MNS show report.
golden
Posts: 9,830 ✭✭✭✭✭
The Missouri Numismatic Society show is held each July at the St Charles Convention Center. The convention center is very nice and located next to I-70 with plenty of free parking.
I left home early Wednesday morning. After a few places of road construction and a few rest breaks, I arrived it the area in mid- afternoon.
Since the show did not open until noon on Thursday, I decided to have lunch at a Chinese buffet before the show. I have eaten there several times and it was always good. This time it was not good. I don't think that I will try it again.
I quickly got my name tag and was ready when the show opened. I went first to pick up a coin that I had purchased on the phone earlier in the week. The coin looked better in person. I was pleased. I then started around the floor. I stopped at the table of Grant Campbell. We had a nice conversation about the lack of availability of Dahlonega gold. While I was there Dimeman stopped by. We had a little chat.
I had almost finished the floor when I saw an 1838 Half Dollar in PCGS AU-58+ with a CAC sticker. I looked nice. It had a price sticker of $2900 on the back of the holder! The dealer said he would take $2750! That is about double any price guide. I just shook my head and left.
A few minutes later I saw an 1834 Large Cent in PCGS AU- 53. It looked very nice, and the price was ok. I have been looking for a 58 or maybe a 55 for a long time. I thought about the coin for a little bit but decided to wait a little longer for a 58.
One dealer had 15-20 PCGS 1909-S VDB's in his case. Another dealer had an original roll of Washington Carver Half Dollars priced at $595. I have not seen a roll of those in a long time.
I saw an 1813 Large Cent in PCGS XF-40 at another table. It was nice but priced beyond Moon money. I have priced coins at this dealer before and they are always super high. I will not stop and waste time at his table again.
Next, I went to look at auction lots at Scotsman Coin. I looked at 10 lots. I was really interested in one lot. It looked very good.
I made one more pass around the floor and found nothing to purchase. I headed back to the hotel.
On Friday morning I drove about 30 minutes to meet two of my cousins for breakfast. The breakfast and the conversation were very good. I next went back to the show and left a bid on the coin, in the auction, that I was interested in on Thursday.
I left the show and drove 2 hours to visit my cousins on their farm. I was not as hot there as it was in St Charles. We had a real nice visit. I left there and drove back to the convention center for the auction. I did not think I would be back in time for the lot that I wanted. I arrived about 35 lots before it came up. My bid was $300 to low. I did not raise my bid and did not win the lot.
On Saturday morning I had breakfast at the hotel before hitting the road. After several very slow places of road construction and a few rest breaks, I arrived home in mid-afternoon. Although I did not purchase anything, I still had a great time and got to visit with four of my cousins.
Comments
Glad you had a good time.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
sounds like a good trip. never know what will happen, til you show up and you did just that. i like you held firm but wasn't afraid to look or ask. no good will come from forcing it. at the very least, another warm body at a show is still encouraging to some dealers and promoters.
did you actually sit down and look through any albums, boxes, 2x2s etc? or just keeping it a bit light this time around?
for me, though i don't like forcing it, for that much time and cost, i'd have to find something to pick up. a trinket or two perhaps. maybe for someone else even. or heck, don't forget us. you could do a giveaway!
Great report!
Glad I’m not the only one frustrated when you finally find a nice coin you are seriously interested in, only find out it’s priced ridiculously.
Nice report, thank you for posting it!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
I was also there on Thursday from about 1-4 pm. It was a pretty well attended show I think. I used to go to all the shows at the St. Charles convention center from around 2006-2010. This was my first one since then, after not being a very active collector from 2012-2020.
It is definitely a good venue, imo. The winter show in St. Louis is at the airport Hilton, which I don't like nearly as much.
I was pleased to see a lot of options, both slabbed and raw, as well as a lot of activity on the bourse.
I did get frustrated with high asking prices at one point, so much so that I almost left early. I persisted though. And I had a lot of options on my want list to shop for, since I'm working on Walkers and a Type Set and still have a lot of holes to be filled.
I ended up buying 7 coins in total at fair to good prices. I'm not good with pictures and haven't tried yet. But here is the only one with a TrueView (Also has a green bean)
Congratulations for refusing to pay wildly inflated prices. I think it is time for collectors to just step back from the market for awhile. When the dealers spend the whole show watching their coins tone and fail to make costs the prices will come back down to reasonable levels.
I did not look through any albums or boxes since I am only interested in coins in PCGS holders.
@golden... Thank you for the show report. I am seeing consistency in several reports indicating the current high prices seen at shows. Perhaps a hangover from the pandemic surge. Now that shows have become common again, I would expect prices to recede soon. Cheers, RickO
That dealer with the 1838 AU58+ is the same one from Iowa that I mentioned in my thread.
BHNC #248 … 130 and counting.
I was set-up at this show and was very pleased with the results. The November show is always busier for me but this summer show was definitely a good one!
A friend called me about a nice Seated Dollar. I liked the coin. The problem was the seller wanted 50% over PG and double what 6 sold for in the last 2 years. 3 of the 6 were 1 grade higher.