Charmy's July 2012 ONTARIO COIN SHOW REPORT w/lots of Pics!!!!

The Southern California Coin and Jewelry show is held twice a year at the Ontario Convention Center right across the street from the Ontario Airport which is off the 10 freeway just a few miles from the 15 freeway. The convention center is large and beautiful, and the bourse room is huge and extremely spacious. So it’s a very easy show to get to from all areas of Southern California, and is one of my favorite local shows.








I arrived in Ontario on Wednesday so I wouldn’t have to deal with the early morning commuter traffic on Thursday – not to mention I could play some poker at the San Manuel Indian casino – which is what I did! I even ended up doing pretty well which meant I was already ahead by the time the show started!






Set up was Thursday morning at 9am. Checking in and set up went smoothly and efficiently. This is the back door where we bring in our carts and gear.




You can see how roomy the bourse floor is.








The show opened at noon to the public and it didn’t take long for the room to begin buzzing.




This is Logan McKechnie’s (of VAMS & More) beautiful daughter Cindy and her very adorable daughter McKenzie – they were both helping Logan, but took Friday off to go to Disneyland!



Yes, that’s Wei in the background!




These are some very good dealer friends of mine – Donna and Sid of Baubles & Booty




Glenn Holsonbake/PonyExpress, who is always very friendly and hard-working, stopped by to say hi!




Here are helpers with the two coin clubs that were set up at the show






The reception table and workers




This is a really amazing teapot made from a British penny that I picked up just before the show – even the handle was made from part of the coin!






I also collect these teapots made from U.S. pennies. It is my understanding that they were made in the 1930’s by a prisoner from the Midwest. I think they are really amazing!




Thursday ended up being quite busy for me and I sold a great number of mostly raw Lincoln cents, so by late afternoon, I was ready for one of the nice bottles of wine I brought with me (which I shared with a few other dealers!)






After the show on Thursday, our show hosts (Frank and Dawn) treated all the dealers to a nice reception at the little bar/restaurant in the corner of the convention center.






This was the red wine they were serving at the bar – it was pretty good




After the reception, I went back to the San Manuel casino. I didn’t do very well playing Texas Hold-Um so I ended up playing 3-card poker. In the couple hours I was at this one table, the dealer dealt a straight flush, and TWO sets of trips, both 7’s – one of which he dealt to me! I took my winnings and left shortly after that!


On Friday, there were about 50 people waiting to get in when the show opened, and the room once again was a-buzz with people doing business all around the floor.




Even though sales slowed down on Friday, I still had some of my regular customers stop by who bought several coins. Here I am with one of my good customers who traveled all the way from Joshua Tree.




My birthstone is opal and I’m a sucker for pretty opals, so when I saw this beautiful vintage ring, I thought since I did pretty well at the casino, I decided to go ahead and buy it. Each of the opals has a lot of color, but the larger middle opal has especially beautiful green and blue fire.






By mid-afternoon, the show had slowed down quite a bit, so of course, I opened another bottle of wine. And of course, good tunes are always enjoyable!






After the show on Friday, I went to dinner with Logan and some of his VAMS buddies – though they sometimes seemed to be speaking an unintelligible language, I definitely enjoyed their company! Then I decided to call it a night and simply went back to my room, put on my jammies, and watched one of my favorite shows – American Pickers!


On Saturday, people slowly trickled in, and the attendance seemed down from the Saturday of the last show. But there did seem to be quite a few more kids on the floor, especially boy scouts!




I heard from several other dealers that they only had a “so so” show or a very slow show. However, one of my favorite regular customers returned on Saturday, and bought even more Lincolns, so he helped keep me busy. But as usual, by mid-afternoon on the last day of the show, there was no more buzz, and the bourse floor looked quite sparse. So I began packing up around 3 pm, and headed home by 4 pm.


So my official show report ends here, and the rest of this report is sort of OT, so for those of you interested, I hope you don’t mind my posting a few fun photos from my evening following the show!

Back at home, my hubby was waiting for me since we had tickets to a concert at the Orange County Fair that evening. My all-time favorite band is U2 and we had tickets to see The Joshua Tree, a U2 tribute band. We arrived at the fair a little early so we could catch some of the fantastic exhibits which are typical at most fairs. So here are some of the sites at the OC Fair.

Some of the yummy heart-stopping food booths






Some rides












Food Exhibits












A very cool model airplane exhibit






Really cool old appliances




I had one of these when I was a little girl!!!




Just a couple of some very amazing photographs – look carefully at this photo of a simple wave – WOW!






Then it was time for the concert at The Hanger – which has very good acoustics so the sound quality is amazing!!




There is a neat short video tribute to our troops just before the concert begins






Then the concert began – they opened with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and walked all around the audience as they sang the song. Even though the lead singer had a funky wig to make him look more like an early Bono – their vocals and music was amazing and fantastic!!!! We thoroughly enjoyed the entire concert!!!




About halfway through, they changed their clothes to look more like the modern day U2 and sang songs from Zooropa and other later albums





If any of you are interested, I posted a couple videos from the concert – the sound quality from my cell phone video doesn’t do the music justice, so I apologize for that. I can assure you, the music was really well done!

U2 Tribute Band - The Joshua Tree

U2 Tribute Band - The Joshua Tree No. 2


So that’s it folks – thank you for taking the time to read my reports.

My next report will be the Philly ANA – which, I’m sure, will contain many more photos!!!