Not a Single Show Report from Whitman?

winesteven

I’ve been waiting patiently for several show reports from Baltimore, but I have not yet seen a single one! Did ANYONE attend? If you provide a report, @ricko likes when you also provide pricing on gold an silver.

Separately, it sounds like the Whitman 8th Edition of the Mega Red United States Guide to Coins is being released next week. I buy one every year.

Steve

coinbuf

I read Gerry Fortin's blog about the show, he said the buying was good and retail was good the first day but lackluster the other days.

Project Numismatics

CRO posted a good report - sounds like they had a great show!

amwldcoin

Liz told me retail was bad!

Tibor

Did Charmy (Penny Lady) attend? She always posts excellent show reports.

TPRC

I noticed the same thing about no show reports. However, I attended on Saturday since I was staying in Baltimore Saturday night to attend a dinner party. My primary purpose was to submit coins for grading. I arrived shortly after 11:00 or so and left at about 1:30 p.m. When I arrived, the bourse was 50% empty and when I left it was 70+% empty. I did not see Penny Lady and I doubt she attended. I also don't think Mr. Eureka attended this show. The summer show is always smaller and lots of the big boys skip it.

Nevertheless, some of the stalwarts were there, including Dave Kahn and CRO, as well as a number of others, and since it wasn't busy, I was able to visit their tables relatively unencumbered. Dave Kahn reported good sales, but tough buying. Also, as reported by Dave Kahn in his pre-show email newsletter, with so many coins at the grading services (primarily at our hosts), the availability of coins to sell is becoming a bit of an annoying problem. And yet, both Kahn and CRO had a number of very appealing coins in their cases and available for sale, including some really nice CAC'd coins. Also, as reported by John Agre in his Road Report, CRO's sales were robust.

PCGS was open until 1:00 p.m. ( I thought they closed at noon), so I spent a fair amount of time with them submitting some coins and one correction coin. As always, they were courteous and helpful. I asked about the backlog and grading delays and was told that the influx of coins due to increased submissions during the pandemic put a ton of pressure on PCGS. That makes some sense, I suppose.

Then I headed to the World coin section where again, I was surprised to see some nice, new material. Not a lot, mind you, but some. And some dealers even reported making good dealer buys at the show. I've got a few of those coins on hold while they are being worked up and priced, including a few nice Irish pieces.

Overall, I would call it a bland Saturday and even for a normal late morning Saturday Baltimore show, it was quieter than usual. I heard that attendance was low as well. I will always try to attend the Baltimore show, but I also understand the critique about 3 Baltimore shows being one too many! Still, if they have it, I will come.

Catbert

Summer FUN will be another test for the market.

GulfRasta

Off topic humor.
I thought you meant Walt Whitman. I think he's still dead.

Fairfaxthunder

Lurking Newbie here - thank you all for a wonderful forum. I attended - it was my first big show in 28+ years. I can't speak much past my narrow, personal experience, which was that I looked for a got exactly what I wanted: I escaped work, sat at a bin and went through coins (mainly looking for Lincolns) like hell for about 1.5 hrs while having great conversation. I was there Friday. Being new to the modern scene I was a little struck by all the slabbed coin and silver, when I was a kid it was a very different experience. But I stayed under budget and made a contact or two. The only overt rip off was parking.

OAKSTAR

@winesteven said:
I’ve been waiting patiently

Me too........ On a slightly different subject, I've noticed the same kind of issues with WHITMAN. I've been patiently waiting for the new "WHITMAN" Cherrypicker's Guide. Who knows what the problem is. It's only been several years.

Sorry @winesteven, didn't mean to hijack your thread. You can have it back, I feel better now.

OAKSTAR

@GulfRasta said:
Off topic humor.
I thought you meant Walt Whitman. I think he's still dead.

Excellent point! Whitman might be dead.

GulfRasta

@OAKSTAR I visited Camden NJ at night in the 90's. The cabbie said we gotta go and hit the gas. Said Walt Whitman was the last white guy left in Camden, where the poet is buried. He didn't want to have to keep the streak alive by us dying.

This is the sort of stuff I'm taking about. We know about Wait Whitman but not Cinco de Mayo where the Spanish stopped a Confederate French arms deal? We just get drunk and yell Spanglish?
Oh my.

jdimmick

Here is a short and sweet about my trip.

My main reason to drive up was to submit a few coins to PCGS that I didnt want to mail for fear of being lost or stolen in transit (yes, there that nice.) Anyway, got to the show about an hour early before 12 Noon thur opening, so I went up to stack's room to look at a lot or two. The one coin I had an intrest in was not as nice as photo portrayed, browsed a few additional boxes just to kill some time. I wanted to go ahead and get in line to get to the PCGS table before the line set up, was like 5th in line to get in show. 1st in line from public to pcgs. Easy and simple, next went to NGC to drop off some more submissions of mine and customers from shop. Was about 3rd in line there. Next stop, went straight to GC to drop off a couple of consignments. after that , i went to a guys table that had bought a coin from me on ebay the day before and new I was heading to Baltimore so he asked me to bring by in hand. talked a few min, and started making the rounds down the aisle's. Wasn't looking for anything specific, but had I seen something I really would like to get, i might have. In my process of scanning Isles, I spoked to harry L , dave kahn (who were both busy) and saw the reeded edge guys robbie and robert, but didn't make conversation as they were busy buying a larger deal from another dealer I suppose. Thier coming down here this weekend so Ill chat with them in Raleigh. I saw a lot of generic gold, some nice gold incl a 1795 $5 au-58 at 107K, but i dont want to spend that much right now. I saw a real nice 1795 dollar in 45 at don rinkor's table, but If I ever bought one, I would want an au, so I didnt but it was nice for the grade. I did stop at Liz table to view the 1870-cc 25c (i had never seen before) she picked up recently, I knew it had an old cleaning at some point, but not bad, but I have a nice one I bought back out of auction last year, so I just wanted to see it. neat coin though to come in fresh too market.

I saw some various types of coins being purchased by folks as I walked around, not sure if they were collectors or dealers or both.
I just made 1 pass thru the aisles and called it a day, My son was up from Texas on an assignment in the area, so I was able to meet up with him for dinner and stuff. (my wife and youngest son came with me on the trip as well).

One other thing I was able to do, I have a dealer customer whom I never met, that buys a tremendous amount of stuff from me on ebay weekly for many years now. never met him till this trip. I saw he had a table and introduced myself, and thanked him for his many years of buying from me.

Traffic coming up in the later evening was heavy in spots, but not bad, left Fri at 7am, and hit a few pockets of traffic thru washington, but then smooth sailing after that.