Tuesday ANA Show Report

savitale

Yesterday I went to the ANA for a quick one-day vacation. Flew in on the 8:00am American Airline flight from Boston. Took the subway from the airport one-stop, followed by a 5-minute walk to the Convention Center. Couldn’t have been easier; I was in line for registration by 11:00am (Chicago time). Entered the bourse floor when it opened at 12:30pm. There were only about 50 people waiting to get in, but the floor was already busy with Early Bird dealer-to-dealer business.

The scale of the show is intimidating. It is essentially impossible to look at every table in one afternoon. If you really want to see everything, plan two days. There looked to be a few no shows but basically every table was occupied. I would say this was as close to a sell-out as one could practically achieve.

I’m generally at a show to look for very specific items and more often than not I walk away empty handed. This was a little different, as in addition to my very specific Seated Dime want list I took the opportunity at the show to look around at what could attract me for my next numismatic challenge. My plan was to go aisle-by-aisle, starting from the right. I particularly wanted to see the dealers who do not have an on-line presence, since I’m already familiar with the offerings from the dealers with up-to-date websites. In fact I saw many dealers I had never heard of. Here's an idea of what things looked like:

One of the first things I noticed was a lot of money floating around. I don’t mean cash (or coins) but checks and deals. I suppose Tuesday might be the day with the most dealer-to-dealer business so maybe that was part of it. I saw at least a dozen five and six-figure deals going on, and there were probably ten times as many more I didn’t see. There were a lot of currency transactions happening, I’m used to the currency-dealer being the one-off guy at local shows but that wasn’t the case here, at least not by amount of business going on. At least five times I heard “What do you want for the 1000?”, “4200 [+/-]”, “OK”. By contrast at local shows the “bullion guy” is usually the busiest table on the floor, but at the ANA I didn’t observe much bullion activity. Again, it was the opening day of a big show so bullion buyers might not have been the key clientele that day, but the absence was notable to me. I did see a dealer offering raw Morgans for $36 each, if anyone cares.

I know there is a thread on bad bourse experiences going on elsewhere. I didn’t experience anything like that. Now, I’m not a talkative person, so my typical interaction is something like:

Dealer: “What are you looking for today?”
Me: “Key date Seated Dimes”
Dealer: “Tough coins, I don’t have any”
Me: “Thanks”

But everyone I did talk to was professional. Of course there were some where the cases were covered by Greysheets and laptops and boxes of slabs that weren’t meant for the eyes of the collectors like myself. So I just passed by those tables. On a related note, many of the tables seemed to be wholesalers. Much more than I expected, maybe 20%. Some of these had a handful (or fewer) of six-figure coins in their one case and a big safe behind the table. I assume they were wholesalers. Then there were the big firms doing I-don’t-know-what. Minshull Trading, Stacks, Heritage, and a couple others had an army of employees at laptops and standing around. They had some beautiful trophy coins on display. But I really have no idea what they were there for.

The bread-and-butter dealers ran the gamut though, from (higher end) raw coins in cardboard 2x2’s to the CAC-only types where 90% of their coins were stickered. Very little low-end material, at least that I saw in cases. The two dealers I saw with “junk boxes” had signs reading “$25 each” (one was large cents and the other Ancients).

After an hour of looking at cases (about 10% of the floor) I came upon this from dealer Harry E. Smith.

You can Guess The Grade if you want. Circulated 1867 Seated Dimes are rare coins, with only 33 total in the PCGS pop report from grades P01 to AU58. I was so surprised to find it I totally forgot to negotiate price. Talking with Harry was a great time. If you are into Seated Liberty coinage he has some treasures in his case.

On the topic of prices, for the coins I was knowledgeable about I did not find things to be priced at “Moon money” as some have suggested. Now people’s definition of Moon money may vary, certainly nice coins were not priced at Greysheet, and for the coins I like PCGS price guide is a starting point. But I didn’t observe a trend of crazy pricing. I had been conditioned over past couple years that the market is starving for coins, but what I saw were lots of full cases.

Relived to have actually made a purchase I relaxed a bit a went into browsing mode. I found myself hanging out a lot in the World and Ancient Coins section. There were more ancient coin dealers than I expected, maybe a couple dozen. I know that traditionally ancient coin dealers are anti-slab, but I saw 5 or 6 with a big certified coin inventory. That field may be starting to slabbify as well.

Starting to burn out after about 3 hours on the floor I walked over to check out the concession stand. The offerings were so uninspiring I made do with some Trail Mix and Powerbars I had bought at the airport. Note to attendees: pack your lunch.

I walked to the other side of the floor to see the exhibits. There were about 30 on display, all very well done. These folks really put time and effort into preparation, not even including the coins. Actually, most of them didn’t have coins. There was one (1) display on US coins, this very nice one on 2 cent pieces.

Nearly everything else was exonumina or some relatively obscure topic. Here’s a cool one on early French coinage:

I certainly learned a lot more from the exhibits than I did on the bourse floor. It’s too bad I was practically the only one viewing exhibits, but again that might be a Tuesday-thing with the more education-oriented crowd attending Friday or Saturday.

Speaking of demographics, I saw a lot of young dealers. I do realize that my definition of young increases by about a year every year. I saw absolutely no indication that the hobby is dying or anything like that. Where these folks are getting their bankrolls from I have no idea. There were a significant number of 20- and 30- somethings doing (often vest-pocket style) deals. There weren’t any YN’s but I don’t think that means anything other than parents are busy during the week.

By 5:30pm I was completely worn out and dragged myself back to the airport to catch an 8:00pm flight. Which was delayed until 8:40. Then 9:40. Then 10:40. Then cancelled. Lovely. I got to enjoy an unexpected night at a nearby Marriott followed by an uneventful 10:00am flight home on American Airlines the next morning. The latter bit is just par for the course for traveling these days, so more importantly I’m very glad I got to visit the ANA WFOM this year and I found a coin I really like!

BStrauss3

@savitale said:
Speaking of demographics, I saw a lot of young dealers. I do realize that my definition of young increases by about a year every year. I saw absolutely no indication that the hobby is dying or anything like that. Where these folks are getting their bankrolls from I have no idea. There were a significant number of 20- and 30- somethings doing (often vest-pocket style) deals. There weren’t any YN’s but I don’t think that means anything other than parents are busy during the week.

I know several of those young dealers, and a few of them are playing with the big boys. Maybe not the million-dollar club, but I've seen them flip mid-five-figure items.

WaterSport

Great report. Thanks

WS

keyman64

Nice report. Sounds like a good time. I need to get out of Florida for a show next year. I of course always think about the ANA.

mtn_scout

Wow, I can't believe you attempted it in half a day! I've had 1.5 days and I've still not been to every table. I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice the laptop situation. I was at one table on Tuesday and the dealer asked me what I collected and I told him. He then pointed to a case with a laptop and briefcase sprawled on it and the owner of said laptop and briefcase turns to me and says "So sad for you". That was weird.

rkp

Great report and awesome seated dime! I need one of those in right about that grade... VF20?

divecchia

@savitale That was a great show report!!!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I live just outside of Boston and thought of trying a one day trip, but thought I would need more time to see all the tables/dealers and exhibits.

Donato

SethChandler

That was a great show report. Thank you.

Crusty

Great show report. Anytime you can score an original tougher date from any of the Seated series is a big win. Congratulations

U1chicago

Nice dime and you got plenty done in one half of a day, which is impressive!

savitale

@divecchia said:
@savitale That was a great show report!!!

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I live just outside of Boston and thought of trying a one day trip, but thought I would need more time to see all the tables/dealers and exhibits.

Donato

You do need more time to see it all. But with work and family responsibilities I'm happy to have had the day's vacation for me. Still, on the way home from the airport I did have to stop to buy flowers and a box of chocolates ...

Walkerguy21D

Great report, really liked all the details.
Thanks for posting!

CircCam

Thanks for the show report! I’m at F12 on the dime, nice wholesome example of a tough coin and glad to see you went home with a prize after making the journey.

ricko

@savitale... Thanks for the interesting report. Interesting information on the transaction volume, and likely a lot of dealer to dealer business. More collectors will be there Friday/Saturday. Good pictures as well. Glad you found a coin for your collection. Cheers, RickO

TPRC

Thank you for the report and that is a tough coin to find, and maybe even tougher to grade. I see on 20 and one 12 guess. The strong shield and liberty definitely entitle it to a bump. So, I'll guess f-15.

ElmerFusterpuck

Nice report and dime! Think I'm going 12 or 15 on it, nice Full Liberty on the shield too.

No Headlights

VG 10

thebeav

Nice.......I'll say VF 20.

EXOJUNKIE

Thanks for the report. My first thought was VG10, but I guess I could go F12. Very nice regardless!

spacehayduke

Really insightful report. I am in the F12 crowd. I need at least 2 days at a big show like that but prefer to get 4 if I can. I find benefit from going back to certain dealers multiple times, and more days provides more interaction with people on the floor which is part of my learning.

Best, SH

PerryHall

@spacehayduke said:
Really insightful report. I am in the F12 crowd. I need at least 2 days at a big show like that but prefer to get 4 if I can. I find benefit from going back to certain dealers multiple times, and more days provides more interaction with people on the floor which is part of my learning.

Best, SH

At the big shows, I usually run out of money after a couple hours.

lermish

@PerryHall said:

@spacehayduke said:
Really insightful report. I am in the F12 crowd. I need at least 2 days at a big show like that but prefer to get 4 if I can. I find benefit from going back to certain dealers multiple times, and more days provides more interaction with people on the floor which is part of my learning.

Best, SH

At the big shows, I usually run out of money after a couple hours.

How is that possible?!?!? I view you as a neverending source of funds to buy gold! They say never meet your heroes...lol😆😆😉

savitale

Some good Guess the Grades. Personally I'm at F15 but as they say ownership adds a point.

kaz

Great report, and glad you were able to add to your collection.

Dave99B

Fantastic report. Can’t wait to attend another ANA event. I love being overwhelmed!

Oh, love the little,1867 dime. Tough.

Dave