My September 2022 Long Beach show report

ElmerFusterpuck · October 2, 2022 11:09AM

I was only there for the first day, since it was part of a whirlwind 3 day vacation to visit with family. Always fun to build a vacation around a coin show though, especially in southern CA.

I flew into the Long Beach airport around 9 AM, got a Lyft ride to the convention center and was there around 9:30. It's still being held in Hall C, which has divided some attendees that remember going to the main hall. I'm neutral about the location itself, but I did like the walk and the look of the main building way better. The line was short at the time and I also was on the early bird list, so was able to get in before the main opening. I only had one coin to submit to PCGS, an unattributed 1824/4 bust half in AU-55. It was called a clerical error, so I will get it reholdered for 5 bucks with a TrueView. So happy with that outcome.

Then I cruised the bourse for about an hour, making mental notes of what I saw. The sports cards were higher in number than in years passed and I saw a long grading line for the PSA booth. I always wonder how many of them will cross over and collect coins? Then that hour was up, since the PCGS luncheon was at 11 AM. The luncheon was nice, but they really could have used a mic since parts of the awards presentation were hard to hear. It was also surprising to hear some of the attendees there do not participate in the coin forums. To each their own, some prefer just to lay low and collect. One of those folks showed my a stunning 1871-S MS-66+ CAC seated liberty half. The lunch itself was nice, it did help refuel me since I had been up since 3 AM. Oh and there was a luncheon slab, it contained a 2022 Maya Angelou MS-65 quarter!

After lunch, it was time to get serious. I had nothing exact in mind, but I was looking for nice raw coins for my bookshelf albums and on the lookout for any nice graded 1917-S obverse and reverse mintmark walkers. No luck on the walkers, but I did find some nice raw walkers, standing liberty 25c and Mercury dimes for my albums. Also filled in the hole for the 1913-S type 1 buffalo hole, found a nice XF piece. As for the graded material, I saw some of everything but finding some truly original attractive coins took some doing. I did see a very nice 1823 VF-20 CAC large cent, but I wasn't willing to pay more than double recent auction results. I spent some time with the fine folks at Legend to view some auction items. I also visited with Julie Abrams at Stack's and congratulated her on her move. She truly is a nice person and will be a great asset for Stack's.

Maybe it's the sports card draw, but that crowd there was skewing younger than in years past. Some were even set up behind tables as coin dealers. I ran into a few folks from the Instagram crowd and they said they were having a good show, buying and selling. Almost none of them participate here.

After all was said and done, I ended up with the raw coins mentioned above and 4 graded coins. 2 of them were NGC MS-70 2022 40th anniversary silver Pandas. They were for my recently born grandson, to commemorate his birth year. I'm sure he will drool on them soon! The other 2 are shown below, both are stunning in hand.

To wrap it up, it was a good show for me. Like someone mentioned already, starting next year there will be no free admissions for the show. Not sure if that meant just the free vouchers or if it applied to the PCGS members too. I also would like to see the show move back to the main building, we still had people going there and being told they had to head to the other hall, which is a pretty good walk the other direction. I'm sure I'll be back at a future show. Till next time!
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The graded coins:

This 1826 bust half half came from Eye Appealing Coins. This coin has major POP on the obverse when you turn it into the light. It grades AU-55.

This stunning 1878 7TF Morgan dollar came from Bonnie Sabel (Sabel Rarities). She always has some cool eye candy at her table. It grades MS-62. I originally saw this coin on her website some time ago and assumed it was gone. I was pleasantly surprised to see it in her case and that it looked just like the photo. This date is super tough to find nicely toned and is a welcome addition to my collection.