Show report in First POST - Albuquerque Coin Club Show Nov 9-11

claychaser · October 28, 2018 6:59AM

Show report:

Thursday: I drove down to Albuquerque with a Cheyenne based world coin dealer who picked me up in northern Colorado for the drive down. Weather was good all the way down until we hit a brief but intense snow squall north of Las Vegas, NM. That lasted only for about 20 minutes, and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Friday: Had a leisurely breakfast and coffee with my daughter who lives in Albuquerque, and then went to the show for the 11 am dealer setup. This is the last show in the Hispanic Cultural Center that's located south of downtown. It's moving to the Marriott Pyramid that's just off of I-25 in April next year.

The bourse was sold out, with most dealers arriving at the beginning. They show was very well organized, and the offload was quick and easy. Club volunteers manned 4 wheel flat low garden cars that were perfectly sized for moving in showcases and boxes of coins, and others directed traffic in the off load area. Armed security was always present as well.

I shared a 6 foot table with Buck, an EAC Weenie and now a Hard Times Token and medal guy too. Seems he was getting more traffic than me with my setup of Lincoln Cents and type and key date US coins. My table was next door to a world coin dealer who also ran the ANACS submission table for the show, so I helped him out when he was busy.

My dealer to dealer was slower than last year, but I did do some retail when after the public opening at 2:00 pm. Business was OK up to the 6:00 closing time for the day.

On Thursday I passed on a dealer dinner at Cervantes, and went to a local property that I am selling to clean out some stuff, and a quick salad at Chick Fil A and called it a night.

Saturday: The show opened to dealers at 8:00 am and the public at 9:00. It was a OK retail day, and most people that stopped did seriously look and buy coins. Surprisingly to me, but I am inexperienced in coin show retail, was the demand for bargain priced problem semi key and key date coins. I clearly marked "DETAILS" and my grade and coin issues on the flips, and they sold steadily at the posted prices, and I was glad to see them sell. I also sold a few really nice XF-AU examples.

I did have a deal of tokens, silver charms and pendant pieces, political buttons, foreign junk coins and junky copper walk up on Saturday and I bought it, except for the circulated roll of 1944 cents that the seller thought was worth $5 per coin. I passed on that, but I was able to buy the rest, including a letter from 1884 from a business in Indiana. My table mate Buck bought the buttons and most of the medals from me, and I kept the rest.

My daughter stopped by the show late in the afternoon before her security shift on Saturday. Things were slow, so it was another nice chat.

On Saturday night, Rod, a VP of the Albuquerque Coin Club, invited several of us to his house for a chicken BBQ. His college student son was home and he had an interesting demo and talk of 3-D printing technology.

Back at the hotel, I looked at the weather reports for the trip north and it was not looking good.

Sunday: Had coffee and looked at the weather reports - and it was worse than the forecast from the night before. The choice was to go to the show, grab our stuff and hightail it home, or spend another night. We decided to spend the night, and I booked a room that morning in Santa Fe. We went to the show to find several Colorado dealers already making plans to pack up and go.

I was able to make a couple of wholesale buys of Lincoln Cents, and sold some more retail. One interesting table visitor was a Mom and Daughter who were buying birth year cents for their relatives. I always want to tread everyone nicely, and the Mom got to talking about her being a bank teller in 1947 and being allowed to buy "interesting" coins from the bank at face value. I told her some of these might be quite valuable, and please, do NOT clean your coins! I gave her my card and hopefully she calls me.

The show wound down early with the Colorado dealer exodus, but we stayed until the end. I worked up some more coins for inventory and we packed up at the show closing hour of 2:00 pm. The club did have a raffle for the remaining dealers of a FREE table at the next show, but I did not win. It was worth $175.00.

The drive up to Santa Fe was clear - but the clouds to north were winter beautiful. We say the road department advisory sign stating that the I-25 was closed at the New Mexico Colorado border, so we called the dealers who left before us. One made it though before it closed, and he reported terrible road conditions between Raton and Pueblo, with accident after accident and 15 MPH max speeds. When the five dealers who left an hour after the first one learned of this, they got the last of the rooms and Raton and called it a night.

We pulled in to the hotel lot and just then the snow dumped on us - wham! Buck, the world coin dealer and I had a nice dinner and it was inside for the rest of the night. I worked on breaking down some of the deals I bought.

We took our time in the morning and left about 9:30. Roads were fair to good up to Raton, were we stopped for lunch at the Arbys and parked next to the New Mexico Highway Patrol who were having lunch. They reported the pass was open, but down to one slushy lane in spots, and that was accurate. The rest of the trip home was uneventful.

Next show is Fort Collins, one day only, Saturday December 1.

Pic from the coin club site: