Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Mike at APMEX, post: 3150979, member: 90306&quot;]ddddd could not be more correct. I set up at my first coin show in the 1970s. Back then, the Bay State coin show in Boston had 300-400 dealers and was difficult to get a table - now it is less than 100 dealers. Long Beach had had 600 or more tables and the waiting list was a mile long - it is half of that today. Collectors would take vacations to coincide with the annual Summer ANA coin shows and visitor attendance would draw 50 to 60,000 people. </p><p><br /></p><p>The 2017 ANA&#039;s World&#039;s Fair of Money in Denver drew only 8,638 people and the 2018 ANA Money Show in Irving, TX drew a paltry 2,600 visitors. This is not to blame the ANA, or the Long Beach show or any show promoters. It is attributable to changing demographics.</p><p><br /></p><p>But because of cost and convenience, online markets are here to stay!&nbsp; Many collectors are perfectly content to stay at home and compare thousands of high-resolution images than to get on a plane, travel across the country and look at a fraction of the coins in person that they could see online. With liberal return policies and 3rd party grading by NGC and PCGS, many collectors feel secure in doing their hobby shopping online. </p><p><br /></p><p>Setting up at the ANA convention in Milwaukee in 1986, an older dealer looked at me putting up two cases of sparkling new &quot;slabbed coins&quot; in my showcases and he said, &quot;Next year when this foolishness is over, you will be cracking those coins out of those plastic holders. Collectors won&#039;t want them!&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>32 years later I am still waiting for his prophecy to come true. Just as some form of 3rd party grading is here to stay, online shopping, I believe, is here to stay as well .........&nbsp; and it is growing.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in