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Charmy's February 2020 LONG BEACH COIN SHOW REPORT w/lots of Pics!

ThePennyLadyThePennyLady Posts: 4,441 ✭✭✭✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum

Another fun, busy and successful Long Beach show has come and gone! As I've said before, I really look forward to this show in particular since it's "in my backyard" and I get to see all my local customers and friends. One of the best parts is that I don't have to rush out on Saturday to catch a flight home, I can stay to the end and pack up when the show is over.

Wednesday was a bright and sunny day and it was beautiful in Long Beach!

We arrived at the loading dock area an hour early and watched while they finished setting up the bourse floor.

I always enjoy chatting with the other dealers while we wait to be let in. I’ve known the guy with the short shorts for quite a while, so I couldn’t resist telling him that the 80’s called and wanted their shorts back! ;-)

After I was all set up, I went over to the PCGS area to see the gorgeous set of Flying Eagle and Indian cents (I had seen them at the FUN show and they were well worth viewing again!). Stuart Blay and Rick Snow were there as well.

I don’t think there was ever a time during the show there wasn’t a long line of people waiting to submit coins to PCGS, even during set up.

Here’s David showing off the new PCGS mugs!

Sandy is always smiling whenever I see her.

PCGS was handing out these sample slabs with their new Near Field Communication (NFC) chip technology-embedded in the slab.

A dealer friend who knows I like penny exonumia found me a very cool William Jennings Bryan/Adlai Stevenson token with a 1900 Indian cent – they lost the 1900 election to McKinley/Roosevelt. I already have the McKinley/Roosevelt token (with the original ribbon from 1900) and the one with just Bryan, but I didn’t have this particular token so I’m thrilled to add it to my exonumia collection.

Soon it was time to open the bottle of wine I brought, my favorite, Rombauer Zinfandel! I’ve even gotten a couple other dealer friends “hooked” on this Rombauer, so it didn’t last very long!

After the show, we went to our usual Wednesday night spot at Café Piccolo’s where we enjoyed some great Italian food and shared some more nice wines! This is my favorite, goat cheese chicken!

It seems the older we get, the less wine we seem to drink at dinner, so we each left with a half full bottle of the wine we had brought – more wine for another day!

Thursday morning I arrived a little early so I could take some photos before the public was let in. The Tyrant collection was again on exhibit at the show, and if you like gold coins, you would be in awe of this amazing collection. And these are just a portion of the coins on display!

The folks at NGC are always friendly and helpful, and every time I went by their table, every chair was filled and they were working hard to answer everyone’s questions.

My friend Chris Simpson always comes up with some interesting penny exonumia which he gives to me as a gift at each Long Beach show. This time he found a neat love token on an 1862 Indian cent.

As you all know, there are all types of interesting numismatics and also all types of interesting dealers who set up at shows. Up the aisle from my table was an interesting dealer who had a corner table covered with loose coins in 2x2 flips and was selling a lot of different types of “booty” and was dressed up as a pirate.

My friend Ron Guth recently started his own business, The Numismatic Detective Agency, along with a new website – www.numismaticdetectives.com.

He also had some very interesting memorabilia from the Women’s Relief Corps in his show case.

At 10am, there was quite a crowd of public waiting to be let in! (photo courtesy of Long Beach Show Expo)

Everyone I spoke with said Thursday was a very busy day, both buying and selling. I know I was very busy the entire day. I had a lot of folks bring me coins they had found in change, wanting to know if they were anything special. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything that had much value and suggested that they get The Red Book and The Cherry Picker’s Guide to help them in their searching. They always ask what are the coins that have more value so I tell them The Red Book is the best place to get started if they want to find out which coins have a lower mintage, that those are the ones that usually hold more value. I also recommend that they learn how to do basic grading so they can determine whether a coin is in high or low condition, and suggest Making the Grade as a good resource in learning to grade coins. I must have referred at least a dozen people to the supply guy to get The Red Book during the show (I should start carrying them myself!).

After the show on Thursday we met a group of other dealers at a new restaurant, Captain Jack’s in Sunset Beach, which was right on the harbor. What a fun place with a great atmosphere! It was definitely a place where a lot of locals hang out which is always a good sign. When we were at the bar waiting for the rest of our group, a couple locals came in and sat next to us. The bartender greeted them by name and quickly handed them their usual drink without them even asking.

Me and my awesome booth helper Rich Wogoman

This bottle of Prisoner cab we shared was excellent – so we ordered two!

Our group!

This was the only menu they had.

Most of our group had their specialty, the crab legs. I was literally shocked when I saw the size and amount of crab legs they served!

And the surf and turf wasn’t lacking either!

They even had live music in the lounge area.

We had a great time and I look forward to returning again!

Friday was slower as usual, but I still had a steady stream of customers both buying and selling pennies, as well as several of my regular customers stop by. Friday afternoon is also the day I gather all my new purchases, and those coins I’ve bought since I last had my coin photographer take pictures of my coins, so he can photograph them for my website. I had quite a bunch for him to photograph this time around.

I also found quite a few raw Pretty Pennies to add to my inventory.

My dealer friend Andy Skrabalack has been surprising me now and then with some penny exonumia gifts too. These three were the latest items he gave me.

Later in the afternoon we opened another bottle of wine I brought, this one from one of the Temecula vineyards I belonged to, Sierra Robles. It’s a really nice red wine blend.

After the show closed, we went to one of my favorite seafood restaurants, King’s Fish House, just up the hill from the convention center. Being a creature of habit and liking a good thing when I find it, had my usual macadamia nut crusted halibut. And with one of the few places that offers free corkage, we brought our own bottles of wine to share, which again, none of us finished!

Their salmon is pretty yummy too!

They also have these adorable cocktail napkins with cute corny riddles!

The convention center looks pretty at night, as does the area around it.

It rained Friday night and Saturday morning was cloudy. But a beautiful rainbow could be seen from the convention center

(photo courtesy of Long Beach Show Expos)

Saturday was busy, with kids doing the treasure trivia hunt, and families trying to learn more about collections they had. I took these pictures around noon on Saturday and it was still quite busy

The June Long Beach show will be held in a Hall C (rather than Hall A where we were right now), closer to where the aquarium is on the other side of the Hyatt. Here’s a map of the new hall location, just for the June 2020 show. We understand, however, that the show may be moving to this show for all of 2021.

Around 4 pm, it was time to pack up and call it a show! The show seemed to just fly by. Overall, it was a very good show, and I was very happy with the traffic and sales. As always, the Expo folks do an excellent job of putting this show together and making sure everyone has what they need.

As usual, my sweet hubby was at home waiting to help me unload, and Penny was waiting to be petted and scratched behind her ears!

Then on Sunday, we took my mustang to my first Coffee and Cars event with up in Silverado Canyon. It was a casual event, with about 20 classic and modern cars, and even a couple other mustangs. Then we went for a nice drive though the canyon. I just love driving that car! Here’s a photo showing the correct fog lamps I just had put on in place of the ones that were on the car when I bought it.

So that’s about it – next up, the Buena Park Show (March 7-8), and then Baltimore (March 18-21)!

Charmy HarkerThe Penny Lady®

https://thepennylady.com/

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