ANA Show report
uscoinguy
Posts: 150 ✭✭✭
I got to the show the on first day Tuesday around 1:00. Luckily, I had pre-ordered my entry badge from the ANA, so I avoided the long sign-in lines and walked right in. That was a nice side benefit of my ANA membership along with no admission fees for ANA members. I work within walking distance of the convention center, so I also avoided the hefty parking garage fees.
The show on Tuesday was busy, a lot of foot traffic. At these huge shows I always tell myself to be organized and start at one end and go up and down each aisle. But instead (as usually happens) I get distracted and start randomly meandering from table to table. After about an hour of this my buddy and I said let’s start at the far end. The show setting was kind of like a backwards L. The prime real estate by the entrance does not go too far back, but then the cheaper tables (I assume are cheaper) are to the far right and go way far back. I always feel bad for the dealers with the tables in the far back because there was noticeably less traffic in the “cheap seats”.
Personally. I was looking for coins to fill my PCGS Everyman 1800-1899 type set. This set requires more types than the standard 70-70 type set, like the 3 types of 3 cent silvers versus just one for the 70-70. There were about 8 coins I needed that were in the affordable range ($200-300) that I was looking to fill. Unfortunately, as I kind of expected there were not a lot of coins in that range available. I swear I walked the whole show over 2 days looking for a PCGS 1837 Bust half in VF-XF and only saw one in AU55. I did find a PCGS VF30 No stars, small date, half dime, that I needed.
I came back to the show again on Wednesday at lunch time. It was still busy, but not quite as busy as Tuesday. After looking at the rest of tables I ended up not buying anything. I had noted a few coins to come back and check out from the previous day and they were all sold! So, this is a standard show dilemma, not wanting to spend all my money until I went through the whole show, versus missing out on a purchase.
A few observations. A lot of gold coins as expected with gold going up, a lot of foreign bullion coins, and to me the biggest surprise I saw was a lot of coins in NGC holders. It seemed like a lot more than at previous shows. Since the dealer’s costs for these types of shows is high (my local dealer had 3 tables at a cost of $4K) coin prices seemed to be full retail plus. Also, as expected I saw a lot of 4 figure coins at many dealer tables. I totally understand a dealer must sell a lot of volume to make it worth their time, so I expect to pay more at these kinds of shows. But the result is that these big shows tend to not cater to Joe the average collector. There are some exceptions, like my local dealer who had over $8000 in sales on Wed, but he has the advantage of bringing in a vanload of coins. Since he did have average collector inventory maybe that is why he had such a good show. Some dealers I talked to said they were having a great show and other meekly said just ok. All in all, it was a fun 2 days, although my 61-year-old knees are still sore from all the walking!
Comments
Thanks for the good report.
Nice write up- thanks!
Excellent report. Gold, gold, gold!
Dave
Very nice report. Thanks.
Great report
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the report.... The 'show dilemma' you cite is one we all deal with... Buy the coin you like or wait until you have looked at all the tables.... I have experienced that several times when I used to go to shows...I finally decided that I would buy the coin, even if it was at the first table when I walked in....It just makes sense, that if an experienced collector likes a coin, there will be many others coming in that will see the positive attributes as well... So, if the coin is good, and price reasonable... I buy right then. Cheers, RickO
Thanks for the report. A wonderful read.
Great report!