look at this guy figuring he didn't have a dime. Aside from being a most generous person, he owned a complete slabbed Morgan set. Yep, including the 95 proof. He always volunteered to be the auctioneer at the coin club meetings, and he did a very good job. He was worth millions but you would never know by looking at him or talking to him.
